Tuesday Tips

By Debbie Frakes – Winsby, Inc. – Learning Without Scars For heavy equipment dealers looking to generate more revenue from their marketing, sending emails consistently to customers and prospects is one of the most effective tools available. Nearly everyone in your customer base is likely to check their emails regularly,

By Michelle Richardson, Vice President of Sales Performance Research – The Brooks Group Customer loyalty is being tested. Last year, the average tariff on U.S. imports increased from 2.6% to 13%. Nearly 90% of the tariffs’ economic burden fell on U.S. firms and customers. When tariffs push your costs higher

By Troy Harrison – Sales Navigator I saw a LinkedIn post this morning that nearly made me spit my iced tea onto my laptop. The author was analyzing a sales call where the rep handled every objection perfectly but still lost the deal. His diagnosis? The rep failed to “set the

By Michelle Richardson – Vice President of Sales Performance Research – The Brooks Group You’ve invested time and resources developing a repeatable sales process. You’ve mapped out every step, aligned it with your buyer’s journey, and rolled it out to your team with great fanfare. Six months later, you check your

By Larry Herman, Jr. – For ConstructionPROS.com – From RDO Equipment Co. Discover contractors and dealers can partner to align on heavy equipment repair services, machine monitoring systems and future fleet planning, ultimately minimizing downtime and maximizing productivity. Tight margins and demanding schedules mean contractors need every machine ready when the next

By Sara Hey, Bob Clements International  Hi Sara, My service department is always busy, but we’re quietly losing customers and I can’t explain why. What am I missing? If being busy automatically meant customers were happy, every service department in the country would have perfect retention. Spoiler alert. They don’t.

By Teresa Owens, Lessiter Media Too often, we focus on creating that one great promotion we think will drive all the sales, and we’re too busy to step back and see the full picture and think about the customer journey, which isn’t the same for prospects and current customers. When a

By John Dowling – Learning Without Scars Why Most Service Departments Don’t Have a Performance Problem. They have a Leadership Problem. In 1996, I was a young corporal in the United States Marine Corps, assigned to a small task force deploying from Okinawa to South Korea. We landed in a blizzard

By Olivia Cox, Lessiter Media At Lessiter Media, we have always believed that truly understanding our audience is the foundation of effective marketing. In fact, as early as 2014, we led audience persona exercises across our brands to define who we serve, what matters most to them, and how to

By Sara Hey posted in Best Practices — Rural Lifestyle Dealer Hi Sara, my service department is always busy, but we’re quietly losing customers and I can’t explain why. What am I missing? If being busy automatically meant customers were happy, every service department in the country would have perfect retention. Spoiler

By Troy Harrison – Sales Navigator   Congratulations! You’ve landed your first professional sales job. You’re excited, motivated, and ready to crush it. You’re also probably terrified because you have no idea what you’re doing. Welcome to the club. Every successful salesperson started exactly where you are right now –

By Michelle Richardson – Vice President of Sales Performance Research Nobody gets into sales because they love telling customers that prices are going up or their order’s been delayed. But if you’ve been in this business long enough, you know that delivering bad news is part of the job. How your

By Peggy Noonan – Wall Street Journal   Inventors and executives are warning of widespread consequences that they don’t begin to understand. As we have been having blogs and podcasts on the use of AI in the Capital Goods Industries, I thought it would be beneficial for you to read this excellent

By Michelle Richardson – Vice President of Sales Performance Research Sales negotiation is one of those skills that sounds kind of intimidating—maybe even a little cutthroat—but, whether you realize it or not, you’re probably negotiating all the time. Deciding where to grab dinner with the family, what show to watch

By Troy Harrison – Sales Navigator  There’s a religion spreading through the B2B sales world, and like most religions, it’s built on faith rather than evidence.  I’m hearing this preached more and more:  “Buyers don’t want to talk to salespeople. Get out of their way. Let them self-serve. Be there

By Debbie Frakes – Learning without Scars How Dealers Can Stop Losing Customers and Build Stronger RelationshipsEquipment dealers operate in a relationship driven business. Customers rely on their dealer not just for equipment, but for service support, parts availability, and long-term reliability. When those expectations start to slowly slip, customers may

By Dave Kahle – The Kahle Way  Q.  How do you handle a customer who talks all the time?  A.  Your question reminds me of an ex-neighbor – the ultimate non-stop talker.  A single guy, he had adopted our family as his, and was in the habit of showing up

By Jarrett Harris, Director of Research | Iron Insights FLEET DISCIPLINE LIFTS UTILIZATION, NOT RATES  Rental equipment demand remained steady during 4Q25 but was unevenly distributed. Large contractors tied to data centers, infrastructure, and other mega projects continued to see solid activity while smaller, locally oriented contractors faced ongoing pressure.

By Ron Slee – Learning Without Scars Over the course of my work life, now spanning sixty years, I have always been an early riser. That still seems strange to me in that one of the things I did to pay my way through university was to play the piano

By Mike Emerson – Indian River Consulting Group When was the last time you reviewed your sales compensation structure?  If it’s been too long, you may be losing effective team members as a result. Having the right sales compensation plan is crucial for distributors. It’s not only a major revenue

By Troy Harrison – Sales Navigator I had a video call with a vendor last week, and within the first 30 seconds, I knew this wasn’t going to go well. The salesperson was sitting in what appeared to be his hotel room, wearing a hoodie, with an unmade bed visible in

Source: Bob Clements InternationalBy Sara Hey, Management, Marketing, Parts, Sales, Service   I know what a lot of you are doing right now. You are closing the books. You are looking at spreadsheets. You are telling yourself things like, “Well, that was interesting; hope next year will be better.” Hope is not a strategy.

By Dave Kahle – The Kahle Way  Situations in which you must deal with a lot of people always bring with them a great deal of temptation to take unethical short cuts.   Situations in which you deal with a lot of money always bring with them a great deal of

By Troy Harrison – Sales Navigator I was reviewing a salesperson’s weekly activity report recently, and something caught my eye. He’d logged eight customer meetings for the week. Impressive number, right? So, I asked him what he’d accomplished in those meetings. His answer? “Well, I touched base with everyone and we

By Michelle Richardson – Vice President of Sales Performance Research The quality of your sales hires directly impacts your revenue, team morale, and long-term business growth. Yet hiring the right salesperson remains one of the most challenging tasks for sales leaders. With the right approach and evaluation criteria, you can consistently

By Troy Harrison – Sales Navigator It’s January 2, 2026, and if you’re a salesperson or sales manager reading this, I have good news and bad news.  The bad news? The rapid changes reshaping our profession aren’t slowing down. They’re accelerating.The good news? If you’re willing to adapt, you’re going to have

By Jeffrey Gitomer – King of Sales “Johnny, pay attention!” Probably the most valuable lesson offered to you in school. But at the time you got it, you were either misbehaving, embarrassed, angry, or somewhere else in your mind, daydreaming. Too bad. Paying attention breeds new ideas. Paying attention is

By Garry Bartecki I typically cover the latest developments in finance, rental, and leasing, providing input that dealers can use to modify their systems and procedures, ultimately leading to higher profits and increased cash flow. To accomplish meaningful results, you dig into industry data sources, talk to bankers, and put together

By Jared Dillian, MFA  Higher education was in the news during the Biden administration because the Supreme Court ruled that student loans could not be forgiven, and Biden subsequently sought end-arounds to forgive as many as possible anyway. People are focused on other things now, like AI and tariffs and such,

By Richard Harmon – CSG Partners If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that we can’t easily predict economic trends. From market gyrations to supply chain disruptions to mounting inflation, it’s been an uncertain stretch for middle-market companies. For owners of family businesses, whose wealth is largely

By Jeffrey Gitomer – King of Sales Les Traband is a life insurance agent and a friend of mine. In 1971, Les was chasing me to sell me some life insurance he claimed I needed. I didn’t think I did. So, even though we were friends, I sort of kept

By Lisa Rose – Senior Group Vice President  Today’s salespeople must be able to quickly identify the buying behavior style of their prospects—and adapt their approach to match. That’s because today’s buyers are more informed than ever before—as well as less interested in meeting with salespeople. Combine that with the

By Troy Harrison – Sales Navigator  I was listening in on sales calls with a distributor of high-performance auto parts, along with their Inside Sales Manager. A customer had called asking about a particular engine wiring harness. The salesperson explained that yes, the harness would work on his engine just fine. Right

By Chris Connell – We Brand It’s 2025, and the world of heavy machinery and equipment marketing is more complex, and more critical, than ever. As a marketing leader, I know firsthand that the daily tension between speed, scale, and brand control is no longer just a balancing act. It’s a

By Luke Weigel, Marketing Manager, Lessiter Media  As marketing technology grows, so do artificial intelligence (AI) opportunities like ChatGPT. I’m sure you’ve heard of ChatGPT in some capacity — it’s a platform that responds to questions to compose written content, images or videos. A next-gen tool that can create efficiencies

By Sara Hey, Marketing Sales – Bob Clements International  Let’s be honest. Saying “too many leads is a bad thing” sounds ludicrous. Leads are the whole point of marketing, right? But here’s the plot twist: too many leads without a process can actually hurt your dealership more than it helps.

By Michelle Richardson – Vice President of Sales Performance Research  If you’ve ever rolled out a sales training program that didn’t quite stick, you’re not alone. I talk to sales leaders all the time who’ve invested time, money, and energy into training—only to find their teams slipping back into old

From Kahle Wisdom – The Kahle Way Are you wasting your customers’ time? Or adding value every time you call on them? In this pressurized, multi-tasking world, where your customers are expected to produce more in less time, they may be growing less eager to meet with you than they were just

By Joe Lewis  – For ConstructionPros.com – From Fame Rental Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the most discussed technology today, in technology circles, businesses, and personal use. There is little doubt about its short- and long-term impact on just about everything we do. I equate its overall effect on how we live and work

By Joanne Volkert – Brand Manager, Lessiter Media As year-end approaches, I encourage you to consider a critical element of your year-end strategy: client recognition and its impact on your bottom line. Proactive client recognition, regardless of total spend, offers a significant long-term return on investment in customer loyalty, retention, and

By Michelle Richardson – Vice President of Sales Performance Research   Selling with value instead of price is the road to higher revenue and margins, stronger customer relationships, and more predictable forecasting and pipeline management.  The customers who buy on price alone are often the most demanding, least loyal, and first to leave

Sales Isn’t a Numbers Game – It’s an Equation By Troy Harrison – Sales Navigator  “Sales is a numbers game.” You’ve heard it a thousand times. Probably said it yourself. It’s become one of those accepted truths in sales that people repeat without thinking about what it actually means. And

By Dave Kahle – The Kahle Way Almost every professional B2B sales person comes to grips with one of the challenges of penetrating key accounts.  Key accounts are different than the ordinary, and require some more sophisticated skills and strategies.  Here are four fundamentals for effectively penetrating key accounts. 1. 

By Gene Marks, Opinion Contributor — THE HILL Times are not great for either the residential or the commercial real estate and construction industries. Thanks to chronic underbuilding, increased construction costs, labor shortages and high interest rates, house prices are at all-time highs. To make matters worse, builders are slowing

By Michelle Richardson – Vice President of Sales Performance Research  As a sales leader, you know training isn’t a one-and-done activity. It’s an ongoing investment that directly impacts your team’s performance and your organization’s bottom line. But with limited time and resources, the question isn’t whether to train your sales professionals,

By Dan Markin – Vice President of Sales Strategy and Consulting – The Brooks Group In many of our sales training programs, attendees will ask, “What’s the difference between price, budget, and perceived value?” These are three concepts that guide customer behavior when making a purchase. It’s important to understand

By Monica Brusnahan – Best Practices Rural Lifestyle Dealer Who hasn’t heard of Nick Saban? Oh geeze, should I even say it? Me. Yep. It’s me. I’m so embarrassed. In my defense, I don’t watch football and am clueless when it comes to sports media — not the easiest thing

By Kahle Wisdom – The Kahle Way “He has the gift of gab.  He’ll make a good salesperson.”  It’s been a while since I last heard that expression.  The idea is, of course, that salespeople are good talkers. The idea is that if you are a good talker, you are well

By Troy Harrison – Sales Navigator I saw a post from another sales trainer yesterday that annoyed me enough to write about it. He said:“Pick one communication channel at a time. Email, voicemail, LinkedIn InMail, and text all go to the same place. When you give me the same bad reason

By Troy Harrison – Sales Navigator There’s a fundamental truth about sales management that most leaders refuse to accept: The right behavior can overcome the incorrect tools, but the right tools cannot overcome the incorrect behaviors. Read that again. Let it sink in. Because if you’re a sales manager or

By Chris Aiello Football season is here, making it the perfect time to revisit one of my favorite themes: getting back to basics. In football, even the most talented teams can struggle if they forget the fundamentals. As a youth football coach, I frequently remind my players that success begins with