From Seth Godin’s Blog:

"Managers work to get their employees to do what they did yesterday, but a little faster and a little cheaper.

Leaders, on the other hand, know where they’d like to go, but understand that they can’t get there without their tribe, without giving those they lead the tools to make something happen.

Managers want authority. Leaders take responsibility.

We need both. But we have to be careful not to confuse them. And it helps to remember that leaders are scarce and thus more valuable." Seth Godin

In the last sentence Seth says "Leaders are scarce." What an understatement. The biggest challenge in dealerships or any business for that matter is developing leaders. Managers are taught to manage processes and people, but there is very little done to develop their "Leadership Skills."

It’s a false premise to think that someone who has been bestowed the title of manager is also a leader. I think far too often businesses give up on the concept of developing leaders, they just want someone to manage the day to day activities.

Businesses generally hope the top job is filled by a "Leader," and they depend on that single person to lead the troops. The person in the top position may have had very little leadership training and/or mentoring during their progression to the top. Think about how many people you know who are in top jobs and then think about how they got there? Kind of scary isn’t it?

Becoming a good leader is not all that hard. It’s a matter of paying attention to a lot of little, solid, fundamental habits and traits.

Below are 40 fundamental traits of a good leader. These are traits that everyone should seek to emulate regardless of their position on the totem pole.

Tommy’s Top 40 Leadership Traits:

1. Leaders have pep in their step

2. Leaders are disciplined

3. Leaders arrive early, stay late

4. Leaders have a sense of humor

5. Leaders are consistent

6. Leaders follow the golden rule

7. Leaders don’t put themselves above others

8. Leaders don’t show favoritism by hanging out with subordinates

9. Leaders can be counted on

10. Leaders answer their own phone

11. Leaders return phone and email messages promptly

12. Leaders dress the part

13. Leaders show respect for others regardless of position or social status

14. Leaders say thank you…a lot

15. Leaders cut through the chase; get to the point

16. Leaders listen because they know others have great ideas too

17. Leaders understand the word "We" vs. the word "I"

18. Leaders pull others up not put them down

19. Leaders don’t work in fear of their job; they coach people "up" to take their job

20. Leaders do what they say they are going to do when they say they are going to do it

21. Leaders pick up after themselves…and others

22. Leaders know what they know and they know what they don’t know

23. Leaders take the blame when something fails and they give others credit when it works

24. Leaders communicate then communicate some more

25. Leaders help establish vision and direction

26. Leaders remove obstacles of production, not create them

27. Leaders attack a problem now, rather than letting grow it into a cancer

28. Leaders seek ways to simplify not complicate

29. Leaders seek knowledge, they learn, then they coach others

30. Leaders make the tough decisions now, not later

31. Leaders don’t tolerate a fearful workplace

32. Leaders are enthusiastic

33. Leaders set the accountability standard

34. Leaders have controllable passion

35. Leader detest the statement "we’ve always done it that way"

36. Leaders accept mistakes as a part of forward progress

37. Leaders see a problem as an opportunity to "fix it"

38. Leaders guard the processes but recognize when they are not working

39. Leaders are optimistic realists

40. Leaders lead from the front and they push from the rear

I’ve said too much, so that’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

"The most underrated activity in your dealership is your selling process." File this statement in the back of your mind as you read the rest of this article.

Average gross of new cars and used cars continues to go down. We (even me) tend to blame the Internet and the stress that Internet pricing puts on our ability to hold more gross profit. But, wait…is it possible that there’s more to the story?

Have you ever hired a training company to come into your dealership to install a training process? You know one of those 10 step systems that may or may not include an up system, four square or whatever?

I’m thinking you probably raised your hand and answered yes to my little question. I’m willing to bet at the completion of the training that your business improved and you saw an increase in volume, gross or both. I can also bet that over time your selling processes began to evaporate.

The selling process to me is much like my "Life Cycle Management Section" in my used workshop. The key to life cycle management is to recognize a problem car on day one not day sixty-one.

The problem in a lot of dealerships is that they have blinders on when it comes to recognizing that the selling process has fallen apart. Dealerships often say they have a selling process but don’t follow the steps or they don’t have one and just kind of wing it.

The most fundamental aspect of the car business that hasn’t changed since the invention of the closing statement "would you take," is to have a selling process that all the members of the management team understand and believe in.

With all the amazing technology available to us today it would be easy to see how one might view a selling process as the old frontier which is tired, worn out and outdated. Nothing could be further from the truth.

It’s the old frontier that actually presents the most interesting opportunities to charge ahead of the competition. Attacking and tailoring your selling process with real innovation presents a most unique challenge for the new age of selling that we are evolving into.

Don’t sell it short or should I say don’t cut your selling process short. Maybe now is the time to re-evaluate what you do and how you do it. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Dealers are always asking me about SETS & SUBSETS. Before I go any further I want to warn you that SETS and SUBSETS are not for everybody. They are especially not for you if you haven’t solved a lot of your other used car issues. 

As I say in my workshops, SETS & SUBSETS are the last thing you need to be worrying about. You first need to nail down your processes and ensure that you’ve added the right ones and that the ones you know to be true are not evaporating on you. 

I developed SETS & SUBSETS many years ago. Actually I stole it from my good friend Gene Hassell who taught it to me based on a PODS concept. Gene learned PODS from the good folks at the Coggin Group out of Jacksonville, FL.  Over the years I refined it, made it better and the rest is history. 

I teach SETS & SUBSETS in great detail in my workshops, so trying to explain it in a newsletter does not do it justice, but since so many of you keep asking about it, here you go. 

SETS are all about setting up a price leader to drive traffic to the store.  The lead or number 1 car is the most important car in the SET. You can do SETS in 2, 3, 4, or 5 car SETS. Experience has taught me that going deeper than 5 just confuses the issue and makes it much more difficult to manage. 

The lead car needs to be a rough, high mileage car, ugly car. Make it safe, but don’t make it pretty. The more dents and oil leaks the better. (oh, chill out.) This is not about bait and switch. It’s about the customers transferring themselves to another car in the SET or to one out on the perimeter. 

The key to SETS is picking the right lead car. Yes, I said it should be rough, but it needs to be desirable in the “public’s mind,” and most important it should be the latest model you can find for that SET. 

There are two sources to determine which SETS you are going to work with. First, it’s based on Internal Data. What used car have you historically done well with? Second, it’s based on External data. Using tools like vAuto, Auto Trader and AutoCount USA, you should be able to figure out what the hottest models are in your area. 

You don’t have to do SETS in a 5 car SET. You can do 2, 3, 4, or 5, but don’t do 6, 7, etc. Just trust me on this.

Cars in your SETS must be parked together in a row with the prices clearly marked on them. You want to get a $1500 to $3000 gap between each of the units. You would not want to advertise your lead car at $6995 and your number two car at $12,500. That’s too big of a jump from the lead to the second car. 

A SUBSET is a SET with a non-desirable member in it. As an example since a Honda Accord is a pretty good seller in most markets, you might have a Honda Accord SET with a SUBSET tucked in the middle. A good SUBSET car would be a Mitsubishi Gallant. The Accord will drive traffic down the line to the Gallant. The Gallant won’t drive traffic to “nuttin’.”

Two of the biggest mistakes that dealers make is they try to make a profit on the lead car and they pick too nice of a car to be the lead. The lead car is a “loss leader.” More often than not the car dealers pick to be a lead is really a number 2 car. A 2 car is a profit maker and one that you’ve fully reconditioned so you would want to make sure you haven’t made it the lead. 

I always tell dealers if you’re going to try SETS call me before you do so. 9 times out of 10 when they describe the lead car, it’s the wrong lead car. 

If you want SETS to work you have to advertise your lead car at what you have in it or less. Do not (there is only one definition of do not) try to make a profit on the lead car. The sole purpose of the lead car is to drive traffic to the dealership. 

When done correctly one of three things will happen:

1. The customer shows up and buys the lead car. (Ugg!)

2. The customers transfer themselves to the 2, 3, 4 or 5 car.  (Yipee)

3. The customer buys something out on the perimeter. (More Yipee)

The key is that the customer showed up on your lot today and you have a chance to sell them something. 

So, there it is. SETS described in its simplest form. There’s a bunch more to them than I can’t put in this newsletter. But, remember, I warned you at the beginning of this article, don’t even bother trying SETS until you fix a lot of your other issues first.

That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy 

I know it goes without saying, but I must say it, "your ability to manage your inventory will be one of the most important areas for you to refine and attack as we move towards the end of the year and into 2012."

Life Cycle Management is the absolute key towards improving your profits, volume and gross. 

Understanding "Early Warning Radar" and how it works is essential when applying Life Cycle Management to your used car business. The more you put EWR into your daily processes the greater the impact on your bottom line. 

EWR starts off with a "Trade Walk" every morning right after your save-a-deal meeting. (If you are not doing a save-a-deal meeting you are already a step behind.) All members of the management team, including the service manager go on the "Trade Walk." There is only one definition for the word all.

All trades as well as all "purchase units" are parked in a staging area and are part of the "Trade Walk." During the "Trade Walk" a decision will be made as to what you will do with those vehicles. For the most part your choices will be to wholesale, retail, or possibly to run them through the shop for further determination, etc. 

You never, ever want one person to be the decision maker on these cars. The more managers you get involved on the trade walk the better. Two heads are better than one may be a theory you can get your head around.

There must be an Expiration Date or "ED" set on each vehicle. A good starting point is some cars get 20, some 30 and some get 45 days. You can come up with your own criteria. In my little world purchase cars as a rule get 30 days and trades get 45 days.

All three Expiration Dates are important but the most important one is the 20 day or EWR units. During the trade walk you want to establish if any of the following are present about each unit:

1. Equity position (the lack thereof.)
2. Make-a-Deal Car (Did you step up on something to make another car go away?)
3. Odd Equipment (Maybe it needs leather and/or sunroof?)
4. Previous Sales History (You’ve just not done well with it in the past.)
5. Bad Color
6. No Experience (You just don’t know much about it.)
7. Service History (Been in and out of your shop a lot.)
8. Potentially Large Repair Bill (going to cost a lot to get it on line.)
9. High Miles
10. CarFax Report (Somewhat suspicious.)
11. Gut Feeling

If a car has any of these or especially more than one, then it’s an EWR car. We have developed EWR stickers which go on the windshield and stay there until it’s sold. There is a place on the sticker for you to write the "ED" date.

"ED" date is 20 days from the date the car has come into your inventory. This sticker will serve as a reminder every time you walk by the car that the clock is ticking and you can clearly see when it has to be gone by.

Now, I’m going to give you the piece of the puzzle that makes "Life Cycle Management" really work for you. It’s the part I believe we have had wrong for years. Most dealers produce an age report that shows how many days they have had a car in inventory. Stop it.

Start doing this; each car should be tracked based on how many days it has "left to go," or its expiration date, better known as "ED." Not how many days it has been in stock. Of course your tracking will be a minus number of days if you allow a car to go past its "drop dead" date.

If you set the "time lines" during the "trade walk," and track them the way I’ve suggested you will be amazed at how your intensity will improve towards turning your inventory.

My time is up. That’s all I’m gonna say. Tommy Gibbs

One of the ongoing issues I see as I travel the country is how out of balance most Dealer’s inventories are. Let me first state the obvious. None of you, absolutely none of you have the hottest selling used car brand in the marketplace. Sure, your new car franchise may do very well as a used car on your lot, but the market is so much bigger than that one brand.
   
It baffles me as to why you would want to limit yourself primarily to your own brand. What’s really screwy is often times your new car brand ain’t so hot as a new car, but yet you want to stock mostly that brand in used cars. I mean, come on. If they ain’t buying it as a new car the odds are also pretty good that they don’t want it as a used one either. (Yes, there are exceptions to every rule, just lighten up and read on.) 

So, what is the fix? Hello…become a student of the game. Someone in your organization has got to spend an adequate amount of time on research. I see it happen all the time where the dealer comes to the realization that they need to stock some models other their own, and they rush out and buy a bunch of stuff only to wake up 60 days later and think “geez, this ain’t working let’s get back to stocking our own stuff. We’re a Ford store so let’s go back to stocking Fords.” So, what’s the answer?

Combining vAuto’s stocking tool and AutoCount USA data is a good first step. Research is the most important and most often left out element in the equation of finding the cars and trucks we need. It’s time consuming and cannot be done once every few months. It’s a daily process. Unfortunately it cannot be done by the typical stereotype used car manager.

You need a geek who understands the car business and can sit in front of a computer most of the day. There are a number of things that “Geeky” can do really well for you. With the right direction they can do research, they can buy online and they can handle the  re-pricing of current inventory.

If you can hire a former CarMax person for this position then your chances of success just went way up because they understand the importance of data and the role it plays in inventory turn and profits. vAuto’s Stocking Tool makes this job so much easier than ever before.

Is this a total cure all? No. Are you going to make some mistakes? Yes. Your mistakes won’t be half as bad if you put a short time line on these purchased units. Far too often dealers sit on them hoping and wishing for a miracle to happen. It’s a given that your best profit opportunity is the first 20 days.

If it’s a hot seller in the market and you’re not getting “action” on it in the first 20 days, then it’s time to start cutting your prices and make that ‘bad boy” go away. At some point you have to stop thinking “profit” and think “turn,” and you can’t wait 45 to 60 days to get into that mindset.

So, here’s the deal. If your used vehicle inventory is more than 50% of your own brand you will never be a real used car player. You just won’t. Oh, you will have a few good months just because you get lucky and the market moves your way. But long term you’re not going to dominate your used car market. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Well, maybe not, but I will if you’re not at the NADA Convention in just a few days.  So, if you’re not going I’m wondering why? Why would you not go? Short on staff? I guess that’s a maybe. You went last year? Ugh, I guess that might be a maybe also. Can’t afford the expense? Another maybe goes up on the board. Those excuses and most others are not great reasons for not going.

Some of you live in a little box and wonder why things never change for you. With all that’s gone on the last 12 months with GM, Chrysler and now Toyota I cannot think of another time in history when it’s so important to open your mind and shoot some WD 40 into your brain to loosen things up a bit.  It’s winter, it’s cold and if you’re not careful your brain will freeze up and not thaw until sometime in August.

If your mindset is “the Convention is always the same” then you are dead wrong. The only reason the Convention is the same is because you’re the same. If you’ve gone to the Convention in the past to rub shoulders with the factory guys and attend the parties then I guess it would be the same for you. You get out of something what you put into it. If you go to the Convention and are determined to take real ideas back to your dealership and make things happen the odds will be in your favor of making things happen.

Think about what just happened to the city of New Orleans. Four years ago the City was totally wiped out. One of the worst disasters in the history of our country had knocked the city to its knees. Most would have said it’s over and the city will never make a comeback.  Rumors of the team leaving the city were rampant.

This past Sunday the Saints won the Super Bowl. Given the history of the Saints and the city somebody had to have an incredible vision. Someone had to see the possibilities. That doesn’t happen by sitting on one’s hands. It took hard work and a vision.

It’s hard for your vision to change when you sit there and stare at those same walls and same people day after day. It’s a cancer that eats away at your soul. That’s why you need to go. You need inspiration.  You need to see the possibilities. You need to go and learn something.

It’s not too late. Airfares to Orlando are never all that expensive and for sure you can get a room.

If you show up and find me I’ll even give you a little book titled “The Little Used Car Book.” My little book is not a cure all for your used car business but it’s guaranteed to give you some ideas and wisdom to help your bottom line.

By helping your bottom line, it will more than pay for your little trip. I’ll be hanging out some at the vAuto booth (booth #1631) so look me up. I’d hate to miss you this year. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

You probably fit into one of two categories. Either you are not happy with your average gross per unit or you are not happy with the volume of your used car department. In either case you also may not be happy with the total gross being generated.

Let me remind you that the only thing that is really important is how much total gross you are generating. I always say, “You cannot spend average gross profit. You can only spend total gross profit.”

It’s a contradiction to say to your staff that you expect both high volume and high gross per unit. They stay confused and frustrated when you keep pounding them over the head with this misdirection and slight of hand marching orders. I’m sure somewhere out there someone is making it happen on both ends, but it is certainly the exception and not the rule. So, you need to get over it.

It’s a given that more than 80% of the people shopping a used car shop the Internet. If you think you are going to post high prices or no prices out on the Internet and traffic is going to show up then you are dead wrong. The Internet is a “game changer” for all of you regardless of your new car franchise or set of circumstances.

You have to decide if you want to play the game. More importantly you have to decide if you want to win the game. It’s a game. There are winners and losers. As Dr. Seuss said “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose…”

If you are going to improve volume you absolutely must develop a sound acquisition strategy other than just going out and buying more cars. Without allocating the right resources and strategy then going out and buying more inventory is the kiss of death. All that’s going to happen is it’s going to age on you and you’re going to be real unhappy a few months down the road.

Taking this leap into the volume world means rewriting your overall strategy from acquisition to staffing, pay plans, reconditioning, marketing, and pricing.  Failing to address any of these will result in frustration and poor production and you may find yourself worse off than you are right now.

Here’s A Ten Step Plan to Success:

1. Take over your used car department. If you’ve not read my article on this subject click here. Read Full Article
2. Restructure your management team or at least re-think the duties of your current staff. If you are going to acquire the right cars then someone is going to have to do the research that’s necessary to get the job done.
3. Learn all you can about the vAuto stocking tool, Auto Trader, and Auto Count USA. You need a geeky person to study the data and make recommendations on a daily basis.
4. Once you’ve done the research you have to have a plan of acquisition based on who and how you will acquire the inventory.  Elements of the plan:
5. Purchasing units from private individuals.
6. Mining your database for hot sellers.
7. Purchasing cars at auctions.
8. Purchasing cars online which may include proxy bidding.
9. Taking an aggressive approach to trade-ins.
10. Move from paying on gross to paying on volume for sales staff and sales management. Is it time to re-think “One Price?” The Internet is creating a one price environment. Twenty years ago when a lot of dealers tried “One Price” the Internet was not a factor. One of the major frustrations your sales staff continues to have is when the customer shows up at the front door with a price off the internet your sales staff has no control over gross.
11. Re-evaluate how you are charging for reconditioning.  Is it time to re-think the age old concept of charging full retail to the used car department? (If you move away from paying sales people and sales management on gross profit then the concept of charging them full retail because they are going to just give it away becomes irrelevant.) You can keep doing it your way, but you will be at a disadvantage in the Internet world pricing game.
12. Get rid of packs and all the silly things you add to the cost of your used cars. All you are doing is putting yourself at a pricing disadvantage. Reread numbers 5 & 6.
13. You need to price your inventory online immediately and then re-price it as the market is moving.  Determine if your pricing should be under or over the market from day one.  The more days you are over market, the more days are being eaten up and ROI goes south. And most important who will be doing the pricing? The last person in the world that you want doing the pricing is the person who’s actually doing the buying. Their egos and feelings get involved. This is not about egos and feelings; it’s about pricing the vehicles based on the market and about turning them as fast as possible.
14. Invest in your own photo booth and commit to posting 40 plus pictures on every unit. You must set yourself apart from the competition. Having pictures that have “changed seasons” is just plain ignorant for more reasons than just the pictures. (Get it?) There should never be a day that you have cars online without pictures.
15. Use the vAuto Internet pricing tool. There is no excuse for having a car without a price on it. Post prices online and on the cars. Get rid of all the excuses as to why you don’t want to put prices on the cars. It’s just plain silliness not to.

So, let me give you a quick review. The bottom line should be to increase your total gross profit. It’s not done by improving your average. It’s done by maintaining a respectable gross and substantially improving your volume. Small market or big market, it doesn’t matter. The Internet has opened the world up to you and you have to decide if you want to be in that world or your own little world. Your little world has limitations. The Internet world does not. That’s all I’m gonna say. Tommy Gibbs

When it comes to pricing and re-pricing used cars most dealers are using some sort of a bucket system. If you’re not familiar with it, it is simply a process of changing pricing on a scheduled basis reducing the pricing as each unit jumps into a different bucket. An example would be that from 1 to 15 days a dealer has his/her inventory priced at 105% over the market and on day 16 reduces the pricing to 100%. The next bucket jump would occur at 30 days whereby the dealer would reduce the price to 95% of market and so on. In the first bucket, the 1 to 15 days, I would call that “shooting the moon” or hoping to get “real lucky.” 

I would never tell you that you are wrong to shoot the moon in the first bucket, but I think you have to ask yourself are you helping or hurting the final results by doing so. Does shooting the moon slow the whole turn process down? Would you be better off to start out under the market from day one? Are you simply taking yourself out of the market for the first 15 days?

The more times a vehicle jumps into another bucket (bucket jumpers) the less likely you are not only to make a decent profit, but also the less likely you are to make a lucrative ROI. One of your goals should be to figure out how to reduce the number of “bucket jumpers.”

There are more and more dealers taking an aggressive approach with the first bucket because what they have found out is they end up selling their units faster and getting a greater return on investment (ROI.) One of the most important things that also happens with this approach is they are selling units in the “current market.” The buzz these days is all about how fast the market can turn on you. When it turns and you are sitting there with a lot of units 30 plus days old you are now at a tremendous disadvantage. Lord help you if you have 60 day old and beyond units in stock.

This is not a perfect science so to put too much stock in either position may be the wrong thing to do. There will always be that really, really hot car that you can shoot the moon with. But, when your overall strategy is to “go for it” right out of the gate you may put yourself at a disadvantage in the ever changing, fast paced used car world.

If you stay hard and firm on being over the average market price in your first bucket, you will soon find yourself drowning in a “bucket of water.” That’s all I’m gonna say. Tommy Gibbs

Belief is a fleeting thing at times. Whenever I speak to a 20 group I always ask them by a show of hands how many of them have a plan in place whereby they do not allow their used car manager to have a unit over a given number of days like 60, 75, or 90 days. After asking that question I ask them how many of them have a unit over that assigned number of days. Almost without exception they all keep their hands in the air. Look, you are either pregnant or you are not. Many people say they believe in something, but most don’t really live it. They talk the talk, but don’t walk the walk.

Why would you state a policy and not enforce it? Do you not have any backbone or spine? I have to assume you end up letting your used car manager give you a lot of excuses for keeping those units around. There is no excuse for letting a depreciating asset sit on the shelf.

I want to give you some advice on how to fix the problem and get on a path to glory. Do not take those old age units to the auction and dump them. If you can make some adjustments to their cost then do so.

In most cases adjusting units is better than putting bonus money on them. Sales people tend to walk around them when you are high in them. You can believe what you want, but when you put bonus money on those aged units the managers have nothing to gain and they walk around them as well.

The most important thing to do is to start to massage the time line. If you are a 90 day guy/gal and you have units over 90 days, the focus cannot be on just those units over 90 days. The focus would have to be on those at 75 days. The same holds true if you are a 60 day wonder person. Your focus would need to be on those at the 45 day mark and beyond. What you have to remember is there are a bunch of vehicles coming like a locomotive down a railroad track wanting to bump up against your number whatever the number happens to be.

If you’ve heard me speak or read previous articles I’ve written you know the real number should be 45 days and gone. That does not mean dumping units at 45 days and losing a lot of money. What it means is aggressively pricing your units from day one and reducing the pricing until they are sold at some retail number.

The biggest problem I continue to observe is that used car managers do not recognize they have a problem unit on their hands until 60 days and beyond. If you go back and review your oldest units they all have a story line tied to them. 99% of the time it was a problem from day one and nobody recognized it for what it was.

I believe you can do better, but it doesn’t matter what I believe. What matters is what you believe and that’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Rory Vaden is a young dynamic speaker whose theme is “Take The Stairs.” To summarize his concept for you it simply means taking the harder way. (Click Here to See His Video) Most people would rather take the escalator than walk up the stairs. Human nature is to go the easy route. The route of least resistance. Many of you fall into that category. You won’t take the hard way. It’s so much easier to stay with what you’ve got. “Don’t dare take the stairs.”

Here are four examples:

1. Your reluctance to go to an “up system.” If you have half a brain you know it’s the only way to go, but you won’t do it because of the “fear factor.” The fear that all your “Superstars” will quit. You have to agree that if you think through all the elements of an up system it makes total sense. “Don’t dare take the stairs.”
2. Keeping used cars in your inventory past your timeline, whatever that line might be.
   “Fear factor” bites you again. It’s the fear of upsetting your used car manager by holding him/her to a discipline that, again, you know makes total sense. There are many elements to managing your used car inventory. It is not about losing a lot of money at the end of the timeline. It’s about daily disciplines and processes that you need to enforce. It’s easier to allow yourself to be sold on all those stupid reasons to keep those aged units in your inventory. “Don’t dare take the stairs.”

3. You continue to focus on average gross profit vs. ROI. You would rather live in the past of an imaginary concept of getting both high grosses and high volume. The easy way is to beat your management team up about how bad their grosses are. The harder way is for you and your team to understand the importance of tracking ROI and the role it plays in your bottom line. (FixRoi.com) “Don’t dare take the stairs.”
4. Bubba still works for you. Bubba did a great job 20, 15, 10 or even 5 years ago. But, Bubba just won’t accept the role of technology in our business. Oh, Bubba says he’s all on board, but you keep getting the same old stupid results and he keeps on selling you on the fact that he “gets it.”

Bubba says it’s not his fault the numbers suck because the market is so screwed up. Bubba keeps telling you he’s all over the new age technology concept, but the reality is nothing is changing for you except your numbers keep going further in the tank.

One of Bubba’s biggest attributes over the years has been his ability to “sell.” Especially selling you. You like being sold. We all like being sold. Being sold is far easier than using your own brain to think it through and to replace Bubba’s butt. “Don’t dare take the stairs.”

There are many other examples and you know as well as I what they are. Taking the stairs requires pain and discipline. You get to choose whether to take the stairs or not. For me, I’m done writing this. I have a bunch of stairs to go climb. That’s all I’m gonna say. Tommy Gibbs