Proudly serving the industry for which it was named for more than 50 years, Outdoor Power Equipment provides dealers who sell and service outdoor power equipment with valuable information to succeed in a competitive market.
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/30905
During the past six months, I’ve had the opportunity to speak to hundreds of dealers across the country, as well as personally spend time with multiple dealerships, teaching them our service processes and giving managers and employees the tools they need to dramatically change their dealership and take-home profits. While attending these meetings and working at these dealerships with their owners, managers and employees, my biggest challenge hasn’t been implementing my processes in the service department — it’s been getting everyone to change their thinking about the service department and understand how important it is to the dealership’s overall health and enormous profit potential. The 4-minute mile Years ago, it was believed that no man could run a mile in less than 4 minutes. Dozens of great athletes came close, but it just never happened. That is, until one man — Roger Bannister — did run the mile in less than 4 minutes. (I guess someone forgot to tell him it wasn’t possible.) Since then, breaking the 4-minute mile has become a common occurrence. There is no question that Bannis- ter was a great runner, but then so were all the others that came so close but couldn’t break the barrier. What was the difference? Bannister didn’t believe it couldn’t be done. What’s the 4-minute mile have to do with your shop? Every- thing! Have you ever heard or said, “I can’t find good help,” “I can’t get my techs to work faster,” “I can’t charge more,” “I can’t afford to pay more,” “I can’t this,” “I can’t that,” “I can’t,” “I can’t,” “I can’t?” Whether you realize it or not, every time you say, “I can’t,” you set up a “4-minute mile” barrier in your mind about your service department and what it can accomplish. Should you tune up your shop or your thinking? As Steve Noe, editor of OPE magazine, and I were discussing this article, our original thinking was to do it on the importance of “tuning up” the service department for improved turnaround and profitability. It all sounded great, and then I got to thinking about how many articles that I have written over the last several years about service departments, our processes and how to make more money. I thought to myself, rather than write an article on improving your service department, why not just encourage readers to go to OPE’s website at www.outdoorpowerequipment.com and read my past articles on service? It would save me time and you boredom. If you open up your mind to a new way of think- ing and then re-read my service-related articles on OPE’s web- site, you will read them from a new frame of reference. You will read them knowing that the 4-minute mile has already been broken. Change your thinking about what is possible The top complaint I hear from dealers and service managers is that it’s hard to find good employees, which simply isn’t true. Now I know some of you are already reverting to your old ways of thinking: “he doesn’t have a clue,” “my area is different,” “there aren’t any good techs around.” And to that, I would argue that it’s not that they are not OUTDOOR POWER EQUIPMENT MAY 2011 17