You’re not ready. That’s different than being not prepared. You’re never ready.

But, no one is ever ready for the next step.

You’re not ready for the next promotion.

You’re not ready for your next business venture.

Just because you’re not ready doesn’t mean you don’t prepare.

Not being prepared means you haven’t studied enough. You haven’t read enough.

You haven’t sought the right mentors.

You haven’t listened enough.

You haven’t asked enough of the right questions.

You haven’t explored the Internet enough.

Not being prepared means you just haven’t done enough, Tommy Gibbs

Given the chance, most people I know would jump at the chance to get an open point.

If you have the assets to make it happen, the only drawback for you would be staffing and no units in operation to support your fixed operations.

Even with those obstacles, most people will figure a way to make it happen

This type of opportunity doesn’t come along often so your decision is understandable.

Since the odds are not in your favor of getting an open point, why not invest in your used car operation?

Your new car volume isn’t likely to improve all that much with the numbers nationally hovering around 17 million. Cranking up used cars makes a lot of sense.

Of course, I think you should invest in my training and invest in increasing your enthusiasm and passion for the used car business.

That said, perhaps the best investment for you would be in a standalone recon/service center. Your first reaction is it doesn’t make financial sense. Let’s look a little deeper.

If you have two or more stores or if your stand-alone store is selling 100 plus used a month maybe it’s an investment you need to give serious consideration to.

If your current service department is operating at close to 100% efficiency, you are more than likely losing customer pay because you’re not able to service those customers in a timely manner.

We live in a world of “now.” If you can’t get them in right now, you may very well lose them forever.

With your used cars not clogging up your service operation, you should be able to quickly work your way back to 100% efficiency in the service department.

By having a separate recon car operation you’re going to shave a number of days off the number of days tied up in recon.

Every day you save makes you money. Forget about the savings in holding costs. Your grosses are the best in the first 10 days you sell a car. Faster is better.

With a recon car operation, you’re likely to be more flexible about how you price labor and parts to the used car department.

That’s especially true when it comes to keeping some of the older, cheaper, high mileage stuff, etc.

Retailing a unit vs. wholesaling a unit is always a winning proposition for you.

If you don’t have room to build a building, then look for something you can rent or buy within a 5-mile radius of your store or stores. Yes, you will have to shuffle them back and forth, but you can figure that out.

Some questions you should ask:

How much internal work are you now doing?

What’s the impact of moving that from your service department?

Can your service department make up the difference?

How many additional units will you have to sell for the recon center to more than pay for itself?

By opening a separate recon center what’s the message you are sending your organization?

Now is the time to invest in your used car operation. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

 

“The overeducated are worse off than the undereducated, having traded common sense for the illusion of knowledge.” Naval Ravikant

I saw this quote and it was a good reminder that we have to be careful in the automobile business to not let data be the only decision-making factor to determine a strategy for each used car in our stock portfolio.

I’m constantly reminding my audiences that every used car is different and has to be fully evaluated as the unique beast it is.

Your skill, your knowledge, your experience, and good common sense play a major role in your success.

Never sell yourself short. Then on the other hand never sell yourself on being too smart.

Software is a tool and a guide that should help point you in the right direction, but at the end of the day, it’s your decision making that’s going to make a big difference.

Show me someone that “gets” the car business and understands how to analyze data, and I’ll show you someone managing a used car department that’s rocking.

Rock your used car department by using common sense and technology. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

If what you’re doing isn’t working, why do you keep doing what you’re doing?

Maybe you don’t know it’s not working? Nah.

Could it be you know it’s not working, but keep thinking if you stay the course that it eventually will work?

I’m all for staying the course, but how long can you stand to stay the course? The sad part of this story is there are those around you, some not even as smart as you, and they know it’s not working.

They are embarrassed for you, but they are afraid to speak up.

They know you already know it’s not working, but they don’t want to make you mad by telling you something they think you already know.

Only an idiot stays the course when they know it’s the wrong course. You’re not an idiot. For gosh sakes, do the right thing and change directions.

The worst that can happen is it doesn’t work. What you’re doing ain’t working.

Changing the miserable course that you are on will energize your team and when you energize the team anything is possible.

Be energized, That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy