When companies share goals and initiatives with their employees, Joel Trammell writes in an article for Khorus that employees are more likely to get excited and become more engaged with the company.

Carole Lewis, president of Salem Farm Supply (Salem, N.Y), and Bill Martel, general manager of Salem Farm Supply, take a look into the future for Salem Farm Supply and where they'd like to see themselves.

We asked dealers: "Do you plan to do anything differently to increase dealership revenues in 2015?" Here are their responses.

Some dealerships find sales incentives paid by the manufacturers and finance companies motivate their sales force, while others see them as undermining their business goals.

Do you measure the success of your business solely in terms of profit and loss?

While next month's column will continue to explore compensation systems for salespersonnel, the focus of this column will address those winning attributes that were personified by each of the Olympic athletes as they participated in their individual and team events during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England. Whether Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, the U.S. women's soccer team, or any of the other hundreds of participants, four attributes emblematic of gold (Au) medal play stood out; namely, purpose, passion, perseverance and pride, and each of those attributes are similarly applicable to a successful career in equipment sales.

It's not news that performance reviews are an important tool in keeping your workforce encouraged and engaged. What isn't talked about is how critical it is to do them right. They can do more harm than good if it feels like you're going through the motions, or if you're only conducting them because you took Bureaucracy 101.

Once the non performers have been identified as outlined in last months column, the next step in improving the overall efficacy of a sales department in a modern day equipment dealership is to replace those under-performing order takers with existing or potential field marketers.

As consultants, we work with a variety of businesses across a number of industries as well as non-profit entities. In reviewing the performance of these organizations, it is interesting to note that those businesses that perform at the highest levels usually have some sort of formalized strategic plan in place and are implementing it well.