2010 – 2011 Q1…Where are we headed?
We’ve wrapped up the first quarter and by all measures it was a dramatic improvement over Q1 2010 with growth ranging from 20-40% in all segments of the business. It’s not just a rebound from a bottoming in 2010. Some segments in 2010 were up 30-50% for the year. What’s driving this growth and can it continue?
We’ve done several things at Tiffin to drive growth. New product development is key…we’ve expanded the markets we are able to serve. We’ve sought out input from our customers on how we can better meet their needs. We have also gathered competitive intelligence to better understand our strategic advantage.
Where we thought, along with a number of economists, that the construction market was bottoming in 2010, it now looks like it is bottoming in 2011. New Housing starts in February hit an all time low. Thankfully, they showed some improvement in March. While further strengthening in the market is expected, it is anticipated to be slow in coming.
The current Poll on our website, asking about the outlook for 2011, shows the following results:
37% – more of the same
36% – slight improvement
14% – vast improvement
13% – worse than in 2010
We would like to get your insights and hear your thoughts on the markets. Feel free to respond or take the Tiffin Parts Poll on our website to weigh in on what you expect 2011 will bring!
2010 YTD – Q3 Perspective
It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is less than a week away. It’s a good time to reflect on the past year and to look ahead to 2011.
From our perspective, we certainly have seen some improvement in 2010 over 2009…at least, in total. Forestry is up 50%. In fact, it’s the best year we have seen in this segment of the market since 2004! Other markets we serve are up over 30% including Pettibone and Forklift Engine Parts. We believe the housing and small to mid size commercial construction markets have bottomed in 2010. This is based on government and industry reports, customer input as well as what we have seen with our own Rough Terrain telehandler parts sales.
What does the future hold? No one knows, but there are some indications that we will continue to see gradual improvement in 2011.
- Based on industry reports, we believe that Forestry will hold up and show further improvement in the next year.
- It’s hard to imagine Construction getting worse and most of the prognosticators and others we talk to in the industry seem to believe the numbers will improve; although, it may take years before we get back to what we were seeing 2005-2007.
That being said, we believe that there is an opportunity to outperform the market. What is it that your customers are looking for? What do they value? For Tiffin, our customers have told us that availability of quality parts that are priced fairly is most important. And that’s what we are committed to providing.
- We’ve expanded our product lines to provide our customers with a wider range of parts based on what our customers have been telling us they need.
- We are adding new product lines to serve a broader market with parts for brands of equipment we haven’t supported in the past like JLG and Genie Telehandlers and various brands of Skidders. Look for announcements in the coming weeks!
Thanks to all of our customers for their support.
All the best during this holiday season!
Complexity versus Simplicity…
Technology is complex, but yet it can be so simple. Tiffin has a new phone system. It offers us tremendous capability, yet we can choose not to use it. Listening to customers, no pun intended, provided us with the answers we needed.
We have the ability for an automated attendant to direct calls where they need to go, but we heard from our customers that they didn’t want to have to go through the system. They want to talk to a person. It’s that personal service that has set Tiffin apart.
We’re leveraging technology to simplify the business for our customers. The system is more stable, we now have direct lines for all employees, we can stay connected even when we’re out of the office and best of all, it’s lower cost. We have all calls feeding directly to the inside team and if call volume is high, callers have the ability to hold for the next available team member.
Ease of doing business is a differentiator…give us a call…we want to talk to you!
We measure what we do…do you?
One extremely bright individual that I had the opportunity to work for had a saying that hit home: “There should be no metric without an objective and no objective without a metric.”
She made a good point and it has stuck with me over the years. If you have an objective, how do you know you are meeting it consistently or making progress toward the goal unless you measure how you are doing on a regular basis? It’s great to measure performance and results, but what are you striving for?
Clearly defining key goals is just the first step. Monitoring how you are doing in meeting those goals is a must to achieve them. Another individual I had the opportunity to spend some time with put it another way…”Inspect what you expect”; if you do, you’re much more likely to meet your objectives.
At Tiffin, we have a number of customer focused objectives that we monitor including inventory accuracy, availability, on-time delivery, packaging quality and responsiveness. We’ve set high expectations for ourselves, realizing that our customers count on our performance.
Let us know how we’re doing!
Out in the field…April 2010
This week I’ve been in the great state of Texas. I drove from Dallas to Houston and back. I was told that Spring blooms from Houston to Dallas at a rate of 20 miles a day…the blue bonnets, yellow wildflowers and red clover were spectacular.
There is also a feeling that typically Texas goes into a recession last and comes out last. The oilfield industry is picking up. The optimism is unlike what I have seen elsewhere as I have traveled throughout the country. Perhaps Texas will lead the country in coming out of the economic doldrums.
Forestry was soft earlier in the year due to all of the bad weather that moved through the Southeastern US. The weather cleared and March was strong and April is starting even stronger. Sales of Industrial Engine Parts used primarily in forklift applications have been strong this year as well. The Material Handling Dealers and Independent Repair Facilities in Texas are busy. The telehandler utilization rates are low here as they are elsewhere, but there does seem to be some early movement. The optimism is that things will really begin to pick up over the next couple of months, where what I heard in other parts of the country was people talking about this year remaining flat with some slight improvement in 2011.
Let’s hope that the signs of economic improvement in Texas spread to the rest of the country like the wild flowers are spreading from Houston to Dallas!
All the best!
Change is a must…to stay healthy!
I had the opportunity to work for a brilliant individual for a number of years. It seemed as if from the moment I met him, the organization was constantly undergoing change. Sometimes it was radical and at other times hardly noticeable, but there was always an underlying current.
He had a saying that has stuck with me over the years: “If you do what you always did, you’ll get what you always got.”
People have to grow and develop to stay healthy! Recently, I read an article regarding a finding that people that have meaningful discussions on a regular basis have better mental health than people that only have superficial interaction with others. Challenging your mind provides the mental exercise you need.
Organizations have to grow, develop and change to be healthy too! The world and the markets we serve are in a constant state of change, we have to change to meet our customers’ needs. If we don’t, we won’t even get what we always got!
That’s why at Tiffin Parts, we are changing…we’re challenging ourselves so that we can continue to meet your needs and to continually do it better than ever before.
-Adding parts on an ongoing basis to provide you with more of what you need
-Changing our internal processes to be more efficient
-Installing a new phone system to serve you better
-Redesigning our pricing and freight policies to save you money
-Adding field sales representation so that they can meet with you at your business to share what we are doing and to help us better understand how we can help you be successful
What more can we do to help you grow your business…to keep it healthy?
Outside one’s comfort zone!
I had a great opportunity back in 2002 to participate in an Outward Bound program on Thompson Island in Boston Harbor. It was in April and the weather was unusually hot…in the 80s. It’s like it was yesterday…in my mind…certainly not weather-wise!
My most profound takeaway from the experience was that to truly grow and develop, people have to step outside their comfort zone. In fact, that’s where the name Outward Bound comes from. It’s the nautical term for a ship’s departure from the certainties of the harbor.
Yes, I really did climb this tower, but I couldn’t have done it one my own. One of the most important concepts is belaying. It’s a climbing technique to ensure that a falling climber, doesn’t fall too far. Essentially, it’s a safety harness attached to a rope that is supported by others on your team. It really was an experience, maybe extreme…at least physically, analogous to stepping outside one’s comfort zone.
Anxiety improves performance…leaving your comfort zone allows you to optimize your performance and to further expand it. Each time you do it, your comfort zone grows. Continual growth and development is needed not only for a person, but for an organization, for a society to stay healthy. Go too far and anxiety (change) will be too great causing performance to deteriorate.
At Tiffin Parts we’re stepping outside our comfort zone every day. As a team, we’re here to support each other and you…we’re your belay. We’re growing and developing our business to stay ahead of the competition to serve our customers better and to help you be successful!
-Continually adding parts to provide you with more of what you need
-Changing our internal processes to be more efficient
-Installing a new phone system to serve you better
-Redesigning our pricing and freight policies to save you money
What more can we do to help you? We need your guidance…push us…we’ll be better for it!
Out in the field…February 2010
I’ve spent the past few days calling on customers in Alabama and Georgia. Most were heavy equipment dealers and some were independent repair facilities. At best, cautious optimism rules the day.
The general sentiment seems to be that once the weather clears that logging activity will be up in the Spring over last year since the mills are in dire need of wood. Once their needs are met, there seems to be some sense that the price of wood will drop and the logging segment will fall back to last year’s levels.
It was surprising to hear that several dealers had sold all of their Skidders and were waiting on delivery of more. It was not a surprise to see how little new inventory was sitting on the lots. The most sales activity seems to be with 2 and 3 year old equipment.
If there were bright spots, it seemed to be with equipment that moves dirt, whether it be for road construction or mining. In general, the feeling was that 2010 may be the same as or just slightly better than 2009 and that the market won’t show marked improvement until 2011.
We want to know…what are you seeing in the markets you serve???
Direct Marketing is a must!
I use direct marketing to connect with my customers. It helps me to stay in touch when I can’t be there in person, to offer specials and to help keep Tiffin in the front of their mind whenever they need something we offer.
I believe that for a small business like an independent repair facility or a dealer to maximize their sales, they need to use direct marketing as a tool to reach out to their customers. It’s cost effective and it gets the message delivered ASAP.
Does your company collect the email addresses of your customers? It’s a great way to do direct marketing so start collecting. When your customers come into your business ask them about getting an email from you. If your customers really depend on the services that your company provides then believe me, they will be very happy to get an email from you. Don’t be shy but don’t overdo it either. Make your emails about specific parts or services that your company provides and always put your contact information in the emails.
Staying in touch with your customers, whether in person, via phone or through some form of direct marketing, is a must. All of these touch points help build on each other to create an integrated marketing effort.
What ideas do you have to stay connected with your customers?
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