Today, we are going to tackle the subject of rental sales, and whether you're just getting started in rental or whether you've been at it a while, rental sales is a little more difficult than some people think. So we want to dig into what are the key elements of this. My background briefly is I got in the rental business in the early 70s. My father got in the equipment rental business, everything from excavators and dozers and backhoes down to some pumps back in the 70s before rental was really popular as it is today. We were fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time and grew the business to be one of the top 50 in the U.S. After selling that business, I started again, and then 10 years later, United Rentals came along and bought my company, and then I got into the consulting business. So Script International was birthed in the late 90s, and so the last 15 years, I've been working with manufacturers and dealer distributors and rental companies, both domestic and internationally, trying to help them maximize their opportunity in their markets, wherever that might be. So what we want to do today is have you really understand what it takes to be successful. I would suspect most of you, the markets that you're working in, they're highly developed. There's not too many places in the U.S. anymore that rental isn't a way of life with contractors. And so what you need to understand is, believe it or not, the mix of equipment that you have will influence your financial performance. It will influence the way customers think about you. It will drive the utilization of your fleet. If you don't have the right mix, you'll have a poor-performing rental group. And if you have the right mix, it can make your fleet very vibrant and a moneymaker. Believe it or not, your operational processes make a difference, and what I mean by that is how smooth you're able to run a rental transaction, the paperwork, the computer system that you have, how efficient are you with your transportation, when the equipment comes back in, does your equipment get checked out, and you have quality control there, because all of those things make a difference to the customer. And so the third point in our objectives today is the voice of the customer. When I work with a dealer distributor today, one of the things I ask is, how do you hear the voice of the customer? You have people that are doing business with you, and they do. And there are other people that you would like to do business with, but they're currently not trading with you. And so how do you find out what's on those people's mind? Why aren't they trading with us? And so you have to have some type of method to hear that. And so an effective rental salesman is one of the ways that you can hear the voice of the customer. And then we want to understand the basics of effectively selling our rental operation, our rental department. So that's our goals as we start the program. So first of all, why do people rent? Well, it used to be that they rented because of emergency needs. This was probably in the, primarily the 60s and the 70s. And if they were a little short on money and couldn't finance something, they might choose to rent until they got enough money to buy equipment, new or used. And they would also have peak demands. Maybe they get multiple projects going at the same time, and they might need extra equipment just for a little period. So in today's world, it is really difficult for a contractor to buy a piece of equipment that is the Swiss Army knife. In other words, the piece of equipment that can do everything. And so when contractors use the right equipment to do a job, it increases their productivity. So they're also getting smarter about outsourcing. I mean, in essence, rental is outsourcing your equipment needs just like they would use a subcontractor to do a specialty for them. They also are moving the financial risk. I mean, we've just come through one of the most, in our lifetimes, incredible financial crisis with the recession, and a lot of people got upside down in their equipment. And I believe that now more than ever, contractors want to push risk back towards a dealer or a rental company. And so one of the things that they are doing by renting is they are not assuming the risk over the next three to five, seven years with, am I going to have work that's going to enable me to make my payments? What about three to five years from now if I wanted to sell the machine? I don't want to own that risk. I'm going to let somebody else do that. So now contractors are not just renting their secondary machines. They're actually using rental for their primary needs. So ultimately, people are moving away and transferring risk, especially financial risk. They have better control over their project costs, and they want to move that to a rental company or an equipment dealer that's willing to accept that. So when we go out to a job site and we rent equipment, again, you're coming into a highly developed market. Most contractors have already figured out their method of sourcing. And so for them to start doing business with you, you've got to have some type of compelling offer that is different and better than the competition. It really cannot be based on rates. That's not really...there's no longevity to trying to be the price leader in the market. You can't win there. So having solutions for people is one of the key things. That's what contractors are primarily looking for, are solutions. So I have worked with some dealers before that get focused on the product themselves, and they don't really think about the practical application of that unit. And I'll use an example of a generator, for instance, a large genset. When a contractor gets that, most of the time he's going to need potentially distribution panels. He might need electrical cords and cables. He might need an auxiliary fuel tank. And so that's a complete solution for a contractor that's needing portable power as opposed to him renting a large generator, and then he has to go around and find all these other pieces. So when we talk about fleet mix, we're also talking about multiple choices. So whether you're in excavators or dozers or backhoes, mini-excavators, usually people need choices. And so my experience with customers is that they either want to do something really quickly, and it doesn't matter so much about the cost, or the cost is primary, and if it takes a little longer, that's okay for them. So we need to have options in our fleet mix to solve problems for people. The next thing is rental is a business based on availability. I mean, in the sales business, technically, you could actually sell something that you don't have and order it and have it come in and make the transaction to the customer. In rental, that's not possible because somebody is looking to use a piece of equipment generally right away. And so if you don't have it available, and that means not only do you own it and it's in your yard, but that also means that it's working, and that means that you can provide the transportation to get it from point A to point B. That's really what availability is, is can you get it to my job? So therefore, we have the logistics. So if we don't have, or if you don't have a good transportation system, or you don't have it outsourced to someone that can really help you with different size loads, multiple trucks at 7 a.m. in the morning, you may not be able to compete. Pricing. We've got to be competitive with pricing, but we don't have to be the lowest price. Most contractors, they understand that if their job is standing still for 15 minutes, they've got an operator standing there, or let's just say they may have a large piece of equipment waiting to put dirt back in a hole, and the compactor breaks. He's got to get out there and get another compactor in there because we're standing still right now with the larger pieces of equipment. So when you go out and you're trying to promote rental, you have to be talking about services because that's really what this business is, is rental is taking these core products that you may have been selling for a long time, and in essence, you're wrapping services around these things and delivering them, packaging them in different ways. So pricing is important. You've got to be competitive. I would tend to try to be on the top side of whatever the market will allow, but I would dare say most people on this call, you're probably not the market leader, and so the pricing has already been defined in the marketplace, and you have to live within that framework. Quality control, a really big deal because contractors don't want issues, and so if you're sending equipment out that has been a rush, rush to get ready because you don't have good service processes in your shop, and it gets out there and the machine breaks down or it's just messy, it's not very clean, there's too much slack in the tracks, and you may have to call a service technician to come out there, then that's really not the expectations of the contractor. They want to go to work, and they don't want any issues. So quality control can actually be holding you back from, in the mind of the customer, whenever he gets stuff from you guys, it's going to be two or three days and the tech's going to be out here. So quality control is a big deal, and you've got to be really good at it, and we need to promote that. The product support, can we get out in the field in a timely manner and take care of issues? Our expertise, this is a big deal, I believe, relative to, do we know practical applications of equipment? A lot of times a customer will have an idea of what he needs, but when he starts describing his situation, we've got to have folks that are either answering the telephone or are outside salesmen that have enough knowledge of the product that they can guide the customer to the proper piece of equipment to solve the problem. Believe it or not, your credit policy, we need to be able to render quick decisions on whether somebody can get an account open with us. We're different than if somebody's buying a piece of equipment. So depending on what your credit policy is, how fast you can get approvals made, what are your terms, most contractors are expecting to have some type of trade credit, and it could be that your credit limits that you establish or maybe your payment terms may not be as competitive as the marketplace. So that's an area that needs to be reviewed. And then lastly, convenience. Ultimately the rental business is about convenience for customers, and so some of that has to do with what are the hours that you're open. Some of that has to do with where are you located, and so whereas dealers for years, they had territory protection, and so they maybe had a county or multiple counties, and they could potentially put their dealership wherever they choose, but the rental business has no territory boundaries to it. And so the closer the rental company is to where the development is going, that makes the speed of support, the transportation is less charges, and it's easier for the customer to do business. So all of these things roll into basically your offering to the customer. So some folks think, hey, I've been in rent to sell for years, and now we're talking about rent to rent. It's the same, right? Well it's not. Rent to sell, most dealers that are renting their equipment with the intent to sell are usually very focused on the brand, the model, the features, the warranty period, the support for that product, and they're renting it to somebody that they're actually hoping is going to maybe be a future owner. A typical rent to rent customer isn't focused on that. They're focused on using your machine to do a task, complete the task, and give you the machine back. And in the near term, they're really not as concerned about the brand or the model. They do want certain functionality. So it's different. The rent to rent is focusing on customer convenience and offering solutions. So to get started with understanding our customers, I'm going to walk you through a process that I generally work with dealers on as a starting point. So the very first thing we need to do is figure out who we're doing business with. So in the upper left-hand corner, current customers. Who are these people? So if you do not have your customers segmented, and what I mean by that is defining, let's say, 15 or 20 categories of customers. They could be general contractors, it could be electricians, it could be site development contractors, whoever. You want to create those designations, set up the files, and then go back and code all your customers and put them in one of those categories. And then when you start to run some results, you will start to see some basically revenue numbers. You'll start to see who it is you're trading with right now, and you may find some surprises there. But that's the starting point, is we've got to figure out who are these customers we're doing business with, and then the next thing we need to do is really understand their processes. And so this is part of what your sales force would be doing, is looking at these customers and trying to understand on a daily basis, when they pull onto a job, what is it that they do exactly? What machines are they using? What materials are they handling? The weight, the length, the heights that they have to lift things, what are their requirements? And so we need to really understand our customer from A to Z, what do they do every day? And in doing so, then we start to understand what equipment do they own of their own, and what equipment do they potentially outsource? And we start to understand how they think about renting equipment, or buying used machines, or buying new machines. So we're segmenting our customers, we're identifying their processes, and as we learn about that, we are also trying to understand their expectations. So they're already trading with somebody, let's say, and it's not you. So we are trying to understand why do they pick the suppliers that they do? What is it that they like about them? Is it the pricing? Is it the availability? Is it the relationships? What is this, what's the draw? And so we've got to be in tune with that and understand why they do what they do. And in so listening to that, then we are trying to identify or hear any pain points. And so I've been with a salesman out on a job, and the salesman goes out there and he doesn't ask many questions. He's mostly talking. And he's saying, we do this, and we do that, and we've got these machines, and this is the prices, and we walk away. Well, you can't learn much about the customer if you're doing all the talking. So we get back in the truck, and I asked the salesman, I said, so what did you learn about these guys? Well, when they really stop and think about it, they didn't learn anything because they didn't ask any questions. They mostly talked. Or the customer talked a little bit, and I said, so what did you hear him say that might lead you to believe there's an opportunity? So did you hear any pain points? And oftentimes they say no, again, because they didn't lead the conversation that would ever get to that point. So you're generally not going to find a customer drop one supplier and come to you unless there is some compelling reason for that to happen. And that means either your offering has to be greater than everyone else, or they need to be experiencing pain with their existing supplier, and then they might consider giving you a shot. So as we come around this process, we get around to developing a solution. So let's just say I heard a customer, and he's talking about, you know, the salesman comes out here and he quotes me one price, and then when I get a bill, it's a different price, or it depends on who I'm doing business with over there, whether I get the same price all the time. Well, one of the things you could do to solve that problem for someone is most computer systems will allow you to create a fixed discount, if that's what it is for a customer, or at least fix the pricing so that it gets the same price all the time. Or it may be that it's associated with, you know, those guys are, I'm always having to wait on them. I get to the job at 7, their trucks don't show up until 7.30. You may be able to do business with these guys and offer them a solution that will bring it out there to you the afternoon before, and we'll start the rent first thing in the morning. And that may seem pretty common. I was in Atlanta a few weeks ago, and the traffic congestion in that town is crazy. Logistics and transportation is a real challenge for everybody that's in the equipment business. And so trying to figure out how to better serve customers when you've got basically a parking lot on the highway out there is a challenge. So that can be aggravating for the customers as well. So we develop a solution, solving that problem or problems for a customer, then we promote that. And you can do that a variety of ways. You can do that either in print form or you can do that through radio advertising, could be on your website. There's a variety of medias that you can use to promote your business and what it is that you're going to solve. And then over here we're looking to measure the results on this. And you're either going to get the positive results that you were looking for or you're going to get negative results, not what we were looking for. So if I have done those things in response to my customer and I didn't get his attention, then what am I going to do? I'm going to go back to see that customer and try to find out, excuse me, what went wrong. Why, I thought you said that if I did the following, I had this equipment at this price and I had this availability and I offered it in this particular package, you'd do business with us. So if you get negative results there where you're measuring results, you want to go back to those same customers and say, did I miss something? Because I thought that we had a strong enough offering to try to get your business and you may learn new information that they didn't tell you the first time. And then we need to continue to work on our offering to try to gain their confidence. But likewise, if I measured my results and I got what I was looking for, then going back to the segmented customers, I solved a problem for somebody in the electrical group. That suggests to me that some other electrical contractors may have the same exact issue. So I want to go out and try to find more of those people because I start to understand what they do. And so that's why I believe it's really important to segment your customers, get your salesman to understand processes and understand the customer's expectations and then we can figure out how to line up with the market. Because if you think rental is just changing the designation of a machine in your computer and parking it by the fence in the yard and somebody's going to come along and get that machine, I think you're going to be sadly mistaken. That they'll show up as in a last resort but you're not going to have the type of utilization you're looking for. So if you're getting new into rental and you're thinking, oh my, we're going to have to get into a bunch of equipment we don't know anything about, well, I want you to breathe a sigh of relief because it's not true. At least it shouldn't be true. What you would like to do is start with your existing customers and as you start to talk about them, to them, I've sold you some machines in the past, let me ask you, what are you renting? And you may discover that they rent equipment all the time but they know that you don't do it. And so they're getting it from someone else. And so we need to really survey the customers that we have already, find out what their requirements are, what their needs are, and then these people already like us so potentially if we offered the same thing or slightly better, they would choose us as a supplier. So there is a progression in renting equipment that you should start out with your existing products to your existing customers and that should be pretty straightforward. And then we can take our existing products looking for some, well, look at that, I should say existing products to new customers, I apologize. And then we take new products to existing customers. And then lastly, we're going to take new products to new customers. And so I have seen some dealers that jumped all the way from number one to number four and they got into doing business with customers that they didn't really know what their needs were. I'll give you an example. Worked with a tractor dealer not long ago that jumped from the tractor business to the outdoor power business. And so he has the service capabilities to deal with mowers and the like but he didn't really know that type of, know their expectations and he really didn't know the product. And so as soon as he became a dealer for that brand, it was like a tsunami came into that dealership because they weren't properly prepared for the knowledge to support that product, the parts support for it, the product training both on the sales side and on the service side. And so I would suggest to you that as you develop rental that you walk before you run and establish yourself with your existing customers and your existing products before you move into some new customers and new products. So now we want to talk about the actual sales side of the business. Somebody promoting and there's some real keys here. We really do need to get the right person in this position. And then we need to have some real expectations. And then how do we measure their success? So some dealers that I have worked with really do not know anything about this. They think that they can basically stick anybody into the sales position. They really don't have any expectations because they've never done rental before. And then they really don't know how to measure the effectiveness of this person. So we're going to talk about that. So I'll say that I'm a big believer in the personality styles. That people kind of have a DNA, if you will, and they're just more comfortable in certain settings than in others. And so with my own business, I've had as many as six outside salesmen before. And they're not all the same because the jobs out there are not all the same. So you may be able to go on to a large commercial project that could be, who knows, maybe it's a big athletic stadium that's being built and it's a $500 million job. Or you could be renting to a guy that is the county purchasing agent and he's in a small county. He's in a little office somewhere, but he has a budget just as well. And so I'm going to suggest to you that the people that call on these folks, you need to get the right person in the right place. So let's start with the outside sales in large jobs. You need somebody that's very... They like challenges and they're very talkative, enjoy the change, they're group-oriented, they're charming, they're a promoter. They love the challenge of going out into a large project and trying to get the attention of the people that are managing the job and trying to build a relationship there. And if you take these people and generally try to get them to call on the small county office somewhere, that's not as exciting for them. They don't get the same kind of fulfillment out of that and they probably will get frustrated. Meanwhile, we have somebody that is working inside sales. They display these type of characteristics. Generally speaking, they're very accommodating folks, very patient, thoughtful, steady. You really do want this type of person working, answering your phone, potentially. They're not scatterbrained. They don't... The inside sales job, somebody's got to be calm, cool, and collected and be able to answer two phones at one time and potentially have a customer standing in front of them and a truck driver calling on the phone trying to get better directions. So there's a lot of things going on and you really do need to match up the right people with the tasks of promoting your business. So the outside salesman, I believe, needs to be someone that's very articulate, that they can clearly communicate both to the customer and then when they come back in the office, they can clearly communicate what the customer was talking about or the activities on a job site, those types of things. I believe that a salesman really needs to be a good listener. So if you've never done this before, you should take the time to ride with your dealership, for instance, ride with a salesman or two for a day or half a day and observe whether they're good listeners or not. It is a key element in being effective as a salesman because you're looking for opportunities and if your salesman doesn't listen, he talks mostly, he's going to miss opportunities. They need to be very observant. They need to be able to see not only the things that are going on in the job, but they need to read the body language of the customer and they need to try to figure out if the customer's being straight with them. They have to have a good memory because you're constantly recalling whether it's pricing or the conversations that you had a week ago. They need to be well organized. I will tell you that in our day and age of technology, there are some guys that have been in this business for a long time. They're north of 50 years old and technology is really challenging them because they would prefer to write everything down. They're not really good with email. They're not really good with texting. They really are not very good with filling out call reports and putting them into, whether you use Salesforce or some type of means that allows things to be rolled up to a sales manager. Although they know the industry well, they have customer relationships and they have some pretty good application skills, I find that they are really challenged to kind of keep up with the communication these days and the planning out of their schedules. So that starts to become a handicap to the business. So you need to really help those folks that have been around for a while to really manage their technology. And ultimately, they need to be able to lead the customer and what I mean by that is not always let the sales, not always let the customer be in control. So let's say, for instance, you go on a job site, the customer says, how much is your wheel loader? You say $4,200. Okay, I'll get back to you. Now the customer's in control because the salesman let the customer get in control because he gave him all the information that he wanted. He quoted him the rates, this, that, and the other, but then the customer said, I'll get back to you. So now the customer, the ball's in his court and when we ask the salesman, so what's up with that job? He says, well, the guy's supposed to get back with me. And then we go back out there a week later and there's a competitor's unit on the job. And that's because the salesman did not retain control. So the option there is when the customer says, how much is the price? Let me ask you this, if we can get together on the price, could I get the reservation from you today? So now who's in control? Because we want to bring this thing to a head so that I get the business. We don't want to just be throwing things out there. I see salesmen that think that, hey, I dropped a credit application off at the job and they think that's going to translate into business. It does not. If you have a compelling offer and the customer really wants to do business with you, then the salesman really should be trying to get that credit application. He should try to stay in control to the point of, to the customer, who do I need to speak to or who can I give this to so that I can handle this for you and I'll get it processed ASAP so that we can get that piece of equipment out here on the job. Because just passing them an electronic credit application or handing them one, again, is putting the customer back in control. So that's what I mean by leading the customer. Do not let the customer get all the information and pick your brain and sometimes use you basically to shop other people. We want to secure the business. So from the salesman, what I believe that you should be expecting from these guys is that they need to identify the prospects. They need to qualify the prospects. So one of the things that I found out in my own business was that my salesman felt like every time they got out of the truck on a job site that their responsibility was to rent or sell something to that customer. They felt an enormous pressure because they were driving my vehicle with my name on it. I'm paying them. They thought that's what their job was. But I think we can all agree that all customers are not the same. There are some customers that would really appreciate the value and the services that we have and there are other customers that do not care about that. They are a one-shot deal. They want to rent something for a specific price and they really don't care about your company or your equipment or anything else. So when I talk about qualifying customers, I believe that the salesman should be asking these hard questions relative to understanding the processes, trying to determine if they rent equipment, what types of equipment they rent, typically how long do they rent it for. So I will use an example. You go to a job site and the customer says, yeah I rent occasionally. I might give you a shot at it. I'm going to ask him the question, how much do you spend in rental every month? Dollars and cents. Do you spend $3,000 a month? Do you spend $10,000 a month? Do you spend $30,000 a month in rental? Because part of qualifying someone is I'm trying to understand what my real opportunity is with that customer and whether I should continue to pursue them or not. So qualifying customers, I think, is a key piece for salesmen. They need to be sifting through the weeds, if you will, to find the kind of customers that will appreciate what we do. Then they need to know the customer's preferences, their pain points, as we discussed. They need to educate the customers. For instance, there is a job in downtown Atlanta I was on two weeks ago and the customer is building a high-rise building there. He's excavated down probably 30 or 40 feet. He had some water to pull out of a hole and they had rented some stuff from United Rentals, which was a big six-inch diesel pump, and it was having difficulty lifting the water up and it was very awkward, and of course six-inch suction hose, all that kind of stuff. So the company I was working with, we went over there and offered them a solution of a small three-inch hydraulic driven submersible pump to where we could just drop the pump down in the hole and push the water out rather than try to pull the water out. And it was blowing the water out of there because it was the right solution for the job and the customer couldn't have been happier because, again, he had equipment standing still waiting to get the water out of that hole, and he thought a bigger pump... I'm sure somebody from United probably didn't go out there, but the customer got what he ordered, but it turned out to not solve his problem. So the salesman needs to be the problem solver, and he needs to educate the customers about the different types of equipment that you have and their functionality. Now, daily gathering market intelligence, what do I mean by that? Literally every day when a salesman goes out, I honestly don't expect him to write much in the way of rental tickets. I mean, he could conceivably be at the right place at the right time, but his main objective is to find customers, qualify them, get them set up so that we can do business with them, educate the fleet that we have, solve some problems for them, but at the same time, he's paying attention to what's going on in the market, and the market as it is expanding and contracting. So he's having conversations with the contractors. For instance, right now, you would be asking, what's the beginning of 2016 look like for your company? And somebody's saying, gosh, we've got more jobs on the board than we had a year ago. That's information we need to know. Or the customer's saying, no, my bidding opportunities are actually slowing down, or there's a major development that we were planning on working and it has stopped. You're standing there on a job site and you're seeing all this new equipment show up from a competitor, or you're looking across somebody's desk and you're seeing invoices and rental rates that might shock you. Market intelligence is everything about the future both in opportunity for jobs, it's information about the customers specifically and their workload, and it's about the competition. And so finally, they are promoting our business and trying to attract new customers. So, sales expectations. Many times, salesmen are involved with rental quotes or proposals. They need to be the voice of the customer. So you as a manager or you as a dealership need to have conversations with your salesman so that you're hearing what the customers are talking about. They need to keep the pulse on the competitors. Salesmen are firefighters when customers are not happy with us or we see an account is going dormant. We haven't had any rental activity from them in the last couple of months. Salesman needs to go out there and try to find out what's going on. Managing the relationships of the customers. And then, depending on your dealership, if we know a customer well and we know that they potentially like to buy good used equipment, then a salesman in your organization may or may not be allowed to try to promote that activity. So we've got changing conditions, rental rates in the market, industry segments, new jobs starting and stopping, customers that may be in financial trouble, local market preferences. You know, I've seen over the last 30 or 40 years, certain brands of equipment come into the marketplace and be game changers. And then, all of a sudden, the customers like the new way of things. For instance, the compact track loaders right now. They seem to be red hot. You know, they've been in the marketplace a long time. But over the last five or eight years, they have gone crazy with people really liking the production capabilities. They are also understanding that they're expensive to own and operate. And so, they are pushing this towards dealer, distributors, and rental companies because they want to use the equipment. They're not necessarily crazy about owning them. But I've seen some information of recent where the deliveries on track loaders, rubber tire track type loaders, are probably three or four to one versus the traditional skid steer. So, that's a change in the marketplace and the preference. And so, if you're sitting on a bunch of rubber tire skid steers, you may need to rethink where you spend your next dollar because that market is diminishing because the technology has moved past that in many cases. So, how do we measure the salesman? These are just some recommendations. Some folks put a...it's a commission base. The guy may have a salary and a commission structure. Sometimes, the volume does not clearly represent the person's effort. So, you may want to use some of these ideas for potentially a component in your compensation plan. So, for new accounts, it's vital that a salesman continue to bring new accounts into your company because you will have an attrition rate and you need to understand what that is. So, I would suggest to you, go back and look at your customers over the last three years and look and see how many have fallen off per year so that you figure, gee, I'm losing 25 customers a year. So, I need to maintain 25 just to be even. And to me, a new account, if you were going to put a SPF or count it as a new account, to me, a one-time transaction isn't a new account. So, in my books, I would put, once the customer has done three transactions with me, then I'm going to consider that a solid account and I'll start paying you, Mr. Salesman. You may choose to pay them according to the rental volume. Of course, that's based on your fleet size and the number of accounts they're working with. You may also choose to measure how well are they doing by not discounting. So, the concept is looking at their rental rates compared to your book rates and how well are they holding to them. Product demonstrations. You may have some new technology. It could be a new attachment for something. It could be a totally new type of product. And customers are generally not going in a pinch. They're usually not going to accept that new technology when they're in crisis because they don't know what to expect. So, for instance, you need to seed the idea to the customer, this is how this works. I'll come and show and demonstrate it to you so the next time you have this type of application, you can use this new machine. You'll probably get a customer to come along with you that way. But if you offer them something new in the middle of a crisis, my experience has been they're inclined to go with what they know. Sales reports, quite common. The daily contacts. This is a relationship of business. Again, in most dealer situations, if an outside salesman is making six or nine contacts in a day, that's probably a lot. In the rental world, most of the national rental companies, their salesmen are touching a minimum of 15 to 20 customers per day. So, the frequency is very high for touching customers so that they stay top of mind and they stay in the know of where this guy is in his project. So, you need to set maybe a different standard for a salesman. Dormant accounts is a key piece. Any questions? Larry, I do have a couple of questions, and I do also want to encourage people, if you have any questions, to type them into the question box on your control panel. What's your opinion on using a machine salesman to handle rental sales as well? Okay, great question, and it is very common for dealers to struggle with this one. It is not impossible. I will just tell you that salesmen will do what you pay them to do. So, if the opportunity for them to earn money is heavily weighted towards the sales, and I mean by like 70% or 80% towards sales, then what you will have is a salesman go out and do his regular job trying to sell a machine, and then wrapping up his visit, he will say something like, Rebecca, so do you need to rent anything today? And so, it's almost like that last resort, one more shot to maybe do business with him. So, a rental salesman that's highly focused on rental is probably not going to operate that way. He's really looking at what's the stages of construction the guy is in, and he's looking at what the guy might need next week or the week after that, and he's making recommendations and suggestions. So, if your dealership could afford it, I think it is better to have a focused rental salesman and a focused machine salesman. Again, there are some exceptions to that where somebody has the skills to do both, but they will also do what you reward them to do. Larry, another question. What is the appropriate time frame to get an account set up by the credit department? Great question. I would suggest that if you can't approve an account in one to two hours, that your process is broken. And I believe the method for that is to use a database, a subscription database. I think the idea of calling competitive dealerships or rental companies trying to get credit information is crazy. I still see people doing that, and I think that's a waste of time. So, it may cost you $25 or $35 a stroke to get the information, but when you're renting equipment that rents for $2,000, $3,000, $4,000, $5,000, $25 is nothing. So, I suggest subscribing to a database and pulling your information from there, and somebody needs to be able to make a decision based on what they see. Larry, going back to your other question, the other question about the rental sales, what do you think about promoting a rental coordinator to become an outsized rental sales rep? Okay. That's another good question. I would suggest that more times than not, that's not a successful transition, and the reason is when somebody calls your place or they walk in your place, in so many words, they've actually already chosen you as a supplier or an opportunity to do business with you, and so the inside salesman is just basically reacting to that. And it does take skill, and they need to know a lot about availability and all that kind of thing. When you are an outside salesman, you are going into the customer's environment, you're leaving your environment, you're going into their environment, and you have to interrupt them, and you have to make them notice you. And so, this really does get back to the personality style. I just find that, by and large, probably two-thirds or three-quarters of inside salesmen do really well one-on-one with the customer in their environment. When they try to transition to outside, they really struggle. Another question. Is there a good way to set up volume goals for your salesman by the size of your fleet? Yes, there is. So, the way I would attack that is I'm going to suggest that, you know, depending on what it is you rent, where you are, those kind of things, that there's probably 10 or 20% of your volume is going to come in from just drop out of the sky. You know, people that may call you, and no one's ever spoke to them before. But the rest of the volume should be coming directly from your rental salesman. And so, I would look at, you know, this is a very broad question because it depends on the dollars and cents and the size of the equipment you're renting and all those kind of things. But I would be looking for the sales department to produce somewheres around 75% or 80% of the volume that I expect to walk in the door, basically, our billing for each month. I just think they should be driving that. And the last thing I would say to that is I think you should have incremental reward that you can have a base pay for X, but I do not think you should have a linear that no matter what level of volume they create, they get the same amount. In other words, create stair steps that from 50 to $100,000 a month, you may get 2 or 2.5, maybe 3. If you go 150 or 100 to 150, it jumps up a half a percent or maybe a point. You need salesmen that are reaching for the next goal. Oh, Larry, those are all the questions that I have on the screen, but I just want to thank you for a great presentation and certainly if anyone has any questions for Larry following this, you can certainly ask him directly or send them through me. Again, I just want to thank everybody for your participation. As Larry has the AED website on the screen right now, we do actually have a couple presentations on rental scheduled for next year, one specifically being rental manager training. So please take a look at those and I want to just tell everyone to have a great day. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. It's always a pleasure.

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