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

This exercise will tighten your turn, improve your gross, and boost ROI.

Here’s the deal — every day, attack your ten most expensive used units in stock.

Have your used car manager print the list daily. Get copies to every key player: BDC, Internet, F&I, Desk Manager, GSM, GM, Prep Manager, and Service Director. Everyone needs to feel the heat and urgency on these cars.

With few exceptions, these vehicles aren’t making the money they should based on your investment. They’re often the ones aging out — and the ones you end up giving away.

They’re also fighting for attention with your new car inventory — and there are fewer butts to fit those seats. The longer they sit, the uglier your grosses get.

Here’s how to fix it:

1. Service Department Priority – Make sure your Service Director knows these ten cars take priority. If one’s in the shop, it needs to get out fast.

2. Reprice Aggressively – Forget your usual pricing playbook. Price these ten cars to move — bargain basement style. The only exception? The models you consistently crush it with. Use some common sense.

3. Bonus Early, Not Late – Don’t wait until a unit hits 60 days to throw money at it. Pay the bonus early if that’s what it takes to move it. Waiting too long leads to comp creep — 22%, 25%, 30% — when you should be sitting closer to 17–20%.

Bottom line — the faster these units move, the better your grosses, your turn, and your sanity.

Keys to remember:

• Create urgency.
• Make them go away fast.
• Take your money and run.
• Put extra juice on the tough ones.

Be an attacker.

That’s all I’m gonna say.

— Tommy Gibbs

If you’ve been around this business for a while, you’ve probably heard the phrase, “all used cars must stand on their own.”

But do you really practice it? Let’s back up for a minute.

The idea came from a bad habit dealers had back in the 60s and 70s.

Often when cars came into inventory, some dealers would “adjust” numbers to balance things out.  

If they took in a car they were buried in, they’d adjust it with a car they stole the next day. They’d shuffle the numbers until it “looked right,” and made them feel better.

Then at some point smart dealers said, nah, we ain’t doing that anymore. Every used car must stand on its own.

Here’s the problem: most of you say it, but you don’t live it. You claim every car stands on its own, yet you give every unit the same number of days in inventory—60, 75, 90, whatever magic number you’ve convinced yourself makes sense.

But think about it.

If you’re really on a 60-day turn (and let’s be honest, many of you lie to yourself about that too), how can you justify giving a problematic car the same 60 days as a nice trade in or customer acquisition?

You can’t. That’s treating them all the same—and that’s not standing on their own.

Auction units, over-appraised trades, bad buys, bad colors, etc.—they don’t deserve 60 days on your lot.

Yet you give it to them anyway, because it’s easier to stick with your blanket rule than face the truth.

That’s exactly why I built my Life Cycle Management program. It forces you to evaluate the strength of every car that comes in and manage it based on reality—not wishful thinking.

So stop lying to yourself. If you really believe every used car must stand on its own, then manage them that way. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

he car business is a game of high stakes. The highest stake is and has always been the used car department.

It doesn’t matter if your trading at the front door or buying at the auction it’s always a gamble.

You’re gambling that you paid the right money for the unit.

It’s true you make money when you buy the unit. It’s even truer that you make the money when you sell the unit. You never know what a unit is worth until you sell it. It’s always a gamble.

Used cars are not an exact science. It’s more often than not a wild-ass guess. Some guess better than others, but it’s always a gamble.

Solid leadership and a savvy understanding of the business will mitigate your gamble and give you better odds of winning the game and improving your bottom line.

If you’re the Owner, Dealer or General Manager you should never turn the riskiest part of your business over to a single individual. Your leadership and experience are critical to your thriving and surviving the risky part of your business.

There’s an old Chinese proverb that says: If you must play, decide upon three things at the start:

1. The rules of the game-Upper management set the rules of the game and decide if they are going to demand accountability. Rules without accountability are just stupid. Don’t be stupid.

2. The stakes-The stakes are very high. How much money do you have invested in your used car operation? Most of the time we think about that in terms of the amount of used car inventory we’re carrying.

Often in the millions of dollars. Yes, that’s the biggest chunk of the investment, but there’s also a huge investment in time, management development and resources that go into the equation. Don’t be stupid with your investment.

3. The quitting time-At what point do we find a retail buyer at some number? Our first inclination when reading “the time to quit,” is when do we dump the unit in the wholesale market.

Dumping in the wholesale market is always a bad idea. If you want to think about it as dumping, you should be thinking about it as dumping in the retail market.

At some point, the unit should be priced at a price point that makes someone come in and take it off your hands.

All units don’t deserve the same shelf-life. To assign all units the same quitting time is a bad business strategy. Not having a solid strategy and flying by the seat of your pants is just stupid.

I’m being repetitive, but it’s worth repeating that the used car business is a gamble and you need to do everything in your power to increase the odds in your favor.

That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

If I learned anything from being an athlete, a coach, an NCAA college basketball referee, and my time in the United States Marine Corps, it is that you have to be a well-disciplined team to win.

I, like many of you, can look back and review my career and unequivocally conclude that the success I’ve had is directly tied to discipline.

The common denominator that I observe in my dealership travels for the most successful operations is discipline. It’s there. It’s visible. It’s consistent.

You can have:

A lot of great ideas.

A lot of great concepts.

A lot of great tools and training at your disposal.

A lot of talented people.

A lot of great software.

None of it is worth the ink to write it down if you don’t have discipline.

As many of you know my team and I have developed some amazing software rightly named UpYourGross. What’s obvious is that the dealers who have the discipline to allocate 10 minutes a day to the software are getting results that far exceed their expectations and their investments.

Those that don’t are wasting their money.

This isn’t about my software. It’s about the value of discipline.

Leadership must have a clear understanding of discipline and what it means to the success of the organization.

If you’re going to develop a winning team you must be committed to the now, not later. If you’re not a person of action, not much else will matter.

When a leader is consistent in everything he/she does, then others will follow. When others follow the lead of discipline, momentum and growth are inevitable.

Never forget the enemy of discipline is procrastinating. Be disciplined. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

I want to speak to those of you that are in charge of the hiring and struggle to find that superstar used car manager.

The used car manager you need may very well be right under your own roof, and you’re walking right by him or her a dozen times a day.

For whatever misconceived reason, when you need a used car manager, the first thing you want to do is find a used car guru that works someplace else and lure them away.

I don’t have to tell you the challenges of hiring from the outside. I don’t have to, but I will.

1. The person you hire isn’t going to have the same culture that you’ve been working so hard to develop.

2. Their thinking about the used car business isn’t going to necessarily align with yours. That doesn’t mean either of you has it right or wrong. It just means it’s going to be frustrating and more than likely expensive.

3. If you’re running an ad in Automotive News, most of the respondents are going to be from outside your area. I’m not even going to attempt to list all the issues tied to bringing someone in from afar. If you don’t understand those issues then you’ve got a lot more problems than I can help you with.

4. When you hire from the outside you are looking for a miracle worker to fix the mess left from the last miracle worker. Most likely the mess will get bigger. All you’re doing is rinse and repeat.

5. You’re doing nothing to encourage people to want to grow and develop within your organization when you keep going to the outside. You need to promote from within.

The real answer is that you don’t need someone from the outside with a bunch of experience. What you need is to commit to giving someone from within a chance and a whole bunch of your personal time and energy.

What you need is:

1. Someone that’s a young “thinker.”

2. Someone that has high energy.

3. Someone that believes in your culture and store.

4. Someone that’s coachable.

5. Someone that has common sense.

6. Someone that understands technology.

7. Someone that has integrity.

8. Someone that has a strong work ethic.

9. Someone that has good communication skills.

10. Someone that’s hungry.

If you don’t have someone or multiple someones like this in your organization then you need to rethink your organization. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs