There are some fundamental truths about people and their work: everyone wants to do a good job, everyone can do more than they think they can, and everyone is fundamentally lazy. In management and leadership we have to deal with people and processes. That is the job. You lead people and you manage the process.

The job of the manager or supervisor starts with the basic job function description and moves on to standards of performance. Everyone has to understand what is expected of them, as well as accepting that what is expected of them is both achievable and important. The various aspects of management as exposed in this powerful class.

In dealing with people, you also will need to be able to communicate with the employees.  In this program, we explore two of the main forms of communications: praise and criticism. This part of interpersonal relations can be improved. These are skills that can be learned by following a simple plan. We discuss this plan in detail, which has many common elements with both praise and criticism to provide you with better ability in working with your employees.

With standards of performance, we dealt with what it looks like when it is right. With Best Practices we aim for performance excellence. What is it that the most successful dealers are doing to achieve excellence? This is discussed in detail in this program to allow dealers to see optional approaches to processes and systems. From using the telephone as a sales tool, to inventory turnover; from customer retention, to sales per employee everything is discussed.

We cover all aspects of the processes required in a parts business: from dealer business systems, to telephone systems, to warehousing storage systems. People and system productivity and effectiveness are critical in any business today, but this is especially true within the equipment business where the gross margin on the prime products continue to erode. There are many aspects within a parts business that must be covered that can make a significant difference in either cost or market positioning, and which can make the business more competitive.

Process manuals – electronic or paper – and procedures, as well as training methods to employ become critical to the consistent delivery of excellent customer service. How to measure your success in the area of customer satisfaction as well as all operational processes becomes part of this program. Anyone interested in achieving the best possible level of performance within the parts business will gain insight from this class.

A new reality continues in its approach.  By now everyone has been affected by “telemarketing,” your tele-selling future has gotten off to a successful start, and you have also learned how to handle the objections from the customers. You know all of the mechanics of selling. Now we need to make it easier for you by exposing the “buyer’s needs.”

The needs that the customer has in this transaction can stem from “ego satisfaction,” in other words knowing that they are making the right choice, to feeling that they are treated with respect. The sales person has to be sensitive to all of these various attributes and reasons which can underlie the buyer’s needs. But your customers also need your expertise and knowledge and experience. You are in a difficult position. In order to be able to satisfy the needs of the customer, you have to continue to keep yourself current on the product and Industry trends and competition. There is a lot to do.

This class deals with survey information obtained from the customers. If they are given a chance, customers will tell us what they need and want, and we then have to be in a position to deliver it.

A new reality continues apace. Everyone by now has been affected by “telemarketing” and I trust your tele-selling life has had a successful start. But, even with the sales aspect of the job, it is hard to hold onto a performance edge: to stay motivated and excited. The job, over time, gets to be too much of a routine.

We need to generate excitement and energy in the department. We need to operate with regular campaigns and promotions. Something special needs to be going on all the time. To do this, we need to inject campaigns and promotion planning into our sales forecasts and annual budget plans. Campaigns and promotions have to become an integral part of the life in a parts business.

We provide a structure to the campaign and promotion activities with the use of a Promotion Planning Tree (PPT). The PPT provides a road map of activities, and a check list, to ensure that we get everything right. It allows everyone to be involved in the development of the campaigns and promotions so that there is understanding of what it is we are aiming to do. It allows vigorous debate in the development of the campaigns and promotions so that everyone is involved in the programs. It brings back the excitement to the job.

One of the true challenges in the parts and service business is to determine the successful penetration of the market: the market capture rates. This is another term used to represent your “market share.” How well you are looking after the needs of the customer is the real question at this point.

With this class, we develop a “market potential” model which can be used to determine the purchase potential of each machine. With this tool, an overall potential can be developed for each customer. This is a tool that can be used by management and the sales force to develop strategies to improve performance. We deal with the creation of the model and all the variables within in this comprehensive program.

It all starts with the machine population. That is the list of equipment owned by each customer, and the work application and hours worked each year. With this and the statistics available from the OEM’s and their mean time between failure facts, a reasonable degree of precision can be developed. The major components can be managed in this manner: engines, transmissions, and hydraulic systems.  The wear rates of ground engaging tools and undercarriage can assist in the life of these wear parts. Finally, we have maintenance as the last element. Don’t miss this market potential class.

Time is one of the many elements of our lives that we deal with every day. It is one of those elements, however, that does not change.  We do not have the ability to add more time to a day. As a result of that fact it is important that we use all of the time that we have as effectively and as efficiently as possible.

Rarely do we accomplish that. We do things over and over again, we defer conclusions and decisions, we get interrupted with unrelated issues, we have to deal with meetings and the internet and the telephone. There is a lot to the use of your time.

From your desk, to your email and telephone you will find thirty powerful methods to better use your time. This is not about “efficiently” it is about being more “effective.”

This program will introduce you to different styles of work and a series of steps that you can consider to more effectively manage your time. At the conclusion of the course you will have been exposed to a wide range of options for you to consider that will assist you in managing your time more effectively and efficiently.  Don’t miss out on this powerful class.

It is of critical importance to be able to communicate effectively. In order to be able to communicate effectively means being clear. Clarity is all about understanding and acceptance of what it is that we do and the context within the Company. Many people can tell us what they do. Some people can even tell us how they do it. But people struggle with telling us why they do it.

The answer to the question “what do you do,” is not simply the same as describing your job function. It is much more than that. This also takes into consideration the culture of the business. Each of us has to be clear on the direction of the market, of your company within the market, and how each of us can impact that. This program explores how we can have more clarity in our communications with each other in the course of our day job.

The “What you do” question is the key point here. This class discusses the who we serve in our jobs, why we do it, and significantly what we create in performing our important work. What value do you bring to your work?

Everything that we do in the labor business has a profound impact on our customers, suppliers, coworkers, and other stakeholders. There has to be a difference in what and how you do your work that is visible and obvious to everyone that you touch in the performance of your work.

You have to be able to answer two very simple questions. But they are not that easy to answer. What do you provide?  What do you do? Most of us will look at these questions and think it is obvious, it is self-evident. We supply labor solutions – repairs, rebuilds and maintenance.  Pretty simple, isn’t it? The trouble with it is that there are many people trying to do it. We have to recapture the business we have lost from our customers and competitors. We have to make a difference. We have to make what we do “matter.”

We will explore who you are and what you bring to the organization and to the customer. We will explore how and why you make a difference. Each of us has to create our own brand. That is how we will differentiate ourselves and what we do from the crowd. We will explore serving people in the parts business. We will explore all that our work means to the market and how we make a difference: how we make it matter.

The parts and service businesses within the construction equipment Industries has never had a precise method to calculate the share of the parts market for a specific brand. To some degree this has allowed the parts business to operate without a critical performance measure being in place.

This program married the market potential, that we cover in another class, with the actual sales for a dealership for a specific brand. The market potential model allows a dealer to calculate the potential consumption of parts on specific machines. That, together with the actual parts sales, allows a calculation to be done arithmetically that determines the percentage of a customer business obtained by a dealer.

This class provides a detailed methodology to calculate the share of the market the dealer obtains. This is the market capture rate that the dealer obtains in the parts business. Ideally, we would be able to perform this calculation by machine model. Unfortunately, we do not get the model and serial number for each parts sale.

Similarly, we touch on the “mean time to failure (MTF)” statistics provided by the OEM’s for their products. With territory potential, market capture we can drive market coverage methods which with the MTF the sales force can be targeting customer needs in a timely manner. This program covers all the details and methods required to perform the calculations required to measure market capture.

The only way to position your labor business is to provide customers with something they value.  The fundamental principles of customer value are to offer something the customer wants and needs and to provide that offering better than your competition can.

This class provides methods and a road map to follow in developing a strategy. We identify three key strategies for enhancing customer value. Companies focus on being: Better – through the provision of superior quality labor and service. Faster – sensing and meeting changing customer requirements more quickly than others. Closer – creating durable linkages and even partnership with channel members and customers.

This program takes you more deeply into operational excellence offers customers good pricing as well as convenience and reliability. Then we examine labor leadership which is the result of superior product performance. Finally, customer intimacy which utilizes “micro” marketing techniques. These strategies for providing customer value indicate the importance of the marketing focus in overall strategic planning. Customer value offers a way to gain strategic advantage over competitors and to differentiate the company’s products or services.

Communications is the critical element to successful implementation of a strategy for the parts business. The final emphasis of this class is to ensure that the strategy is effectively communicated to all employees so that they will be committed to executing the strategy.