Do you really know your business? To know your business you must know all the operating metrics as well the core of your business model. Business is part art and part science. Knowing the science part makes the art much easier. Many dealers are still operating under an outdated business model that can no longer be supported in any economy, especially the current economic conditions. The only way to change the outdated model is to ask more questions, better questions, measure everything…

All sales people need to have a monthly sales goal for themselves. They also need to know how they arrived at that specific goal. Many times, these goals are based upon their past sales performance, but past results may not be indicative of performance.

You can increase your sales by 25 percent or more. Identify what causes mental barriers that produce limited results and how to overcome them. Many barriers are caused by conditioning, circumstance and emotions. Many people…

There are only five ways to increase the bottom line of a business: Sell more vehicles, practice price elasticity (get more gross profit per sale), create more repeat customers, increase the speed of the buying cycle for your current customers, and create continuity programs by getting the customer to continually do business with you (service, add-on selling etc.). Although all are important, one can be obtained instantly and with a huge impact - price elasticity and the ability to increase…

I couldn’t help but notice all the doom and gloom in several blog posts, especially in regards to Starbucks closing 600 stores. Yes, the economy is tough, but the most important economy is between your ears. If you keep reading about the bad economy and you keep telling everyone how bad it is, you’re allowing yourself to have a bad economy and to perpetuate that it is okay to struggle. The media will do enough of that — don’t help them. Bad economies come faster and stay longer because of…

When you strip away your bricks and mortar, Website, CRM systems, inventory and everything else, what really matters? It’s your people. The bottom line is, people make a business successful or unsuccessful.

If you are a dealer or a leader of a dealership, what are you doing to recruit, hire, train, motivate, educate and retain good and even great people? If you truly want to see what is most important to you, then all you have to do is review where you spent your time…

A friend of mine has a saying: “The only thing keeping you from your goals is the bullcrap story you keep telling yourself.” As hard as those words are, I find them to be very true. My question for you is, what is the bullcrap story you are telling yourself about you and your business? It’s time to rewrite your story.

Everyone has built-in limitations in their brain. Everyone is conditioned through the teachings and messages we receive from parents, teachers, preachers,…

          In part one of this series of why dealerships struggle, I covered some essential tips of hiring the right team members. Nothing happens until you have the right people. In this article I wanted to elaborate on an element that always exists in struggling dealerships that must be addressed before you can hire the right team members. As simple as this is, the first element in getting the right team is the willingness to let go of bad or less than desirable team members you have…

          In what now can be considered a good selling market and what many predict will soon be a booming market, there are many dealerships underperforming and even mightily struggling. Why? Although there can be many reasons for dealerships that struggle, after two decades of consulting, coaching and training dealerships there seems to be very consistent themes for the struggles. Let’s start with common theme number one – the wrong people.

          There are four…

          “You can’t make gross profit anymore now that we are fully in the digital age.” That is a common observation repeated everyday by frustrated salespeople and managers. The reality is, that simply is not true. Gross profit is and always will be possible if you create and practice the right elements for profit.

          First of all, it is never possible to make the profit you desire without the right belief system and mindset. If you believe you cannot make…

There is a plague spreading among car dealerships. I call this affliction “deal’itis.” In the last month, I have been in many dealerships working side by side with managers and salespeople. I began to quickly notice the results of this sickness. Those results are things such as lower sales, low closing ratios, low gross profits and low customer satisfaction.

Just like a good doctor should do, I began to look for the symptoms of this sickness and what could be causing this…

One idea to improve sales that most people don’t want to talk about is the ability to recharge your batteries. Salespeople who run on low batteries don’t perform as well as when they are charged up. Recently, I went with my family on a cruise and had a fantastic trip. We went scuba diving in Grand Turks and, during the dive, had three dolphins come up to us and play with us for most of the dive. The dive masters on the trip said it was a once in a lifetime experience to not only see the…

Last post, we took a look at programming your subconscious to be the best supercomputer you’ll ever need to achieve success. This month, let’s take a look at some other ways to survive and thrive in your situation, and find the joy in your career and life.

First, you must quantify to qualify. You have to get a handle on what you are currently doing, and be honest. I have consulted with thousands of businesses over the years. I have found few, who are currently…

If you are not getting better, then you must be getting worse. In this age of instant information and transformation, speed is the new weapon of choice for top performers. To survive and thrive today, you must be willing to learn, change and implement faster than your competition. In this and next month’s articles, we’ll examine some ideas on how to adapt to the environment you find yourself in, and how to thrive within it.

First, you must focus on things that can move you to…

Too often salespeople are being taught to have a “power greeting”. Salespeople have been traditionally taught to walk directly up to people, stick out their hand, aggressively give a firm handshake, exchange names and welcome them to your dealership. Sounds good, however let’s review potential pitfalls to traditional meet and greet approaches and how you may improve them.

People in out society have 3 general comfort zones: home, work, and vehicle. Most of us spend about 90+%…

There is a startling way for most dealers to double their business – fire their advertising agencies. Dealerships spend an enormous amount of money on advertising for new customers. Unfortunately, often that money is wasted. The money is wasted because the agencies are strictly placing ad dollars in media and doing production. Often, the ad dollars are spent without any knowledge and use of direct response marketing, and the game plan that will be used towards keeping those…

The San Antonio Spurs played not to win and wound up losing. The Spurs gave the power and control of the game to the Miami Heat and Miami took the power and control of their destiny and won. The Spurs will forever regret the position they took. Business lessons learned: Play to win instead of not to lose. Never give away your power or control of your destiny to the competition. 

Unless you have been hiding in a cave somewhere, you have heard that the U.S. economy is doing poorly. Housing starts are down, the value of the dollar is down, car sales are down, real estate is down, retail is down, gas prices are up, food prices are up, bankruptcies are up and the sky is falling. What is a person to do?

1. Don't Drink the Cool Aid

The news is sensationalized and fear sells. Things are rarely as good as they seem and things are rarely as bad as they…

The managers in your dealership must have a written job description with clearly defined responsibilities and expectations.

Having specific goals for the department is required. Daily action plans for selling, training, appointments, one-on-one coaching, save-a deal meetings, deal structuring, follow-up, etc will increase sales by 20 percent without spending more for advertising.

If you read biographies of successful people or businesses, one common thread…

In my 30 years in the business, I have never seen such a lack of civility, leadership and professionalism in the automotive industry. You can find managers anywhere, but developing leaders is a much more challenging task. Managers are integral, but leaders are essential. It does not take character, guts or vision to manage things, but it takes all three to lead people.

Here are common characteristics I see quite often from managers in dealerships…

Traffic is better, sales are up, profits are high, dealers are buying at NADA and the whole world is rosy. Don’t drink the water. I am not saying you should not be optimistic, and I am certainly not an economic forecaster coming with claims of doom and gloom. However, I am saying that your fortunes in the future will have a whole lot less to do with the economy than what business practices you put into place.

There is an over exuberance in dealer-land right now,…