Pivoting your Sales and Marketing Efforts to Increase Parts and Service Sales
By Gary Weisbaum
We are hearing the word “pivot” a lot lately. What does it mean for Industrial Dealers across North America to pivot?
If you look up the word “pivot” in the dictionary, you get two definitions, the first a noun that states “pivot is a central point, pin, or shaft on which a mechanism turns or oscillates.” Pivot is also a verb, meaning “turn on or as if on a pivot.”
From where I sit, neither of these definitions or any derivatives properly articulate what it means for industrial dealers to pivot in order to not only survive the impact of the last five months, but to gain new clients while solidifying relationships with existing accounts.
Most businesses, when pressed by negative dramatic changes in business conditions, look first at where expenses can be reduced or eliminated: staff reductions, disposal of non-performing assets and other actions to keep overhead in check.
As a sales and marketing person, my take on what it means for an Industrial Dealer to pivot has much more to do with a critical analysis of your customer base, competition, sales capabilities both external as well as internal, online presence, sales support, and much more. Many dealers I talk to these days tell me they are doing these things however further discussion in most cases proves that not to be the case.
Last week, I discussed the need for a critical assessment of your current customer list and a renewed effort on soliciting new business. For dealers that have always actively and aggressively pursued new business, this is not much of a pivot. For those who have been so busy over the last decade with the phones ringing and customers lining up, clearly this is a more significant turn.
From my perspective, the most important pivot taking place within dealerships is the acute need to have both external and internal staff who can sell. Most have one or two “good” parts and service salespeople, and the rest have honed their skills as “order takers” and “customer service” resources handling incoming calls and problem-solving issues.
Many dealer owners and management we talk with are tasking their department managers to pivot their parts and service staffs to sell, but the problem is that
not everyone can sell! Identifying and evaluating the right staff to pivot into the sales role, develop and provide training and ongoing support, develop realistic performance metrics, are just the start. You cannot just tell people to go do something they do not know how to do.
Another key issue is that some dealers are finding that they do not have staff that can pivot from order taking and customer service to selling, and that creates a new challenge as finding those who can be successful in sales is not easy and takes time.
KEA Advisors can provide critical support to industrial dealers in evaluating their current sales capabilities, and provide a successful platform for pivoting dealers towards aggressive sales success.
Contact me to discuss further, and please join me for our webinar on the topic (registration link below).
