By Scott Hanewall
VP of Commercial Sales
Monroe Truck Equipment
Across the country, dealerships help business owners and contractors find the trucks and equipment they need to best do their jobs and grow their business. Dealers shoulder a variety of responsibilities, including relationship building and sales, management of the dealership, and vendor management. With the talent shortages the industry faces today, those responsibilities are growing.
However, individual dealers work with a variety of partners who provide vehicles, equipment, upfitters, servicers or other support partners to fulfill end users needs. The commitment of these companies influences the dealership’s success. Partners play a direct role in ensuring the dealerships have the information, support and resources they need to succeed.
Here are a few areas where dealers should lean on their partners for support.
Prospecting
Prospecting is an integral part of expanding market share. For a dealership experiencing a talent shortage, this can be a difficult task. Dealerships should be able to look to their partners for support when it comes to finding new prospective customers.
Partners can help engage their audiences and bring prospects through their front door. This helps dealers focus on what they do best: Assisting their customers to find the truck solutions they need.
Sales and Product Training
All partners should offer product training to their dealership sales teams. Whether the dealerships have new staff and need training as a part of onboarding, or have a seasoned team who want a refresher, dealerships should expect their supplier partners to be the expert on their product and share that expertise. Suppliers should provide the information and training needed to educate the end user and ensure their customers are matched with the equipment they need.
Marketing
Target marketing to the end user is a great strategy to build dealer traffic, but few dealerships have the manpower to support this type of initiative. Certain partners, like upfitters, who rely on dealerships to sell their products, should lend their expertise, time and resources to help dealerships develop and implement a marketing strategy that addresses their end user. Designing and mailing fliers, postcards and other targeted marketing collateral to customers and prospects on behalf of the dealers can help bring more traffic through their doors.
Market and Industry Insights
Market insights are an important part of staying on top of industry trends. Knowing what changes are coming empowers the dealer to buy early and have the right inventory on hand. Information like the price volatility of steel, upcoming chip shortages from OEMs and similar information can help dealers better predict inventory needs, manage customer expectations, and drive profit.
Partnerships First
At Monroe Truck Equipment, partnership is the foundation of how we do business. From having the best warranty in the industry, to sharing the latest trends and market conditions, we pride ourselves in being responsive and delivering value with every dealer visit. To learn more about our dealership programs, reach out to a Monroe Truck Equipment team member today.