What makes Dealer Groups successful?

Here are the Key Success Factors (KSF) that make Dealer Groups work well.

• Participation: A Dealer Group should include the key decision makers and they must commit to participate at every meeting. 

• Trust: It takes 3 meetings to build productive relationships among dealers & with the process.

• Mix: The other dealers in the group are vital. Factors to consider are size, customer segments served, culture (growth or value) and in-line competition.

• Anchor Dealers: We recruit dealers who have credibility & leadership to anchor a Dealer Group & assist in recruitment & performance.

• Preparation: The quality of numbers & pre-meeting homework makes the meeting more productive & valuable, including financial data.

• Advisors: Our advisors provide consistency, credibility and expert meeting skills at the meetings and will work with your dealership between meetings.

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Where can I get more information?

Contact Russ Green, our PDG administrator advisor, by phone at 1-847-220-7201 or email Russ anytime and he will get back to you as soon as possible.

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Who would be in my Dealer Group?

The other members in a Dealer Group are important to provide you with high value. We consider the following when we create dealer groups:

• Size: big versus small dealers

• Segment: type of customer and products sold (cash crop, livestock, specialty)

• Culture (Growth vs. Value): dealers who want to grow through M&A or want to improve their value by improving performance within their existing footprint

• Regions: dealers who are in the same general geographic area

• In-Line Competitors: dealers who are not intense competitors

 

What's the schedule for the meetings?

We normally meet 4 times a year, 2 Face-to-Face for 1 1/2 days on two consecutive days and 2 Virtual meetings, planned around seasonal peaks and the demand flow of the Ag business. For Face-to-Face meetings, we plan an optional arrival dinner & social time the evening before the first day. Depending on the meeting location, we often plan a tour of a local member dealership.

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What's discussed at the Face-to-Face meetings?

On Day 1, we discuss:

• State of the Dealership - by dealer

• Financial Composite & Gap Analysis

• Best Practice Idea Exchange

• Dealer Tour, depending on the meeting location

• Group Dinner

Day 2, which is a 1/2 day includes:

• Special subject/department focus

• Action Plans/Performance Improvement commitment(s)

• Ends by noon so you can travel home

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Who leads the meetings?

The success of the dealer group depends on the experience, credibility and meeting skills of the advisor. To build trust between the members and the advisors, we consistently provide the same advisors to a group. These advisors can also help with the meeting logistics and content.

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What do we have to do before meetings?

In our experience, we've found that the biggest source of dissatisfaction in a dealer group is when their numbers aren't accurate. An essential part of a meeting is benchmarking your dealer financials with other dealers in the group. We take time to ensure a good process to prepare the Financial Composite & Gap Analysis for each meeting.

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Three weeks before the meeting, we download financial dealer data from your system, then prepare a preview and send it to you to review and fix any problems. This means that your data must be accurate. Membership in the group enables you to provide better input to your system so you can focus on how to improve performance. This requires you to be either be enrolled in a dealer financial system or manually provide us with the data using a spreadsheet. We can provide training & support to help you make the transition to a dealer financial system.

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Meeting preparation also includes other things such as surveys on special topics (e.g., Sale Rep Productivity) and determining your best practice idea to share at the meeting.

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How much does cost us to join?

Membership dues is $6600 per dealership, billed at $1650 per quarter. We also charge a one-time set-up fee of $500 per dealer. These fees include the advisors' time and professional services, meeting planning for group meetings, preparation of financial composites for each meeting and preparation of special topics.

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Additional expenses related to the meetings - meeting room charge, meals, materials, printing, equipment rental, facilitator airfare and hotel, ground transportation, etc. - is billed at actual cost and divided equally among the group members. You are responsible for your own travel and lodging. To reinforce the discipline of attendance, you will still be responsible for certain portions of the expenses. even if you don't attend a particular meeting.

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We aim for a minimal 10:1 payback on your investment. For approximately $6600 in annual membership dues & expenses, you should realize a payback of at least $60,000 to your bottom line - and most members in our groups see an even larger payback.

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How will MAC communicate information to us?

We'll contact you via email to let you know when we're having a meeting, where it is, what information we need from you, etc. We use Basecamp to store information for Dealer Group members, share articles & testimonials, ask questions & receive answers from MAC advisors or other dealers. Basecamp also has Best Practices and other relevant information that you can easily access anytime.

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Who can I talk to with my questions?

For enrollment or program content questions, email Russ Green or call 1-847-220-7201.​

 

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What information do you need from me and my dealership?

We'll need your dealership name, address & main phone number, your dealer business system, fiscal year starting & ending months, and the names, emails, and phone numbers for the participating dealer managers/leaders and CFO/controller. You can download & fill out this Dealer Group Contact Form and email it to us at info@machineryadvisors.org or to Russ Green at Russ.Green@machineryadvisors.org.

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If you are a CNH dealer, we'll also need your permission to authorize CNH Capital to share any/all financial information you submit to CNH Capital through their business system (BMS). Please complete the permission form and email it to Eva Heinzerling  at CNH Capital and Russ.Green@machineryadvisors.org. If you don't use BMS or another financial system, we'll provide you with an input form for your financial information.

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How do we sign up?

Call us at 1-847-220-7201 or email Russ Green  and we'll get you enrolled!