It’s easy to do easy.

It’s easy to ignore.

It’s easy to look the other way.

Easy to let slide.

We all like easy.

Anybody can do easy.

Being easy causes you to say yes, when you should say no.

Being easy causes you to take your eye off the big picture.

When you take your eye off the big picture, everything around you becomes a little fuzzier.

The fuzzier things get, the more confused you and your staff get.

The more confused you and the staff get, the more little things begin to slide.

Easy now becomes habit.

Habit becomes the norm.

The norm becomes easy.

That’s when rinse and repeat occurs. The problem is that the water you’re rinsing with is murky and dirty.

Expectations begin to drop. Lower expectations become the norm.

The little things can be hard to measure, so they are ignored.

When you focus on the little things, the performance of the team improves.

Why would you want to do easy?

Don’t do easy. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Most of my messages are geared toward management, but today I want to talk to your sales staff. You should forward this to every sales person on your team.

As a sales person I want to help you re-frame what you do every day and what a great opportunity you might be missing.

Have you ever wanted to be in business for yourself?

Have you ever thought about going into business, to get someone else to invest the money and you reap the rewards?

Welcome to the amazing world of the automobile business:

You have free office space.
You get rewarded based on how hard you work.
You have opportunities for advancement.
You have healthcare, vacation and retirement opportunities and Christmas bonus programs.
You have a management team working to help you be productive.
You have a free computer system.
You have a DMS and other software provided free of charge.
You have staff and technicians available to handle customer problems.
You have free marketing, advertising and a website developer.
You have an administrative staff to help process your deals, DMV work, etc.
You have millions of dollars of inventory to sell with zero personal investment.
You get special spiffs/incentives from the factory.
You get all the free training/coaching that you can stand.
You have a detail/clean up department that gets your vehicles ready for delivery.
You don’t have to pay a penny for phone, electricity and other utilities.
You can demand an assistant when you become productive enough.
You have an Internet/BDC department begging you to take leads.
You have free janitorial service.
You have free coffee.
You have your own personal financial officer (F&I) working to put your deals together.
You work out of a multi-million dollar facility located on prime real estate.
You have an opportunity of a lifetime with no personal financial investment.

You need to “own” your own business. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

1. I wish we could do away with packs.

2. I wish every sales person worked his or her entire deal on a tablet.

3. I wish we could eliminate cashiers.

4. I wish we had salaried sales people with annual bonuses.

5. I wish we had salaried management with annual bonuses.

6. I wish we didn’t have to rely on processing fees to make a nice bottom line.

7. I wish we had two-tiered pricing from the service department to the used car department.

8. I wish every service writer presented the menu on a tablet.

9. I wish we didn’t have to negotiate prices.

10. I wish we didn’t have “towers of power.”

11. I wish sales people didn’t sit behind a desk to work with a customer.

12. I wish sales management & sales people had a 40-hour workweek.

13. I wish we could get units through service in 3 days.

14. I wish we never would have any units over 60 days old.

15. I wish we didn’t have new car rebates.

16. I wish auction fees could be reduced.

17. I wish we focused more on “leading” rather than “managing.”

18. I wish every dealer was in a 20 group.

19. I wish your showroom didn’t look like a showroom.

20. I wish I’d see you at the NADA convention.

21. I wish 75% of a sales transaction could take place online.

22. I wish you’d get 12 turns per year.

23. I wish we could rid ourselves of “Legacy Thinking.”

24. I wish you would finally hire me.

25. I wish you a great holiday season.

That’s all I’m gonna wish for, Tommy Gibbs

I’m a big proponent of forecasting. It lays out a map as to where we are going. Although there are detours along the way it gives us a chance to get to our final destination.

I’m an even bigger proponent of department head meetings. I believe your job as a leader should be to teach, educate, coach and encourage your team to seek ways to improve your operations. I tend to take a common sense approach to most things in life and I approach forecasting and monthly management meetings no differently.

Dealers, or any business for that matter, tend to forecast based on what they would like to do in the upcoming year. Often it’s based on statements such as “we need to increase our sales by 10%” and/or “we need to reduce expenses by 15%.”

Saying you want to increase your business by 10% sounds good, but if you don’t have a plan to get there what good is it? I’ve always been baffled by annual forecasting.

One of two things usually happens:

1. Someone is overly optimistic and/or they are blowing smoke up someone’s butt.
2. Someone serves up a low ball because they don’t want the pressure of hitting an unrealistic number.

Although dealers want to see an improvement in the next year’s numbers, what they really want is a number they can take to the bank.

In order to do a realistic forecast you have to take into account staffing, inventory, and market conditions. How can anyone do a forecast and predict what those three pieces of the equation are going to look like 3, 6 or 12 months down the road?

I’m not saying you shouldn’t do an annual forecast, but doesn’t it make more sense to adjust that forecast monthly or quarterly based on those three fundamental elements?

Because most leaders don’t make those adjustments it frustrates the management team and defeats whatever good intentions there might have been. Everyone eventually loses respect and confidence in any type of forecasting and concludes “Why bother?”

While it makes good sense to do a monthly or quarterly review of the actual numbers, managers become disillusioned with these reviews in that they become a “beat up” session rather than trying to figure out what went wrong and how “we” can fix it.

People know when they didn’t perform. What they want from upper management is leadership that gives well defined ideas and direction on how to “fix it” or make it better.

Using more common sense with your forecasting and monthly management meetings will help you grow a solid organization that generates consistent profits and sustained growth.

That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs