People often ask why we sell so many Yanmar TNV engines in the UK and Europe. There is no simple answer and believe me it’s not because Jim is such a nice fellow that people are queuing up to purchase Yanmar TNV engines from him…………. nothing could be further than the truth as he’s a bit of a ……….!!!!
I thought I’d take the trouble to ask him as it’s been puzzling me for a while so I sat down with him one afternoon when he was happy (not very often) and this is what he came up with. I have sanitised his reply and removed an awful lot of swear words for those of a delicate nature.
‘PES have a philosophy of ‘if you’re going to do it do it properly mentality’. There are far too many companies out there who collect manufacturer’s badges above their doors but don’t stock anything, don’t have any product knowledge and are jack of all trades and masters of none. Not only that, trying to speak to somebody with a brain cell is impossible and getting them to answer the phone is the equivalent of sh**ting a miracle.’
‘At PES we specialise in selling dumper parts, not parts for every single machine that roam the planet but purely dumpers. Thwaites, Terex, Benford and Barford parts are our bread and butter. Marc, Dave, Jason and Richard……. okay not Richard, dream about dumper parts in their sleep. They know what they are talking about and I am that confident that I would bet a half-eaten Mars Bar that there is nobody in the country that knows more about Thwaites, Terex, Benford and Barford dumpers than them. However, that is only half the job. Without stock you can know everything about everything but if you can’t supply it, it’s pointless and that’s why we have nearly £1,000,000 worth of stock on the shelf. And then the final bit, the cherry on the cake so to speak, is to get that part the customer has ordered picked, packed and on its merry way for delivery next day and that’s where Richard and his assistant Tina comes in. As the meerkat says, simples.’
‘So how does that cross-pollenate to engine sales. Many years ago when we wanted to get into engine sales, we looked at what engine was fitted to the most machines and that was the Yanmar TNV so we managed to become a Yanmar Industrial Engine dealer. We carried the same ethos as we had with the dumpers, invested in stock, did our homework and learnt about the product. Now we are the largest Yanmar TNV supplier in the UK, possibly Europe and I like to think our product knowledge is probably only second to that of a directly employed Yanmar employee. Not only do we stock the full range from the Yanmar 2TNV70 to the 4TNV98, we also have the knowledge behind all the different build codes to ensure the correct Yanmar TNV engine is supplied.’
‘And the final thing is relationships, not only with our customer but with the suppliers as well. We have excellent relationships with all our suppliers, from the parts boys at Thwaites right through to Eddie Smith at Barrus, we have built good relationships based on trust……………………. oh, and we pay our bills on time!!!’
So, there you have it. After our conversation I understand what Jim say’s about not being in the distributors of everything-suppliers of nothing’ category of dealers.
With regard to Yanmar TNV engines, PES have a simple plan, execute it well with some top-class blokes working here for a very long time who know their stuff. That’s why in ten years we have gone from nothing to the biggest and best supplier of Yanmar TNV engines in the UK.
