For our Friday Filosophy #2015-19 we are tacking economic concepts and thoughts from a great thinker.
The Great Depression, like most other periods of severe unemployment was produced by government mismanagement rather than by any inherent instability of the private economy.
If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.
The world runs on individuals pursuing their self-interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn’t construct his theory under order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn’t revolutionize the automobile industry that way.
The most important single central fact about a free market is that no exchange takes place unless both parties benefit.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
The problem of social organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm, capitalism is that kind of system.
Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government.
Well first of all, tell me, is there some society you know of that doesn’t run on greed? You think Russia doesn’t run on greed? You think China doesn’t run on greed? What is greed?
The greatest advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science or literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government.
We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes nonwork.
So the record of history is absolutely crystal clear. That there is no alternative way, so far discovered, of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system.
Inflation is taxation without legislation.
Indeed, a major source of objection to a free economy is precisely that it …. Gives people what they want instead of what a particular group thinks they ought to want. Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.
The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem.
The only relevant test of the validity of a hypothesis is comparison of prediction with experience.
The black market was a way of getting around government controls. It was a way of enabling the free market to work. It was a way of opening up, enabling people.
Universities exist to transmit knowledge and understanding of ideas and values to students not to provide entertainment for spectators or employment for athletes.
And I will close with this one.
And what does reward virtue? You think the communist commissar rewards virtue? You think a Hitler rewards virtue? You think, excuse me, if you’ll pardon me, American presidents reward virtue? Do they choose their appointees on the basis of the virtue of the people appointed or on the basis of their political clout?
A few of the wonderful thoughts from Milton Friedman. We miss his perspective very much, don’t we?
The time is now.
Parts & Service Marketing – Basic Marketing
Parts & Service Marketing – Basic Marketing
Our Parts & Service Marketing series of webinars begins this Thursday, May 14, 2015, with the introductory course: Basic Marketing.
Marketing is a broadly misunderstood sector of business. It is much more than mailings, promotions, and tradeshows. It is all of the aspects involved in influencing the customer to purchase your products or services.
Marketing is the science of choosing target markets through the use of market analysis and segmentation. This webinar exposes all aspects of marketing: Relationship Marketing, Business Marketing, Social Marketing and Internal Marketing. In Relationship Marketing, we focus on suppliers and customers, and the goal is to build loyalty. The Business Marketing is all aspects of the traditional marketing functions: advertising, promotion and communications. Social Marketing looks at everything that impacts society. For instance, the impact on the environment from the use of clean engine technology. Internal Marketing, is the broad communications to all employees of everything that we are doing in the business.
This webinar covers all the basics of marketing: from the four P’s to the more current addition of SIVA. We cover it all. Without creating the environment where your product or service is understood, you make the job of selling much more difficult. This webinar aims to provide you with the tools to use to make selling more successful.
Parts Management – Delivery Systems
Parts Management – Delivery Systems
In the parts business we communicate with the marketplace in a variety of methods. With the telephone, with people walking into your store, some customers will send orders by mail, or via a fax, and some use the internet. But the variations of the work don’t stop there: we also have to contend with a variety of “delivery” systems as well. These are not transportation systems. This is a customer service delivery system.
We process sales orders for our customers and we all know that not all customers are created equal. Some customers spend a lot of money with you and deserve to get special treatment. Well, we also have some processes that are cost intensive but also some that are very efficient. These are the customer service delivery systems.
From the customer who does not know the part numbers that they need, to the customer that can order parts from an electronic catalogue on the internet, there are wide ranges of differences. Each of the delivery systems has a different cost component, and that can lead us to provide differentiated services dependent on the delivery system that is chosen by the customer. We explore all aspects of the delivery systems we offer to the market in this important webinar.
Service Management – Maintenance Programs
Service Management – Maintenance Programs
Everyone knows about the repair and rebuild business. That is where the excitement is for technical people. In the product support business, we have two major goals: reduce the owning and operating costs for the machine owner, and protect the residual value of the machine. The first step to understanding how to reduce owning and operating costs is to understand the importance of the maintenance service recommended by the OEM. Most customers view maintenance as the necessary evil of changing fluids and filters. There is much more to it than that. How to develop a maintenance program to reduce those operating costs is the theme in this webinar.
There is a fundamental conflict that has to be dealt with in the labor management group. Maintenance is boring, anyone can do it. In fact the OEM dealer has less than 6.5% of the maintenance market. Nearly 90% of the maintenance is done by a customer mechanic. Yet survey data indicates that nearly 90% of the customers would give the maintenance business to the dealership if their price was less than what the customer currently pays.
This webinar will discuss the methods and processes to follow in order to be able to meet that price and performance need.
Parts Management – Basic Finance
Parts Management – Basic Finance
Before we can be of any value to anyone else we have to be of value to ourselves. That is an old adage, but it still rings true. Ignorance is not knowing what to do. How can we know what to do if we don’t understand basic finance?
Here we will expose and explain all aspects of the operating statement, the balance sheet, and the cash flow forecast. These are the three major documents in the world of finance. We will define and describe all of the terms that accountants use. There will be no mystery to basic finance when we are finished. We will explain cost of sales and what it consists of, as well as all of the various expense elements. Personnel Expenses, Operating Expenses, and Fixed Expenses are discussed so that everyone will be able to understand and accept how and why money is spent and how we make it.
The fundamentals of basic finance have been a mystery for too many people for far too long. This webinar gets past that so that the employees in a parts business will understand the effect of each of their decisions.
Learn How To Make It Matter!
On Tuesday, 5/12/2015, we are presenting our two “Make It Matter” webinars.
At 9:00 a.m. PST we have PTS-WE-U13: our Parts Management – Make It Matter program.
At 11:00 a.m. PST we have SER-WE-U13: our Service Management – Make It Matter program.
These webinars address the two most important questions we must answer in our Capital Goods Business: What do you provide? What do you do? The answers are not as simple as they appear to be. Everything we do has a profound impact on our customers, suppliers, coworkers, and other stakeholders. This webinar will present information on how to differentiate yourself within your business, and for your customers.
In other news, we have just released our second Self-Study program, this time for Service Management. Please learn more about these programs under the Self-Study tab on our website. The Foundation is now available for both Parts Management and Service Management.
The time is now.
Friday Filosophy #2015-19
For our Friday Filosophy #2015-19 we are tacking economic concepts and thoughts from a great thinker.
The Great Depression, like most other periods of severe unemployment was produced by government mismanagement rather than by any inherent instability of the private economy.
If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.
The world runs on individuals pursuing their self-interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn’t construct his theory under order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn’t revolutionize the automobile industry that way.
The most important single central fact about a free market is that no exchange takes place unless both parties benefit.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
The problem of social organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm, capitalism is that kind of system.
Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government.
Well first of all, tell me, is there some society you know of that doesn’t run on greed? You think Russia doesn’t run on greed? You think China doesn’t run on greed? What is greed?
The greatest advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science or literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government.
We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes nonwork.
So the record of history is absolutely crystal clear. That there is no alternative way, so far discovered, of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system.
Inflation is taxation without legislation.
Indeed, a major source of objection to a free economy is precisely that it …. Gives people what they want instead of what a particular group thinks they ought to want. Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.
The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem.
The only relevant test of the validity of a hypothesis is comparison of prediction with experience.
The black market was a way of getting around government controls. It was a way of enabling the free market to work. It was a way of opening up, enabling people.
Universities exist to transmit knowledge and understanding of ideas and values to students not to provide entertainment for spectators or employment for athletes.
And I will close with this one.
And what does reward virtue? You think the communist commissar rewards virtue? You think a Hitler rewards virtue? You think, excuse me, if you’ll pardon me, American presidents reward virtue? Do they choose their appointees on the basis of the virtue of the people appointed or on the basis of their political clout?
A few of the wonderful thoughts from Milton Friedman. We miss his perspective very much, don’t we?
The time is now.
Leveraging Assets – SER-WE-U12
Leveraging Assets – SER-WE-U12
The service department is known to provide repairs, rebuilds, and maintenance services. We manage the labor function to have the highest possible labor efficiency and quality. High performance in a Service Department must maximize efficiency, maximize quality, and satisfy customers. The first step to understanding and accepting what we have to do is to understand the assets at our disposal. From the technical skills of the mechanics, to the bays and vehicles we work from, and the specialized tooling there is a lot to consider. How to leverage these assets is the theme in this webinar.
Individual employees want to do a good job and they want to be able to provide the highest level of skill possible. We have a responsibility to maintain those skills with professional training programs. From the OEM’s, to specific training within the dealership we will explore all that training entails. It starts with the skills set inventory for each technician, and then a training plan for each person can be developed. We are expected to make money on our labor. What is less understood is that we are intended to be able to recover our costs on all of the tools and technology we use. In this webinar we uncover methods to be able to recover these department costs in a manner that is fair to customers and the company.
Each employee can show off their skills and knowledge especially well if we provide them with the comprehensive training and tools necessary to deliver world class service. We must provide leverage on these assets. This webinar is an important piece of their learning.
Sign up today for this learning opportunity.
The time is now.
Buyer’s Needs – PTS-WE-U12
Buyer’s Needs – PTS-WE-U12
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 webinar 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.
Don’t miss out on this learning opportunity.
The time is now.
Basic Management – PTS-WE-U11and SER-WE-U11
Basic Management – PTS-WE-U11 and Basic Management – SER-WE-U11
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 power webinar.
In dealing with people, you also will need to be able to communicate with the employees. In this webinar, we explore two of the main forms of communications: praise and criticism. This part of interpersonal relations can be learned. 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.
These webinars are geared towards the management and supervision of the Parts Department and the Service Department (respectively) of the Capital Goods Dealership. Each one hour program offers the fundamentals of leadership, tailored for each department.
Please join us for this exciting learning opportunity.
The time is now.
Overcoming Objections – PTS-WE-U09
Overcoming Objections – PTS-WE-U09
The sales process is complicated. Determining the right customers to call on the telephone is not easy. But all of that work is undermined if the individual on the telephone with the customer does not know how to handle the objections that the customer might present.
How these objections are handled can make the difference between a sales success and a failure. This webinar deals with the methods to employ: the “how to” of overcoming objections. In the sales process typically you are looking for an order or at least a positive outcome of the sales call. In order to achieve that outcome, it has to be understood that the customer has to learn about what it is that you are selling. In many cases, an objection is simply an indication that customer does not have enough information yet to make an informed decision.
From keeping your cool, to making the objection specific, and providing compensating factors, everything about the “how to” overcome an objection is exposed. If you no longer want to run the risk of losing a sale, you can’t miss this one!
The time is now.