“Some people will not change until the pain is so great that they have to.”

One of the more interesting things I see in my line of work is dealers and managers often know they have a problem, but don’t do what’s necessary to fix it. These are smart people with years of experience and plenty of data and information to conclude that something isn’t working as well as it should or could.

They know there’s a better way, but stay on a road named “frustration.” When your staff becomes frustrated, the growth of your organization is stymied, and your bottom line impacted.

The two examples I see most often are:

1. The relationship between the parts and service departments and the used car department. Sometimes it’s the cost of parts and repairs and sometimes it’s workflow.

Never forget that you can’t sell them and make the most money if you can’t get them to the front line in a timely manner. Nothing drives sales management crazier than seeing units sitting out back waiting to go through recon.

A large percentage of the dealers don’t know where the bottleneck is or how long it takes to get units through the system and ready for retail. They know they have a problem, they just don’t know how big it is and how much it’s hurting their bottom line.

Each department is a separate business and there’s pressure on each department/business to make a profit. Therefore, it often feels like our business model, by design, is set up for the departments to work against each other.

2. Overaged used cars. Dealers know it’s not profitable to keep used cars past 60 days. Most know the profit starts to take a serious dip on day 30. Profit and ROI are going south, and the dealer looks the other way. How such intelligent people allow this to go on and on is extremely hard to understand.

Ignoring the problem creates a culture that lacks discipline, which over the course of time will vibrate throughout the store. You cannot win on a consistent basis when there’s a breakdown of discipline.

More often than not we know how to fix the problem. And, more often than not we don’t fix it. We don’t address the problem due to fear. Fear can be real or imaginary. We often fear that if we attack the problem that someone will quit because they can’t live with the new approach.

If you fear asking people to change to something that’s going to make you, them and your organization better, then there may be an even bigger problem that needs fixing. Maybe you need to fix your thinking.

That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

As we all know, there are as many pay plans as there are dealerships. If you’ve ever heard me speak, you know I’m not a big fan of having buyers out on the streets running around buying cars and trucks.

My evidence is most of the time the units that end up aging on you are those that you purchased from the auctions by your buyers or those units brought to you by “Bubba,” the wholesaler. Those are always your biggest wholesale losses.

The odds of you being successful with these purchase units would go way up if you used my lifecycle management process. But, that’s not the subject of today’s article.

The subject today is that if you’re going to have outside buyers, what’s the best way to pay them?

Most outside buyers are paid based on so much per unit purchased. If you are of that mindset, here’s my suggestion:

The buyer only gets paid when you retail it at a profit or breakeven. They get nothing for buying the unit. They only get paid when you retail the unit.

Trust me, here’s what’s going to happen:

A. At first, your buyer isn’t going to like the new plan. To make it a little easier to swallow, up the ante on what you’re now paying your buyer. If you’re paying $200 a unit, make it $300.

B. Your buyer is going to take an even more serious interest in every unit that’s on the lot that’s in his/her inventory.

If it’s tied up in service, your buyer is going to be pushing it through.

If it’s dirty, they are going to be getting out the washrags.

If it doesn’t have fuel, they are going to get fuel in it.

If its photos are lousy, they are going to start taking pictures.

If the pricing isn’t getting changed, they are going to be having a conversation with the price changing person.

I would further suggest that you add the fee to the cost of each unit that’s purchased. Thus when you retail it and pay your buyer, you’ve already expensed your acquisition cost.

You can apply this concept to a company employee/buyer or a true outside buyer.

If you’re gonna have a buyer, turn them into a retail buyer. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Here’s the headline and first sentence from Automotive News published on July 2, 2018:

“Tariff tornado: Prepare for impact”

“A 25 percent tariff on imported vehicles could chill new-car sales, devastate dealership profits and trigger job losses at stores, dealers and their advocates say.”

Let’s assume that this is true. Let’s assume that tariffs of any type have the potential to hurt the automobile business.

Isn’t a pack a self-imposed tax? Aren’t you adding a cost to your unit that does nothing for the unit?

It doesn’t make it prettier.
It does make it run better.
It doesn’t add one lick of value.
It doesn’t help you sell the unit.

I fully understand all the “whys” of adding packs. They have served us well over the years prior to the advent of the Internet, and prior to dealers using pricing tools to market their inventories online.

Every day that goes by, you’re moving more and more toward becoming a one-price dealer whether you want to or not. And, whether you like it or not, you’re moving closer and closer to not paying sales people on gross profit.

Paying sales people on gross profit doesn’t make a lot of sense when management has already set the price online and there’s less and less negotiation going on.

If either or all of those statements are true for you, then please tell me how taxing yourself makes good business sense?

If you find a shred of truth in what the media has been reporting, then you must agree to the following: tariffs have the potential to hurt sales because of the added cost to items.

That being true, then how can you deny that your “Pack Tariff” isn’t hurting you when it comes to buying and selling used cars?

Let’s assume that you’re in a state that has a sales or titling tax. And, let’s assume the state drops the sales tax for all dealers except you. Would you be at a disadvantage? Of course you would.

So why do you want to keep putting yourself at a disadvantage by having a “Pack Tariff?”

Think how much you can help morale and help your sales if you could do away with taxes. Stop taxing yourself. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Can you believe it? The year is half over. Time really does fly, doesn’t it?

How was your June? How have your first six months been? It’s July. Half the year is gone. Kinda scary isn’t it?

Some of you have had a great first half. Some of you, not so much.

Some of you have been running full speed ahead. Some of you have been dragging through the sand.

Something has been holding you back. There may be some legitimate excuses, but maybe you just had the wrong plan in place. Just because you had the wrong plan does not mean it’s too late to fix it. You’ve still got 6 more months to go.

Those of you who have had a good first 6 months need to be cautious of becoming complacent. Even though things have been going well, you would be very smart to review how you can make things better as you tackle the second half.

Everything we do is about choices. You can choose to let things be as they are or you can choose to dial it up a notch or two.
To do so means to review your plan and the strategies you have in place. And, make the changes that are necessary to get you where you know you need to go.

Your other choice is to do nothing. Go sit in your office and stare at the wall. Enjoy your seat and pretty soon it will be over, Tommy Gibbs

We’re currently in the soft launch stage of my UpYourGross software. I’m not writing this today to sell you on using the software, but I want to share a couple of things I continue to observe with our early users and the current data.

It is stunningly remarkable the difference in grosses on:
Trade-ins
Auction Purchases
Rental Car Purchases
Customer Acquisitions

Our top performing dealers realized they must turn the auction purchases faster with less gross. Same thing for rental units. They understand that by and large they can go back and buy some more. Turning these units faster at some gross is far better than sitting on them thinking you’re going to achieve the same type of gross that you will on a nice trade-in.

It is further stunning to me to see that there are dealers sitting on units that are over 60 days old and trying to make a profit. The root of that mindset is that every once in a while a miracle will happen and they actually make some money on an aged unit. God bless you if you can do that, but it’s a safe bet that the ROI is going in the tank even if the miracle happens.

It would be very wise for you to pay attention to the grosses you are trying to achieve on the various sources of your inventory and to take a look at your pricing on units that are starting to age out on you. That’s all I’m gonna say,

Absolutes are a powerful tool toward creating a disciplined organization.

The downside of absolutes is it chokes off the potential to have an acceptable exception.

Exceptions break the rule of discipline.

Exceptions soon become the norm.

When exceptions become the norm chaos breaks out. The type of chaos I’m referencing isn’t actually like a bomb going off. This chaos is slow and gradual, often not recognized, and then – whamo – there it is, its ugly face screaming at you, “What the heck happened?”

Now here’s the real deal for those of you looking to become

better leaders. You can have absolutes and exceptions in the same house. They can actually hang out with each other once in a blue moon.

True leaders can use them both and chaos will never show its ugly face. Granting an exception and going back to absolutes is very doable.

The problem with leadership is that very few leaders have the skill to make effective use of them both.

Most people in leadership positions are stuck with one or the other.

At any given moment one is just as bad as the other. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

When you’re in business you have a ton of issues to deal with. None are more important than communicating with staff and management to help them improve performance and profitability.

When you’re in a dealership day-to-day it’s like living with family members and therein lies the problem.

It’s difficult to hold family accountable.

There’s tons of data for you to sort through each day to help you create a roadmap of accountability. You often ignore it and look the other way because you don’t want to lose your family members.

Actually, sometimes it is family and that can be a whole other can of worms.

Let’s apply this to real life. Since you can’t fire or excommunicate your children, if your child isn’t doing what they need to do, don’t you at least try to point out a better direction for them? Don’t you try to coach them for greater and more positive results?

The problem is a lot of people see the word “accountable” as a negative word. When you’re holding people accountable you should be using it as a tool to coach them to the next level.

It’s about pointing out those things they may be missing that you’re able to spot because of your experience and all the data you have at hand.

People don’t do things because either:

A. They don’t know what to do.
B. They know what to do and refuse to do it.

As a leader you’re responsible for making sure they know. Once they know you’re responsible for making sure they do it.

When are you going to stand up? That’s all I’m gonna ask,

Anything you say before the word but is totally meaningless, a waste of time and energy. Here are some examples:

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

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

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

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

“I know we need a photo booth, but we don’t have enough space.”

“We have prices posted on our used cars, but they don’t match the prices we have on the Internet.”

“My used car manager is a great closer, but he doesn’t understand how to price used cars.”

“Curtis is a nice guy, but makes poor buying decisions by buying too many high dollar cars.”

“Bob is a hard worker, but he makes a lot of stupid decisions.”

“My used car manager is one of the best in the business, but we’re only getting 5 turns a year.”

“Carol is a great service manager, but I can’t get her to understand the importance of used cars to our overall profitability.”

“My general manager is super smart, but his people skills are horrible.”

“My used car manager is really tight with all the wholesalers, but I question why we sell them so many units.”

Using the word “but” is just a way of you making excuses for people and things you have failed to take action on.

That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Most dealers and managers have come to understand that speed is critical when it comes to making money on used cars.

If you are committed to 60 days or less (which you should be), then any days in the assigned life-cycle of a unit when it’s not available for sale is a killer.

The question often comes up, “When does the clock start ticking?” Does it start with the actual day you own it, or does it start when the car goes on the lot/online?

The issues that often come up are the delay in getting vehicles from auction sites and those units we can’t sell for legal reasons such as we don’t have the title as required by law in some states. There are certainly times when a needed part is delayed and/or a vehicle spends weeks in the body shop.

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.

If you want to trick yourself by assigning a different date once the car’s online then go ahead; it’s your store you can do what you want. But, what you can’t do is change the math.

It is what it is. It’s a depreciating asset. The clock starts ticking the minute you own it. Do the math. The ROI is going south.

It’s a ticking time bomb. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs