As you might know, I read content from hundreds of websites daily thanks to my handy feed reader Feedly, and then RSS feeds put out whenever there is new content. One of the sites I find interesting is Entrepreneur.com, and a came across this article. It’s called The Power of 1% Better and while the author Greg Wells goes on to explain how improving your life just a little can make you a better entrepreneur I got to thinking, how would this work for your powersports business?
I came up with a couple of ideas. Remember small changes, done consistently over time will yield great results. That is how compound interest works, right?
Let’s look at the service department. Service is about selling time; it’s that simple. Every minute wasted is time you cannot sell. So how do you increase service sales? Get more efficient. Are your mechanics pushing bikes in and out? Are they getting the parts for each job? Are they looking up parts? Are they washing and detailing bikes? If you answered yes to any of these, stop it immediately. It costs you time. Realize that anytime that a mechanic is not spinning a wrench you are losing money. You pay them for their skill and knowledge not to do those other things. How do you fix this? Perhaps you could hire someone at a much less expensive rate to be the runner, getting parts & washing bikes. We all know the guy who is looking to break into the business. This is the perfect opportunity to take him and train him. It’s the perfect opportunity to bring him through the service department training and increasing responsibility along the way. Now it’s up to your service writer to keep that mechanic busy. How much more money are you putting in the till now?
What about sales? How can you do 1% better? Following up on one more lead, going through their files and reaching out to 1 more old customer about a new machine. Asking for one referral? The power of 1 right. It’s easy to do one more. If you do that every day and only a tiny percentage is effective how many more bikes did you roll this month. What if every salesperson just sold one more each week?
Do you want fries with that? Do you have any idea how many fries McDonald’s sold by asking a simple question? Well, neither do I, but I bet it’s a lot. Are your frontline counter workers making sure customers have everything they need to complete a job? How about the crush washer when selling an oil filter and oil, an extra master link with a chain, the smoked visor for that new helmet? Up-selling just to up-sell without the customer’s interest in mind is wrong, however, providing value and expertise and making sure they don’t forget something and have to come back is providing them an excellent service.
Take the time and look for that one more thing each day, you’ll be amazed at the results.
As always the ideas expressed above are my own, and I make no claims to the success or failure of implementing them. They are suggestions to make you think. Please vet all ideas against your business plan before implementing them.
Additional information. Added 7/27/16. I came across another article explaining how small actions lead to big gains. Inc magazine writer Bill Carmody explains in an article about Tony Robbins how a 2-millimeter shift makes an impact in his golf game and can translate that out to his business. Read the entire article HERE.
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