Performance Efficiency

By Dave Wood 

In the Parts Department, every activity is connected to sales performance efficiency. Sales, ordering, stock keeping, everything! Whatever training you may have had, or not had, whether it be parts manager training, dealership parts training, fixed ops training, etc., and whatever metric(s) your dealership, manufacturer, or you personally use to determine your parts inventory optimization – be those good or bad, meets or exceeds expectations, or whatever term is used… it is all connected. 

Unfortunately, any disconnect in our performance usually rears its ugly head at the point of sale, which is the absolute worst time to find out we have a problem. One common occurrence in most Parts Department is “we show one but we can’t find it”. Sound familiar? That’s usually followed by asking another person if they have seen the part. Sometimes we get 3 or more people involved. How are we performing now? 

For the sales process to be efficient and profitable, every support process that comes before it has to perform well. Capturing sales history, order timing, order quantities, receiving, receipting, stock keeping, and yes, even reporting, must ALL perform well or the sales process is doomed. 

The hard part? Doing things, the right way, which takes time. People often say “I don’t have time.” This can sometimes translate to mean it’s not important enough to “take the time”. We also hear, “I’m so busy I can’t afford to take the time”. Truth is, no matter how busy you are, you cannot afford to NOT take the time. Time is money and we must spend it wisely. 

When we have inefficient processes, we can spend a lot of time dealing with the gaps in our performance in the point of sale. This is not the best use of our time. That process broke down along the way, and one can be unaware until it is too late. 

That is something to think about. How inefficient is your process, and how does your performance efficiency suffer in return? When we spend expensive time to chase down those gaps in our processes that threaten to derail the point of sales, this creates inefficiency. All we really need to do is take the time to do the supporting processes right in the first place. 

ADMI teaches and implements proven best practices that will keep the supporting processes front and center, so the sales process goes smoothly and efficiently. If you’d like to learn more about our services or gain further insights, contact us today.