1. Your oldest units? Do you know where they are parked? How about a plan to make them go away?

2. Your look-to-book? Don’t like that one? Ok, how about trade ratio?

3. Your most expensive units? Do you know where they are parked? Have you got a plan to make them go away?

4. What’s your wholesale to retail ratio?

5. Who owns your used car department?

6. How many turns are you getting a year?

7. Do you understand the consequences of over and under 30 days old?

8. What’s your average cost per unit in stock?

9. How many clicks does it take to get from A to B on your website?

10. How many days does it take to get a unit through recon and on the line?

11. Are you doing a trade-walk & identifying problematic units? Are you creating a unique strategy for each? 99% of the time auction purchase units are problematic. (You’re going to get burned if you don’t start paying attention.)

12. Do you have anything over 60 days? Have you asked why? Do you have a plan to make them go away?

There are lots of things you need to know. I’m just pointing out a dozen of them.

That’s all I’m gonna ask, Tommy Gibbs.

Woody Hayes’ (the legendary coach of Ohio State University) career was cut short because he punched a Clemson University player on the Ohio State sideline.

Coach Hayes once said, “Paralyze resistance with persistence.” Regardless of what you think about Coach Hayes, you have to give him credit for a very powerful statement.

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 salespeople who drove us nuts. They bug you to death and work you until your nerves are on edge. But, the bottom line is they were persistent. Persistence wins over time and persistence will sell lots of cars.

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 having 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.

The enemy is resistance. Your sword is persistence. Fight the good fight.

That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs.

1. Record front grosses are being achieved
2. Those record front grosses will be hard to maintain
2. Dealerships are achieving record profits
3. Record profits won’t continue
5. Volume is down
6. Volume will continue to be down
7. You will overpay at the auctions
8. You have always overpaid at the auctions
9. You cannot give up on buying at the auctions
10. You must have a different and unique strategy for auction purchases
11. You need to have a quicker trigger on auction purchases
12. Stealing trades at the front door will be harder to do
13. The big boys are aggressively buying your customers’ cars
14. You’re going to see less and less trades showing up at your front door
15. Did I say you need a different strategy for buying at the auctions? You need a different strategy for buying at the auctions.

If you play smart, you will always have the winning hand. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs.