One of the processes I learned early in my career as a new car dealer was a “Save-a-Deal” meeting.

I often bring it up in my workshops. About 75% of the people have heard of it and of that maybe 20% actually do it.

If you don’t know what it is or you’re not using it, you should learn about it and you should start using it. It’s simple and effective to do.

It’s actually what its name implies. It saves deals. It makes deals. It helps you sell more cars. It keeps the staff focused on what’s important.

Every morning the Dealer, GM or GSM should gather up all the Sales, F&I and BDC/Internet managers and review the activity and pending deals from the previous day.

Bring the up log into the meeting and talk about each up from the previous day. Assign certain tasks and follow up to specific managers who will report back with the results.

Make sure every appraisal from the previous day is reviewed, discussed, dissected from one end to the other. Look for a way to get the trade and make the deal.

Consider all options including shopping the trade and even burying yourself. Have a manager contact all the customers that you could not come to terms with and up the ante for their trade. Sometimes all it takes is a phone call from the right person and another $500 to make the deal.

The odds are your competitors aren’t following up with an additional offer. You win and it’s an easy way to improve your “look to book.” When you improve your “look to book,” you spend less time hanging out at the auctions.

I’ll guarantee you’ll make some deals. You’ll save some deals. You’ll make more money, have a happier life and momentum will build. When you built momentum, the team wins. When the team wins, they want more wins. “Save-a-Deal” meetings are all about winning.

It takes discipline to do a “Save-a-Deal” meeting every day. “The pain of discipline or the pain of regret.”

That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs