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Volume 22 • Issue 5 • May 2020 Chartered May 16, 1988 The Used Truck Association INDUSTRYWATCH Sales Strategies to Use During COVID-19 Contents by George Papp, 2 Board and Committees George Papp Training and Consulting 2 Quips & Quotes ost of us have never faced a pandemic of this 3 Board News & Views Mmagnitude and hopefully we won’t again. 4 Face to Face with Robyn Penland: Part 2 I must come clean and say upfront that what you 5 The 2020 Board of Directors and are about to read is based on gut instinct and LTA Nominations: UTA Strong! common sense. I hope it helps you stay focused and in the game. 6 An Update for UTA’s Members My instincts tell me that now’s the time to focus on customer retention. I usually preach Prospecting, 7 Industry Events Calendar Prospecting, and more Prospecting but I think for the next few months you should shift your focus to your existing customers. Your goal is not to sell but to show support using a consultative approach. 7 UTA Events Calendar Remind them that your parts and service departments are working hard to keep customer trucks on 8 Welcome New Members the road. If it's a local customer, ask them if you can be of help to them, for example by delivering 8 In Memoriam: Don Tatum (1936-2020) parts or helping with tech support. Your customers will appreciate support in this time of need. 9 Doug’s Morning Coffee: The 80/20 Rule If you have an opportunity to make a presentation you will need to get creative. COVID-19 is forcing 10 Convention Committee Update businesses to cut back on travel and in-person meetings. That means web-based presentations are more important than ever. Start repackaging your sales presentation into a full-blown virtual pre- 11 UTA and Commercial Truck Trader’s sentation. Sharpen your PowerPoint skills and walk/write yourself through your sales process. You Virtual Marketing Webinar will be surprised what a good learning experience this will be for you. You may even uncover some 12 Women In Trucking: flaws that will allow you to tweak your selling process. #SteeringTowardKindness Be ready to get creative and keep your sales advancing by doing things that you are not accustomed to. 13 Book Excerpt: Such as: The Leader You Want to Be, Part 1 14 How Truck Dealers Can Meet Today’s » Taking your client on a virtual floor tour of your dealership (using FaceTime or mobile conferencing apps) Challenges » Doing an in-depth product walk-around tour 16 J.D. Power Valuation Services Update » Sending your client a YouTube video of your product or solution in action, and then talking through it via web conference while watching the video together 18 Industry News Briefs Think creatively and think out of the box. Don’t worry if you can’t be there in real life. Your virtual 20 Brooks Tip of the Month tours will get the job done. 21 Photos from the 2019 Convention Continued on page 8 22 From Where We Sit 1.877.GETS.UTA • WWW.UTA.ORG 2020 USED TRUCK ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS & COMMITTEES www.uta.org/directory Craig Kendall President Convention Committee Amy Shahan Vice President Chair – Terry Williams Terry Williams Secretary Co-Chair – Hal Dickson Brandon Hess Treasurer Brock Frederick Willie Boyle Dealer Group & Preferred Partners Jay Burgess Chair – Jay Burgess Hal Dickson Co-Chair – Willie Boyle Co-Chair – Rocky Carden Joe Feco Amy Shahan Michelle Ober Bobby Williams Tim Ronan Mike Roney Elections Committee Chair – Doug Shields Doug Shields Co-Chair – Charles Cathey Jody Johnson Rocky Carden — Alternate Finance Committee Chair – Brandon Hess Executive Advisors Marty Crawford Charles Cathey Ronnie Jordan Marty Crawford Craig Kendall Dean Jeske Marketing & Website Committee Ronnie Jordan Chair – Craig Kendall Robert Yost Co-Chair – Terry Williams Hal Dickson OEM Advisors Doug Shields Brock Frederick Membership Committee Jeremi Guditis Chair – Mike Roney Bo Johnson Co-Chair – Michelle Ober Joe Feco Scholarship Committee Chair – Dean Jeske Co-Chair – Tim Ronan Rocky Carden Training Committee Chair – Amy Shahan Co-Chair – Jody Johnson SHARE YOUR NEWS Young Members Committee with the UTA Industry Watch. Chair – Victoria Lombardo Send submissions, ideas and comments to: UTA Industry Watch Editors Brad and Deb Schepp c/o Sentry Management 303 Corporate Center Drive, Suite 300 A Stockbridge, GA 30281 Phone: 877-GETS-UTA (877-438-7882) Fax: 770-454-0029 [email protected] Twitter: @usedtruckassoc “Do you want to know who you are? Facebook: Used Truck Association Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate Management: and define you.” Misty Reis, [email protected] - Thomas Jefferson Art Direction/Graphic Design: Laura Carter, [email protected] www.lauracarterdesign.com 2 Commercial Truck Drivers— Our Industry’s First Responders s the Global Pandemic continues to spread it is vital for all of us to learn what we truly value A in the world to weather this horrific storm. This pandemic will eventually subside. But it is bittersweet and historically true, that when an individual or community (and in this case all of humanity) has so much taken away, then the clarity of what is most important comes into focus. We come to appreciate one another and the precious time we have to spend together. With that clarity we can begin to fight for one another. The selfless acts of first responders laboring to help others despite the dangers to themselves is the first and brightest indicator that humanity will prevail. Knowledge is power and sometimes we need to be hit with knowledge like a brick. Only then can we really see those men and women around us who do these jobs every day and how incredibly important they are to us all. I have heard it said many times in this business: “Everything, I mean everything that we have has made its way on a truck at some point.” It takes a very special person to haul freight across our country. It is not a job for the weak of heart. To work as a commercial Truck Driver shows a work ethic that rivals most. The courage to jump into traffic with 80,000 lbs. of much-needed supplies while navigating people texting in cars while turning into the truck’s lane is amazing. I am by no means taking away from the heroism of our Police Forces, Fire Fighters, military, or Health Care Professionals. But let’s not overlook those people in the seat of commercial vehicles as an important part of our lifesaving equation. It is much easier for those in the trucking busi- ness to see that without a driver behind the wheel of a commercial vehicle our econo- my really would shut down. However, outside our industry most consumers under normal conditions are oblivious as to how food, water, medicine, clothes, fuel, building supplies, tech equipment and devices, medical equipment, or anything else gets from A to B. That is, until that consumer goes to their local supermarket to find those things are no longer on the shelves. When the shelter-in-place policies started nationwide, and businesses were asked to close unless they were deemed “essential,” no one really thought about how that would affect the supply chain. With highway rest stops, restaurants, hotels, truck stops and some fuel stations closing their doors or limiting their hours Commercial Drivers were cut off from what they needed to make it from A to B. This became newsworthy because it started to affect us all. OOIDA’s President and CEO Todd Spencer said it best: “Truckers are risking their lives to deliver critical supplies.” The media agreed. Consider the title of a recent USA TODAY article: Truckers brave coronavirus outbreak to deliver goods. “If we stop, the world stops.” These news stories have given our commercial truck drivers some much-needed positive press. People are putting faces to names as to who they are and what they do. That spotlight is starting to win the commercial truck driver some cheers and with it some big support. In a recent Land Line article, author Mark Schremmer said that the FHWA (Federal Highway Administration) is stepping in to help with what had become a big challenge—drivers getting access to food. “The FHWA issued…a notice to state departments of transportation that the agency was ‘suspending enforcement’ under the federal-aid highway program for states that choose to permit commercial food trucks to operate and sell food, in accordance with state laws, in designated federally funded interstate highway rest areas.” As more people are learning about what commercial truck drivers do and how they are often taken for granted, there has been growing support from people everywhere. From small town families donating food to drivers on their way through town, to people offering places to stay because the driver has completed his 10 hours but is without the usual rest stops, a new-found appreciation for commercial drivers is evolving. Many would agree that this is justifiable and long overdue. Being part of the trucking industry and working directly with those men and women behind the Mike Roney wheel of commercial trucks, I understand what an important and difficult job they have distrib- Membership Committee Chair uting our country’s products where they are needed, especially during this pandemic. I ask all [email protected] UTA members to help people outside our industry continue to understand and appreciate the people behind the wheel. And to our industry’s first responders, Thank You. n 3 WITH Robyn Penland PART 2 ast month we shared the Assistant Manager for an apart- for several months.