My good friend Sam Milton with the Sonic Auto Group sent me the following quote by Woody Hayes, "Paralyze resistance with persistence."

Change, continuous improvement, and daily disciplines are often met with resistance. Resistance is not a generational thing, it’s just a thing. It’s a thing that’s always been present. It’s been around since the caveman.

There are always strange forces of nature at work. Resistance is the force of nature against persistence. We’ve all seen very talented people fall flat on their faces because of a lack of persistence. Talented people will often resist having to be accountable. They like doing their own thing. The lack of discipline is a close cousin of resistance.

Persistence can be a two edged sword. We’ve all known sales people who drove us nuts. They bugged you to death. They worked you till your nerves were on edge. But, the bottom line is they were persistent. Persistence wins over time and persistence will sell lots of cars.

If you allow the average sales person to analyze their own results they will easily justify why they are doing so well or not. If a sales person has a high closing ratio then they would tend to think they are doing a great job. If a sales person has a low closing ratio they will blame it on getting bad ups.

You as a leader must be persistent in how you frame a sales person’s production and direction for improvement. If they have a high closing ratio then you should be encouraging them to talk to more customers. If they have a low closing ratio then you need to show them the way to better closing techniques. You have to have the discipline not to let them sell you why this or why that.

There is always room for improvement and you should never be satisfied…and you should never let them be satisfied. Becoming satisfied leads to complacency. To keep the "boogie man of complacency" away, you as a leader have to be persistent in all things that have been deemed to be important to the success of the organization. It is so easy to lose persistence. Being persistent is not something you do once in a while. It is something that has to be done every minute of every day.

Discipline is the twin brother of persistence. Discipline is what carries you through the down moments; those moments when you want to throw your hands in the air and say the heck with it.

I like to think of persistence as always staying after it regardless of your current state of mind. Being highly motivated can come and go. Even when you are not feeling all that motivated you can still remain persistent.

Being persistent means have intestinal fortitude and a willingness to grind it out regardless of the obstacles that keep coming your way. Think of obstacles as just bugs on a windshield. Persistence is the windshield wiper. Wipe ’em off and keep digging.

Being persistent means never giving up. Have you seen the video on Caine’s Arcade? Caine is a 9 year old kid whose dad owns a used parts store in east LA. Remaining persistent pays off big time for Caine. Go ahead check it out, that’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

If you’ve ever heard me speak you’ve heard me reference Bubba the wholesaler. Bubba is the typical wholesaler who has for years been in charge of training used managers in new car dealerships around the country. In the old days Bubba was the guy we called when we wanted to know the value of a used car. Bubba is the old school way of thinking. There is still a place in the business for the Bubbas of the world, but we don’t have a need for Bubba like we used to.

Also, if you’ve heard me speak you know the subtitle of my workshop is, "It’s Not The Big That Will Eat The Small, It’s The Fast That Will Eat The Slow." I stole that title from a book by Jason Jennings and Laurence Haughton. Bottom line is speed is critical in your business.

So, back to Bubba. I’m not a big golf fan. I don’t even play golf. I’m not an avid follower, but I know things like Tiger’s got a serious temper. One of the TV commentators said this weekend that "not only has Tiger lost his game, he’s lost his mind." Tiger has nothing to do with this article. Just wanted to impress you with my golf knowledge.

I was watching the Masters Golf Tournament on TV late Sunday and lo and behold the guy heading to a playoff was none other than Bubba Watson. (Not Bubba the wholesaler.) I’ve heard the name but didn’t have a clue as to who this Bubba was." Bubba ended up winning the Masters tournament on the second hole of a sudden death playoff.

Like so many of you I’m computer savvy so I googled his name and it popped up on Wikipedia. This is what it said, "Bubba Watson (born November 5, 1978) is an Americanprofessional golfer who won the 2012 Masters Tournament."

Do what? Just 5 minutes ago he won the Masters and within that time frame it’s listed on Wikipedia! Oh my gosh! Talk about the speed factor! So, once again we have to come to grips with the fact that speed is so much of a factor in the world we live in today.

Your ability to react to the ever changing marketplace is going to ultimately determine the amount of success you will have.

To be very specific, your used car business requires you to be able to travel at the speed of Mach 5. You have to think fast and move fast in today’s market. Used car managers are amazing at selling themselves and the dealer on why they should hold inventory longer. Yes, inventory may be hard to come by (uh, work harder) but if you want to hold your inventory longer vs. turning it faster you will lose 9 times out of 10.

While I’m talking sports let’s talk a little baseball. Since my office is in the Tampa Bay area I tend to keep up with the Tampa Bay Rays. This weekend they swept the Yankees in a three game series. The buzz about town is that the Rays’ Joe Madden is a very unconventional baseball manager.

He moves hitters around from the number 6 spot to the number 2 spot. He bats a guy cleanup that’s never batted cleanup in his life. On another day he takes a hitter who went 0 for 4 the day before and moves him into the cleanup spot. He overshifts and positions his defensive players in very strange alignments. And, with one of the lowest payrolls in the major leagues he wins and often gets criticized.

If you dig deep enough, what he’s doing is all based on statistical logic. He does the research, makes decisions based on numbers and wins. He’s taken the concept of money ball to a different level. By doing so he’s challenged the baseball "world order." He drives purists and old school thinkers crazy.

You need to challenge your own "world order." Just because you’ve always done it a certain way doesn’t mean you should stay that course. 

Understanding the data you have available to you and how to apply it will go a long way toward improving your numbers. Remember, the slower you move, the more likely someone named Bubba or Joe will eat you up. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Last Week’s Zinger was titled is "Is It Time For You To Listen?" (LINK) The theme and concept was that you need to listen to those around you who could very well have some ideas that will help your business. 

By coincidence I received a blog this morning from Seth Godin, one of my favorite writers titled "The Coalition of No." Seth is a really smart guy. Seth and I want to move you away from "The Coalition of No." 

Seth’s Article:

"The coalition of No"

It’s easy to join.

There are a million reasons to say no, but few reasons to stand up and say yes.

No requires just one objection, one defensible reason to avoid change. No has many allies–anyone who fears the future or stands to benefit from the status quo. And no is easy to say, because you actually don’t even need a reason.

No is an easy way to grab power, because with yes comes responsibility, but no is the easy way to block action, to exert the privilege of your position to slow things down.

No comes from fear and greed and, most of all, a shortage of openness and attention. You don’t have to pay attention or do the math or role play the outcomes in order to join the coalition that would rather things stay as they are (because they’ve chosen not to do the hard work of imagining how they might be).

And yet the coalition of No keeps losing. We live in a world of yes, where possibility and innovation and the willingness to care often triumph over the masses that would rather it all just quieted down and went back to normal.

Yes is the new normal. And just in time.
Seth Godin 

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The car business is not as complicated as we sometimes make it. When I first got in the business back in the early 70s we had a sales meeting every morning. Yes, as in Monday through Saturday. Part of the meeting had a bit of rah, rah, and part of it was training, covering issues, sorting out details of what our production was relative to forecast, and so on and so on.

For the most part, daily meetings have gone out of style and daily training is gone…well, I don’t know where. At best, the management team has been assigned counseling duties to review the BDC activity. At worst management says hello to each sales person.

From time to time the Dealer (PIC) gets all wired up and implements a new program/process that demands certain things are done. At best, it’s a 90 day excursion to futility.

It’s a given that those who consistently use positive best practices are the ones who achieve the most success. One of the things that happened during those daily meetings back in the "good old days" was the used car manager would get up in the front of the room and tell everyone to get their "sheet" out of their back pocket so changes could be made. The referenced sheet was the "used car list."

He would then say something like "draw a line through stock number 2345A. We sold that car last night." Further saying "add to your sheet, stock number 4645A. Tommy would you stand up in the back of the room and tell everyone about the nice little car you traded in last night."

As antiquated as that might seem to you it’s far better than most do today. If you want to sell more used cars you need to provide the team with more information about what you have in inventory. A great method of doing that is to do a lot walk once a week. Yup, just once a week, when done right, will generate some pretty amazing results. If nothing else, I can guarantee you at least one more used car sold by each sales person.

The lot walk is done right after the "Save-a-Deal" meeting. I just know you’re doing a "Save-a-Deal" meeting so it shouldn’t be hard for you to add the lot walk at the end of that meeting. Every sales person and every manager goes on the lot walk. New, Used, they all go on the "Lot Walk." Make sure the service manager is included in this walk.

You should stop and talk about each and every car on the lot. The conversations that come about will amaze you. A real byproduct of the lot walk is the sales people will start to tell you why certain cars haven’t sold. They also gain so much more knowledge about what’s on the lot. Do not leave the "Trade Line" out of the lot walk. They need to know what’s in the system and what’s about to become available.

This is a great time to inquire about what they think you need to stock. Of course you can’t fulfill all their needs, wants and desires, but it becomes a great opportunity to educate them about the law of supply and demand and why they need to sell the value of your current inventory.

When the team is educated they tend to educate the customer. When the customer is educated as to the value of your product you sell more cars and make more money. Education for both starts with the information shared on the "Lot Walk." Let’s Walk. That’s all I’m gonna say. 
Tommy Gibbs