Editor Welcome -- Focus on what works
One of the best parts of this career is getting the opportunity to sit down with rental center owners and find out how they approach business in their trade area. It doesn’t take too long to learn that many have been good students of the School of Hard Knocks.
For Equipment Rental Source, based in the Denver area, trying to compete with the nationals and well-established rental operations with mid-to large-size equipment wasn’t working well, and when the Great Recession hit, they seemed to be taking a full course load of classes from the School of Hard Knocks.
So instead of concentrating on what wasn’t working, the family regrouped and started focusing on what worked in their operation. Instead of focusing on the professional contractor market, it focused on the lucrative DIY and home/consumer market. In their area, family income is considerably higher than the national average and they found this audience preferred to work with a family-centered business and its tremendous attention to detail and customer service commitment.
Today, 70 percent of Equipment Rental Source’s business comes from the consumer market. They rely heavily on Google advertising and its ranking system to land the company name at the top of equipment rental queries in the Denver area.
By using Point of Rental reports, the family identifies equipment that has been requested but they were unable to offer. By consistently identifying gaps in its offering, Equipment Rental Source has found it can bring equipment into its product line that provides a remarkable ROI.
In this issue, peruse the various types of equipment featured and think about how it could work in your business. For example, Bobcat’s introduction of remote-controlled equipment and its ability to activate specific features and capabilities opens up rental options such as tiered pricing and fewer units that could be used in more applications.
As compact equipment undergoes tremendous advances in technology and productivity, think about how you can leverage that equipment to help your customers be more productive, and in turn, your rental center to be more profitable.
-- Clair Urbain, Editor and Publisher
This article appeared in the November-December 2019 issue of Pro Contractor Rentals magazine.
© 2019 Urbain Communications LLC. All rights reserved.
PRO CONTRACTOR RENTALS MAGAZINE
Pro Contractor Rentals provides information of value to rental centers who focus time, resources and attention on meeting the demands of construction contractors and other equipment rental customers.
