Dakar Stage 4 Report is now available at Vonconcepts.

http://www.vonconcepts.com/pages/blog-article?r=80CNT1EQKX&send_to=%2Fpages%2Fblog

Dusty Moto contribution to Service Writer Book / Vonconcepts Training

Your P&L Statement vs. The Real World:

Posted on December 7, 2011 by JC

In my opinion, the standard Profit and Loss format in use in our industry is confusing and has some serious short comings in regards to profitability in the parts department. My complaint is that it is too narrow of a view to give you all the data you need to really know how your parts department is performing. Isn’t profit truly defined by the money we make on the money we invest? If that is true, the problem comes with the simple fact that we deal with hundreds, even thousands of individual investments each month. Of course the majority of these investments pay off and are represented in the P&L. Unfortunately, the ones that do not pay off for what ever reason (ordered wrong year, model, part, etc.) are never included in the P&L. These “bad investments” are simply moved to the Balance Sheet as a asset at full value. That would be fine if we were guaranteed to sell it in a timely manner. The nature of DustyMoto has proven that many of these “bad investments” indeed never sell, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of invested dollars being lost to the dreaded “no sale” segment of inventory.

Let’s look at it a little differently: You have 100k you want to invest so you spend it all to buy an apple orchard. No buildings, equipment, no improvements, just trees and land. On your first harvest of the season you make 30k. So, did you make a profit? How do you view it? Of course you can get fancy, you can say you want to make 10% on your investment of 100k, and the rest is profit so you made 20k profit and 10k recapitalization. You can say view it as you are 30k closer to breaking even, only 70k more to go, then you can start making some real money. Regardless of how you look at it, the facts are you had 100k in cash, now you have 30k in cash and an orchard.

Now scenario 2:  Instead of buying the orchard, you buy a truck load of apples from the orchard. You buy 100k apples for 1.00 each and you plan on selling them of 1.50 each making a full .50 profit on each one. The first week you sell half of them at full price and bring in a whopping 75k. So your P&L shows you: SALES 75k, COGS 50k. PROFIT 25k and your Balance sheet shows that you have 50k in inventory still to sell. But you know your inventory has a shelf life and will soon go bad so you take action, you drop your price to your cost of 1.00 and you sell 35k the next week. Your P&L now shows you: SALES 110k, COGS 85k. PROFIT 25k and your Balance sheet shows that you have 15k in inventory still to sell. Now, all you have to do now is sell the remaining 15k of rotten apples you have. Easier said than done, right? Your P&L is telling you that you made 25k in profit, but your bank account is telling you something completely different. Which one is right?

Which of these two scenarios do you think best mirrors your business model for your parts department? Do you look at your inventory as a true asset or do you view it like our apples with a certain shelf life? If you are a large Internet parts operator you most likely view your parts as a true asset, where as a dealer serving only their local market may hold to the shelf life principle.

I am going to do a series around the second view of your inventory having a shelf life. If this is interesting to you and you want to subscribe to the series, simply enter your email address and click the button:

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This will give you some extra content and view points and will allow you to give your input if you so desire. As always your email will be held in confidence, we don’t share or sell them. And just so we are clear, this is FREE, I’m not going to try to up sell you later. Join in….it is going to be an interesting journey!

Bobby Franklin CEO,

DustyMoto

bobby@dustymoto.com

twitter: @dustymoto

Happy New Year – Let’s Succeed Together!

http://youtu.be/te-Qd_83LE0 is our little video to celebrate the New Year. Come and see us in Vegas!!!

Hayden Injured in Training Incident

http://www.vonconcepts.com/pages/blog-article?r=JUH1DPU36D&send_to=%2Fpages%2Fblog

The Forward from our NEW BOOK!

This thin, easy to read book is designed as a co-runner to a seminar series.  As the second book in line, this work is intended to follow up “Service Writing in Black and White”, although the core of it was written long ago, it has been freshened up for publishing.  The first book was extremely simple and general, while “Service Writing in the Gray” is a much more specific and technical work.  In the end, I would like to see an army of well prepared, professional individuals scaling away at the pre-determined mind-set of the American public.  Possibly even to the point where “Certified Service Professionals” become the norm.

 

To the more seasoned Service Writer this book is a great refresher course providing a new look at tough sell scenarios.  While our first book centered on the attitudes of professionalism, this book focuses on the function of selling and the nuances of the selling process.

 

Take the basics from the first book on setting the pace of the shop, presentation, and serving the customer then mix in this book’s information on controlling the sale to increase your shop’s profits and your paycheck.

 

Just when you think you’re up against a savvy client… remember, they deal with automotive service once or twice a fiscal quarter.  You on the other hand do this thing every day of your life.  You are the expert, run with it.

 

We use terms like “Bus Driver”, “Here comes the bus”, and “getting beat up” all too often.  It quite simply does not have to be a career you hate, but won’t let beat you.  I see it as a frontier… a possibility of stature, and respect.  Along with that comes increased earnings and stability.

 

This book is just a guide.  There is a bunch of behind the scenes to becoming a service professional.  Much of what makes the very best service writer can not be put into writing – ironic, huh?  This work in conjunction with what I see as an industry sensitive think tank will raise CSI, dealer loyalty, and income.  Give it a shot. 

 

You’ve already put in enough of an investment not to go this far.  Be the best at what you chose to do. Exceed expectations.

 

 

 

Let me show you the sure path to industry…

Success!!

Register NOW!! – Next Class is in January

This month Vonconcepts opened up the flood gates to Powersports Dealers nationwide for Operations Training. Having exclusively trained the Service Writers and Managers for Ducati North America over the last 2 years, they are thrilled to be able to de-brand the course and offer it to other dealers. With the December class announced last week no longer available, the next available slots are for class being held January 16/17, 2011.

A common thread of conversation online is the impact the economy has had on the Powersports Industry. Vonconcepts trains dealerships how to communicate better with the clients and maximize income potential through efficiency and effectiveness in the Service Department. Dealers put Service Writers in position for many different reasons, but in the end – if the Writer or Manager is not business savvy – what favor has the dealer done for themselves? Vonconcepts Training helps bridge that gap.

They also offer an Online Academy providing post-training assistance and communication with others from class. Open collaboration with peers, especially peers that have been through class, can be of paramount importance as you ramp up a Service Pro.

Training is learner-centered and groups are kept small to encourage participation and greater retention of materials. Details and available dates for training are posted on the Vonconcepts website.

http://vonconcepts.com

About Vonconcepts:

Founded in 1993, Vonconcepts manned many posts in the Motorsports arena. Through the Vonconcepts name came race teams, published books, and freelanced content to periodicals, coached racers at Sandia Motorsports Park and Pueblo Motorsports Park. The training portion of Vonconcepts surfaced in 2010 after Ducati NA sourced Vonconcepts through the published work – Service Writing in Black & White. That led to an exclusive Ducati-Driven curriculum that has been facilitated to dozens of dealers.

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The PR is working its magic…

http://www.pr.com/press-release/364287

Feedback – Precious Feedback….

We have been serving the folks at Ducati North America since last August. Two classes down and the third is slated for the month of March in Las Vegas, NV.  What an awesome opportunity for this small New Mexico firm. The feedback has been tremendous!  As a facilitator, I have a perfectionist approach to the class. I want the class to be fun, engaging, informative, and laid back… that takes a lot of emotional strength and work to pull off.

The results are in and we win! We have received only one critical review, and frankly, we saw that one coming. This course is intended to focus on communication styles and lower the probability of buybacks and such… the individual that was critical was looking for training to be more focused on procedure and dotting of I’s and crossing of T’s. We are all for that type of training as well, but see it as an “advanced class”. 

We jumped into Corporate Training with both feet here. We went right for the internationally recognized corporation and have seen great success. Now we ask – how can we help your company or organization? Give us a shout!

Who’s Next?

Our training program is getting rave reviews from the attendees and from our conatacts at Ducati North America. from what we can tell, we have no competition in the content and delivery of our curriculum. The feedback has been awesome. So here’s our question… Who’s Next?

Ducati North America is first in line to book our time in the Spring and Fall/Winter months, as the summer is their paydirt time of year to fully staff the dealerships. That opens up our Summer months to train another client base. We would love the opportunity to draft a custom curriculum for a premier Automotive Manufacturer, incorporating their warranty procedures, buy back  policies and Service writer and manager best practices.

The training we currently give is a 2-day deal and we have a relationship with a premier Las Vegas Hotel to host the events. We keep them small and personal encouraging team involvement. We are also looking at a next steps type of curriculum to deal with more advanced Writers and Managers… to help them better unfold the nuances of shop productivity and profit (yes… 2 different things).

So… Who’s Next?

Introductions at our Training

Immediately upon starting the course… our attendees are encouraged to interact with each other. This fosters open dialogue as well as incorporating the aspects of “Adult” Learning that lend to better quality of information and retention of ideas shared.