Looking Forward To Change!

What else is there? It was change that got us here and change that will get us there. There is nothing but change nanosecond to nanosecond. Change is a constant; however, the title of this article is Looking Forward to Change and that really works better as a question: Are you looking forward to change? How you answer that question will make all the difference.

Look forward with eagerness at what great new and improved products available to serve your customers. Change is what keeps you in the lead! We need to offer our customers creative options through newer technology, lighter weight and more durable materials, along with better, more efficient designs to keep our position as leader.

At the moment gas is back down under $2.00 a gallon, and we should know by now that it won’t stay there. It will continue to be a volatile commodity (pun intended). Hybrids will help a little and more and better solutions and technologies are just around the bend.

We need to stock a better mix of product to get more sales by solving more of our customer’s problems. When things tighten up, the creativity flows! There is a huge opportunity in half-ton trucks with commercial shells, racks, slide-out bed, and other commercial style accessories in 2009. Manufacturers like A.R.E., Highway Products, and others are expanding their products to serve this market. The SVE MidBox is an exciting new product that sells well. It is a good bet that stocking trucks in this portion of the market will serve dealers well. These solutions offer more efficient use of GVWR and cargo capacity while increasing fuel efficiency and lowering costs. Customers have to love that combination!

We need more solutions to turning inventories in a timely manner, moving the units off the lot with profit to buy more inventory and keep the cash machine ringing. One solution to help with this is the new commercialtrucklocator.com website where you can close the deal now even if you don’t have the truck in stock and help move old inventory.

We need better and more effective ways to stay in touch with our customers and to expand our sales influence. Database customer relations software like ACT! can help by keeping all your information more organized and accessible. Improved or expanded websites and blogs can help as well. HTML email systems such as offered by Constant Contact will go a long way to helping you make follow up very easy. There are a lot of great ways to be more proactive in managing all your sales and prospects that will lead to increased sales.

We will always have customers who make a living with their trucks and we will need more and better solutions for them regardless of fuel prices. This is a great time to get excited and creative about the solutions you can offer your customers. Stay on the leading edge with new information by seeking the suppliers that are leading and innovating.

Of course, we can count on change and we get to choose how we respond to that, but to the Commercial Truck Pro, the breakfast of champions is looking forward to change!