For years there have been varying schools of thought about the equipment dealers’ need for two sales forces within the dealership. These two parallel but separate sales forces are: 1) Equipment sales personnel and 2) Product Support sales personnel. There are other variations of thought too, such as: Account Representative, Territory Manager, Key Account Manager or simply a combination of groups one and two.

For those of you arguing that any equipment dealer can operate with only one sales force – a salesman who can combine the duties of selling the equipment, as well as convincing the customer to use all of the dealer’s facilities at far less expense – you are indeed a “rare bird.” To say that this absolutely will not work is inaccurate, but it rarely works well due to many reasons. One reason being that equipment sales personnel believe it to be “negative selling” just to mention product support to a customer or prospective customer. The equipment dealers who have developed what we refer to as a “parallel sales force” have, if they have done so correctly, developed a strong product support sales force that generates an extremely large amount of sales, but even higher amounts of profit.

One important point that many equipment dealers have a hard time getting clear in their minds is that their parts and service opportunity is not automatic. Customers have a choice – they can go elsewhere for both parts and service. Customers do not necessarily need the equipment dealer after the sale of the equipment. The loss of this product support sale to the dealer is costly, as we have pointed out on numerous occasions. Information derived from Cost of Doing Business Studies clearly indicates that a dealer’s service department can have 5x the financial impact on the dealership, vs. the impact of new equipment sales. The parts department can have 3x the financial impact on the dealership, vs. the impact of new and used equipment sales. These numbers clearly point out why successful equipment dealers focus on selling and marketing the advantages of a “full service dealership,” and highly trained and professional aftermarket personnel.

There is one important point that has always been difficult to make to equipment dealers. This point is that there is absolutely no difference in the amount of time, dedication, professionalism and monies that they need to commit to the dealership’s aftermarket opportunities vs. new equipment sales. The unfortunate fact is that not many manufacturers have really emphasized this important point to their dealers. Self-serving market share is where the manufacturers focus their efforts.

As hard as we have “pitched” this extremely critical point for the past 34+ years, too many equipment dealers still fail to recognize that the “real” profit opportunity within their dealerships lies within their parts and service departments. The dealers’ love affair with product and market share has kept them from keeping a strong focus on their aftermarket. Most manufacturers continue to emphasize market share and fail to recognize that a financially strong dealership will generate market share through the self-feeding profit spiral. We have told numerous equipment dealerships what is required to establish and develop a successful aftermarket product support team within their dealerships. The first, and in our opinion, most important, requirement is: A genuine commitment on the part of both principals and managers to do what is necessary to make the plan work and work well. This naturally requires more than a budget. It requires a solid, well-written marketing plan for the program, which also can lead to that strong commitment. We have seen more aftermarket programs fail, or not become totally successful, because of a lack of commitment than for any other reason.

Dealers must understand that Product Support Sales Representatives must be professionals in every aspect. They must have a degree of sales background. We will not say that they cannot come from the parts counter, or from the shop; some of these candidates have been successful. But too many times we find dealers placing unqualified people in these positions because they believe that these people are the only individuals available. If they can’t make it as equipment salespersons, the question is, are they going to prove against the odds that they can make it selling parts and service?