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?
Out in the field…March 2010
Last week I was in California and Oregon calling on customers. Most were Rental Equipment Companies and Engine Parts Warehouse Distributors. As I found in Alabama and Georgia in February, at best, cautious optimism rules the day. Most feel we’ve hit bottom, but many have yet to see improvement in the markets they serve.
They expressed what we have been hearing for the past year. One manager commented that customers are cannibalizing equipment for parts rather than buying a part they need. Another said that for their own equipment they are only “fixing to fail”, meaning that they only work on equipment when it breaks…they are not doing preventive maintenance. On one visit I made, a customer called and leased a piece of equipment. I commented that it was the kind of call you like to hear. Yes, but the salesperson told me that they used to lease that piece of equipment for $450 per day and now they are only charging $250.
At the Engine Parts Warehouse Distributors I called on, I didn’t see a lot of inventory. WDs are ordering for customers as needed rather than stocking for when needed.
So what does this tell us? Perhaps we have hit bottom. We are seeing some activity and it has appeared to be picking up in the past few weeks. There is pent up demand. As customers look to put equipment back into service, they will need to replace parts taken from one piece of equipment for another.
At Tiffin Parts, we are doing a number of things to help our customers control costs to be more competitive and profitable:
-We stock the parts so you don’t have to…we have what you need when you need it
-We drop ship and will blind ship directly to your customers if requested
-Redesigning our pricing and freight policies to save you money
We want to hear from you…
-What are you seeing in the markets you serve?
-What more can we do to help you to be successful?
Let us know!
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!
Can being smaller be better?
“There are certainly some businesses and some projects that don’t work unless they’re huge, but in your case, I’m not sure that’s true. Big enough is big enough, biggest isn’t necessary.” This is a quote from a post on Seth Godin’s blog. He’s one of the most prolific and thought provoking business writers today.
This thought really hit home. Tiffin Parts isn’t the biggest heavy equipment parts supplier; although, other than the OEMs we do have the largest market share by far in the aftermarket for the primary brands we support. We have niches that we focus on, which we believe provides us with a competitive advantage.
What I think is really the differentiator for us though is that we are small enough to be responsive to our customers’ needs. Do you need a part reconfigured, do you need special packaging, do you need it tomorrow? Even something as basic as needing to talk to a knowledgeable person that can provide assistance…that’s what we strive to offer…superior service.
Because we are right-sized, we can do these things…if we were the biggest, large and bureaucratic, I’m not sure we easily could. We’re here to help you be successful!
What can we do to help?
Who comes first?
Who's on first?
Who’s most important when making a decision…your customers, your company, yourself? In business, is making a decision based solely on one’s own self interest ever the right decision? I think not! It’s what allowed the Financial industry to get the world economy in trouble. Incentives that encouraged individuals to make decisions that were high risk for their business, but low risk and high reward for themselves. Individual incentives were not appropriately aligned with that of their business. This isn’t exclusive to the Financial industry…it’s a problem throughout the world of business and government.
There’s an argument that decisions should be made for the greater good. I’m a firm believer in Transcendent Leadership, where decisions need to be made with a broader perspective. For instance, if our customers don’t succeed, how can we? We can’t, at least not long term. At Tiffin Parts, we’re here to help you be successful. If you’re successful, we will be too!
For more on this topic, Knowledge at Wharton published a great article from the World Economic Forum in 2007. Here’s a link: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1649
Photo: The great comedy team of Abbott and Costello doing their classic skit: “Who’s on first?”
Is there such a thing as Win-Win?
I think there is! Every business needs to operate profitably…even non-profits have to balance income and expenses to survive and prosper. I’ll be perfectly honest with you…we likely don’t have the lowest price on every item we sell. If you look long and hard enough you are bound to find a lower price somewhere. The quality may be lower, it may not be in stock, there may be higher freight costs to get it or perhaps it’s used. There are a lot of factors that affect price.
We surveyed our customers last year and asked them to rank the following factors in order of importance (listed as ranked): Availability, Quality, Price, Speed of Delivery and Technical Support. They gave us high ranks on all of these! One of the main reasons we gained market share in 2009 was that we had the items in stock that our customers needed.
Our mission is to supply our customers with high quality products and superior service at the best value. By living up to this commitment every day, we will continue to be the preferred supplier for our customers by helping them to be successful.
How do you help your customers succeed?
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