Guest Editorial
Guest Column
Adding Value Can Overcome Vexing Variables
by Lyle Bass Power Train Service
f you serve customers, I know you will agree that trying to figure out what makes customers purchase is one of the oldest challenges in the business world. Which variables matter most and how can I, as owner of a business that survives on customer purchases, positively affect those variables more than my competition? As a distributor with stores in a saturated market, these variables are more important to me and my business than they ever have been before. Those of us who have been around long enough can remember the days when we knew who all of our competitors were, from “Bob’s Driveshafts and Fishing Tackle” to the other dealers and distributors in town. Today we have no clue who we may have lost a sale to because it very well could be a competitor from anywhere in the world. From a strategic standpoint, we have stopped trying to figure out who we are competing against and started focusing more closely on the variables that directly result in sales. As this month’s Truck Parts & Service cover story looks at the factors that drive customer choice, I would like to offer a few of my insights on the variables that I believe affect where our customers purchase their parts. I will not start by telling you the most important variable first, mainly because if I had that answer, you would be
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What do you actually sell your customer?
reading a best-selling book on sales management instead of a guest column. Half of the battle is figuring out which variables matter to which customers. Here, I will only skim the surface on the factors that I feel are important to customers in our industry. Product availability quickly can earn your company the reputation of being the “go-to” place for parts and service. The problem with that is that one slip and that reputation is destroyed. I define product availability as the ability to supply a product to a customer without hesitation. This means having the product in stock, having the proper business system to communicate a sale and having a delivery team capable of distributing the product to the customer – without hesitation. We can all relate to that stomach-twisting feeling we get when we have to tell a customer his or her part is on backorder (mainly because many times we know that sale has been lost). What’s worse is when the product is in the store, but doesn’t get delivered on time. These product availability issues reflect on a company’s ability to serve customers. Success is dependent on our ability to serve our customers consistently. The next variable I feel is important is value. What do you actually sell your customer? If you are simply selling
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Lyle Bass is president and co-owner of Power Train Service and the 2009 Truck Parts & Service Distributor of the Year. Power Train Service is headquartered in Indianapolis and has nine locations throughout the Midwest.
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