Measure By Measure: Part II: Five More Ways to Grow and Maintain Tire Profits
Last time, I described six different ways for tire dealers to measure and improve tire profits. Known as key performance indicators (KPIs), these benchmarks provide a way to measure the performance of your business. KPIs are important because you can’t manage what you don’t measure. Even though many dealers agree with this business concept, most
Measure By Measure: Learn Six New Ways to Grow and Maintain Tire Profits
As many of you know, my specialty is helping those in the automotive industry – including tire dealers – increase service sales and profits. Whether you’re selling tires, transmissions or exhausts, the main challenge is this: Don’t hurt your core business! Many successful tire-shop owners have made one point clear to me: “Chubby,” they say,
Money Maker: Tracking Margin Dollars Shows Tire Sales Beat Service
Last month, we started taking a look at finding the right mix of tire and service sales. In that column, I stated that tire sales drop higher margin dollars than service sales, which raises the obvious question: Why are tires more profitable than service? First, thanks to all the Tire Review readers who responded to
Maximize Both Tire Sales and Vehicle Service Profits
I have coached thousands of tire dealers on how to increase their service business, but, sometimes, a sharper focus on service can diminish tire sales or change mix percentages. Is that a bad thing? Absolutely! Tiremakers, programs, franchisees and tire retailers have all created business, staffing and facility models that worked on paper. Some had
The Right Mix: Maximize Both Tire Sales and Vehicle Service Profits
I have coached thousands of tire dealers on how to increase their service business, but, sometimes, a sharper focus on service can diminish tire sales or change mix percentages. Is that a bad thing? Absolutely! Tiremakers, programs, franchisees and tire retailers have all created business, staffing and facility models that worked on paper. Some had
Exit Strategy: Recruiting the Right People Helps Your Business Run on its Own
I meet a lot of tire dealers who want more time for family, friends, hobbies, etc. Even though thousands of U.S. business owners have already discovered how to be absent and still make money, most can’t pull it off. It requires finding good, honest employees, keeping them happy and training them to be as good
On the Front Lines: Service Managers Are Critical Weapons in Battle With Car Dealers
Car dealers are getting better at serving your clients. How? By delivering what your clients want: information and service. They succeed through fear tactics, implying to new purchasers that warranty problems may arise if factory scheduled maintenance is performed by an independent service shop. And, they speak with forked tongue. They promote OE-quality parts yet
Labor Into Profit: At the Right Rates, Labor Can Cost Less Than 20% of Sales
In the August issue, we talked about how to make 53% gross profit on parts using a jobber/dealer matrix to price parts. This tool is vital to your business, as a 53% gross profit on parts is critical to meeting a 20%-30% net profit goal. This month, we’re going to tackle labor, a very difficult
Grab That Cash: “Profit” is Not a Dirty Word; You Should Net 30% Cash Profits
When you’re doing your annual business plan (You do write one each year, don’t you?), do you set simple, easily achievable goals? Or, do you push the envelope with goals that will be hard to reach? That alone says a lot about your management style. More importantly, though, do you write a plan for the
What Really Matters: Tire Dealers Can Uncover Profits by Redirecting Their Focus
Over the past few years, I have had the pleasure of serving some of the best tire dealerships in the U.S. and Canada. Last year alone, we coached more than 1,000 tire dealerships. The majority of the owners wanted something to change. They could identify exactly what it was but could not move it by