Steve Ferrante, Author at Shop Owner Magazine
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Top Lessons From 10 Years of ‘Selling Smart’

A decade of columns has produced a wealth of tips to increase the success of your business.

How To Post Strong Sales In A Weak Economy

Now that the economy has changed, what have you changed?

What A Customer-Focused Culture Really Means

When you’re truly customer-focused, you do whatever you can do to help a customer in need, whenever that might be.

The Most Important Element In Gaining Customer Loyalty For Your Business

According to customer experience research and consulting firm Temkin Group, customers judge their experience with any business based on three basic components: success, effort and emotion.

Six Factors For Successful Sales Training

There is no doubt that a well designed and effectively executed sales and customer service training program can dramatically improve your auto service business. Improved customer relations and retention, increased employee productivity, less discounting and more profitable sales are just a few key benefits of a successful training program.

The Most Important Element In Gaining Customer Loyalty For Your Business

Understandably, people prefer to be treated like human beings. Sadly, most auto service businesses fail at this critical “emotion” component. With no process in place, they default to treating customers like just another job, another ticket, another vehicle in their daily car count.

How To Raise The Bar On Sales

How do you set the bar for high performance at your automotive business? This article covers six essential elements.

How To Raise The Bar On Sales

A set of core values is the foundation of a company’s culture. They establish standards for proper decision-making and help employees understand why certain rules are in place and what they need to contribute to make the company successful.

Why Champions Don’t Have Time To Procrastinate

If you’re a procrastinator, there’s a really good chance you’ll bookmark this article to read later. That would defeat the purpose. Sort of like that book “How to Improve Your Memory” that I can’t seem to find. It’s been over two hundred years since Benjamin Franklin famously said, “never leave that ’till tomorrow which you can do today.” One would think that’s ample time for that success tip to catch on with the human race!

Five-Star Mediocrity: If You’re Not Creating Positively Memorable Experiences, You’re Not Creating True Customers

Specializing in training for independent tire/auto service businesses, I normally steer clear of new vehicle dealerships for tires or service work for my personal vehicles. The exception to this rule occurred recently when I brought in my 2016 Chrysler 300, a company car I lease through my business, into my local Jeep-Chrysler dealership in response to a safety recall notice.

Why Champions Don’t Have Time To Procrastinate

If you’re a procrastinator, there’s a really good chance you’ll bookmark this article to read later. That would defeat the purpose. If you, your business and/or your employees are postponing something that should be done today until tomorrow, you’re not maximizing your time and your results will suffer.

Passion Powers Performance: Does Your Team Have It?

Former Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, said, “People with passion can change the world.” A bold statement for sure, but perhaps you’re not looking to change the world. Perhaps you’re just looking to create a more successful automotive repair business. Then, does passion really matter? In short, yes – and quite a bit at that.