The two hardest things to handle in life are failure and success.” – Anonymous

It’s easy to recognize how failure can break a person. What’s harder to see—and
often more dangerous—is how success can do the same. Power is the byproduct
of success.

It’s the shiny medal leaders wear when they’re given responsibility over people,
resources, or an organization. But here’s the problem: power has a way of
distorting perspective.

Many people step into leadership roles believing that power automatically grants
them influence. It doesn’t. Power might get people to comply, but it rarely gets
them to commit. And if you’ve ever been on a team, you know the difference.
Compliance looks like showing up because you “have to.” Commitment looks like
showing up ready to run through walls because you “want to.”

The leaders we admire most aren’t the ones who bark orders, push their weight
around, or hide behind a title. They’re the ones who understand that real
influence isn’t about control—it’s about connection. It’s about how they engage
with each individual team member.

It you can’t engage/communicate well with the individuals; you will never have
the skill to do so with the group.

Power used poorly creates fear, resentment, and distance. Power used well builds
trust, loyalty, and momentum.

The true test of leadership is whether the people around you feel smaller or
bigger because of your presence.

The best leaders I’ve known see their role not as an opportunity to wield power,
but as a responsibility to serve. They don’t focus on how to use people; they
focus on how to lift people. When you do that, power takes care of itself.

So, the next time you find yourself in a position of power, ask:
Am I using this to get people to comply, or to inspire them to commit?

Do people follow me because they have to, or because they want to?
Am I making those around me stronger, or weaker?

Failure tests your resilience. Success tests your character. And nothing tests
character more than the problem of power. That’s all I’m gonna say. Tommy Gibbs

1. Average gross per unit will come down. (Fix you aging problem and it will be a lot less.)
2. Customers will have more information than you ever thought possible.
3. Nice used cars will be scarce. (They have been since the beginning of time.)
4. You will struggle to make ANY gross on aged units. (Well, duh, you’re not using my Life Cycle Management process)
5. Finding salespeople who want to work the hours and be paid on gross will become even more difficult.
6. Maximizing common sense and technology will challenge you.
7. The franchises you represent will put more expenses on your side of the table.
8. The manufacturers will increase the pressure on you to hit market share.
9. You will accept aged units as a necessary evil of the automobile business.
10. Your average cost per unit in stock will go up.
11. You will become more dependent on your used car department to save your new car department.
12. The amount of water in your used car inventory will increase.
13. Your dealership will be sued because someone didn’t “just handle it.”
14. Your CPA and legal fees will go up.
15. You will waste 50% of your advertising dollars and you won’t be able to figure out which 50%.
16. F&I income will feel stress from the regulators.
17. Improving recon time for used going through your shop will be a high priority. (You will talk about but not fix it.)
18. You’ll hire managers from the outside because you haven’t developed your own people.
19. You will wholesale some used cars that you should have retailed.
20. You’ll think about hiring me, but you’ll talk yourself out of it…again.

This should be a really good week. It will only be a really good week if you make it a good week. It’s not going to be a good week if you stay in your seat acting like a computer geek.

You can make it a good week by getting up and moving around.

You should be like a bumblebee on a pollination mission.

You’re here.

You’re there.

You’re everywhere.

You can’t just flap your little wings in place and think someone’s gonna sell a car. You have to move around.

You have to create the buzz. You have to go from being weak and meek in order to make it a good week.

I don’t like things to be all about you, but this is all about you. This week is all about you. It’s about you making things happen.

It’s about you contributing as much in a week as you sometimes do in a month. It’s not about you giving 100 or 110%. It’s about you giving 200%.

It’s not about asking others to do it. It’s about you doing it. You sometimes think you’re important. Well, you are important. You’re even more important than you think. At least this week you are.

You may have to sting a few people this week. That’s ok. Some of your team could probably use a sting or two. A little stinging pain for a whole lot of car selling gain.

This is not the week for the meek and certainly not a week for a geek. It’s the week of the bumblebees. Let the stinging begin. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs 

Here we go again. It’s that time of year when the question come up should you write down your inventory?

Don’t bother writing your inventory down unless of course, you’re going to commit to some serious changes.

It’s not unusual at this time of the year for dealers to write their used car inventory down, take a big hit and a deep breath, and say “OK, done, let’s move forward.”

Many dealers lack the discipline to steer away from what got them there in the first place. Therefore, in six months or so, the owners are staring at the same hot mess they tried to fix back in December.

Used car managers and dealers fall back into the same old rut because of the fear of losses they will have by taking aged units to the auctions and dumping them.

It hurts me to say this, and I know it’s going to cause a few of you to unsubscribe from my newsletters but taking units to the auction and dumping them is just plain dumb.

If you thought enough of that 60-day old unit to bring it into your inventory as a retail piece, you should have been able to find a retail buyer for it at some number. There’s a number that every unit can be retailed at.

Therein lies the problem. You won’t retail it for what it’s actually worth, yet you’re willing to wholesale it for what it’s actually worth.

Hey Einstein, which way do you think you have the greatest opportunity to recover from a unit that was probably a bad decision from jump-street? Insanity.

The instances where you have to dump a previously assigned retail piece in the wholesale market should be very few. If you’re in the retail automobile business, then retail your units.

Yes, the grosses on all that aged stuff are going to hurt you for a while. Dumping in the wholesale market will hurt you worse. If you have a lick of discipline and stay with it, you will be fine and never, ever have another unit over 60.

My Life-Cycle management process gives you the disciplines and strategies that will keep you from saying, “More write-downs, here we go again.”

I’ve never met a dealer who has figured out the 60-day concept that said, “Geez, I’d like to go back to those days when we had units over 60.” I’ve met plenty of dealers that are disgusted that they have to deal with aged units and write-downs every year.

Enjoy your write-downs. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

I’ve always encouraged dealers and managers to track ROI. It’s one of the most critical pieces of information you can know—and it directly impacts your bottom line.

If nothing else, tracking ROI keeps you aware of how important speed is when it comes to making money on used cars. (Or new ones, for that matter.)

My first promotion in the car business was as a used car manager. In my mind, I was determined to guard the dealership’s money as if it were my own—especially when it came to “giving away” something to take care of a customer.

Honestly, I didn’t know any better. Back in the early ’70s, CSI wasn’t even a buzzword, and nobody talked about getting a good return on used car inventory. Sure, we wanted to make gross, but ROI wasn’t part of the conversation.

Fast-forward to today—there are millions of dollars tied up in dealers’ inventories.

Every member of the management team should understand how much money is sitting there and feel the responsibility to deliver ownership a fair return on that investment.

If you had a stockbroker handling your money, wouldn’t you hold them accountable for getting you a good return?

So how can you, as a member of the management team, not feel the same weight of responsibility?

If nothing else, understand the three key numbers that go into the ROI calculation:

1. Front Gross
2. Age
3. Cost of the Unit

The sweet spot—excluding F&I—is around 110%.

If you include F&I, you need to be north of 200%

.

Want to check your ROI? Go to FixRoi.com and plug in the three numbers.

No matter how much gross you make or how much you have in the unit, the longer it sits, the worse your ROI gets.

So ask yourself—

If your stockbroker kept giving you a poor return, what would you do?

That’s all I’m gonna say.

– Tommy Gibbs