By Tim Brannon – Posted in Best Practices
For some reason, I just can’t get excited about 2024 as I sit here staring at a blank screen. I need some motivation. Let us look up “motivation” in the Encyclopedia Britannica.
Motivation: forces acting either on or within a person to initiate behavior. The word is derived from the Latin term motivus (“a moving cause”), which suggests activating properties of motivation.”
Got to love the English. My Dad put it in simpler terms when he said, “Get your gluteus maximus to work” in a tone that needed no interpretation. He was the best motivational speaker I every listened to. Remembering a speech he gave about placing his #12 shoe somewhere, I seem now more motivated to travel into the future. Took me a while to get started, didn’t it? So, here we go: our top 10 Dealership New Year’s Resolutions!
- Become a high-volume, low-margin dealership. I read the article about the Farm Equipment Dealer of the Year and the dealer stated that this is what their major supplier wanted from them, so they would comply. But wait. I just went through an expensive training session that stated the opposite: “Sell your dealership’s value and customer service, making them feel that doing business with your dealership is a positive experience worth the extra cost associated with dealing with you.” One does not want to sell oneself out of business. So, I guess I will have to study on this one a bit and circle back to you.
- Manage your cash flow better. I have heard it said many times: “If your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep will become your downfall.” We read where the majority of businesses fail due to lack of the ability to cash flow the operation. Therefore, we plan to have all our customers make purchases and pay their accounts just before we need the money to pay our bills. We also will make sure when an engine blows on the fork lift, the rod will exit the block on the day we sell that used kumquat planter that has been in paid inventory for 2 years. Manage that cash flow in ’24 (if one is from the South “flow” and “twenty fo'” rhyme — the poet in us).