Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence is a term you hear a lot of people tossing around these days. Most of us think we know what it means and maybe you do or maybe you sorta do.

In this article I’m going to break the term down and you can judge for yourself how much you understand it and use in your daily life.

First let’s review the definition: 

“The ability to manage both your own emotions and understand the emotions of people around you.” Seems simple enough. Keep reading.

One of the most important ingredients of EI is peripheral awareness. It’s almost like having a fifth sense. It’s imperative that if you’re going to execute the four components of EI that you must develop your peripheral awareness. Peripheral awareness is simply paying attention to what’s going on around you. Some people work and live in a fog. Get your head out of the fog.

Far too often there’s more importance put on a person’s IQ, education, and training than EI.

EI revolves around understanding and managing emotions – both our own and those of others. In today’s world, where relationships and teamwork are integral to success, emotional intelligence plays a pivotal role.

What Is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional intelligence can be broken down into four key components:

Self-awareness: Recognizing and understanding our own emotions, as well as their impact on our thoughts and behavior. Being able to control what’s in your head and what comes out of your month goes a long way toward improving your self-awareness.

Self-regulation: The ability to manage and control one’s emotions, preventing impulsive actions or reactions. Just as above. Control what comes out of your mouth.

Social awareness: Being attuned to the emotions of others, sensing their feelings, and understanding their perspectives. This ties into the point I made about peripheral awareness. It’s almost like you need to have little energy antennas sticking out of your head alerting you how others are feeling around you. Some people put off good energy. Others not so good.

Relationship management: Utilizing self-awareness, self-regulation, and social awareness to build and maintain healthy relationships. You build a healthy relationship by taking a sincere interest in the other person. Until you have a clear understanding of how to do this, you will struggle with whatever you are selling and connecting to people.

Why Is Emotional Intelligence Important?

Enhanced Communication: High EI enables better communication. By understanding both verbal and non-verbal cues, individuals with strong EI can express themselves effectively and, more importantly, listen attentively. This builds trust, cooperation, and healthy relationships.

Conflict Resolution: Emotionally intelligent individuals are skilled at resolving conflicts amicably. They can de-escalate tense situations, find common ground, and seek mutually beneficial solutions. Some people are geniuses at this. Others only make the problem worse.

Leadership: Great leaders possess high levels of emotional intelligence. They inspire and motivate their teams by understanding the individual needs, strengths, and weaknesses of their members. This build a positive and productive work environment.

Adaptability: Life is full of challenges, and those with a strong EI are more adaptable to change. They can bounce back from setbacks, learn from failures, and embrace new opportunities. They understand taking the blame when things don’t go as planned and give others credit when they do.

Stress Management: Emotionally intelligent people are better equipped to manage stress. They can recognize when they are becoming overwhelmed, take steps to reduce stress, and maintain their overall well-being. Go outside. Walk around the building. Take a deep breath.

Cultivating Emotional Intelligence

You’re not born with EI. It can be developed and enhanced over time. Here are some strategies to boost your EI:

Self-reflection: Regularly take time to reflect on your emotions, their triggers, and how you respond to them. Don’t lie to the person in the mirror.

Active listening: Pay close attention to what others are saying, both verbally and non-verbally, and seek to understand their feelings and perspectives. Most of us spend time thinking about what our response will be rather than really listening to what the other person is saying.

Practice empathy: Put yourself in others’ shoes and try to grasp their emotions and motivations. I often ask people, “How would you feel if you were on the other side?”

Mindfulness and meditation: These practices can help improve self-awareness and self-regulation.

Seek feedback: Ask for honest feedback from trusted individuals to identify areas for improvement. This is a tough one. Most people don’t want to hear the truth.

Emotional intelligence is an essential skill in our personal and professional lives. It has a profound impact on our relationships, teamwork, and overall success.

By improving our emotional intelligence, we can build better connections, handle challenges more effectively, and lead more fulfilling lives. Emotional Intelligence. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Does Speed Matter?

Your inability to move fast is a killer for your used car business. Moving fast puts you in the winner’s circle. Not moving fast puts you in the loser’s circle.

Oh sure, speed hasn’t mattered all that much to you over the last few years. It matters now doesn’t it? Isn’t it interesting how this business comes full circle in the blink of an eye and you’re sitting there thinking, “what happened?”

The speed of your recon operation has a direct impact on your ability to produce gross in the used car department.

And without a doubt, it impacts how fast you get a car out in the Internet world. You cannot afford a 7 to 10-day window.

I’d be preaching to the choir if I went over all the reasons the recon/service department needs to cooperate and for you to get your used cars through service just as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, many service managers haven’t been trained to understand that your inventory is costing you a lot of money when it’s sitting.

Continuously educating your management team about how fast the market can change on a used car and what it does to your bottom line is critical to your long-term success.

If you want to improve your speed, then you need to take a hard look at my “Life Cycle Management” process.

“Life Cycle Management” will change your used car world forever, make you lightning-fast, eliminate wholesale losses, improve turn and gross profit.

You don’t need to buy anything from me. You just need to understand the concept.

If you’re dead serious you will get off your duff and improve your speed.

If you’re not then you’ll soon be giving back some of those record profits.

Speed Wins. Speed Kills. You get to make the choice.

That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Easy?

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

But What?

Unlocking the Potential of ROI:

“I have a great used car manager, but I can’t get him to understand why ROI is important.”

Recognizing the value of ROI is crucial in maximizing profits. There’s a lot of money at risk. We must get a return on our investment.

Bridging the Gap in Understanding:

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

Intelligence is an asset, but without alignment with the overarching goals, it’s kind of a wash. Ensuring everyone is on the same page fosters a harmonious and efficient work environment with everyone being on the same page.

Turning Auction Challenges into Opportunities:

“Dave is a great buyer, but we never make money on the cars he buys at the auction.”

A skilled buyer is an asset, yet turning auction acquisitions into profit vehicles involves strategic decision-making and the shortening of the life-cycle of these always problematic units.

Balancing Intelligence and Practicality:

“Smart guy, but no common sense.”

Intelligence alone is insufficient; marrying it with solid common sense ensures a better end result.

Optimizing Inventory Management:

“Marsha is a great used car manager, but we have a lot of stuff over 60-days old.”

Efficient inventory turnover is a key metric. Addressing aged units requires proactive measures and strategic adjustments to the sales approach. There’s no excuse for a 60 day old unit.

Overcoming Space Constraints:

“I know we need more technicians, but we don’t have enough space.”

While space constraints may pose challenges, finding innovative solutions or optimizing existing resources can often provide a way forward.

Aligning Pricing Strategies with Market Dynamics:

“My used car manager is really smart, but won’t price our cars to market.”

Acknowledging market dynamics and adjusting pricing strategies accordingly is essential for staying competitive and maintaining profitability. When you combine data and common sense, you win.

That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Attack The Top Ten

Attack your 10 most expensive units every day.

How simple is that?

Require the used car manager to print out the 10 most expensive units each day. Distribute a copy to all the members of your management team including BDC, Internet, F&I, Desk Manager, GSM, GM, Prep Manager and Service Director.

Everybody must be on the same page with a sense of urgency on these units. With a few exceptions, these units don’t make the kind of money they ought to make based on the amount you have invested in them. You will often find they are the very units that are starting to age on you and the ones you end up giving away at the end of their lifecycle.

They are competing with your new car business and there are fewer butts that can fit in the seats. The longer they sit, the uglier your grosses are going to be.

Three bullet points:

1. There should be a clear understanding with your Service Director that if for any reason one of these cars or trucks is sitting in the service department, they must get it out of there in a hurry because it’s one of your ten most expensive units.

2. Throw your normal retail pricing scheme out the window on these cars. You should price these 10 cars to the public at a bargain-basement price. The sooner they go away the better. There’s only one exception to this approach-don’t do it on any of the 10 cars you always do well with. Use some common sense.

3. Consider putting a bonus on these cars regardless of the number of days they have been in stock. (Not all, but some.)

Historically, here’s what happens. We have a car in inventory that’s around 60 days old. We are more than happy to sell it for what we have in it or less, and we are more than happy to pay a $500 bonus on it to make it go away.

If this becomes a habit for you, eventually your salesman’s compensation percentage gets out of whack to the tune of 22, 25, 28, even 30 percent.

After all is said and done, and when the packs and all the crap shake out, most dealers are looking to get to 17 percent to 20 percent in salesman’s comp.

The point is you are far better off paying bonus money on these units sooner rather than later, regardless of the number of days they have been in stock. It will help you move the unit and avoid sales compensation creep.

The keys to remember:

1. Create a sense of urgency on these units.

2. Make these units go away faster.

3. Make what you can and run.

4. Put some bonus money on the most problematic ones.

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

Things We Say Make a Difference

1. I need your help.

2. What can I do to make your job easier?

3. What do you think?

4. We can fix this!

5. How are you? (And mean it.)

6. Let’s get our heads together!

7. I trust your good judgment.

8. You’re the best!

9. Let’s make something happen!

10. You rock!

11. It’s not a problem, it’s an opportunity.

12. Gimme a high five!

13. Tell me about yourself.

14. You’re amazing

15. Love ‘ya.

Have you got a key word or two? Come on, share it with me…

That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Are You Proud of Your Numbers

Even if you don’t have your final statement, you should have a pretty good idea of what the final the numbers are going to look like.

So, rock star, how do they look? I’m thinking you’ve had one of three reactions to your numbers:

1. They look great. Could have even been better, but a little pat on the back is in order.

2. They are ok. Kind of pleased, but you know you could have done a lot better.

3. Not happy at all. What a wasted year. You are super disappointed and know you have to do better.

While you have that statement out, take a look and see if you have any used units over 60 days old. Even one is too many.

That being said, the odds are pretty good that you’ve not made as much money as you think you have, and if by some chance you lost money for the year, you’ve lost a lot more than you thought you did.

I hope the reasons are obvious, but if they aren’t, let me enlighten you a bit.

If you had to liquidate your used car inventory today, your bottom line would take a real hit. The fake news is you think you’ve made money. The real news is you haven’t made any, or at least not as much as you thought.

If you’re the owner or GM, keep in mind someone’s paycheck has been impacted in a positive way from that stuff that’s been sitting. The company’s paycheck, not so much.

A simple New Year’s resolution for you is to fix it. Fixing it doesn’t mean dumping stuff at 60 days old. Fixing it is understanding there’s a retail buyer out there at some number. Retailing early at some price is far better than dumping or retailing late.

I’ve been doing this a long time and for the life of me, I don’t understand the mindset of keeping aged inventory. I’m sure you have a great excuse for doing so.

Keep in mind, there’s not a unit in your aged inventory that you couldn’t have already retailed at some number. Think retail, retail, retail.

The choices you have are to keep on doing what you’re doing or do something that will dramatically improve what you’re looking at this time next year. Enjoy your numbers.

And never forget, having aged used cars is just stupid. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Are You Causing People To Lie To You?

I’m betting you’ve either got a lot of numbers already laid out on a spreadsheet for 2024 or you’re scrambling to get it done in the next few days.

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

Are You Dumb?

“You’re never as smart as you think you are, and you are never as dumb as you appear.” Some of you are feeling smart right now. You’ve had a few good years and there’s been a little chest-pounding going on.

It could be that you are smart, or it could be that you got lucky because of a once-in-a-lifetime market shift in your favor.

And of course, there are times when you feel dumb. Maybe you are or maybe you aren’t. You might be a victim of a bad set of circumstances. Some of you have had bad franchises in bad locations or it could be that you’re a newer used car manager that inherited a hot mess for a used car inventory.

Or it could be you’re just dumb.

In any given set of circumstances, it’s important to maximize whatever you have. If you have half a brain you must ask yourself, “Did you maximize your potential the last few years?”

Sure, you had record profits, but how much did you leave on the table?

Did you do a lot of things right or did you just get lucky?

With grosses starting to slide, a lot of dealers are starting to question themselves as to where the market is going and what approach they should take moving forward.

The most important thing right now is recognizing where you are, how you got there, and how to keep the train on the tracks.

This business continues to be:

All about the basics.

All about the fundamentals.

All about your disciplines.

All about the processes.

All about understanding the data.

All about common sense.

All about your focus.

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.”

That’s all that Dr. Seuss and I are gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Are You Dumb?

“You’re never as smart as you think you are, and you are never as dumb as you appear.” Some of you are feeling smart right now. You’ve had a few good years and there’s been a little chest-pounding going on.

It could be that you are smart, or it could be that you got lucky because of a once-in-a-lifetime market shift in your favor.

And of course, there are times when you feel dumb. Maybe you are or maybe you aren’t. You might be a victim of a bad set of circumstances. Some of you have had bad franchises in bad locations or it could be that you’re a newer used car manager that inherited a hot mess for a used car inventory.

Or it could be you’re just dumb.

In any given set of circumstances, it’s important to maximize whatever you have. If you have half a brain you must ask yourself, “did you maximize your potential the last few years?”

Sure, you had record profits, but how much did you leave on the table?

Did you do a lot of things right or did you just get lucky?

With grosses starting to slide a lot of dealers are starting to question themselves as to where the market is going and what approach they should take moving forward.

The most important thing right now is recognizing where you are, how you got there, and how to keep the train on the tracks.

This business continues to be:

All about the basics.
All about the fundamentals.
All about your disciplines.
All about the processes.
All about understanding the data.
All about common sense.
All about your focus.

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.”

That’s all that Dr. Seuss and I are gonna say, Tommy Gibbs