The frustration of reality is surfacing. I recently have had discussions with jobbers who are fed up and just want to get out.
They can't believe their peers and how they conduct their businesses, continuing to market the business based on price and moving inferior off-shore parts. They are fed up with WDs catering to the majority weak masses in their ranks.
While there are many "frustrated puppies" in our industry, there are jobbers who do get it. They have made physical and philosophical changes to their businesses to secure a profitable future.
This brings me to the word in the headline — cooperation.
In every city I visit where there are a few of the same jobber/WD banners waving, I never run into one where the jobber successfully image partners with fellow banner peers to own the marketplace. All WD banner names are guilty on this issue. Never has a jobber manager or owner said they and their fellow banner peers have a marketplace strategy of total cooperation to knock out, and keep out, the banner competition from the top 40 percent of the shops in the marketplace. Instead, these jobbers compete head to head.
Many service providers sit back, laughing and watching the show. Jobbers really lose a lot of marketplace credibility because they contradict themselves. The jobber waves its WD flag about how great it is, but will do anything to knock out a banner peer to obtain the business.
The bottom line for a jobber to succeed is good shops are required to sustain a profitable future, and there are too many jobbers in the marketplace for the number of good shops.
Consider picking up the telephone and calling your fellow banner peers to arrange a meeting to start the process of devising a proper business strategy for all of you under your WD banner name. The objectives are to make your WD banner name No. 1, sustain and remain being No. 1 in your marketplace, maintain proper margins to create jobber net income, deliver the necessary enhanced business value to shops that enhance their own bottom line and never let them down.
I'm sure some of you are chuckling at this suggestion because you can't see yourself getting together with your WD banner peers to discuss this. What does this really mean for your future?
There probably are some WD personnel out there wondering how this could even come to mind. Perhaps it is time for the WD to become a better communicator to its jobbers in explaining its vision and five-year action plan to capture and sustain the marketplace. The best jobbers don't understand how you are going to do this.
There probably are others who think this means getting together and fixing prices. Wrong! It means getting together and discussing a plan to knock out the competition by capturing and sustaining absolute first call from the top 40 percent of the shops within the marketplace because "our group does it better than anyone else."
This is going to require some thinking to work things out internally for each jobber store. But the rewards are very meaningful: store communication is greatly enhanced; jobbers capture necessary market share, increase bottom-line experience and become well respected by shop owners and managers; and shop owners enjoy the financial benefits to their own businesses for the total business value brought to the table by the banner group.
Finally, there are many out there who think this doesn't address reality. Get into the grass roots marketplace and listen to what is being said. There are many people within our industry who are, or are going to be, hurt financially, which leads to emotional decay.
Consider the possibilities if the majority of the people in our industry at every level joined the industry's progressive minority and became dedicated for the next five years to making a difference in the transformation of the aftermarket. This is cooperation, and I believe it would leave an absolutely phenomenal industry for the next generation to take over.
Bob Greenwood is president and CEO of the Automotive Aftermarket E-Learning Centre Ltd. (www.aaec.ca), a technology company based in Ottawa, Ontario. He has over 30 years of business management experience in the aftermarket. Bob can be reached at [email protected].
