At this year’s annual conference and dealer meeting, K&M Tire officials and keynote speakers were on hand to challenge its network of dealers to improve how they do things – whether that be how they run the business, treat customers or plan to grow – all under the theme “level up.”

From Jan. 31-Feb. 2 at Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City, NJ, K&M Tire leaders and speakers gave K&M Tire members advice to bring back to the shop and implement in their businesses, including an update on programs and incentives members can receive with dealer programs offered through Mr. Tire/Big 3 Tire.

How K&M Tire dealers can ‘level up’

K&M Tire’s Business Development Manager Gener Bova Jr. kicked off the 2024 K&M Tire Conference & Trade Show by sharing how K&M’s network of dealers can level their businesses up with quality leadership skills. Bova encouraged K&M Tire members and dealers in attendance to start focusing on “leveling-up” leadership development within their businesses. He suggested they do this by being authentic, investing time in building relationships and trust with team members, setting clear expectations and boundaries, creating a safe psychological environment, fostering ambition, learning delegation and how to be comfortable being uncomfortable.

In his presentation, Bova shared his story of working in his father’s tire distribution company, Motostar Tire & Auto Products. Over the years, he took on more responsibility as the company grew by doing marketing and operations, which he said enabled him to develop leadership skills.

“The first thing I learned from watching my father lead his team and his company was to have a vision,” Bova said. “The vision is the big idea, the big goal that you chase down all the time. It’s the reason why you do what you do and you’ve got to have a vision to keep you on track and keep you striving forward.”

Day two’s general session began with K&M Tire’s Director of Training Jeff Wallick explaining why K&M chose this year’s “level up” theme. He said to level up is to take a close look at your business as it is today, identify gaps between current performance and future potential and find ways to reach the next level. He stressed that only each business owner best understands their own operation and how to elevate it.

“When it comes to the how or why you need to level up, there’s a couple of things that come to mind for me. The first is to remember why you started. If we’re going to get to where we’re going, we must understand what brought us here in the first place,” he said. “Whether we choose to acknowledge it or not, we all have a formula that brought us to this place in this room at this time, and I think there’s a reason for that.”

Later in the day, Wallick elaborated on the importance of dealers remembering their “why” and realizing the formula that got them there during his “Level Up: Taking the Lead” session.

He said everyone in the room has a formula for how they got where they are, however, he urged the members to examine if they need to “give up to go up” – in other words, be willing to leave certain processes, products, programs, partners or even people behind that are holding the business back from progressing.

Wallick emphasized the importance of persisting through the inevitable difficulties when making important changes. While change can be hard, Wallick encouraged dealers to push forward through the challenges to achieve their goals.

“To level up your business, you’ll need to persist through the resistance that is inevitable in any kind of change,” he said.

Wallick also told the audience to embrace excellence in all things, meaning to aim higher than average or mediocre in everything, from store cleanliness to customer service. Pursuing excellence through all the small details raises a business above the competition, he said.

“Out of all the things that are outside of our control, [embracing excellence] is something that we can choose to do,” Wallick said. “Oftentimes, you think about changes you need to make in your business as these big monumental adjustments. They’re really not. It’s making changes with the little things that end up being the biggest difference makers.”

Wallick finished by encouraging the audience to set clear objectives and goals for their businesses over the next 12 months. He acknowledged that there are many metrics, like increasing average daily car count, that can’t be controlled, so he advised focusing on the processes within your control that will drive results, rather than the uncertain outcomes. He recommended tire dealers adopt a growth mindset where they recognize there is always room for improvement in their operations.

“Remember, as they say, God is in the details,” Wallick said. “It’s in these little things. If you’re seeking excellence, the standard of excellence in your business, you’ll find it in the small things, the things that are so easy to overlook.”

The general session included keynote speaker and former actor and author Victoria Labalme. Labalme spoke to members about how to “risk forward” in everything they do, including how to live their lives and run their businesses.

Other key ideas included creating a culture where people feel safe to make mistakes, honoring unique ideas even if no one else is doing them and bringing your spirit and humanity to elevate service. She encouraged the audience to “risk forward” by taking small steps out of their comfort zone.

“Nobody has better ideas than the people in this K&M Tire family and the people in your shop who might say ‘I have an idea.’ It could be the idea that leads to a greater idea because as I like to say, the opposite of courage is not cowardice. The opposite of courage is conformity. How do you do it in your own unique way?” she asked.

Mr. Tire/Big 3 Tire program update

Bova came back to the stage during day two of the conference and trade show to provide an update on the Mr. Tire/Big 3 Tire programs exclusive to K&M Tire members. According to Bova, the program offers benefits in five categories: incentives and finance; office and software; marketing, training, and parts; oil; and warranty services, and is free to members who want to join.

Bova detailed the profit incentives of the Mr. Tire Boost Programs, which are manufacturer-backed and offer quarterly or annual benefits, showcasing partnerships with brands like Continental, Falken, Hankook, Kumho, Yokohama, Cooper and Mastercraft.

“We paid $601,000 to our participating dealers on these programs alone,” he said.

Through Mr. Tire/Big 3 Tire programs, K&M offers dealer purchase incentives, where Bova said K&M provides incentives for sales of PLT tires, commercial tires and ag tires. Through the program, K&M paid out a total of $205,000 to PLT dealers, $352,000 to commercial dealers and $289,000 to ag dealers – for a total purchase incentive of $846,000.

Bova also explained the volume bonus programs for ag and commercial-oriented customers. For ag customers, the program runs to align with planting and harvest seasons, offering a tiered payout structure starting at half-a-percentage back on total ag units purchased with K&M Tire, escalating to 2% back on purchases exceeding a million dollars. Additionally, commercial accounts benefit from the commercial program, counting all sizes and brands of commercial tires purchased from K&M Tire. The program requires 250 units for 2024, with dealers earning incentives based on achieving and surpassing this target.

Bova detailed the Mr. Tire exclusive retailer rebates, providing differentiated promotions to help dealers close more sales. Dealers can also participate in the Synchrony Car Care credit card program, offering financing options for consumers.

Before wrapping up, Bova introduced the K&M Tire regional program manager’s team – meant to assist program customers, both in manufacturer programs and Mr. Tire/Big 3 Tire programs.

Bova said the regional program managers team aims to be a dedicated resource that offers personalized service, assisting with customer success, program utilization, understanding opportunities and development of dealers and their teams. The goal, he said, is to work in concert with other team members, including outside sales representatives and regional sales managers, product specialists, and ag and commercial teams, to help dealers achieve their goals within the programs.

“This is our commitment to you, our valued program customers, to take advantage of both manufacturer programs as well as Mr. Tire/Big 3 Tire programs to level up your business success by working that much harder to help you achieve your goals with the programs that you partner with us.”

Auto service profitability

Vin Waterhouse, president of The Waterhouse Group, an automotive accounting, training and consulting company, spoke about different ways to improve auto service profitability. As a former accountant for repair shops and part stores, Waterhouse said he noticed that some shops were much more profitable than others, even when located close together and sharing the same customers and weather conditions. He discussed what he believes the highly profitable shops do differently.

He said because vehicle technology is advancing, service requires fewer parts and more skilled labor. This means shops need to focus more on labor revenue rather than just parts sales.

“Take EVs for example. The average internal combustion engine has about 18- to 20,000 moving parts that can wear,” Waterhouse explained. “The average EV has only about 2,500 moving parts. So what’s going to happen? We are going to continue to sell less parts, but your expenses are going to go up.”

He said shops should track their most common and repetitive tasks and look for efficiency gains there, even small per-task savings add up over time. Labor rates should also better match the actual profitability of the work. He said there should be separate rates for standard, labor-intensive and diagnostic work rather than a single rate, he said shops can capture more revenue this way.