This past Sunday the NFC and AFC championship games were played. Oddly enough they were both decided on a winning and missed field goal at the end of the game. In the NFC Championship game Lawrence Tynes kicked a winning 31-yard field goal in overtime to help the Giants beat the 49ers and advance to a second Super Bowl in five seasons.

In the AFC Championship game New England escaped defeat when Billy Cundiff hooked a 32-yard field-goal attempt wide left with 11 seconds remaining that would have forced an overtime.

One team wins because of a successful kick, the other loses because of an unsuccessful kick. Lawrence Tynes is a hero, Billy Cundiff is a goat. Really? I hardly think so.

As many of you know I refereed college basketball for 17 years. There were games I refereed when either I or another referee were accused of losing the game with a tough call toward the end. As a referee you hate to have an impact on the game that way. The reality is a referee has never won or lost a game any more than those two kickers won and lost on Sunday.

How many mistakes do you think were made during the course of the game that could have prevented it from getting down to one kick? How many fumbles? How many blown plays? How many missed assignments? How many bad reads by the quarterback? How many botched covers by the defensive backs? How many wrong routes run by the receivers? How many poor defensive schemes set up by the coaches that put players in the wrong place at the wrong time? How many bad calls by the offensive coordinator? How poor was the overall game plan? How many times did the discipline break down?

Can you relate to any of this in your business? It’s not any one mistake during the course of a month that causes you to have a bad month. It’s a multitude of them over a period of time.

If you miss a trade in, or put too much money in a car does it matter? No, it only matters if you keep doing it.

If you buy the wrong car at the auction, does it matter? No, it only matters if you keep doing it.

If you don’t log a customer does it matter? No, it only matters if you keep doing it.

If you have a breakdown in your culture or core values does it matter? No, it only matters if you keep doing it.

If you don’t demo a car does it matter? No, it only matters if you keep doing it.

If you let one unit go over 60 days does it matter? No, it only matters if you keep doing it.

If you have an unhappy customer, does it matter? No, it only matters if you keep doing it.

If you don’t do a trade walk today, does it matter? No, it only matters if you keep doing it.

If you don’t execute your sales processes, does it matter? No, it only matters if you keep doing it.

Obviously I can go on and on, but the take-away for you on this should be that if you have a bad month or you’re not selling the number of cars you would like to be selling it’s not because you make a mistake here or there, it’s because you continue to make the same mistakes over and over.

Consistency is very important. If you’re consistently not getting results it’s because you’re consistently doing so many things wrong.

So, it wasn’t the kicker who won or lost the game on Sunday. It was a multitude of good and bad decisions by the players and coaches that created the final results. 

You will win or lose depending on the consistency of you and your team’s good and bad decisions. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Someone told me something recently that makes really good sense and it goes like this, "Anything you say before the word but is a bunch of bull poo poo." I made up the part about bull poo poo, he actually said meaningless. Meaningless or bull poo poo, it’s a bunch of crap.

So let’s chat a bit. You might say something like "I have a great used car manager, but I can’t get him to understand why ROI is important." Everything you said before the word but is bull poo poo.

That’s fun, let’s do some more:

"Sam is a really smart guy, but he just won’t get with the program."

Oh, gosh this is awesome, let’s keep going.

"Ralph has been a loyal and dedicated employee, but he just can’t seem to show up on time."

"I have a great used car manager, he really knows cars, but we have a lot of stuff over 60 days old."

"We have a great website, but we just can’t seem to get our pictures online in a timely manner."

"We have prices posted on our used cars, but they don’t match the prices we have on the Internet."

"My used car manager is a great closer, but he doesn’t understand how to price used cars."

"Curtis is a nice guy, but makes poor buying decisions by buying too many high dollar cars."

"Bob is a hard worker, but he’s an idiot." 

"My used car manager is one of the best in the business, but we’re only getting 5 turns a year."

"We have great sales people, but we can’t get them to sell used cars."

"We have a great service department, but we can’t get them to get used cars through the system in a timely manner."

"My general manager is awesome, but his people skills are terrible."

"We spend a ton of money in advertising, but we haven’t figured out what role digital plays in our business."

"My used car manager is really tight with all the wholesalers, but we always lose money when we sell them a car."

"Joe is a great manager, but his paper work is a disaster."

"Steve is one of our best managers, but he doesn’t want to change from old school thinking."

Ok, I’m having way too much fun. How many of these can you come up with yourself about things in your organization? This whole "but thing" is simply an excuse and/or a weakness as to why you are not willing to deal with the problem or issue at hand.

I recently was reading a book review in the Wall Street Journal titled "Marshall and His Generals." It’s a biography of General George C. Marshall and how he shaped the U.S. Army Generals during World War II. 

To quote from the article and book: Marshall could be pitiless in relieving generals, especially those who were too old or too slow to adapt to the war’s brutal pace. His ruthlessness spawned enemies at the Officers’ Club, in Congress and in the hierarchy conscious world of military wives, but Marshall prided himself on remaining objective. As he told a gathering of governors in 1943: "The man has to have it or he doesn’t stay. And we listen to no excuses of any kind."

There comes a point in your life or business career when you need to show some real spine. You need to jump up on your desk, rear up on your hind legs and be counted.

You’re running a business. You’re not running a democracy. You can keep on "but"-ing all you want. At some point your "buts" are gonna bite you in the butt. 

Remember I said at the beginning everything before the word but is meaningless.

Ok, one last but…"Tommy Gibbs is really expensive, but he’s made me so much money I feel brilliant that I hired him." That’s all I’m gonna say. Tommy Gibbs

It was recently pointed out to me that not everyone understands the term "did you get up with…" For me I’ve always thought it made perfectly good sense. In my little world it means did you make contact with so and so.

We often fail to realize that everyone does not live in our world and speak our language. Just because we know what we mean doesn’t mean everyone else does. Our ability to communicate with others is critical to our success and even more so when you think of it in terms of an organization.

It’s not unusual for the owners or top management to have a vision for where they want to go, but they communicate that vision so poorly that it breaks apart before it ever had a chance to succeed.

I’ve written in other articles about my business partner for some 30 years, Ashton Lewis from Chesapeake, VA. Ashton is a second-generation dealer. He, his cousin, Lewis Wood, and George Pelton are the principal owners of the First Team Auto group located in Chesapeake, Roanoke, and Hampton, VA. Ashton’s son, Ashton Lewis, Jr. is the third generation and successor to the operations. The baton is gradually being handed over to Ashton, Jr. The future is very bright. These are four of the finest people I have ever met in my life.

Back in November Ashton and his team attended a Dave Anderson’s Strategy Summit held in Dallas, TX. Dave’s summit was an awesome experience for the team and has served as the catalyst to create a new and exciting vision and direction.

I had the distinct honor last week of serving as the Emcee for their kickoff meeting announcing the new vision to all their associates. Weeks and weeks went into the planning of the meeting. It was a mandatory meeting with several hundred team members attending at a local convention center. All the dealerships involved were closed down until 9:30 that morning so everyone could be present. There’s a very powerful message when you close an entire dealership down during one of the busiest times of the day.

The meeting was extremely well done. Prizes galore. Color TV sets, IPods, Kindles, and a grand prize of an all-expense paid trip to the Daytona 500 for two. But the most important part was the energy and effort put together to communicate the vision and road map to achieve the goals at hand. A full video presentation with cool lights and awesome music. (And of course me dancing around.)

Their theme is 1/10/25. 1 meaning to win all the manufacturer’s awards, 10 meaning 10% growth, and 25, meaning for the three stores located in the Hampton Roads area to sell 2500 used cars this year. No doubt that one was my favorite.

At the end of the meeting every employee received a 1 dollar bill, a 10 dollar bill and an American Express gift card for 25 dollars to cement the commitment to the 1/10/25 theme.

So, you’re sitting there thinking, what’s the point of all this chatter? The point is, if you’re going to attack something, be it a new vision or whatever, you have to "get after it." Oops, maybe that’s more slang too.

There needs to be a total all out commitment to make it happen. In order to make it happen you have to be willing to spend time and money to do so. There are no short cuts, easy or cheap ways when you are trying to achieve excellence.

This past Monday the University of Alabama played LSU for the national championship in New Orleans. Alabama won 21-0 with an amazing defensive display. In an interview on Tuesday morning the Alabama coach Nick Saban said the following when discussing his defensive team. "I sometimes get upset with my guys in practice when I don’t think they are going all out or make a mistake. But, when they toss the ball out there on game day, they come to play." When you turn the key every day to enter your business, are you "coming to play?"

The team isn’t going to commit unless they see that you are committed. They know you are committed based on your actions, words and follow through. You cannot just talk the talk, you have to walk the walk. (Yikes, more slang.)

It doesn’t matter if you have a new vision or an old one that needs a kick in the butt due to evaporation or whatever. If you don’t communicate it to the masses in terms they can understand, it’s not going to happen. They have to buy into it and then live and breathe it every day.

If you want to be better in 2012 than you were in 2011 it’s not going to happen by sitting around thinking about it. It will only happen when you are committed to communicating the message in a way that all can understand.

Have you "gotten up with Dave yet?" That’s all I’m gonna ask. Tommy Gibbs

I’m talking with a dealer the other day who needed some help with his used car department. Based on the conversation he is struggling in both new and used car sales.

It’s not unusual when you struggle with one you struggle with the other. There are exceptions to that rule as there are some dealers who see themselves as being a “new car dealer” and some who see themselves as being a “used car dealer.”

For years the have made money doing it that way and I’m not about to say they are wrong. I will say they could have made even more money had that not been a single minded car dealer.

The fact is you can be both. When the two departments are managed correctly they compliment each other. When they are both rocking they help to fire up the the parts, service and body shop business which and the bottom line explodes.

I looked at the aforementioned dealer’s website and here’s what I discovered. He had 87 units in stock. Of the 87 there were 67 units that had a retail price of $29,000 or more! 11 others over $14,900 and he had 9 under $14,000.  According to the dealer more than have of his inventory is over 60 days old. Ok, rock star how much water do you think he’s got sitting there?

This picture is not all that unusual. For the life of me I can’t figure out why dealers let this happen to them. Most of this dealer’s inventory happens to be 2010 and 2011 models and a lot of the inventory was purchased from Enterprise.

I’m thinking Enterprise must have some really awesome sales people working for them because more often than not when I see these problems Enterprise has played a role in it.

Oh, I’m not blaming Enterprise because what needs to take place is dealers need to have the discipline to say “NO” to “EASY.” Buying these types of cars is easy. Heck, I did it back in 1902 (not really 1902, it’s just a redneck saying) when the factory was selling program cars by the thousands. I stood there with my hand in the air like everyone else. I’m living proof that it didn’t take any real brains to buy those cars.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news for this dealer, but the reality is he only has 9 units in his inventory that fits the pocketbook of the majority of used car buyers. The retail sweet spot for used car sales remains around $15,000 or less. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have some more expensive cars in stock, but it does mean that if you’re gonna get to play the game then the majority of you inventory cannot be over that number.

I realize we live in a high tech world and today’s automobile dealer has a lot on his/her plate. But, so much of this business remains common sense. Common sense tells you the make up of this dealers inventory is a formula for disaster.

It’s a really bad start when you have made really bad purchase decisions and then you compound the bad purchase decisions with bad inventory management. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

Two wrongs make for a really bad start. That’s all I’m gonna say. Tommy Gibbs