CWI: Customer Service Parts Pricing WDC (ENG)

Your price is a marketing tool, but most of you don’t use it that way. How often have we heard that “your price is too high” or “I can get it down the street for less?” How well customer contact personnel respond to these and other comments about your prices is critically important to your success. The price points you use should be a product of your need to make money and the competitive nature of your marketplace.

Over the years dealers have applied a methodology called “matrix pricing.” This approach started in the 1970’s and it still continues today, well beyond its useful life. We will explain how it works and we will also expose the “new” realities in price theory for the parts business.  We will look into the new approach of applying an “array” of variables to develop a selling price: activity, price, competitiveness, and inventory risk. This four element array leads to several thousand mark ups designed to allow the dealer to attach a price that will be competitive, while at the same time produce an overall gross profit that allows the Company to maintain the profit required to sustain itself.

Learning the impact of a discount on your business is a critical aspect of defending your price. This class will teach you how to see the impact on gross profit and net profit. Learning how to respond to price objections and overcome them is a principle that is important to understand, and is discussed in this webinar. This program will be beneficial for anyone in the parts business that is touching customers with the responsibility for selling or customer service.

CWI: Customer Service Preparation WDC (ENG)

Everyone everywhere sells. That is a truth that is little understood. We sell ideas at work and we sell manners at home. There are many things that we sell over the course of our lives. Sales personnel sell for a living, and the skills that they have as individuals are enhanced when they know the proper tools and methods involved in being a professional salesman.

All of the various steps in selling are discussed in this program which is the first of two parts. This part deals with the set-up of the selling process: the research, the objectives, and the questions that need to be asked. There is a lot of work that goes into being a professional salesman and it starts with research. This is not dramatic or exciting work, but it is necessary. What the research needs to cover is discussed in detail. With each and every customer there needs to be objectives. These goals and objectives will take on many forms: from calls to parts business, to service business, to profitability. Finally, in selling everyone knows about the “talking” aspect of selling but more important is the “listening” part of it. In order to get the customer talking, the professional salesman must know what type of question to ask and how to ask it.

Selling is much more a science than an art and this first part covers the first three elements necessary in becoming a professional salesman.

CWI: Customer Service Presentation WDC (ENG)

The second part of the “becoming a professional salesman” series continues from the first part. All of the various steps in selling are discussed in this webinar, which is the second of two parts. This part deals with the discussions with the customer during the selling process: explaining the benefits, meeting the objections, and closing the sale. This requires that a lot of skills be present. This is where the salesman earns his money by proving to the customer that what he is selling is what the customer wants and needs. A good salesman does not sell anything – the customer buys from them.

Understanding the importance of product knowledge, the features and benefits of all the products and services at hand, and being able to deal with any objections that might come back from the customer are the core of the sales process. The final result is a sale, yet closing the sale is not as straightforward as it seems.

This second part of professional selling covers the final elements necessary to obtain the business. Without obtaining the business, the benefits of having professional salesmen covering the marketplace are lost.

CWI: Customer Service Pricing WDC (ENG)

Too often, dealerships call around to the neighboring dealers and ask for their service pricing. While it is understandable to want to know what the pricing is in your territory, it is more important to develop the price structure that is required to attract the business and also produce the profit necessary to operate a dealership.

We will expose the “peanut butter” labor pricing for what it is – an over-simplified, unrealistic pricing mechanism – and provide an alternative to consider. It all starts from the skills of the men, as well as the degree of difficulty of the work involved. This requires that we know the skills of the men we employ, and then use their skills on jobs that match that skill. Consider that the wage that is paid to the men is a direct reflection of the skills that the men have, and we have a starting point to determine labor rates. It is called a “wage multiple.”

This methodology has been in use for a long time, but not by sufficiently large numbers of dealerships.  Currently, most of us over-price low skill work and underprice the high skill work. We will define and describe the wage multiple so that, upon the completion of this class, the participants will be able to return to work and recalculate their labor rates with this new method and evaluate whether or not they should apply it in their Service Department.

CWI: Customer Service Teleselling WDC (ENG)

A new reality is approaching.  By now, everyone has been affected by “telemarketing.” Customers and consumers are starting to resist it. That is clear from the laws that are being presented and passed.  Customers want service, and they want customer service calls.  As a result, the rules that are set forth for your telemarketing program should emphasize your wish to have an effective telemarketing program to provide your customer base with high quality customer service. It can be as simple as a word. That word is tele-selling.

Each person has an aura, a reputation in the company or in the market.  This presence is a function of many things: knowledge, personality, the quality of voice, the intangibles of attitude.  It is the feeling of trust that the customer has in the person on the other end of the telephone.  This is a condition that is earned and achieved.  It is not something that can be mandated.

In telephone selling the customer either has called with the need or you are calling to see if there is a need. Yet now we confront the dilemma. Rarely, if ever, has anybody provided training on tele-selling.  This program will provide you with an outline – an approach – to use when selling on the telephone.  This class will provide you with a plan and a structure, and with this structure your tele-selling future can get off to a successful start.

CWI: Customer Service Territory Management WDC (ENG)

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.

CWI: Customer Service Absorption WDC (ENG)

Customer loyalty is crucial when it comes to your success in your business. In the midst of managing the parts business for the highest levels of customer loyalty, we often overlook the profitability of the parts business.

The profits provided by the parts business goes to cover the expenses and costs of operating the business. This is the contribution of profit to the business. This is all very straightforward, of course. But where we all clearly understand the contribution of profit to the business, absorption is something that is less clear.

In the 1950s, the model of Absorption was developed as a way of managing profits and expenses in the parts business. This important class offers clarity in the financial aspects of a fiscally healthy parts business, and how it positively impacts the overall strength of the dealership.

CWI: Customer Service Balanced Scorecard WDC (ENG)

In the service business we communicate with the marketplace in a variety of methods. We deal with various systems, manually and technologically. We have a responsibility to serve and retain customers while at the same time we have to make money for the business. This is a complicated business.

To assist us in managing the business and help us implement our company strategy we use a business tool that is called the “Balanced Scorecard.” The Balanced Scorecard was developed in the 1990s, designed for use in the planning and implementation of a company’s strategy. The scorecard looks at your business from four directions; finance, internal, innovation and customer. From this vantage point the company can develop a strategy as part of their operating plan.  These plans are meant to help a company achieve its goals.  If a plan cannot be agreed upon and effectively executed, a business cannot effectively reach its goals.

In this class, you will learn the ins and outs of this valuable tool, and the costs we pay in our business when we fail to execute our plans for success in our market.

CWI: Customer Service Buyer’s Needs WDC (ENG)

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.

CWI: Customer Service Campaigns and Promotions WDC (ENG)

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.