Aftermarket Business: It's no time to be a no-show

Unfortunately, some of the people I think should be reading this column won't be reading it because they're out of business. No use to pass it on to them--that would only add insult to injury, kinda like winning a Yanni CD and then being forced to listen to it. (For you Yanni fans, insert some other name. Yeah, right, as if there are any Yanni fans!)

Of course, there are all kinds of reasons for some of our jobbers and retailers to have lost their businesses. A few legit, most not. Our research indicates that most of the jobbers who lost their businesses lost them due to their own negligence. Frankly, they just didn't keep up with the times. They kept waiting for the good ol' days to come around again only to find themselves in a time warp. The reason I heard most often for their failure is "the big bad retailers came to town" (and blew their house down). As devastating as that seems, there are ways to fight back--witness the thousands who have.

I am not dismissing how difficult it is to compete. You just never know who wants to take your business. And it's happening in all industries. For example, who would have thought Toys R Us would get out of the toy business? The company says it can't compete with Wal-Mart's lower toy prices. What they really need to say is, "We haven't figured out how to compete with Wal-Mart so we're taking the path of least resistance and will concentrate on our baby supplies business." Is there anything more sad than seeing a giraffe cry?

What I'm getting to is that businesses of all types get comfortable, complacent ... and dumb as a result of being comfortable and complacent. They stop advertising ... they stop training their people and themselves ... they stop attending to their customers ... they stop going to trade shows.

Let me stop myself right there. I don't have any scientific proof of this but I'm willing to bet that the most successful parts businesses attend our industry's big trade event--the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Week (see story on page 52) consisting of the Automotive Aftermarket Products Expo (AAPEX) and the SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) Show. AAIW is the world's largest automotive aftermarket trade event featuring thousands of products, dozens of seminars and a countless number of business contact opportunities.

Still, there will be those of you who won't be attending mainly for two reasons: 1) the expense and 2) you can't get away from running your business. Well, neither of those can be dismissed, but both can be solved. First, make the show a financial priority and allocate some monies to a "show fund." Second, if your business is so reliant on you being there every day, then you have serious operational problems that you need to remedy. It means that you may not only have the wrong processes in place, but also you may have the wrong people in place. Or, worse, maybe you just don't trust the people you have hired.

Besides yourself, you should send at least one of your employees to AAIW. You can choose that person(s) a couple of ways. Without giving it any thought, you can just take your right-hand person whom you rely on day-in and day-out. Well, you know what? I'd do that anyway whether you use my second suggestion or not. And the second suggestion? Set up a contest where employees have a chance to win a free trip to AAIW. It should be based on sales, productivity or something else that can be measured objectively. You run it the way you want to, but just make sure that anyone who is instrumental to your parts sales and service has an equal opportunity to win.

Although I would go out of my way to make sure the winner has a great time (break loose a couple hundred for gambling money), I would also make it clear that it is mandatory that he or she attends all of the relevant seminars and visits the appropriate booths. Well, that shouldn't be difficult to achieve since you will be attending seminars and booths, too. Right?

It's no secret ... in fact ... it's the most common complaint that we hear: this industry is becoming more competitive every day, which makes it clear that you need more training, more intelligence and more contacts than ever before. AAIW provides all of those things under one banner during one week.

The only good reasons to stay at home are: you're selling your business or you're bankrupt. If either is the case, I'm saddened by that. I'm also sad that I probably never met you because one of the best places for that would have been AAIW.

Larry Silvey, Group Editorial Director

lsilvey@advanstar.com