Learning Without Scars
As a third-generation educator, it is easy to say that teaching and training are in the blood for Ron Slee. From his beginnings as a coach, through his time at McGill University, Ron developed a foundation for the work he does today. From working within dealerships, to operating a consulting company, creating a training business and running twenty groups, Ron has been directly involved in this Industry since 1969. Ron has been known as the industry expert for years, and has brought this expertise to bear through his training programs. Today, Ron provides specialized, job function based internet based subject specific classes, job function skills assessments, as well virtual seminars and webinars. These courses are designed for manufacturers and their dealers, as well as independent businesses in the construction equipment, light industrial, on-highway, engine, and agricultural industries through Learning Without Scars (www.LearningWithoutScars.com). This platform is a continuation of the work begun by Quest, Learning Centers which was established in 1996. This training is aimed at improving dealer parts and service operations through qualified people that are knowledgeable in using operational metrics and current market and operational best practice methods.
Learning Without Scars
Transforming the Technician Industry: A Discussion on Challenges and Solutions
Ever wondered why there's a gaping chasm between sales and service departments in the technician industry? Are you curious about the future of heavy equipment service providers? Node-wrenching conversation with industry insider Alex Kraft promises to provide eye-opening insights into these questions and more. Alex demystifies the economic challenges crippling the industry, candidly explaining the reluctance to adequately remunerate skilled labor and the impact it has on the technician pool.
This episode isn't just an exposé on the problems within the industry; it offers a robust discussion on potential solutions and future shifts. The traditional dealership monopoly could be on the brink of disruption, with hungry, independent technicians poised to revolutionize the market. In a future where industry giants could collaborate with these independent providers, the customer is the ultimate winner. This transformation could bring significant benefits, especially in terms of innovation and customer service.
In a world where society channels different people into different paths, we discuss the segmentation of the market and its impending doom. Drawing parallels between software developers and diesel mechanics, we challenge the wage disparity plaguing these essential roles. Also, we explore the changing landscape of work, where the COVID-19 pandemic places an unprecedented value on quality of life. Tune in for this riveting dialogue as we delve into the present state and future of the technician industry.
Visit us at LearningWithoutScars.org for more training solutions for Equipment Dealerships - Construction, Mining, Agriculture, Cranes, Trucks and Trailers.
We provide comprehensive online learning programs for employees starting with an individualized skills assessment to a personalized employee development program designed for their skill level.
Aloha and welcome to another candid conversation. We're joined today by Alex Kraft, who this past week put the cat amongst the canaries with his blog on technicians. So we're going to have a, I think, a rather boisterous and exciting discussion this morning. Good day, mr Kraft. How are you?
Speaker 2:I'm excellent, ron. How are you doing?
Speaker 1:Not too bad. Not too bad, so go for it. Why did you say what you said? Why did you write what you wrote? I think you're right, 100%, so don't be.
Speaker 2:Thank you. It was a some would call it a Molotov cocktail thrown through the window. But look, it's true, it's we've. We've had now, I think, four or five conversations about different topics. This industry, for whatever reason, people want to continue just parroting these narratives, that and act like they just don't know what could be behind it. And so the one that I've been very passionate about for the last year or two years is man. No, we can't find any technicians. No one wants to be a technician. It drives me crazy because it's a simple answer. It's economics, and I guarantee you, if the pay structure was different, all of a sudden there'd be a larger supply of people who want to be heavy duty diesel mechanics.
Speaker 2:So, why are?
Speaker 1:we stuck with the weakness that we are.
Speaker 2:Because the existing infrastructure doesn't want to pay people. That's I mean. I'd love for someone to debate me on that. But and look, I understand. I worked at a dealer for a long time. I ran a dealer. I understand the expense and the cost structure, but it you can't sit there and continually say, hey, no one wants to do this work, when everyone acknowledges it's physically demanding, it's, it's difficult, it's highly skilled labor, and then sit there at the end of the day and say, you know why? Why can't we find people who want to do this work? And we pay $30 an hour, $35 an hour on the top end, $40 an hour Like, come on, give me a break.
Speaker 1:We've got the same thing on the part side in a different direction. The constant reduction in headcount shells for employee in parts is is obscenely high and it's all about driving profit. We seem to be completely in the in the camp that we're the equipment, people, parts and services back there somewhere and most of us don't understand it. But we're just going to leave it the way it is and we're on a rut.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's an interesting point you bring up. I think people do understand it. I just think it's hard and so that's why it doesn't get a lot. It is hard, you know, with parts and service it's there's a lot of logistics involved, a lot of expense, Like.
Speaker 2:The reality is. Like if I, if I hire a sales person, I don't really have much expense. You know, there's a low salary, it's mostly commission based, and I put them out in a territory and they can sell a machine for $300,000 tomorrow in theory, without really any training, and so I I gain a huge return on that individual. If I put out a technician, I have to supply the technician a hundred 80,000 to $200,000 truck. I have to supply the technician with software. I have to supply the technician with certain training and tools and you know what the average work order is. I don't know 1500 bucks, 1800 bucks, 2000 bucks. Takes a lot of those work orders to equal one $300,000 sale. So I get it, but it's just we don't seem to have like the real conversation or the, as you term it, the candid conversation about what the true drivers are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. It's really a remarkable occurrence as we move forward and as technology changes and people like he bring the customer and the mechanic together in a different way. One of the other things we're stuck with at the OEM level, at the dealer level, is they don't want to work on anything other than their own brand and that creates an obstacle for a lot of customers, which is, you know, market share and labor, if you're a really good dealer, might be as high as 25%. A lot of dealers are down around 10,. Maintenance is under five, which tells us, you know, we charge too much. And the other side of that equation, what you're bringing up, is we pay too little and, as you say, we started out. Okay, here's $200,000 for a truck and some tooling and, you know, there you go, see ya, at least you're wearing my uniform, you know, and that looks like prison.
Speaker 1:You know, it's remarkable, absolutely remarkable, the split in business in dealers. As you know, I've always been after having half of the business and personal service, half in the equipment. I'm happy if I get to 60, 40, 60 equipment, 40 person service and with that I can make a fair amount of money. So when I'm looking at 20 to 25% personal service. It's a struggle and the leadership of dealers doesn't seem to want to change it. We're in a rut. I don't know who is the leadership at dealers Before people finally get it.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I mean, I think part of the issue is like who is the leadership at the dealer? It's, I mean, mostly people who come up through the sales side of the business. Why is that? That's because the sales side of the business has the biggest dollar contribution, so those people typically get promoted, get on the fast track of everything. Who's the executive VP? Probably the longest tenured ex salesperson at the dealership. So what are they? They're not going to just they're going to focus on what they've been focused on the last 20 years. I don't know very many dealers who the president or like the upper tier management has a part to service background.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's almost gone. The first dealership I worked for, the president was a mechanic at one time, but he got things done, you know, and we were very progressive. Then when I went out to British Columbia it was co-executive VP, the vice president of parts and service and the vice president of finance. Together we're both executive VP's. Course to president was a sales guy, so it was an interesting troika. But I said, around different dealerships and working different dealerships, the number that is driven by parts and services is very small. And.
Speaker 1:I don't know whether it's to your point or whether it's just the manufacturer influencing that.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I don't know, I mean another narrative is that everybody's always talking about how important parts of service is. Oh and I write about it too Throw in your cliche we're really a customer support company that happens to sell machines. Okay, name me three things that you focus on that are the cornerstones of your product support. There's nothing. There's nothing behind it.
Speaker 1:And yet if you're truly a financial dog and you look at the DuPont model, which has been around for 50 years more than that the number one issue in a dealership, the number one metric we should be paying attention to, is gross profit percentage and what drives that parts and service it does. The next one is return on assets and what drives that parts and service. I mean it's ridiculous. So shifting gears. Take me over to Heath. You're in Florida, you're in Texas, where else are you now?
Speaker 2:We've fixed machines in six different states. We're in Indianapolis, we've fixed some machines in some other markets like Louisiana, even Wisconsin, but we're really focused on Texas and Florida at the moment. We've helped existing customers and what will happen is we'll help customers in Texas and Florida and then they'll call us or not call us, but put in something through the app, like, hey, can you help me in Indian apolis? Because they've had a great experience and so we'll help existing customers. We're not really focused on other markets right now. We don't want to overextend ourselves and we really do want to nail every job that comes through, and so that's why we're focused on those two key markets.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and does it a good strategy. The how many? Jobs, would you say a week, are coming through here in these days.
Speaker 2:Work orders. Oh, growing to about what? 30 to 40 a week right now. Yeah, and it's like we hired. We hired a couple sales, our first sales people we started in mid September, one here in Florida, one in Texas, and so it's starting to grow and ramp up.
Speaker 1:How? How much does it cost for a customer to grow Zero? This is the technician.
Speaker 2:Zero.
Speaker 1:So you're taking the same stance that Uber and Lyft have taken. We're going to provide our service for nothing. We want to make money on the transaction after the transaction completed.
Speaker 2:Correct. It's? Yeah, it's just simple. We didn't, as you can imagine in this industry, something new. There's not a lot of new ideas, and so you know that was important. Like let's not create friction, let's just show customers the best experience for ordering field service, deliver it to them and then we invoice them for the service. And same thing for technicians. Like why create friction? You know, there there are plenty of independent technicians working in the markets today. They have a book of business. Like why create friction to to start doing jobs through Heave? Like let's just make it, let's show technicians the the amount of open jobs, have them opt into a job, and then you know, when they do a job, then we get involved.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Do you, do you have testimonials yet to the point that you can have them up on the website from customers and technicians, we do, yeah, so we've been launching some, like we did a.
Speaker 2:We did a testimonial video here for a good sized customer in Tampa. He I've been trying to pin him down for a little while to quantify what using our app has meant for his business, and finally held him down. We looked at, we looked at his books and he's on pace to save $500,000 this year by using our app for service. What's that To make?
Speaker 1:an additional $500,000.
Speaker 2:He'll save $500,000. His maintenance he's on pace to save $500,000 on maintenance compared to last year.
Speaker 1:So roughly $40,000 a month. How many machines in a suite?
Speaker 2:I think he's got 60 to 70. Like if you factor in. So that's like one of the unique things about us is that, yeah, we really can be a one-stop shop.
Speaker 1:Like we'll work on his on-highway stuff, so they'll put through Peterbilts and Kenworth Trucks and addition to his machinery, and so when he added all up, yeah, so I mean that's, you know, we've got the general practitioner in medicine, which is what I submit is the first place for heave with technician, and we've got specialists that you're going to start recognizing and customers will start recognizing. There's some guys that are spectacular on certain things and that's going to start changing the wages and the priorities and all the rest of the stuff. So it's going to be an interesting thing.
Speaker 2:And you touched on it. Go ahead. You touched on it earlier. I mean, you were saying how dealers can only work on their brand, and so that's a major differentiator. So by being independent the nature of being independent you have to be willing to work on everything. You have to be capable, like I don't think you could exist or have a great book of business If you were an independent. You're like you know what I'm just going to work on. Come on, you have a much smaller pool. So, yeah, that's what these individuals are good at.
Speaker 1:So go up further in your helicopter. You started out trying to facilitate the sales transaction through the internet. We have a big work which work, but didn't get the kind of action that you were looking for, so you shifted over to technicians. What's next?
Speaker 2:Like right now, we're not going to become distracted. There is so much ability and opportunity just within service. Yeah, we'll introduce like little things here or there, but yeah, we have a very unique opportunity to be the nationwide heavy equipment service provider. So that's a big opportunity. I mean we don't have geographic territory lines. We don't have constraints like a typical dealer would have. You know, I don't know what are the 35 cat dealers in North America, or 30 or 37, who knows? I mean there were 38 Volvo dealers when I worked in that network. You have territory lines. You can't go outside of those. We don't have such a thing. So we can be the nationwide heavy equipment service provider for all brands and I think that's big enough to take over our attention.
Speaker 1:No, I agree. I just wanted to put out in the air that you're focused on something and you're not going to get distracted from it. Just as an update to you I think Catapult was latest number is 17 for North America.
Speaker 2:Is it really 17?
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's two in Canada. Already when I was there, there was 10. There's two Volvo dealers in Canada now. There's one Hitachi dealer across the country. There's one John Deere dealer across the country, not including Ag. It's a very, very different world and as the dealers become bigger in size and smaller in number, their financial statements mislead them. Because their sales are going up, they feel comfortable, but it's because their competition is shrunking.
Speaker 2:Yes, and that is a bad thing for the customer. Ultimately and we all know Look, customers aren't dumb Customers know that if dealers become larger, with bigger footprints, then they are going to become more out of touch, more so than they already are, and the customer experience will continue to deteriorate, because guess who doesn't use technology?
Speaker 1:Well, the other side of it is customer retention. You know I do a lot of work with data analytics and artificial intelligence. I've been pounding the table for customer retention for 40 years and people still don't even measure it and changes in buying patterns aren't acknowledged, and mystery shopping to identify the customer service issues has almost disappeared. There's very few people who do that anymore and the whole thing becomes how can I fool myself into feeling? How can I make myself feel better?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I would argue that the reason why, in my opinion, is that dealers have never had to fight for service business. They've never had any real competition. So what are you going to measure? What are you going to? And that's why I think the existing experience is what it is. To me, the customer's service decision is kind of made when they purchase the machine, and you know. So that's what we're hoping to change by giving an alternative. But that's just. When you have a monopoly on something, there's no incentive to innovate, there's no incentive to improve, and the experience is what it is.
Speaker 1:Let's take that premise and that we don't have to fight for service and the customer makes a decision on service when he buys a new machine. The new machine per year is probably less than 15% of the total working population. The second owner is not owned at all by the dealership. When the customer sells a machine, perhaps at an auction, who takes control of the second machine owner? Nobody. Right.
Speaker 1:So now we're waiting for and it's coming real serious competition on replacement parts, because you take the replacement parts away from the channel. Now you've got the manufacturer's attention because that's the only place they make money. And when they start losing money which has happened in the past at different anomalies in the marketplace it's not a happy circumstance. So we end up with the big guys in mining Comatsue, caterpillar, hatsachi, the big guys in the large equipment size, add John Deere and perhaps some others out Goval out there. So you've got four or five in the mining large. Then as you come down the number of competitors changes and then as you get to the small light industrial, it's maybe 30 to 50 different. So we've got 50 people in the supply chain on the small, maybe 25 in the medium, maybe 10 in the large and three in the super. That's what we're dealing with.
Speaker 1:If you look at automotive, when they went that way with General Motors, ford and Chrysler, all of a sudden Japan and Germany became number one, number two market share people and we're going to see that kind of disruption here. The Chinese, sani and Wigong, et cetera, they're there, they've got good equipment, they just don't have distribution Correct. If I was Sani and Wigong, I'd make a deal with you guys Do all of our prep for delivery. We don't want mechanics, you've got them.
Speaker 2:It would make a lot of sense. I mean, it is hard to build a dealer network from scratch.
Speaker 1:It's better to buy it. I've been saying that for a long time. By the way, I gave you a hint you know, I know, you know it's funny.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll see how things play out. Like we're open to it, we're open to the. I've had certain other companies express interest who maybe aren't OEMs but offer services, and so they need mechanics to either install or be on site for delivery. So there are things in the works there. But yeah, it would make a lot of sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm pretty tickled with what you've done and your success, so keep it up. It's wonderful. It's very rare. You know you're not a bit of an anomaly. I'm never particularly happy with the results. I see, I've never been that way and I'm always looking over the hill.
Speaker 1:And, mike, I wrote a blog this week I don't know if you saw it about the changes in learning, where my granddaughter gave me a book called the Narrative Gym Gymnasium that deals in three words and, but, and, therefore and. If you look at the English language and you throw pronouns away, but is the most commonly used word in our language and it's the only word we have that allows us to contradict ourselves. I love you to death, but it's a great idea. But, and here we go.
Speaker 1:And then my granddaughter, who's a teacher here in California, on, has a new approach to life called AVID, which advanced advancement by individual determination, which means each kid essentially drives their own progress. So, whatever their potential is, it's up to them to make a difference. And the book that she brought to me this couple of weeks ago or 10 days ago is a thing called Ruthless Equity, where we have not approached life, situations, problems, relationships Honestly. We've made them into little partitions, which is exactly what the dealership OEM relationship has done. It's partitioned the market. It's not necessarily promoting their benefits as the reason to purchase. Rather, it's the negatives of the competitors Right they don't have this they don't have that.
Speaker 1:they don't have the other thing, yeah, fear-based. So they're segmenting the market not based on a true preference. It's kind of a weird perspective, which took me by surprise. So all men are created equal is baloney. We are. But society as soon as we get going if you're poor, you've got one channel. You're colored, you've got another channel. You're a certain religious persuasion, you've got another channel. And we pander to those different channels rather than to the universe. You're pandering to the universe. The OEM dealers are pandering to a sector, a segment, and that's destined to fail.
Speaker 1:Bookstores in North America almost gone. Amazon replaced them. Bookstores are very prominent still in Europe. Interesting. That is interesting Because it's a different relationship in a bookstore in Europe than it is here.
Speaker 1:There was a store I went to in Durango, colorado, down in the southwest corner, where they had couches and easy chairs and you could take a new book off the shelf and sit down and read the whole damn book and then leave without buying it. It was an incredibly popular bookstore. So for a guy like me who doesn't know whether he's going to like a book or not, give me 50 pages, I know. So let me read that much and go away. I'll tell you whether I want to buy it or not. You got the same thing. I got a taste treat. I have a repair or maintenance job. Let's see if there's somebody at heave that can do it as a taste treat and son of a gun they did and it replicates and it starts growing exponentially if you let it get ahead of yourself. So what do your technicians need most now, as they get busier, as they work on more brands, as they don't have to worry about getting business next week? What's their biggest need?
Speaker 2:I don't know. It's something that we're learning. I've been wrong about certain things. I can't imagine. Everyone is different. Everyone has different motivations.
Speaker 2:Like when I say I've been wrong about certain things, I'll give you a couple of examples. Like, my initial assumption was getting back to the original, the blog posts for this conversation is these guys are way underpaid and so, by being independent, they're making three X more on average, sometimes four X more, and so my assumption was man, if we just keep some of these guys busy, fill their calendar, show them 15, 20 jobs a month, they can make like $250,000, $300,000 a year. And I found that there's plenty of technicians who don't want that. Now, by making three X more, they're like hey, all I have to do is work 20 hours a week instead of 40 hours a week. I still come out ahead and have a better quality of life. So we really do have this set up, as heave can be whatever you want it to be as a technician. We do have guys who will do 15 jobs in a month and, like, our customer request comes through, they respond right away and they're trying to. They're getting a new job every day. Then we have other technicians who probably use it, who use heave as like backfill, so they'll do three, four jobs a month.
Speaker 2:It doesn't, you know. Maybe you know we have certain ones who will just take welding jobs. We have certain ones who just want to do X type of job. So it really is like I mean to answer your question it really depends on the individual and that's what we're learning. But that's why we've set it up the way we did, where you have to opt into a job and whatever you want it to be is what it can be. So we do have people who are going to make over 200 grand this year, which is awesome. I just thought there'd be more financially driven that way.
Speaker 1:Actually, what's happened since COVID much more markedly than anything else I've ever seen is people's quality of life and quality of work have become primary drivers.
Speaker 2:Except for me.
Speaker 1:You're not interested in quality of life or you've always had it.
Speaker 2:No, I mean my work, the what do people say? Work-life balance mine has shifted the opposite way to more of work.
Speaker 1:That's not a good thing, my friend.
Speaker 2:Well, hey, I mean, it's the path that I chose. Right, you start something from zero, it's. You can't be, you know, clocking out at 430, right, yeah, it's funny.
Speaker 1:We had a client yesterday who's had a problem with classes, with students, with the software, and we found a solution at 7 o'clock last night which is 10 o'clock back east and got a response on the email almost instantly and I said wait a second, what's going on? She said, well, I like what I'm doing and I wanted to get it done. And I said, well, balance your life, kid. You got to. You know, you got to look at it a little differently and you need to remember that too. So go back to your guides. It doesn't surprise me that they're not after the two 300,000. What they want is consistency, so that they can choose what their life is going to look like, and that's the approach. If the consistency is, I own you and you're going to work 12 hours a day, maybe six days a week, and to the customer, the backlog is still two weeks, yes, and the shops are still single shift, because we don't want to work double shifts.
Speaker 2:Right. Plenty of dealers restrict overtime.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a real interesting place. As you look around, look at appliances, home appliances. Remember the Maytag man? Yes, we've got two appliances here washers and dryer. They're completely computer driven. Anything that goes wrong, we get a message on the machine in an audio and it tells us what we need to do. So there is. If I call to get somebody, they're 200 miles away. I got my suitcase was damaged coming over from Hawaii at this time and the locks are destroyed. The nearest repair shop is 150 miles away. So all of these things that's happened is we're trying to make money on the back of the support of the product that people sell and there is not enough money in the prime product to justify that. So right to repair Is that? You got into trouble, I think, with part of that at a while, didn't you?
Speaker 2:I don't know. No, I don't think we got in trouble. I think it's funny. We're on the opposite side Seems to be most people. But I think it's insane to try to argue with a straight face against right to repair. You're telling the customers that they don't have the right to get it fixed where they want to they can't determine. That is insane.
Speaker 1:It's also that you can't do it yourself. Right. It's remarkable and warranty reimbursement. There's a checkerboard across the country as to what the reimbursement rates or state law dictates. You've got to repair, you've got to pay retail rates. It's kind of a funny story. We're in the hell of a transition, Alex. I know. And it's not certain to me where this is going to end up. I'm not sure the dealers are going to exist anymore.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean. I think everything goes through an evolution and the consumer usually wins Over time. Yes, the dealers have held out for a long time, and I'm sure that that's why a lot of them still view things the same way. Well, we've been in this position for so long and nothing will ever change. But we know plenty of other industries. Tell that to the cable companies. I'm sure they didn't think anything would change.
Speaker 1:Well, look at Disney, where you are. They're in trouble these days. Look how much they've charged for a day at Disney World. Yeah, it's insane. And how about a family of four? It's kind of like going to a sports event, a football game. We used to watch tennis here. We had one of the best tennis tournaments in the world. We had seats that were six, eight feet off or rose off the court.
Speaker 2:Which event was that Indian Wells Exactly?
Speaker 1:Yeah, from the very beginning I used to teach tennis and so I've always been interested in a lot of folks that I work and play with out here tennis players and it was remarkable. We were talking San Pras and earlier and you're 15 feet away from them on the court, for goodness sake, it's remarkable. However, go get two seats at Wimbledon or French Open or Australian Open or US Open. It's impossible today for normal people. So here we go again. If you think back, the first mechanic I've always said was the blacksmith. He worked on horseshoes and he worked on swords.
Speaker 1:Now you could also say he was the OEM because he made the sword and he also made the horseshoe. But if you say that was 100% market share because there really was only one guy in a village, today there's hundreds of guys. We had I think it was called a leak in a material handling world in Ontario, where the guys that were paid above what the wage scale was. The only way we could live with it was to increase the wage but let them be independent contractors so that we didn't screw up everything salary and wage-wise which is again another consideration inside an OEM that you don't have to play with.
Speaker 2:Correct. Yeah, I mean, I think what I write about I include in there because we have personal experience with, is the world of software engineers, developers, highly skilled. I think there's a lot of similarities between software developers and the diesel mechanics that we're talking about highly skilled. Why has there been such a movement in our society for parents to get their kids involved in coding, and why? It's two reasons because there's a high demand and because it pays really well, and so I don't think a lot of parents would be teaching their kids to code. If hey, yeah, the wage is $35 an hour or $40 an hour Like it is for heavy diesel mechanics, and so why do we continue saying the same thing?
Speaker 2:That's where, look at independence. Independent mechanics basically make what high-end software engineers make. That's where the market.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know that I took a minor in computer science back in the 60s, which meant that I was wiring unit record equipment, and you also know that that's what I wanted to do as a career. But in 68, 69, when I came out there, we were in a lot of opportunity. And I think you also know that there was a guy by the name of Ian Sherk who had eight programming language that dealt with arrays as far as code, and I was on the internet with him in 1971, where there was nobody out there, it was just governments, financial institutions et cetera. He sold his business to Reuters. Reuters sold the software side of the business to Bloomberg. So what Bloomberg is offering today with the terminal Ian had 50 years ago?
Speaker 2:That's amazing.
Speaker 1:Isn't it though? So if you look at that transition of 50 years, I'm going to say the tipping point. On labor, you know I was talking with Ed Gordon yesterday, the fellow that talks about job shock and says that 50% of the American workforce won't have skills to be employable by 2030. He said it's almost to the point. He doesn't see it being recoverable anymore. It's that the society is going in such a way that it's gone so fast, so far the wrong way, and educators are doing it. It's the same thing. You're talking about Software engineers. If you find a good technology officer or information officer, those boys are half a million bucks a copy and they're worth every penny. I don't know that. I found a, and I've worked with some pretty talented technicians, but I don't think I found anybody over 300 grand.
Speaker 1:No, and that's ridiculous because today, with the complication of a machine, anybody who doesn't think that a technician is the smartest person in their employees nuts.
Speaker 2:Well, that's the thing, like there's a difference between what dealers say and then what they do, because they say that, they tell you that they say, hey, the most important people in this whole building are these people. Then why do salespeople make 300, 400 grand and these technicians make 80?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's purely economic. They don't know how to change the balance of that switch. I don't know that I want to change the equipment side of the equipment. But some dealers now aren't paying commission to a salesman who replaces one of their brands. They're only paying a commission when they displace a competitor.
Speaker 2:That's interesting. I've not heard of that.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's been around 10, 15 years. In some places they were way the hell and gone ahead. Now they pay a lot of money when you displace a competitor. That makes sense. I'm taking it away from George and I'm getting it all. If you think about a technician, it's roughly $500 a year, and 200,000 later. 300,000 parts, I mean, gentle, Hello. The problem, as you say, though, is there's a cost component to it. The biggest problem is management leadership. I got into consulting because I'm not good at politics and I don't like babysitting. That was the primary job that I had Politics, trying to get things done, changed, etc. You've heard the story. I'm sure that I told you when I started at Finning and we went fishing for three days. It's nuts.
Speaker 1:What would you like to change? That'll make a lot of money. Okay, we get together, we get it done. Now let's see you do it. They didn't think I could. I mean, they're nuts, Same thing with you. I'm so fine. We've got 30 guys regularly, 30 work orders, whatever. In the next three months it'll be 50, 60. Nobody's going to get attention. You're not even a blip on the radar yet. I wonder what the number is in Florida and Texas, if that's your two competitive points. Before somebody says, wait a second, what's going on here?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1:We got a very large dealer and a small dealer in Texas Caterbillar. We have one primary Comanche dealer in the north and one in the south. In Texas We've got one primary John Deere dealer in the whole state. In Texas the Volvo dealer has just been purchased by Portugal. There's, to my mind, only one there. I mean this is interesting and that's the hottest market in the country. It is. Well, that question Florida is not far behind. Nope.
Speaker 1:Well, congratulations, young man. I think we beat this thing up and keep writing those things. It gets people's attention. It'll be interesting to see what kind of hit we get on this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's probably not going to be very popular, but quite frankly, popularity isn't what I'm looking for.
Speaker 1:I want provocation.
Speaker 2:I got you. Well, this one will check those boxes. But look, it's true, there's no other reason for it. Everyone kind of knows it, they just won't say it.
Speaker 1:So here we go. Yeah. Anything you want to say in closing.
Speaker 2:No, I appreciate the opportunity, as always, and I appreciate you staying on me to provide the content.
Speaker 1:I have been known to be a pain in the butt, but thank you, Alex. This is always refreshing to me when I find people that think out of the box and try and approach life differently, and I hope everybody who's listened to this candid conversation feels the same way. I give you a huge thank you very much and I look forward to the next one. You got it. Mahalo, everybody. I'll see you next time.
