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Dealer Profi le


Jeff’s Small Engine DEALER TAKEAWAYS


• Product lines such as parts may bring in small dollar amounts compared with equipment sales, but can still improve a dealer- ship’s overall revenue.


• Boost parts sales by finding smaller dealers and offering competitive prices.


• Customers with broken-down equipment can be frustrated when they come in for parts. Be a trusted, reliable, friendly expert to encourage repeat business.


parts that other places don’t. People know they can get the part when they call or we can get it within a day or so. “Our inventory count at year’s end was 180,000 parts.”


He carries parts from about a dozen


different manufacturers and distribu- tors, including Oregon, Stens and Parts Unlimited and he buys a majority through Central Power Distributors. Kruse says that his parts busi- ness grew when he started selling to smaller dealers about 12 years ago. It wasn’t a segment they intentionally went after, but it just grew as smaller businesses, like ATV, snowmobile and motorcycle dealers, auto parts stores and tire distributors, started call- ing him for parts. Kruse then started meeting with others to tell them what he could offer.


says. His strategy is to keep parts mov- ing in and out as quickly as possible. “We stock a lot of fast-moving parts for lawn mowers, chain saws, snow- mobiles and ATVs like belts, blades and spark plugs. We stock a lot of


“We’re a bigger parts dealer, so we can buy at good prices and get free freight,” he says. “The smaller deal- ers were just placing orders here and there. They were buying the same parts we were and we could set up


a better deal for them. Everybody is profi ting and they are encouraged to keep buying from us.”


Kruse also says some of the smaller dealers didn’t buy enough for distribu- tors to even set up agreements, so they were glad to have an option for buying less expensive parts.


His parts prices to dealers are set at 10-20% above cost, depending on volume. He knows that revenue from dealer sales are less than from custom- ers, but still worth it.


“It all boosts my volume so I get a better price,” he says. Plus, the labor is minimal. Often the dealer parts never land on his inventory shelves. He calls the dealer customers when the parts arrive and they often pick them up on the same day.


Systems Increase Effi ciencies


In his early days, Kruse used a


card fi le system to track parts, as did many dealerships. He’s been using Softpower by c-Systems Software


Visit RuralLifestyleDealer.com/RS and indicate No. 115


26 RURAL LIFESTYLE DEALER  SPRING 2013


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