Question of the month: As a manufacturer or distributor rep what is your biggest obstacle to professional success?
In order to get a feel for the issues that OPE Reps face, Ideal posed the following question:
“As a manufacturer or distributor rep what is your biggest obstacle to professional success”?
The responses demonstrated a wide range of concerns …
“The lack of a one stop shop, a complete knowledge bank for industry information like parts look-ups.”
“The apprehension that dealers have in the economy. People fixed a lot of tired equipment last year and dealers are still ordering accordingly”
“The resistance within the industry to change.”
“The amount of competition that has sprung up over the past few years”.
“Dealers not being able to get financing.”
“Fewer dealers and therefore less opportunity.”
“Organization. I didn’t grow up with computers so I’ve had to learn over the past few years how to keep everything organized and integrated with my computer and phone.”
“I wouldn’t say that it’s the economy, it’s actually doing fairly well in our industry (OPE). I’d say it’s competition, it always has been.”
“Dealerships having a hard time retaining good people. They tend to lose them due to lack of pay, lack of training, or just better opportunities”.
“Retail financing”.
“A lack of good customer service from dealers”.
“Dealers that don’t use their computers effectively. Too many are computer illiterate and many won’t even check their email for weeks”.
“The biggest obstacle for me is always the weather”.
“The financial well-being of my dealers. Things aren’t as bad as last year, but it isn’t getting a lot better yet”.
“Half the time my job is like cat herding because everyone has their own little issues that need to be dealt with”.
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April 8, 2010 2:53 pm
