Parts, Personnel, Product Support Selling, Service

A Special Announcement from the NTDA

The National Trailer Dealer Association (NTDA) offers resources to their members across North America. Established in 1990, NTDA has strengthened the voice of independent semi-trailer dealers within the trailer industry. This week, they have shared a special announcement on their website:

NTDA Announces Partnership with Learning Without Scars to Provide Online Parts, Service, Sales Training

The National Trailer Dealers Association (NTDA) Board of Directors voted at its April 11, 2022 meeting to partner with Learning Without Scars (LWS) to provide online parts, service, sales and marketing training for members. LWS is accredited by the International Accreditors for Continuing Education and Training.

INDIVIDUAL SKILLS ASSESSMENTS

The NTDA will work with LWS to develop trailer-specific content for members in the future. The site, learningwithoutscars.org, provides comprehensive online learning programs for dealer employees starting with individualized skills assessments. The assessments allow the Learning Without Scars staff to create a personalized employee development program.

Based on assessed skills, the employee is asked to select from classes designed for their skill level, allowing them to address gaps in their knowledge level. This allows employees to move through four progressive categories of learning: Developing, Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced.

Classes are designed to offer both employees and employers something that matters: continuous improvement to the benefit of each. Too often, we hear employees talk about wanting to have a career path, but not being sure where they fit in their profession. Learning on-demand classes build and develop the professional skills an individual needs to continue to grow and make progress with your company and your industry.

Managers/supervisors have access to employee skills assessments and employee training scores. There are 108 online classes available in 12 languages. Online assessments and courses are available for $125 per each.

DEALER-SPECIFIC COURSES

Courses can be taken on a PC, a Mac, a tablet, or a smartphone. A student requires an Internet connection to access all course materials. Supplemental reading for each class is available as a .pdf, so a .pdf reader such as Acrobat is recommended any device on which students are taking courses. Students will need access to speakers for video clips and audio tracks (these are optional).

Classes are categorized by department, job function, and skill level to ensure employees are able to target the right skills. Learning on- demand programs cover Parts, Service, as well as Selling and Marketing of Product Support.

NTDA Members can sign up for LWS’ free e-newsletter at https:// learningwithoutscars.org/signup, or take advantage of free blogs, podcasts, and audio learning opportunities.

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May 2, 2022

Floyd Jerkins

Relationship Selling Metrics

Guest writer Floyd Jerkins continues to educate readers at Learning Without Scars about Relationship Selling with a look at your business’ metrics in this Friday’s blog post.

Relationship Selling Metrics – Face-to-Face and Write-ups

Operating a business requires a basic understanding of financial management. Knowing the numbers is important in making good decisions. If your expenses are too high or sales are dropping off you make changes. Do you know how many customers your sales team talks to every week? Many organizations don’t know the answer and are leaving thousands of dollars on the table for a competitor to get.

Ok, let me do a reality check. There are issues with starting to measure a sales team’s effectiveness. Typically, the measurements start with sales volume and other financial metrics. Make no mistake about it; I am a proponent of these. The challenge is to identify where the sales process can be improved before the close of the sale. When you can enhance salespeople’s actions from the start to the end of the sale, the closing ratio goes up significantly.

By now in your business life cycle, you have some sort of a CRM in place. Various tools on the market are either simple or as complex as you want. Getting your sales team to log each sales action properly is yet another challenge and a whole article all to itself. So, with my disclaimers in place, let’s explore.

Measuring a salesperson’s success by the total revenue they generate is only one part of the equation. If a salesperson is selling 5 million a year, but leaving 5 million on the table, really, how good are they?

First, to be successful in sales, you have to talk to a lot of people. You also have to give a price to make a sale. Simple, right? Here is my rationale for a few sales performance metrics to get us started. Each CRM, as well as your organization, may call them something different, so please read between the lines if you will.

Face-to-Face Contacts- This category measures how many face-to-face contacts a salesperson encounters on a day, week, and month. This could be a new prospect who has never been to your store or a previous owner who’s bought from you before or even a referral.
Sold- Meaning the product is sold and delivered. Paperwork is done, financing is approved, and the checks have cleared.
Write Up- Meaning that the salesperson quoted a price and then wrote the order. This doesn’t mean it’s closed, just that a written order was initiated.

Sample Questions About Performance

What percent of Face-to-Face to Sold do you think is a good number?

In the article, Relationship Selling- How to Measure Sales Success, I outline the basics of measuring the types of customers most businesses have. The average closing ratio, many say is 20%. I think that’s a weak number and here’s why.

Long-standing businesses have repeat customers. What if your sales team has 100 Face-to-Face contacts in a month that are repeat customers? Do you think closing 20% is acceptable? I don’t. The salespersons selling process needs to be revised because they cost the business thousands of dollars. Factor in your marketing investment to get an ROI that’s not impressive.

Take each “unit” the salesperson sells and divide that by the total number of face-to-face contacts in a given time period. If you establish a salesperson has a 20% closing ratio, what if they could improve that 5%? A 5% increase would increase the “unit” sales. This is a “natural” increase to make more sales. It doesn’t cost you anything if you help your salesperson improve their effectiveness.

Your business should be closing at least 40% to 60% of your repeat customers. Without measuring, you have wishful thinking.

What percent of Write-Ups to Face-to-Face contacts is a good number for an experienced salesperson?

Typically, a salesperson will share a price with a customer before they even qualify what the customer wants. This is generally because that’s one of the first questions a customer asks, “How much is it?” Salespeople feel obligated to answer every question vs. learning to control the sale through questions.

The rule of high volume and high margin sales is never price before you establish value.

A salesperson who verbally prices, especially if they don’t establish value before pricing, will have a lower closing ratio compared to a salesperson who makes written quotes every time they price. Increase the number of professional write-ups, and you will close more sales.

80% of all pricing should be in writing.

How effective is an experienced salesperson that sells 30% of their previous customers?

Let’s say you are measuring the type of customers your sales team is talking with. You know the % of each category. Every time a salesperson prices a customer and a sale is not made right then, the customer leaves the business.

Statistically, I know that most salespeople are not good with follow up. Nearly 7 out of 10 don’t follow up within 24 hours after they price a customer who doesn’t immediately buy. Part of this is because sales managers often focus their team in the wrong direction due to various financial or inventory pressures. The other part is they lack a system as well as the verbal strategies to service the customer. Many salespeople are great at selling the sales manager on why they shouldn’t call back, or they wait on the customer to “get back to them” as they artificially promised.

If this experienced salesperson is only selling 3 out of 10 customers, what is happening to the other 7? If you have a sales team of 10 with a 30% ratio, look how much is being lost due to an inefficient sales process.

Measuring allows you to know the realities of how to improve your sales team’s behaviors and maximize your marketing budget.

Measuring tells you exactly where to influence the behaviors of your salesperson and sales team.

Learning to be Effective Starts with Performance Sales Metrics

Talking to a measured number of prospects in a given period of time is just part of being successful in sales. There are only so many selling hours in a day, week, and month. Learning how to be effective with each contact starts the journey of successful time management.

By establishing value and knowing how to communicate that to a prospect, the closing ratio goes up dramatically, but so do the margins. A sales-driven organization takes time, energy, and the correct vision to have a highly competent team.

What is your sales team performance sales metrics?

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April 29, 2022

Filosophy

Friday Filosophy v.04.29.2022

Phillip Calvin McGraw (born September 1, 1950), better known as Dr. Phil, is an American television personality, author, and the host of the television show Dr. Phil. He holds a doctorate in clinical psychology, though he ceased renewing his license to practice psychology in 2006.

McGraw rose to fame with appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show in the late 1990s. Oprah Winfrey then helped McGraw launch his own program, Dr. Phil, in September 2002. The show is formatted as an advice show.

McGraw was born in Vinita, Oklahoma, on September 1, 1950, the son of Joseph J. McGraw Jr. and his wife, Anne Geraldine “Jerry” (née Stevens). He grew up with two older sisters, Deana and Donna, and younger sister Brenda in the oilfields of North Texas where his father was an equipment supplier. At age 13, he worked at an A&W Root Beer stand and a local chain called Pizza Planet in Oklahoma City.

McGraw moved to Kansas with his father as his father pursued his lifelong goal of becoming a psychologist. There he attended Shawnee Mission North High School in Overland Park, Kansas. He played linebacker on the high school football team and in 1968 earned a football scholarship to the University of Tulsa, where he played middle linebacker under coach Glenn Dobbs. He later transferred to Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas.

McGraw graduated in 1975 from Midwestern State University with a B.A. in psychology. He went on to earn an M.A. in experimental psychology in 1976, and a Ph.D. degree in clinical psychology in 1979 at North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas), where his dissertation was titled “Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Psychological Intervention.” He did a year of post-doctoral training in forensic psychology at the Wilmington Institute. McGraw’s PhD advisor was Frank Lawlis, who later became the primary contributing psychologist for the Dr. Phil television show.

After obtaining his doctorate, McGraw rejoined his father in Wichita Falls, Texas, where the elder McGraw had established his private psychology practice.

In 1985, McGraw and his father partnered with Thelma Box, a Texas businesswoman, in presenting “Pathways” self-help seminars. Six years after joining Box, in October 1991 McGraw sold his share in the company for $325,000.

In 1990, McGraw co-founded Courtroom Sciences, Inc. (CSI) with lawyer Gary Dobbs. CSI is a trial consulting firm which provides services in US litigation psychology, jury selection, trial consulting, witness training, and depositions. CSI has advised top trial lawyers, every major airline in the world, and dozens of Fortune 500 companies. McGraw is no longer an officer or director of the company. The TV show Bull is based on McGraw’s experience as a trial consultant, and he is credited as one of the creators of the series. McGraw began working with Oprah Winfrey through CSI.

Eighty percent of all choices are based on fear. Most people don’t choose what they want; they choose what they think is safe.
At the end of the day, whether or not those people are comfortable with how you’re living your life doesn’t matter. What matters is whether you’re comfortable with it.
Awareness without action is worthless.
There is nothing wrong with your marriage if you’re dealing with bills and kids and the broken garbage disposal and in-laws and work demands. That’s a normal marriage.
When you get married, your loyalty, first and foremost, is to your spouse, and to the family that you create together.
Relationships are negotiated and if you deal with ultimatums and authority all the time, then you’re not going to get anywhere.
You have got to decide, look, this is who I am; this is my best way to present myself, and I’m going to ride that horse to the finish line. Not everybody will like it, but that’s OK.
My dad used to say, ‘You wouldn’t worry so much about what people thought about you if you knew how seldom they did.
It’s so much easier to tell people what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear.
I’m embarrassed every time I look a teacher in the eye, because we ask them to do so much for so little.
Sometimes you just got to give yourself what you wish someone else would give you.
Take it from a guy: If you’re in love with somebody, you will swim the stream, you will climb the mountain, you will slay the dragon. You’re going to get to her somehow, some way.
There’s a big difference between falling in love and being in love. There’s a big difference between infatuation and falling in love.

The Time is Now.

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April 29, 2022

Bill Pyles

Discounting

Today, we are proud to introduce our new guest writer, Bill Pyles. His blog today is on the topic of discounting. After separating from the United States Marine Corps, Bill started a lifelong career in heavy equipment dealer product support. Starting as an apprentice technician, Bill worked his way up to the General Service Manager for a multi-state Cat dealer. Bill continued to serve in similar roles as General Manager of Product Support to VP of Service for multistate OEM dealers. Coming up thru the product support ranks gave Bill an invaluable education of customer relations, dealer product support and an understanding of the dealers most valuable resource, the product support team.

After 47 years of service, Bill has retired, living in Florida with his wife Diana and golden retriever, Shelby. Bill & Diana spend their time with their two sons and five grandchildren.

Bill can be contacted at LinkedIn; www.linkedin.com/in/billpyles or wl*****@***il.com

Discounting

Don’t Sell Yourself Short.

At one time during my career, I worked for a dealer with a very large and diverse rental fleet. The OEM we represented did not provide a full construction and paving line needed to support a large rental fleet, so we purchased new and used equipment from other dealers.

Now after being on the dealer side for many years, my role was now the customer with other equipment dealers and I thought I’d ask for the one thing many customers ask for, the dreaded, deadly discount.

During my career I’ve worked with a few very large OEM dealers who had customers on the international level. They purchased the largest sized equipment on the market. I had personal relationships with many professional purchasing agents who know little about the equipment but knew every trick in the book to secure discounts.

My involvement at the time was service (shop, field, rebuild) related and these large customers ran hundreds of thousands of dollars through our service departments. Back in the 70’s and 80’s many dealers were not using data to analyze customers buying, renting, parts purchasing for large, if any customers. When the data did become available, and available to all product support and sales management, it became painfully apparent the dealer, while moving millions of dollars through the dealership, overall profitability was minimal. Why? Each department, not wanting to upset the large customer trotted down the discount road. Service was busy discounting labor; parts was in a hurry to discount while the sales department was taking the skinniest deals possible. These larger customers consumed a lot of dealer time and dealer resources. Regular meetings to discuss equipment and or product support issues. Demanded a very high parts availability percentage, major components in inventory on hold for their use only, an on-site field tech within 4 hours of the machine down call, guaranteed machine availability with consequences, and generous dealer policy dollars when the warranty expired (but did not purchase the extended warranty).

Were they bad customers? Absolutely not. They were very organized, knew their costs and had highly trained and professional managers, especially the purchasing managers. They in fact were holding all the cards when it came to dealing with most equipment dealers.

Dealers were discounting in all areas of dealer support. While the revenues of the financials were outstanding, the margins and profitability were poor due to unmanaged discounting. But one lesson quickly learned, no matter the size of the customer account, discounting has the same negative impact.

Let’s look at what just a 10% discount in labor (the same concept works for parts) does to your profitability.

The known variables are your:

Current labor rate (sell)
The cost of the labor
The resulting gross margin (labor rate minus cost)
Your expenses, many are fixed
Your EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Taxes)

You control the labor rate and the potential to discount it.

Your cost for the labor is the tech’s wage and I doubt if you’ll get the tech to agree to discount his wage! Subtract the cost from the sell and you have your gross margin and remember, labor sale dollars do not pay your costs and expenses, gross margin dollars do that!

Consider your expenses that the margin dollars must cover, uniforms, training, utilities, tooling, depreciation, rework, policy, vehicle maintenance, and many others. Several of these expenses remain fixed month after month and must be paid. Yes, training is a variable expense but I’m thinking you will not want to cut your training program to support discounts.

Knowing all the above let’s look at the discount impact.

Labor Rate at List			10% Discount			15% Discount
Labor Rate	$150.00		Labor Rate	$135.00		Labor Rate	$127.50
Cost	$30.00		Cost	$30.00		Cost	$30.00
Margin	$120.00	80.0%	Margin	$105.00	77.8%	Margin	$97.50	76.5%
Expenses	$72.00	48.0%	Expenses	$72.00	53.3%	Expenses	$72.00	56.5%
EBIT	$48.00	32.0%	EBIT	$33.00	24.4%	EBIT	$25.50	20.0%
			EBIT Reduced		7.6%	EBIT Reduced		12.0%
			EBIT Percent Reduced		23.6%	EBIT Percent Reduced		37.5%

A simple, everyday give away of one hour of labor at 10% reduces your margin by $15 to $105 or 77.8%, your expense dollars remain the same at $72 but now that $72 represents 53.3% of total sales and dropping your EBIT dollars to $33 or 24.4% effectively reducing profitability by 7.6% or a total of 23.6%. Ten percent off the top will cost you over 20% in your profitability. And it only gets worse from there. You can run these numbers for one hour of labor, ten hours of labor or 100 hours of labor, the dollars will change but the percentages will remain the same. And now you must make it up somewhere else; do not dig the discount hole. I realize this is easier said than done.

Remember my story above working for a dealer with a large rental fleet of other dealers’ equipment? Whenever there was a repair on a piece of equipment, we did not have the tooling or training on, I’d send to the local dealer. I sent the machine to the local dealer and not a shade tree outfit. Why? I knew the shade tree outfit had lesser labor rates and would figure it out eventually, but the dealer had trained techs, proper tooling and OEM technical support if needed. I knew I’d get a good repair, faster turn around time and most importantly, a product support warranty I could count on. I’d call ahead to let the service manager know the machine was coming in, a description of the issue and a request for a written estimate as soon as possible. A day or so later the service manager or service writer would call and send over the estimate.

The estimate could have been well below what I was expecting, for example all the machine needed was a sensor and not the entire harness as our techs had determined. But no matter how high or low the estimate was I always said the same thing (I mixed up the words a bit not to be too predictable) YOUR KILLING ME!! And almost immediately I would be offered a revision of the quote with some level of a discount. My expectations were the estimate I would be getting would be thought out, based on OEM time guides, the right amount of labor included along with any additional shop costs (consumables). Rarely did the person calling me try to explain the costs and justify the estimate. When a service manager or service writer immediately drops to a discount it may tell the customer that he or she just shot from the hip, or perhaps your tried to fat finger the estimate.

You are providing excellent product support to your customers. You pay dearly for OEM training. Your shop has the correct and very expensive tooling. You have the machine history and know where the weak issues are. My point is your customer knows this and therefore he’s calling you and not Sunstroke Tractor (a reference for some of the gray beards out there). He knows that Sunstroke will eventually look at his machine, have the wash rack guy throw parts at it until something works. Who knows if the repair is correct and will last, but that’s why Sunstroke is much less expensive then you the OEM dealer. My sincere apologies if there is a Sunstroke dealer; I’m sure this is not your Sunstroke dealer being referenced.

Promote your dealership, invite your customer into your shop and show him around. Be proud of your techs and the work they produce.

Is all discounting an absolute evil? You can show a discount on certain skill levels. For example, perhaps you have a lower undercarriage repair rate, but I’d think an entry or lower level (not fully trained) tech would be skilled in undercarriage R&I and therefore make less in wages as compared to a senior tech. Put together a killer PM program; again, lesser cost could relate to a lesser sell rate. Some dealers will reduce a rental fee if the machine is in the shop. Some dealers offer a discount on the invoice if paid within a certain number of days (do you know if your dealer does?)

Do not blame the customer for asking for a discount, it’s almost second nature. He is asking for the best price from the best dealer to get his machine back in service. Do not let him down and you’ll stop being asked for a discount.

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April 26, 2022

Alex Kraft

Business Friction

Friction is a fact of life. In our industry, friction calls engines to mind. Today, our guest writer Alex Kraft defines and explains friction in business.

I’ve always been interested in how words and terms find their way into common discourse, seemingly out of nowhere. The last few years, the words ‘culture’, ‘friction’, and ‘AI’ (Artificial Intelligence) are constantly mentioned. I’m not smart enough to break out ‘AI’ and culture is a bit played out at this point. I wanted to dig a little deeper on friction, specifically what type of friction exists in the equipment dealer today.

What is ‘friction’ in business? I typed that phrase into my Google machine, and this is what returned: “anything that prevents or dissuades customers from buying your products or services”. I was reminded of a great Bill Belichick quote the other day that made me think of friction in business. Belichick was addressing the team after a key loss to a rival and his message was, “you can’t win until you keep from losing”. The parallel that I see between what Coach Belichick professes and friction is that they are self-inflicted.

In football, teams prevent themselves from winning by turning the ball over, committing penalties, or mental lapses forgetting to cover certain players, dropping passes etc. Equipment dealers prevent themselves from winning in a variety of ways. The first example can be a bad experience with a company’s website. How does your website look on a mobile phone, where 70% of all traffic views web pages? What can a customer do on your website? Can they get pricing? Can they schedule a service or buy parts? If your website just has online forms (do you fill out forms on websites?) or ties to an OEM page that lists machine specifications, is it advancing your brand or generating interest in your company? Another practice that I’m sure keeps dealers from winning is the lack of pricing transparency online. The industry has struggled with this for eternity. I started as an equipment salesperson in 2004. I’ve competed against all the major brands. I’ve had customers show me hard copy quotes from all my competitors. Yet, when I look online at dealer’s websites and their online listings on sites like Machinery Trader, the pricing displayed is not true market pricing (I’m being polite here). What is the purpose of showing pricing online if it isn’t actionable? If customers stumble onto your site, how many are turned off and don’t inquire?

The last example that I’ll explore concerning friction in equipment sales is the prospecting/quoting process. Dealers have outside sales teams that are taught to cold call jobsites and customer offices. Talk about friction. If a customer needs pricing or information, they must call a salesperson. What if I don’t know who my [insert brand] salesperson is? Friction. Most dealers don’t list their salespeople on their website with contact information. Friction. If I’m a customer and I want to compare quotes, now I call multiple salespeople? Friction. What if there’s been a change in sales reps? Friction. If I miraculously get someone on the phone, do they have the answer right there for me? Most likely, no. They must call me back. Friction. Ok, it’s been a few days, but I have my price. Is it your best price? No, it’s negotiation time. Friction. Best case, everything has gone well, you’ve breezed past all these hurdles, now it’s time for that sales contract and finance application process. I’m sure all your documentation is electronic? Friction.

The basis of friction in parts and service is the effort required for customers to get anything done. Online parts ordering is still in its infancy and many dealers/OEMs don’t even have it yet today. This leads to customers calling a landline, hoping to get someone to speak with to order the correct parts. Reporting a service issue is similar- call a landline and hope to get someone on the phone (how often do you get right through?). Maybe some customers text your local dispatcher. What happens when that person is out sick, on vacation, at lunch, or leaves? If you believe I’m exaggerating, call the phone numbers listed on your website to put yourself in your customers shoes. I’d wager that you won’t be pleased with the findings. After the initial conversation, what is your communication like with the customer regarding status of technicians and estimates for the repair? Many dealers still don’t provide estimates before working on the machine. Invoicing the customer for work performed when they have zero expectation for what the repair cost is a perfect recipe for customer dissatisfaction. Not to mention how long it typically takes to invoice the customer. All these facets add up and can make customers ask themselves, ‘do I want to do business with this dealer again?’

Circling back to Coach Belichick’s quote, what I’ve described here is all within a dealer’s control. Nothing mentioned above has anything to do with your competition. I’m afraid that for years equipment dealers run through these processes and think to themselves, ‘well, but our competition is the same and we aren’t any worse’. If that’s the case, imagine what kind of employees you can recruit with that slogan and what your sales pitch is to customers! I encourage leaders to look within your departments and using another Belichick term, self-scout. The tendency has always been, look at our top 10 customers and see what their experience is like. This is a flawed approach because their experience is not the reality for the other 98% of your customer base. The goal should be figuring out how to offer those 98% the same level of A+ service the top accounts enjoy. We are in a different time today and there are many tools available that can help dealers solve legacy issues. If you take all the possible reasons for customers to say ‘No’ off the table, you may just end up with a growing piece of your competition’s market share. Ask yourself, when was the last time the New England Patriots gave a game away?

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April 26, 2022

Filosophy

Friday Filosophy v.04.22.2022

Dwayne Douglas Johnson (born May 2, 1972), also known by his ring name The Rock, is an American actor, businessman, and former professional wrestler. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, he wrestled for WWE for eight years prior to pursuing an acting career. His films have grossed over $3.5 billion in North America and over $10.5 billion worldwide, making him one of the world’s highest-grossing and highest-paid actors.

Born in the San Francisco Bay Area to a Samoan mother and a Black Nova Scotian father, Johnson played college football at the University of Miami and won a national championship in 1991. He aspired to a professional career in football, but went undrafted in the 1995 NFL Draft. He signed with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League (CFL), but was cut from the team in his first season. Part of the Anoa’i family, Johnson’s father Rocky and maternal grandfather Peter Maivia were professional wrestlers, and he secured a contract with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) in 1996. He rose to prominence after developing the gimmick of a charismatic trash-talker and helped usher in the Attitude Era, an industry boom period in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Johnson left WWE in 2004 and returned in 2011 as a part-time performer until 2013, making sporadic appearances until retiring in 2019. A 10-time world champion, including the promotion’s first of African-American descent, he is also a two-time Intercontinental Champion, a five-time Tag Team Champion, the 2000 Royal Rumble winner, and WWE’s sixth Triple Crown champion. Johnson headlined the most-bought professional wrestling pay-per-view (WrestleMania XXVIII) and was featured among the most watched episodes of WWE’s flagship television series (Raw and SmackDown).

Johnson’s first leading role was as the titular character in the sword and sorcery film The Scorpion King (2002). He has since starred in the comedies The Game Plan (2007), Tooth Fairy (2010), and Central Intelligence (2016); the action-adventure films Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012), G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013), Hercules (2014), and Skyscraper (2018); the science-fiction films San Andreas (2015) and Rampage (2018), and the animated film Moana (2016). His role as Luke Hobbs in the Fast & Furious films, beginning with Fast Five (2011), has helped it become one of the highest-grossing film franchises. Johnson also stars in the Jumanji films, appearing in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) and Jumanji: The Next Level (2019), and is set to portray Black Adam in its superhero film adaptation.

Johnson produced and starred in the HBO comedy-drama series Ballers (2015–2019) and stars and produces the autobiographical sitcom Young Rock (2021). In 2000, Johnson released the autobiography The Rock Says, which was a New York Times bestseller. In 2012, he co-founded the entertainment production company Seven Bucks Productions and is the co-owner of American football league, the XFL. In 2016 and 2019, Johnson was named by Time one of the world’s most influential people.

Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.
I’m always asked, ‘What’s the secret to success?’ But there are no secrets. Be humble. Be hungry. And always be the hardest worker in the room.
Attitude and enthusiasm play a big part in my life. I get excited about the things that inspire me. I also believe in laughing and having a good time.
Check your ego at the door. The ego can be the great success inhibitor. It can kill opportunities, and it can kill success.
For me, training is my meditation, my yoga, hiking, biking all rolled into one. Wake up early in the morning, generally around 4 o’clock, and I’ll do my cardio on an empty stomach. Stretch, have a big breakfast, and then I’ll go train.
I’m very low-key. I don’t really blend in, so it’s difficult to go out in public. I like to do things that are kind of quiet, whether it’s a dinner at my house or a restaurant, or a movie night at home.
I grew up where, when a door closed, a window didn’t open. The only thing I had was cracks. I’d do everything to get through those cracks – scratch, claw, bite, push, bleed. Now the opportunity is here. The door is wide open, and it’s as big as a garage.
I absolutely believed when I was young because the Tooth Fairy was always good to me. The Tooth Fairy generally left me a dollar or two dollars and, as a kid, that was a lot of money.
I want to be a man who is truthful and who won’t let pride get in the way of my ripping myself open to my partner and saying, ‘Here I am. This is me.’ I feel there’s something powerful when a man reaches a point in his life when he can be completely vulnerable.
My mom cleaned toilets for a long time, and she’d seen a lot of terrible things, but she was still the strength of our family. And there are women like that all across the country – all around the world – who show that type of fortitude.

The Time is Now.

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April 22, 2022

Floyd Jerkins

Holistic Management

Guest writer Floyd Jerkins writes this week about the ins and outs of Holistic Management, and all the ways it sets a company apart from others.

Holistic Management: Who Are the Real Kings of the Business?

We’ve all gone into a business to buy something and experienced the sales staff that was energetic and full of promises, only to find what happens after the sale isn’t quite the same. One department blames the other, and there’s confusion about exactly what to do. We’ve all been there. The question I have is, who are the real kings of the business?

Holistic management practices set a company apart from those who are not managing this way. Fundamentally, how do you get all the departments to work in unison for a common goal? How can we align these departments and divisions to create peak financial and operating performance while also generating high levels of customer satisfaction and repeat and referral business?

What’s So Unique About You?

Organizational development takes on many shapes based on the business model or industry. Each industry has unique characteristics with how they sell their products to generate revenue. There are thousands of family-owned multi-generational businesses driving our economy. Many times, industries’ overlap and have common organizational traits despite the notion that they are unique. They share so many of these traits that it creates a pathway of learning.

Startups and small, closely-held companies create policies, procedures, and methods of operations differently from companies with fifty or more employees. Typically, in smaller companies, the owner or founder is actively involved. Their knowledge and experience are put to the test every day as they attempt to scale their business. If they come from a sales background, the business takes on a sales mindset, although other structural components are needed for the whole company to thrive.

Nothing Happens Until Something Sells

If you don’t sell something, no one has a job, right? I’m sure you’ve heard that before. I contend that salespeople who are allowed unique privileges to make a sale can easily cause havoc in other departments. I’ve been in hundreds of businesses over my years. Too often, an owner supported a salesperson telling the customer something to make the sale even though they have no clue how they will honor that commitment and keep everyone in the chain happy. There are hundreds of examples, but let me get back to my points.

Many “chronic” organizational illnesses are associated with a front-end business regardless of what market segment you’re in. Each business model has specific characteristics that help it grow or die.

With owners or executives coming from sales, other departments often suffer by not getting the proper attention to invest in people and resources. Too many times, sales meetings don’t include leaders from other departments. Policies are made without consideration of the impact through the entire company.

Executives who create a holistic culture know that everything in the day-to-day flow of operations is hinged together. Instead of fixing one problem and making five others, they think and plan with an overall company’s view.

Are the sins of the sales department masking the ability of other departments to be successful?

Are Salespeople Really the Kings of the Business?

You would think with so many sales-driven leaders that the sales departments would perform perfectly. Leaders who come from the sales side of the business many times will struggle to influence other departments. If you ask many, they will say they have a great sales department, just look at my volume and margins. However, as I address in other articles, these are not the only predictors of success and often are put in front of a conversation to mask a sales department’s real sins.

Holistic Thinking

Executives and leaders have to be bought-in to improve overall operations. If they aren’t, then the fish can rot at the head first because you can’t get to peak profits by a pen stroke.

For an organization to achieve high levels of customer satisfaction, they require knowledge-based workers. Through these people, you earn the right to have a repeat and referral business that sustains your organization through a cyclical market’s ups and downs.

You can easily win a customer through the sales department, but where you keep and then retain the customer is through all the other touches and servicing points your business offers.

If a business owner tells me they are selling a boatload of their product but are losing money in another department, it is a sure sign they are probably not leading with a holistic mindset. They are headed towards the business of the past.

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April 19, 2022

Debbie Frakes

Why Customer Satisfaction Surveys Are Important For Equipment Dealers

Why Customer Satisfaction Surveys Are Important for Equipment Dealers

Our new guest writer, Debbie Frakes, is the Managing Director at Winsby Inc. where she has been helping Business to Business (B2B) companies grow for over fifteen years. What works is constantly evolving, but Winsby is always testing new concepts to determine the most efficient and most cost-effective ways of generating business. Today she shares why customer surveys are important for equipment dealers.

The best way to improve your heavy equipment dealership is to understand what you are currently doing well, what is satisfactory but could use improvement, and what areas need to change in order to retain more customers. The easiest way to gain this information is through customer satisfaction surveys obtained by phone. A phone call assures that they are being thoughtful in their responses, rather than clicking through an email survey without reading the questions carefully. Plus, you receive excellent feedback about what went wrong and what went right in recent transactions. It’s important, too, to ask specific questions relevant to the type of purchase that was made—parts, service, new or used equipment, and rentals. You will have insights on how customers perceive your business and where you need to improve.

How phone surveys improve your service for heavy equipment

Increase your customer retention by 30% – 40%
Identify any problems quickly
Show your customers that you want to know what they think

If you’re wondering whether your dealership should conduct customer satisfaction surveys, take a look at the numbers. For dealers that conduct surveys regularly, compared to those who don’t, customer retention rates are about 30% to 40% higher. The reason is simple: those dealers receiving feedback on a regular basis can improve every part of their business, from heavy equipment service to sales to rentals to parts, because they discover what is wrong with their business, and they can react quickly.

With phone surveys your company can solve problem areas and issues before your customers take their business elsewhere, because they quickly become aware of the problems. If customers have issues with your services or process consistently, most of them will just leave without saying anything. When called for feedback on the most recent transaction, customers invariably are generous with compliments, which employees appreciate, and give honest reactions to any subpar performances, with details.

Why are phone surveys more reliable?

The feedback in customer satisfaction surveys should be obtained by phone, because customers typically provide more reliable answers, compared to email surveys. At Winsby, our team will usually reach a customer over the phone on every third call. And then once we are talking to them, about 97% agree to take the phone survey. This rate is much better than responses for email surveys, for which a good response rate is 2% of recipients. The other benefit of phone surveys is that they are interactive; your customers can fully explain any issues and the caller can ask follow up questions. For email surveys, we really aren’t sure whether they even read the questions!

It is more effective to use a third party to handle the surveys rather than someone from your dealership. The reason is that most customers are more honest with an outside person and will be more comfortable explaining problems to them instead of an in-house employee or someone they have worked with before.

How phone surveys work

The first step in developing a survey for an equipment dealer’s customers is to develop an effective calling script. Ask relevant questions covering what your customers care about and what is most important in your business. Key areas for dealers are typically heavy equipment service capabilities and availability, parts turnaround time, rental equipment availability, and new machine inventory.

Once you have your script, it’s important to speak with about 10% of the customers who were invoiced during the prior month. Record all the responses and follow up on any negative responses or negative scores immediately. Any departments or employees that are complimented need to hear the positive feedback. And any departments or employees that are named in negative comments should be told details as soon as possible. It is always better to contact the customer and apologize. Ask what you can do to make it right. Invariably, those customers are grateful that you cared enough to contact them and correct what the problems were, and they become extremely loyal customers. Had you not known about the problem, though, you would have probably lost them as customers.

How does your dealership benefit?

Customer satisfaction phone surveys make it possible to improve every aspect of your business, from heavy equipment service to parts to rentals to sales. These surveys help you understand what your customers think about you and your processes. The information you gain will allow you to fix problems fast and prevent any negative word of mouth or posting of online reviews.

Winsby compiles the 1 – 5 star scores and publishes one overall rating online, along with the individual scores and comments, providing feedback from actual, verified customers. Many of the online review forums, like Google, allow fake reviews to be posted from people who are not even your customers, and they make it difficult to have them removed. The compiled scores that Winsby sees for the equipment dealers are invariably over 4 stars. The reason is simple: anyone who is surveying their customers regularly cares deeply about how their customers are treated . . . and any problems are corrected quickly at the dealership. The result is retention of your customers increases by 30% to 40%.

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April 19, 2022

Filosophy

Friday Filosophy v.04.15.2022

Patrick James Riley (born March 20, 1945) is an American professional basketball executive and a former coach and player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has been the team president of the Miami Heat since 1995, and he also served as the team’s head coach from 1995 to 2003 and again from 2005 to 2008. Regarded as one of the greatest NBA coaches of all time, Riley has won five NBA championships as a head coach, including four with the Los Angeles Lakers during their Showtime era in the 1980s and one with the Heat in 2006. Riley is a ten-time NBA champion across his tenures as a player (1972), assistant coach (1980), head coach (1982, 1985, 1987, 1988, 2006), and executive (2006, 2012, 2013).

Riley was named NBA Coach of the Year three times (1989–90, 1992–93 and 1996–97, as head coach of the Lakers, New York Knicks and Heat, respectively). He was head coach of an NBA All-Star Game team nine times: eight times with the Western Conference team (1982, 1983, 1985–1990, all as head coach of the Lakers) and once with the Eastern team (1993, as head coach of the Knicks). He is the first North American sports figure to win a championship as a player, as an assistant coach, as a head coach, and as an executive, and in various roles has reached the NBA finals in six different decades. In 1996, he was named one of the 10 Greatest Coaches in NBA history. Riley most recently won the 2012 and 2013 NBA championships with the Heat as their team president. He received the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award from the NBA Coaches Association on June 20, 2012.

If you have a positive attitude and constantly strive to give your best effort, eventually you will overcome your immediate problems and find you are ready for greater challenges.
Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.
To have long term success as a coach or in any position of leadership, you have to be obsessed in some way.
Each Warrior wants to leave the mark of his will, his signature, on important acts he touches. This is not the voice of ego but of the human spirit, rising up and declaring that it has something to contribute to the solution of the hardest problems, no matter how vexing!
Discipline is not a nasty word.
Look for your choices, pick the best one, then go with it.
You can never have enough talent.
People who create 20% of the results will begin believing they deserve 80% of the rewards.
A particular shot or way of moving the ball can be a player’s personal signature, but efficiency of performance is what wins the game for the team
Management must speak with one voice. When it doesn’t, management itself becomes a peripheral opponent to the team’s mission
You have to defeat a great players aura more than his game.
Don’t let other people tell you what you want.
When a great team loses through complacency, it will constantly search for new and more intricate explanations to explain away defeat.
Being ready isn’t enough; you have to be prepared for a promotion or any other significant change.

The Time is Now.

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April 15, 2022

David Jensen

Incident Commander

Our new guest writer David Jensen is the owner/owner/principal consultant of Johnny Creek Consulting LLC located in New Mexico, USA. Experience includes, 20 years a consultant of Personalysis Corporation; an executive consulting firm. A senior level consultant having attained a Vice President title with the company. He has worked with multiple Fortune 100 companies in various consulting capacities and on a wide range of projects. In his role as a consultant, Jensen works with all levels of teams and individuals, including CEOs of several major organizations. He shares this experience with readers tonight in his first blog for Learning Without Scars: Incident Commander.
Prior to joining Personalysis Corporation, He worked for the US Forest Service and then joined the US Department of Labor where he was a bureau chief responsible for organizational analysis. He next served as a consultant to Martin-Marietta and then moved to Sara Lee Corporation where he was the Director of Employee Relations for the company for over 10 years.
David has taught at both Idaho State University and Boise State University.
Jensen is a graduate of Idaho State University where he holds both an undergraduate and master’s degree in psychology. His emphasis of study was organizational psychology with his master’s thesis being Proxemic, The Importance of Personal Space.
David has been a featured speaker at national conventions and seminars. His ideas on leadership, teamwork and organizational effectiveness have been well received by diverse audiences.

“ASSUMING Incident Commander (IC)”
Observations from Rural New Mexico

The dispatcher states your assigned call number and asks if you will be “assuming IC.” If the answer is yes; you are thrust into the role of the leader. You now move from the role of a volunteer firefighter to Incident Commander (IC). The moment will challenge what you think you know about leadership. It is now without question, trial by fire. There is no room for half-hearted commitment. So how does a fulltime cowboy step off their horse and step into the driver seat of the command truck. What do they need to know? How is that knowledge different from a president who is responsible for multi-national private enterprise? As it turns out, not so different. Leading a successful business requires the same basic knowledge and skill that a well trained and experienced Incident Commander brings to the fire line.

Fire training requires that an Incident Commander master five fundamental leadership activities:

Command
Operations
Planning
Logistics
Finance.

1. Command

When you accept the position of President of the company or Incident Commander, you are accountable for the enterprise outcomes. That does not mean that all decision making is retained at the President or Incident Commander level. A notable exception is safety. Safe practices must be always priority number one of any leader. An Incident Commander trained to delegate appropriate authority and decision making to all levels of the fire line down to the individual volunteer firefighter. A hallmark of any successful enterprise is that the individual in command insures employees are engaged and their efforts are recognized. Incident Commanders trained seek opportunities to enhance self-esteem through praise and to empathize with volunteers doing what is often a thankless job.

2. Operations

The key to successful fire line operations is clear effective in-person and radio communication with the line bosses. The communications provide realistic and measurable goals for the operation and define how it is to be executed. Line bosses feedback progress against the objectives until you achieve fire containment. Successful operations within any organization are based on a system of metrics and management feedback. It is the President or Incident Commander responsibility to ensure that this operational feedback loop exists. It is the responsibility of all participants to contribute to the feedback. Every volunteer firefighter understands that it is their responsibility to question communications when they are unclear or unsafe.

3. Planning

An Incident Commander train to develop incident action plans and to conduct an after-action review that can lead to improved outcomes. On an active fire line, the objectives will be influenced by a number of factors such as weather, terrain and type of vegetation which are beyond control of the IC. It is President or Incident Commanders responsibility to insure that tactical and strategic plans developed and revised in response to changing external conditions. Learning from experience and not repeating a costly error is key to any successful enterprise.

4. Logistics

On a fire line the availability of resources on the ground and in the air will determine how the effort will accomplish the operational goals and objectives. It is the President or Incident Commander knowledge of available resources and how they might best deploy that will contribute to the success of the action plans that drives operational success. Fire containment will not move at pace without linking logistics, planning and operations together. In business, it is the President commitment that ensures that shop floor knowledge connects logistics, planning and operations.

5. Finance

The leader of an enterprise must be accountable to a stakeholder. The stakeholder may be an owner, a shareholder, or a taxpayer. Whatever form, an assessment of cost and risk is essential. On a fire line all assets are not equal. Decisions must made based on what is at risk. Structure protection is far greater value than grassland. In a business, the President must direct capital towards what offers the best return on investment. Leading a complicated and successful business is an ongoing incident without the fire and the heat! If you are on fire line of a major incident or in the hot seat of a major multi-national private enterprise, to have mastered the five fundamental leadership activities can put you on path to success.

David Jensen MS
Johnny Creek Consulting LLC (Principle)
HR/ Executive Coach
Part-Time cattle rancher
Full time volunteer firefighter

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April 12, 2022