Spend any time with a fleet today and it immediately becomes clear how much they value their dealer partners. With the speed of logistics increasing every day, carriers need partners who can keep up with the pace of their business.
For dealers, this expectation is both heartening and terrifying. Turning customers and accounts into business partners is a worthy goal for any company, yet with business booming and more fleets eager for assistance, dealers are scrambling to find the best method for keeping up with every business relying on them.
“Everything we do is geared around serving our customers and making it easier for them to do the things they have to do,” says Dean Martin, president of sales at AMG Peterbilt. “It keeps us busy.”
The most popular method of keeping track of customer needs in the dealer channel remains regular interaction. There’s no better way of understanding exactly what a customer wants than sitting down and having a conversation, Martin says.
At AMG, Martin says his salespeople “don’t have a chair” in their offices because he expects them to be in the field spending time with customers. Martin says even though the trucking industry is becoming more data driven “people still buy from people.” Customers want to work with dealers who value their business enough to check in with them regularly and proactively assure they are providing the service they need.
He adds time spent in a customer’s facility learning about its equipment, customers, routes and loads pays off immediately when it’s time for that customer to buy a new truck. If customers know a dealer is aware of their requirements, they know they can trust the dealer to get them the right equipment, Martin says.
“The sale is made before you even get there,” he says.
