The risk of every dealership is in used equipment. So much of a dealership’s profitability is directly tied to its ability to generate cash by selling its used inventory.

The risk of every dealership is in used equipment. So much of a dealership’s profitability is directly tied to its ability to generate cash by selling its used inventory.

The best way to work with the marketing department is to drive content to them. I have worked with some great marketing people — but few have paid attention to equipment inventories because it’s not their job.

In over 30 years of working in the parts department at Kern Machinery, Chris Schott has seen a lot of changes. When he first started, a 24-hour turnaround on getting a part was amazing. “That’s not good enough any more. There are thousands and thousands of dollars on the line, so 24 hours is too long,” he says. “That creates the need for more inventory because customers want solutions and they want to be rolling now. If they have a piece of equipment down, they may have 3 pieces that operate behind it that can’t operate because the other one’s down. Well that adds up to big money fast. Downtime is a big thing for our customers and they’re under a lot more pressure.”

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