By and large, most dealers and managers have come to understand it’s not the big that will eat the small but the fast that will eat the slow.

We all know the faster we can get a car on the lot and online the more we increase our odds of making a respectable profit.

If you are committed to 60 days or less (which you should be) then any days in the cycle in which the unit is not available for sale is a killer.

The question often comes up, “When does the clock start ticking?”

Does it start with the acquisition, the day you own it, or does it start when the car goes on the lot/online?

Let me make this as clear as I possibly can. It starts the moment you own it. Period. No exceptions, no ifs, ands, or buts.

But Tommy, it’s been in the body shop for 20 days?

Nope, no, no, no. The clock is ticking. Your money is tied up from day one. You’re working with a depreciating asset. If you try to think any other way, you are lying to yourself. Don’t lie to yourself.

9 Things To Help You Win The Clock Ticking Game:

1. If you are in a state where there are title issues there has to be a clear line of communication with the office on a minute-by-minute basis to alert you when the title arrives. Any breakdown in communication is costing you money. Staying after these title issues cannot be left up to chance. Somebody has to take ownership of chasing after the titles.

2. It’s a fact that you are having to go further out of your area to buy cars at auctions, but you have to be selective and know what the timeline is that you are dealing with. Anything you can do to reduce transportation days is better. You might even want to consider paying the trucker a bonus for fast delivery. Our software helps you keep track of days in transit.

3. How hard are you trying to buy cars in your own market? Do you have a procedure set up so that when someone comes in and wants to sell you a car that you give them the full routine with a written appraisal? Does your website have a self-appraisal link so the customer can get real numbers from you quickly. Do you have an individual or a team in place working full-time acquiring vehicles from the public?

4. Mine your customer base. For sure, you know which cars you always do well with. Often they are right under your nose hiding within your CRM. Your CRM has some great tools for finding those vehicles and giving you a chance to buy the car, trade the car or ultimately sell the owner a new car.

5. How about a unique and separate website that drives the customer to your website to sell you their car?

6. If you’re in a market with CarMax, consider promoting that if the customer brings their CarMax appraisal to you within 7 days of the appraisal, that you will give them more for their car than CarMax or give them $100 cash if you can’t beat CarMax’s offer. What do you have to lose? Suppose you buy 10 extra cars this month and also pay out $1000 in loser fees. Do ‘da math, what did you make on the 10 extra cars?

7. Fix your service and recon issues. I know it sounds likeI’m picking on service a lot and that’s not my intent. I just know in most dealerships it’s the same old, same old. How many total days are being wasted from the time the car is acquired until the time it gets on the lot and online? In today’s age of speed, you have to find every day that you can if you’re gonna win the “meter game.” My UpYourGross software comes with a free “Recon Tool.”

8. Make sure you include in your “save-a-deal” meeting every morning a list of all vehicles that are either in transit or tied up due to title issues. The more you pick up the intensity on these units, the faster things will happen.

9. Pick up the intensity level. Not just you, but the entire team has to understand that any day that a vehicle is not on the lot/online it’s costing the dealership big money.10. Consider hiring a “Chaser.” A chaser is just that. It’s someone who chases your units through the system to ensure nothing sits any longer than absolutely necessary.

When does the clock start? When you own it.

Control what you can control. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs.

One of the things you often hear leaders talking about is operating at a higher standard. Leaders are constantly pushing the theme to the troops in one message after another.

What some leaders fail to realize is that in order for the team to operate at a higher standard, the leader has to operate at a higher standard. As the leader’s standards improve or erode, so goes the team.

The standard setting by the leader is often the missing piece when it comes to growing and developing the team’s culture, progress and esprit de corps.

The standards you are setting are a culmination of the decisions you make each day. From the simplest decisions of just being nice, to the more difficult ones like resolving a conflict with customers and/or team members.

Holding yourself to a higher standard means ensuring that you are productive and making things happen today. A great motto to keep in mind is “speed of the boss, speed of the crew.”

On the other hand, if you’re the sort of leader that goes around telling others to make something happen, all you’re doing is creating hate and discontent. If you’re going to talk-the-talk, then you better walk-the-walk.

97% of people and organizations operated at average or below standards. To be part of the 3% of the elite who are operating at a higher standard, then you need to demand excellence of yourself. Only when you demand a higher standard of excellence of yourself will the organization begin to move toward the top 3%.

If you were writing a book on higher standards and each chapter was a day-by-day account of the standards you set, would you want to include today as a chapter in your book? That’s all I’m gonna ask, Tommy

In 1983, against long odds, Jim Valvano led his underdog NC State Wolfpack basketball team to the NCAA basketball championship.

He’s also very much remembered for his inspirational 1993 ESPY Awards speech given just eight weeks before he died of cancer.

His motto was, “Don’t Give Up . . . Don’t Ever Give Up.” In that speech he said there are three things we should do every day:

1. Laugh.

2. Think. You should spend some time in thought.

3. Cry. You should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy.

His point was if you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day.

Matthew McConaughey won the best actor award at the Oscars in 2014. He said he needs three things in his life to survive:

1. Someone to look up to. I would also suggest you need someone to look up to. It might be God, someone in your family, business or someone who’s mentored you.

2. Someone to look forward to. In his case, and yours as well, he looks forward to his family.

What do you have going on in your life that you look forward to? Is it accomplishing the next great challenge?

3. Someone to chase. He chases his hero. He said he was chasing himself in 10-year increments. That too makes sense. We all need something or someone to chase. Being in the chase makes us better.

Laughing, thinking, crying, having someone to look up to, something to look forward to and something to chase is what fuels the passion of life.

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

Two of the biggest mistakes I’ve observed over the years is dealers hire salespeople when they “need” them and they buy used cars when they “need” them.

Huh?

If you wait until you “need” salespeople, you are likely to hire in a rush and hire the wrong salespeople. Advertising for “salespeople” isn’t generally going to bring the best candidates to the table.

In larger dealerships you would be wise to have a regularly scheduled new hire salesperson’s training class on a specific week of each month.

If you are in a position to do so, you should require every manager on the front side of the dealership to personal recruit someone for that class. If it floats your boat, pay the manager a decent bonus if the recruit survives the first 90 days. You could even tie volume or gross to each salesperson as a qualifier for the manager to be paid the bonus.

Even if you’re a smaller store, your source of salespeople should come from personally recruiting by all your staff members.

This may sound a little harsh, but there’s always 10% of your people that need “to go.” Thus, if you care about growing, continuous recruiting, hiring, and training is a necessity not a luxury.

When it comes to used cars the worst time to buy used cars is when you “need” them. If you wake up one day and you need two truckloads of used cars and if you go to the auction and buy two truckloads of used cars you end up with the “wrong” used cars.

Never forget some of the best days you have at the auctions is when you come back with zero used cars.

Stop buying and hiring when you “need” to. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

How Long?

How long does it take to know if they can do it? Do what?

Do whatever it is you’ve hired someone to do.

Does it take a week?
Does it take a month?
Does it take 90 days?
Does it take 6 months?
Does it take 6 years?

How long does it take you to figure out if you’ve got the right person or the wrong person in the job?

Part of that decision-making process might depend on:

1. How much have you invested in the selection process of putting the right person in the right job?

2. Did you put someone in the job because they were the “next up?”

3. How much have you invested in their training and development?

4. How much have you invested of your own time coaching and teaching the person?

5. Does your organization give people the tools they need in order to be successful?

6. Do you make the effort to get legitimate feedback from those around you that “know” about how this person is performing?

How long does it take for you to figure out if they can or they can’t?

That’s all I’m gonna ask. Tommy Gibbs

Managing clutter is one of your biggest challenges as you go through your day. There are things coming at you from left and right all of which are designed to knock you off your game.

At times, you feel like you are being attacked by a swarm of bees.
Your ability to swat those bees one by one will often determine your progress and results on any given day. Always remember to swat the biggest bee first.

That thought process aligns with Mark Twain’s “If you have to eat a live frog, do it first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you for the rest of the day.” And eat the biggest frog first.

You cannot let the clutter get you off your progressive track. The more you can do to control clutter the better. Clutter is just a bunch of little stuff that slows you down, moves you off your center, gets you off track, discombobulates you and messes up your entire day. You cannot let clutter control your production and performance.

Clutter is best dealt with by making sure you take a few minutes at the end of the day or first thing in the morning to map out your major tasks for that day. Swatting those little bees one by one and having an attitude of “next” will keep you on task and moving forward.

Staying on task and swatting the “clutter bees” at the same time is what separates the bee killers from the killer bees. Kill the clutter. That’s all I’m gonna say. Tommy Gibbs

When I ask dealers and managers if they under-allow on trades, some will say yes. Some will say occasionally and, some will even say no we don’t do that.

Let me suggest that if you’re going to under-allow, go all in and do it with all your customers, not just those you think are stupid or drunk. That may be a little harsh, but I want you to get the point. Stop picking and choosing.

My under-allowance grid goes like this:

ACV of $30,000 and up $3,000
ACV of $20,000 and up $2,500
ACV of $15,000 and up $2,000
ACV of $10,000 and up $1,500
ACV of $5,000 and up $1,000
ACV of $5,000 and below $500

You may not like my grid and that’s fine. Come up with your own. Then come up with the discipline to serve it up to everyone that has a trade.

If you do so, one of three things will happen:

1. Some will say yes, and you make some extra gross.
2. The customer will quickly adjust their thinking as to the value of their vehicle.
3. If you are a store that still negotiates, then you just put yourself in a much better bargaining position.

There are a few customers you might have to peel off the ceiling. That’s ok. That’s why you’re paid the big bucks.

Utilizing an under-allowance isn’t “old school.”

It’s common sense. That’s all I’m gonna say. Tommy Gibbs

Back in the fall of 2013 I had the honor of being inducted into the Ferrum College Football Hall of Fame. It was the entire team from the 1965 National Championship team. Ferrum is now a four-year school, but at the time we won the Championship it was a Junior College. I wasn’t exactly a model student.

I was a defensive safety on a team that went 10-0, had 7 shutouts and only gave up 18 points the entire year.

I’m not writing this to tell you about my accomplishments, as much as to tell you about a couple of observations.

First, I hadn’t seen my teammates for 47 years. Though most sounded the same, none even came close to looking the same. Many are overweight and dealing with health problems. And, sadly at this point a number of them have passed away.

In a sense it seems just like yesterday we were beating and banging on each other and in a flash we’re all as old as dirt. What happened to all the time? Where did it go? How did this all happen so fast?

The message here, whether it’s business or your personal lives and regardless of where you are in the cycle of life, enjoy it, try to understand that if things are good or bad that where you are today will not last forever. Enjoy where you are.

I had another major take-away from the ceremonies I want to share with you.

One of the other items on the agenda was the presentation of the “Distinguished Alumni Award.”

As the master of ceremonies was going over a former tennis player’s list of accomplishments, he mentioned she had won an annual “sportsmanship award” presented by the NCAA.

When she got up to speak, she told the story behind the award. She stated that her coach had always warned her to make sure she took two tennis rackets with her to every match just in case one broke. The way she put it is, “he had beat it into her head.”

In the middle of a regional NCAA tournament match her opponent broke her racket. And guess what? Her opponent didn’t have a spare. Apparently, there is an amount of time they give you to come up with another racket.

The other player’s coach was not present to help her find one and time was running out. She was going to have to forfeit the match. The young lady who won the award gave her opponent her spare. And guess what? You guessed it didn’t you? Her opponent beat her with her own racket.

The school’s motto is, “Not self, but others.”

When you put others first, you always win. The game of life (and the game of business) is short. Putting others first always makes you and the team winners. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

As Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz reminds us, “Seek to renew yourself, even when you’re hitting home runs.” How appropriate is that in today’s market?

Let me caution you; you cannot be satisfied. You can never be satisfied. Those sounds you hear from behind you are the competition coming to gobble you up. If you take just one little break, one little hiccup, it could be the very thing that puts you into a downward spiral.

People are successful for a variety of reasons, one of them being “fear.”

The fear of failure.
The fear of falling back.
The fear of giving up all they have worked so hard for.

It’s that fear that causes the successful ones to keep pushing and to keep looking for new and better ways of doing things.

Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystems, once said: “You either eat someone for lunch, or you can be lunch.” No truer statement has ever been made.

Being a hard-charging competitor can be craziness at its best. Competing is fun. Trying to get better is the lifeblood of competing, leading and winning.

Study it. Embrace it. Love it. Use it as success fuel. Use it to take you to the top of your mental game.

Develop an unstoppable competitive mindset, and it will push you so far ahead of the competition that you won’t have to worry about looking over your shoulder.

What you have to realize is that a lot of people are just lazy and because they are lazy they can become complacent very easily. Ultimately their lazy streak will show its head; that’s when you can “own” them.

There are times when you can have a good month in spite of yourself because the market lets you win.

Betting on easy wins is a bad bet. Betting on the things you can control is a solid bet and will keep you winning when others are “crying” about the market.

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

I’ve spent most of my life observing and studying leadership skills. It started with my first little league coach, my college coaches, my experience as an athlete and as an NCAA college basketball referee.

Then into the business world, observing some of the best and some of the worst. Reading, studying, and attending workshops have all been a part of my journey on why leadership is stinky and the reverse, why it excels.

1. They aren’t flexible. You can tie this thought to any sport you want. The best teams are lead by people who make the right adjustments at the right time. Leaders are like boxers. They are bobbing and weaving. Far too often leaders get locked into whatever and their whatever drives the team nuts.

2. They don’t pay attention. What a simple concept. Real leaders have their eyes and ears open 24/7. They don’t lock themselves in their office and issue orders. They walk around. They talk. They listen.

3. They think they know it all. Nobody knows it all. You don’t, I don’t. Even CNN & Fox don’t. Leaders know what they don’t know.

4. They want you to rely on them to tell you everything
to do. That’s not what real leaders do. Leaders say, “I trust your good judgment, you decide.” When you stumble, they coach you up, not put you down.

5. They walk like a turtle. Show me a slow walker and I’ll show you, someone, nobody wants to follow. Get some pep in your step and get your butt in gear.

6. They are a stick in the mud. What a miserable life if you can’t laugh at yourself. If you don’t have a sense of humor you need to get a sense of humor.

7. They are arrogant and egotistical. There’s a big difference in being confident and being a jerk. Don’t be a jerk.

8. They aren’t likable. Ties into being a jerk. If you’re not likable the odds of being a great leader are about slim and none.

9. They hide the details. Leaders want to give you more than you need to know. They know that the more you know, the faster you learn. The faster you learn, the faster you buy-in. The faster you buy in, the faster the team grows.

10. They put the wrong people in the wrong seats on the bus. Leaders know that just because you have skill A doesn’t mean it’s a fit for seat B. Getting the right people in the right seats is critical for success.

11. They have lapses in integrity. You either have integrity or you don’t. It’s not a part-time thing to be used when you see fit. Leaders have integrity 24/7/365.

12. They say stupid things. Leaders use common sense before they open their mouths. The problem in today’s world is common sense isn’t so common.

13. They run around like a nut. Leaders know when to be calm and when to get excited. Too much of either makes people suspicious of you.

14. They have boss tattooed on their chest. Leaders aren’t the least bit concerned about tattoos or titles.

15. They say, “Look at me, look what I did.” Leaders say you guys did an awesome job. Way to go. I’m proud of you.

16. They blame others. Leaders say, “I let you down.” I need your help so I can do a better job. Let’s all work harder and smarter to do better.

17. They say do this, do that. Leaders say, “I need your help.”

18. They got promoted over their head. They know it. Everyone knows it. Not their fault. Somebody screwed up. Leaders don’t have to live with it. When all else fails, leaders hit the eject button, reset and move on.

19. They never read the bible. Leaders follow the golden rule. It simple. It’s easy. Preach it. Talk it. Walk it.

20. They don’t do what they say they are going to do. Leaders are true to their word.

21. They lack discipline. Leaders understand the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.

22. They confuse friendship and loyalty. Leaders are loyal, but they are smart enough to know when their loyalty to certain individuals is hurting the team. Leaders make hard decisions. You can be loyal without being stupid. Don’t be stupid.

23. They don’t own a mirror. Leaders find most of the solutions to their problems in the bathroom mirror.

24. They live in the past. Leaders say, just because we’ve always done it that way doesn’t mean we’re going to keep doing it that way.

25. They stop learning and growing. Leaders invest time and money on self and team development.

26. They resist change. Leaders knock down the walls of resistance. They know resistance is enemy #1.

27. They let people be mean to others. Leaders have a motto, “If you aren’t nice to your teammates and our customers you can’t work here.” Another simple concept for you.

28. They micro-manage. Leaders are good checkers, but they give people a job and let them do their job. They coach when necessary and stay out of the way the rest of the time. Leaders don’t “number” people to death.

29. They don’t look like a leader. I understand you want to dress casually. I do too, but I don’t. Ok, I’ll give you one day a week and that’s painful for me to say. The rest of the time you need to set the example and look the part.

30. This one’s for you. You pick. I’m sure you’ve got one that I left out.

I’ve said enough so that’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs