10 Sales Smashers: Avoid These Common Missteps to Ensure Solid Sales Growth and Content Customers
Retail business can be brutal. A tire dealer can spend countless hours contemplating broad business strategy, making sure each facet of the business is in line with overall profitability goals. But you don’t sell to a plan. You have to deal with real customers who, by their nature, are fickle, demanding and unforgiving. No matter
Maxed Out?: Size Race Slows, But Fashion vs. Function Questions Remain for Dealers
For a few years, the tire and wheel industries resembled the Cold War nuclear arms race – every year, someone rolled out a bigger weapon. It started with eye-popping, wheel-well-stretching 20-inch wheels and tires and progressed to the 2004 SEMA Show, where gigantic 28-inchers were every where. A sort of dÉtente has settled in, if
The Ties That Bind: How Do Successful Tire Dealers Cope When Home and Work Collide?
What if your boss is Mom or Dad? What if your closest, most trusted business partner is your brother or sister? Do you need a psychiatrist’s couch or a punching bag? Or maybe – just maybe – you don’t have a problem working with and living with relatives 24/7/365. In fact, what if just the
Do You Know Us?: If You Don’t, You May be Alienating Your Most Profitable Customers Forever
If you’re like most tire dealers, you’re probably turning your back on the most profitable customers you’ll ever see. Not intentionally, perhaps, but this unique group of customers – tuners, enthusiasts, restylers, whatever you want to call them – is often left frustrated trying to deal with dealers. So, they leave and find another option.
Spoils of Success
What if your next ad campaign was a huge success? What if you advertised in the local paper, and your sales suddenly skyrocketed? What if customers came into your dealership in droves because of a letter you mailed out? You’d be announcing your retirement, I bet. Not so fast. Before you quit your day job,
13 Hidden Sales Boosters: Sales Sagging? Pick Them Up With These Not-So-Secret Opportunities
“Dang it! This is the fourth month we haven’t made our sales target. What’s going on? I’ll bet it was that last price increase. Those tire companies just keep hitting us for more and more, and we can barely get any tires! And, betcha that new discounter in the next town is getting all my
Tuning In: How a Pennsylvania Dealer Tapped into a Growing Market
You wouldn’t expect the northeast quadrant of Pennsylvania to be a high performance hotbed. Four-wheel drive pickups and SUVs would be more like it. But from Scranton and Wilkes-Barre south to Allentown and Harrisburg, the high performance market did grow, aided by the emerging tuner segment and the proliferation of high-end sports cars. Well-heeled customers
Five Ways to Slash Insurance Costs
Take control of rising premiums. Learn from those who’ve done it. These days, Bob Malerba, owner of Malerba’s Silver City Tire Co., is feeling a lot better about the cost of his business insurance. Just 18 months ago, Malerba was at his wits end as he helplessly watched his insurance rates skyrocket. Malerba knew he
People Can Make or Break You: Building and Keeping a Winning Tire Team
Surrounding yourself with good people is the dream of every manager. From the President of the United States to the store manager at your local Subway, having good people is not a new idea. But here’s the rub. How do you keep them happy? Nearly 70% of tire dealers questioned by Tire Review say they’re
Industry Report
With a new three-year labor contract in hand, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. turned its attention to other restructuring issues as it works to right its financial ship. The tiremaker formally announced the closing of its Huntsville, Ala., plant, then laid off about 200 employees from its Tyler, Texas, facility.