What’s next? Of course you don’t know. But the one thing that you know is that you have to get up and get after it tomorrow. Clunkers are driving you nuts, but the real deal is to not let it. Control the things you can control and take on “What’s Next.” What’s next is you have about 4 and ½ months left to go in the year to make up a lot of lost time.

What’s next is you have to put the press on. You’re behind in the game. You’ve had some tough months, and now you have to catch up. There is no choice. Every minute of every day needs to be an “in your face” approach; you have to press your staff to do the things you know that will make you and them successful. There can be no slack.

I know you think you and your team are doing all you can, but you aren’t, there is always more. Start by writing it down. Make a list of all the basic things you know about this business. Things you now do, things you used to do and things you’ve heard that others do. Once you make the list, make a commitment to attack that list for a minimum of the next 21 days. Why 21 days? Research has proven it takes 21 days to create a new habit. (Odds are you won’t make a list. Did you know that only three percent of adults have written goals, and everyone else works for them?)

The reality is if you will focus on this list for the next 21 days good things will happen. You have no control over the past. You have total control over what you do today. Can you control the economy? Of course not, but you can control your efforts and “what’s next.” And, “what’s next” for you should be to re-focus on those things you can control and not the next Government or Factory program. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

I’m sure you have read that Jim Press is leaving Chrysler. I keep coming back to my famous saying, “You’re never as smart as you think you are and you’re never as dumb as you appear.” He appeared brilliant during his Toyota days and now he looks pretty dumb. Was he all that smart at Toyota and all that dumb at Chrysler? The answer in both cases is no. At Toyota he was at the right place at the right time. Great product, great organization and some darn good dealers to work with. He maximized the opportunity that presented itself. I don’t want to bust your bubble, but I highly doubt the dealers he inherited at Chrysler were any worse than the ones he had at Toyota. The mere fact that so many of those Chrysler dealers survived over the years is a testament that they were outstanding dealers and probably a lot better than some of the Toyota guys.

I don’t want to take anything away from you Toyota dealers, but some of you were also in the right place at the right time. Yes, some of you absolutely maximized your opportunity and good for you.

Which takes me to today’s subject. Being at the right place and maximizing your opportunity.  There is a tremendous opportunity right now for you in used cars. Everyone’s been all jacked up about this Cash for Clunkers deal, but now we have to come back to the reality of the marketplace. There has always been and will always be a market for used cars. Those dealers who have come to understand the role that used cars play in their overall profitability succeed in both good times and bad.

Let me give you some rough figures. Last year there were 36.5 million used cars sold in this country. Franchise new car dealers sold about 13 million of that number while used cars dealers sold about 12 million and the rest were sold by private individuals. The numbers this year and next year may not be quite that high, but they will be really big numbers as compared to new, which last year was 13.2 million.

It’s a fact that there will be fewer new car dealers competing for used car sales. It’s also a fact that there are fewer and fewer used car dealers. Thus, there is a huge opportunity for new car dealers who have their act together to capture used car market share and make a lot of money. There is a tremendous opportunity waiting for those dealers willing to make the commitment necessary to maximize their success. Many of you did it with Cash for Clunkers and you can do it with used car sales.

The opportunity is now, don’t miss it!  That’s all I’m gonna say. Tommy Gibbs

Back in my college days and somewhere up to about age 30 I enjoyed tying one on once in a while. Nowadays if I have just one drink, I feel like crap the next day so it’s not really worth it to me. But, back in the day it was so much fun to get a little drunk, a little buzzed. You know that loosey goosey, relaxed, uninhibited, just plain old giddy feeling. Ahh, but the next the day, what a price to pay! You know those moments when you say “God, just let me get over this and I will never do it again.”

I would imagine that you might be having such a hangover right now from the Cash for Clunkers program. It was fun while it lasted. What a nice high it’s been. All those customers coming in and partying with us; the excitement, the thrill, oh how sweet it’s been.

You are now faced with the morning after. It’s very quiet isn’t it? Just you and the pain.  The pain of dealing with the aftermath and wondering “what’s next?” Your new car inventory is down and you’re wondering what the next 4 months will bring before we get into 2010?

Part of the prescription you need to take to cure your hangover is used cars, but your head hurts even more because used car prices are driving you nuts. Prior to Cash for Clunkers you were starting to “get it,” but the party started and you couldn’t stop drinking the hard stuff. It was one of those free cocktail parties where you got to drink all you wanted of the best brands so you couldn’t stop at just one.

Months ago you gained some real used car momentum when you made the decision that you were not going to continue to rely on new car sales. But lately you’ve focused on drinking the new car cocktail and lost your focus on used and now you need to go into a recovery program.

You can recover, but you have to get back on track really fast or you will lose what you gained during the big new car cocktail party and your previous focus on used. The first thing you need to do is to quit listening to the propaganda that says you can’t find used cars. The used cars are out there but you need an all out assault on the marketplace in order to find them. More important is finding the ones that are going to turn the fastest. There are cars in your market that sell well which the other dealers are not aware of because they are not as smart as you. They are still shooting from the hip and you are a student of the game. You study the data and buy based on data.

A “solid diet” of used cars will make your new car cocktails taste a lot better and your hangovers a lot less severe.

That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

I want to talk about Jim Press. I actually started this article a month or so ago, modified it somewhat and sent a different one out. I did that because I got chicken as I was concerned I might offend some of Mr. Press’s Toyota dealer friends. Due to a recent news article I’ve modified it again and decided to let it fly; so hang on.

It’s probably impolite to talk about someone you don’t know. I guess I’m just impolite. I mean I kind of know him. I’ve been around him 4 or 5 times, heard him speak maybe a half dozen times and certainly read a lot about him. Was he a hero at Toyota or what? What a superstar! So he goes to Chrysler to be their savior. What did he save? Nothing. What did he do? Nothing.

As you know it was announced a few months ago that he was leaving Chrysler. In addition, the Detroit News reported on September 18th that Jim Press, Chrysler Group’s outgoing deputy CEO, owes almost $1 million in back taxes and has been sued by his credit union for defaulting on a $609,000 loan.

I’m going to make a couple of reasonable assumptions. First, he lived in California while working for Toyota before his move to Chrysler and Detroit back around September 2007. I might have this wrong, but I don’t think the real estate market had crashed in California back in 2007. Second, if you’re moving from California to Detroit I would have to think you would be in an excellent real estate bargaining position. How could you not come out smelling like a rose moving from California to Detroit when it comes to buying a house?

I keep coming back to my famous saying, “You’re never as smart as you think you are and you’re never as dumb as you appear.” He appeared brilliant during his Toyota days and now he looks pretty dumb. Was he all that smart at Toyota and all that dumb at Chrysler? The answer in both cases is no. At Toyota he was at the right place at the right time in history. Great product, great organization and some darn good dealers to work with. I don’t want to burst your bubble, but I highly doubt the dealers he inherited at Chrysler were any worse than the ones he had at Toyota. The mere fact that so many of those Chrysler dealers survived over the years is a testament that they were outstanding dealers and probably a lot better than some of the Toyota guys.

I don’t want to take anything away from you Toyota dealers, but some of you were also in the right place at the right time. That goes for some of you Honda and Lexus dealers too. Yes, some of you maximized your mess, but some of you just happened to be in the right place. We all have known dealers who have had hot franchises, but couldn’t sell themselves out of a wet paper bag. Lousy Dealers + Hot Product=Profits.

But then I’ve known some others over the years, two that I can think of from my home town of Va. Beach, VA, Ken Hall and Tom Riddle, (Tom’s deceased, but what a guy) who absolutely maximized the profit potential with a few good franchises. These were two hard working, hard driving guys. As the story goes Ken Hall sold his operations a few years ago for $250,000,000. Not bad for a guy who started out as a “car salesman.”

So, I want to make sure I acknowledge dealers like these two who absolutely took advantage of having a great franchise at the right time. But, I also want to pick on those who have been shooting fish in a barrel for so long. 

Back to Jim Press. Like I said, I don’t know him personally and I’m sure he’s a nice guy. I wish him well and hope he can recover from whatever hard times he might be going through. He has some good leadership skills, but how great do you think he would have been had he been running Chrysler in the early 80s or Hyundai in the mid 80s?  If the truth be known, he learned his best skills during those years he spent at Southeast Toyota under Jim Moran. You can say want you want about Moran. Yes, hard driving, hard nosed, but the one thing he understood is that the dealers were his customers. He knew how to maximize opportunity. He would make you or break you. He made a lot of average guys look great and made them a lot of money. Jim Press was excellent with the dealers, but he’s not the genius he looked like during his Toyota days.

I don’t know why, but I’m furious that Jim Press did nothing for Chrysler. Please, someone tell me what he did?  I cannot imagine him leaving Toyota for Chrysler had there not been a lot of money involved.  Many of you have had to come up with lots of personal cash to keep your dealerships going. Unless he was an investor in some dealerships that we’ve not heard of, this whole thing just boggles the mind. How could a guy as brilliant as him be having these sorts of problems?

The Jim Press Toyota days are over. As a matter of fact those days are over for all of us. Yep, even those of you with superstar franchises. No more shooting ‘dem fish in a barrel. The fish have gotten slipperier, faster and smarter. A new day is upon us. The Jim Press Superhero days are gone.

Since I’m on a role with my venting tirade, let me add one more thing. Times will get better, profits will too. We have always thought that the factory passed cost after cost on to us partly because they hated seeing all the money some dealers were making. They loved eating our piece of the pie and they wanted more and more of the pie. With the Government now having an Car Czar, it won’t be long before they figure out a way to extract more of your bottom line from you. If you think the factory enjoyed eating off your plate you ain’t seen nothing ‘till the fat ass Car Czar sits down at your table.

Life’s good, let’s eat. That’s all I’m gonna say. Tommy Gibbs

I happened to catch part of one of the speeches during the recent memorial held at the World Trade Center site commemorating the attacks of 9/11. One of the speakers was a young man whose brother had been killed trying to rescue others. His brother was a lawyer and a volunteer firefighter whose office was located close to the World Trade Center. He rushed to help and was subsequently killed when the building fell. What was so impressive was how he talked about his deceased brother and all the great threads his brother had sewn during his personal and business life.
 
It got me to really think about the threads we all sew.  The older we get the more we tend to put value on things that at one time were not all that important. The “threads you sew” are one of those things. The threads you sew are far more important than the money, the homes, the toys, or the dealerships you own. When you leave this earth none of those things matter. What does matter is the quality of the threads you sew and how many garments your threads become a part of.

How conscious are you of your “daily threads?” Do you take the time to realize the impact you are having on others both good and bad? People want to emulate those they perceive to be successful. Others are watching you sew every little stitch.

If you are not a believer in this concept, how else can you explain organizations that develop a culture of bad behavior?  Someone sewed the bad threads and others followed suit. It just happens. It’s easy to spot. Some people don’t know any differently. It’s either the way they were taught or it’s what they observed and it transfers from one bad management team to another. That’s why in some organization you have a management style that’s rotten to the core. It’s the outdated style of talking down to customers and fellow team members and treating them like crap.

Don’t think for a moment that the bad thread sewing cycle can’t be broken. It can and it starts with you, regardless of your position in the organization. You can choose to take a stand by taking control of yourself and being the best thread sewer you can be. The threads you sew are going to be worn by someone, someplace, sometime and someday soon.

The odds are that you have some good fundamental disciplines and processes you believe in, but you need to pull out some of those ugly threads you’ve sewn and do some re-stitching. These are great times we are going through. Great times for change. Great times to re-make yourself. Great times to get the needle and thread out. Let the sewing begin.

Thanks all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

When Bobby Knight got fired from Indiana University, the news media interviewed some of the students. One of them stated that most people didn’t realize the positive impact he often made on the student body. One of the students told of the time Bobby Knight stopped into one of her classes and gave the class an impromptu speech that included the following statement: “In life you do what you have to do before you can do what you want to do.”

How profound that statement is. To be successful in any business you often have to do things you don’t necessarily enjoy doing in order to be successful. That might include certain daily disciplines and processes you don’t actually enjoy doing. Sometimes it means replacing people who are incompetent and who are not able to make the necessary changes to be successful in a changing market.

Bobby Knight also said “The will to succeed is important, but what’s more important is the will to prepare.” In business today that is the number one issue, “the will to prepare.” We live in a society of instant gratification. We all want it now. We want to shoot from the hip and make it happen right now. The automobile business like any business today is much more complex than it was 20, 15, 10 or even 5 years ago. Yet, many are lost in outdated time capsules.

The days of running to the auction, stocking up on inventory and making money on it are over. It takes lots of preparing and attention to detail to make it happen. Gut check is a thing of the past. Today it’s called “Data Check.” If you are not on top of the data available to you through vAuto you are like a comptroller still trying to produce a financial statement on a hand written spread sheet. This is a formula for mistakes and ultimate disaster.

Doing the things you don’t want to do starts at the top of the dealership’s management team.  “It’s the speed of the boss speed of the crew concept.” You have to set the example. You cannot depend on it “happening” because you said so or you designed a pay plan to make it happen. It happens by the example you set.

Bobby Knight also said: “Everybody hears, but few listen.” Many of you hear me, but only a few will really listen and fewer still will have the “will to prepare.” Let the preparation begin. That’s all I’m gonna say,

Tommy Gibbs

1. Hustle, Hustle Hustle-I don’t like Pete Rose. I’ve met him and he’s a jerk. But I sure do like “Charlie Hustle.” As a player Pete was the epitome of the word hustle. I personally relate a lot to Pete when it comes to hustle. I’ve never had the most talent. I’m not the smartest guy you will ever meet. But, take me on in anything and I will out hustle you and, more often than not beat you. I will take you in a game of one on one basketball. I will out hustle you all day long. You might beat me, but you are going to have some wounds to show for it.

That is the mindset you need to be successful and move your business to the next level. You have to be determined to out hustle the other guy, gal or business. The great thing about hustle is it requires no God given talent. It just requires God given heart which we are all supposed to have.

2. Have a Game Plan-Nothing happens without a strategic game plan. The plan has to be well thought out.  To do that you have to “get up early and stay up late”. A solid plan requires research, time and talking to others. Those around you see and know things you cannot possibly know. It will surprise you at what you can learn from people you would normally discount as not being important or having much to offer. Your plan should be constantly developing, growing, expanding. Adjustments are a part of the game. It you know anything about racing you know they are constantly adjusting the race car during the race to make it better. If you follow other sports like football you know there are always halftime adjustments. Those who can adjust to the changing conditions increase their chances of winning. You need to have the same mindset with your game plan. Put the plan in place and be ready to make adjustments.

3. Think Fast-Think fast and move fast should be your motto. The great advantage of not being part of the corporate world is your ability to react quickly to the changing economic and business environment. Decisions and changes need to be well thought out, but if you’re “up early and stay up late” you can make fast decisions that will bury your competition. Just be quick like Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jumped over the candle stick.

4. Communicate, Then Do it Some More-Communication starts by listening and responding. It takes a combination of meetings, memos, emails, and phone calls to distribute information. The keys are updates and progress reports. The more information you share with your staff the more progress you will see and the more your team will develop. The more the team develops the more butts you kick. When you communicate with your team then you kill the rumor mill. The more you kill the rumor mill the more productive your staff becomes. Just a fact of life.

5. Get Back to Empowerment-Yes, times have been tough. We have pulled back and cut back. but now is the time to get back into the “Yes” mode. Years ago automobile dealers took a page out of the airline book of customer satisfaction by allowing staff member to make on the spot decisions to satisfy customers. With the tough economy that has been now drilled up to upper management. Our policy for years was if the customer asks then the answer is “Yes.” That’s not to say that you don’t need to have limits, but you must empower your people to “just handle it” Nine times out of ten you’re going to do it anyway, so let them handle it in the trenches. You will have happier customers and happier employees because they can avoid putting a customer off.

6. Pick Up The Intensity-when you combine Intensity with Hustle it’s almost impossible not to kick some serious butt down the road of success.

There’s nothing magical here. These are the things we sometimes forget that separate the winners from the losers. The ones who are moving ahead vs. the ones who are stagnant. It all gets down to how much you are willing to separate yourself and your business from the competition.

Tommy’s Tips:

• There is no substitute for Hustle.
• Develop a game plan and be ready to change it quickly.
• Give people the power to do their jobs.
• Combining hustle and intensity is a formula for some serious butt kicking.

That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

I don’t normally fly first class and even when I do I never charge my customers for a first class airline ticket. I charge them enough as it is so it would be insulting to tack even more on. But, every now and then I treat myself to a first class ticket, especially when it’s a three-hour or so flight.

Recently on a flight from Dallas to Philadelphia I splurged and bought myself a first class seat. After getting seated in my special aisle seat I had to get up and let my seatmate in. He was kind of a big guy, chatting on his cell phone and at the same time making comments to a number of other people boarding in both first class and coach as they walked by.

The people he was speaking to were co-workers returning from a company meeting/convention at the Gaylord Resort in Dallas, TX.

All of a sudden he gets up, walks back to the second row in coach and switches seats with a lady who apparently was the number one sales person for his region. He ends up sitting in a middle seat in the coach section for a three-hour flight to Philadelphia.

One of the things I learned from my days in the Marine Corps is that leaders lead from the front and push from the rear. Higher-ranking Marines will always make sure the troops eat first and they eat last. They know if they take care of the troops, the troops will take care of them.

I don’t know if this guy was a former Marine or not, but I do know that he certainly exhibited great leadership skills. The lady who was now sitting beside me had never sat in first class before. Do you think the next time he needs her to go the extra mile to make a sale that she will for one second hesitate? I kinda doubt it.

This very subject is the reason some leaders are able to achieve amazing results with average people. They know when to lead from the front and when to push from the rear. They understand what’s important to people and they understand what it takes to have a winning team.

Sometimes it’s the little things a leader does that you might not think of as being so important at the time. When I was a dealer, whenever we had a luncheon or function I never sat with the members of our management team. I always, always made sure I sat with the "rank and file." To take it a step further I always made it a point to sit with those who I knew felt disconnected from the hot shots in the dealership. I wanted to sit with the ones that you might consider introverts.

I know, and you should know, others are always watching you and your leadership skills. That guy on the plane didn’t just make a statement to the woman he gave his seat up to. He made a statement to all the other staff people on the plane that day.

So I have a short one question quiz for you. If you’d had a first class seat, would you have given it up to one of your subordinates to sit three hours in a middle seat from Dallas to Philadelphia?

It’s probably an unfair question since you just read this article, but give it a try.

Semper Fi. For you non-Marines that means "always faithful." That’s all I’m going to say. 

Tommy Gibbs