My dad started Bob Clements International over 30 years ago. Small business is all I have known since I was a kid. Like any small business, I have seen the ups and downs. We have had many vacations that were coupled with meetings; that was “normal” to me. If you would have asked me, up until about a year after I graduated from college, if I would have joined the family business my answer would [...]
Last week we talked about setting yourself apart from the Big Box stores. One way to do so is by showcasing your dealership. The easiest and most effective way to showcase your dealership is through your businesses signage. The most important aspect of an outdoor sign is to grab someone’s attention- almost like a magnet pulling a customer toward the store. The more recognized the name, the more people that will be attracted to your dealership. [...]
With manufacturers jamming more and more dealers into a marketplace, your product lines are no longer a unique advantage. Big Box stores are now picking up lines of equipment that have in the past only been available at select dealerships. To set yourself apart from the business down the road, you can no longer rely on your brands. You have to work to create a unique experience that your competitors can’t easily duplicate. 1. Understand what [...]
An Excerpt from "The 7 Principles of a High Performing Dealership" The more you can repeat an action the better you become at performing that action. As an owner or manager, you do not want there to be variability in your processes. Take McDonalds, for example. When they hire an employee to make fries they are not asking for their interpretation on the process. They do not ask if Sally, the fry maker, would like [...]
The Most Important Question The No. 1 mistake made by salespeople when they begin the negotiation process is failing to ask this important question: “So what you are saying is if I can do what you ask, then you are in a position today to move forward, is that correct?” If they say “No,” you don’t begin the process because they have not committed to buy from you, and all that is going to happen [...]
Triaging is vital to keeping our shops moving and our techs efficient. The triaging process happens after the equipment has been checked into the dealership, the work order has been filled out and hopefully signed by the customer, and a red ribbon has been attached to show the equipment has just been checked in. At 10:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., the service coordinator will go to the service manager or service writer, take the clipboards [...]
When I work with the service techs at a store, my goal is to help them, and management, understand the value they bring to a dealership and how they can do their work in the most efficient way possible. A service tech’s inventory is “time” and your goal as a dealer is to sell all of the tech’s time each day. Is it possible to sell eight hours of labor each day per tech? Absolutely. [...]
Some people will say that I am nuts about knowing the numbers in your dealership and then managing to those numbers to improve profitability. I believe it is important in every department, but today I wanted to share the important numbers you need to track in the sales department. Calculate closing ratio It all starts off with some basic calculations, the first being your closing ratio. Let's say that you kept track for a two-week [...]
An excerpt from Bob's upcoming book, "The 7 Principles of a High Performance Dealership". Is your dealership bleeding? Is it a small cut or is it losing blood by the pint? Perhaps your business is on the brink of losing its life? I meet dealers across the country whose businesses are on the equivalent of life support – struggling each day to simply keep the doors of their business open. The names and locations of [...]
An Overview of BCI's 7 Principles of a High Performing Dealership© Over the years that my team and I have been working with dealers, one of the most common questions that we get asked is, "What makes a dealership successful?" We have had hundreds of conversations with both dealers and manufacturers about what we believe makes a dealer successful and the road map to get there. Through those conversations I have put together the 7 [...]
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