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What Are You Guarding?

Posted on by Tommy Gibbs

1. Guard Against The “Peter Principle”-Don’t promote people based strictly on how they have performed in their current role. Promote them to their ability to perform in their new role. People are often promoted to their level of incompetence.

2. Guard The Processes-The team with the best and most consistent processes wins the most often.

3. Guard The Team-It really is about the team. You need team players. If they aren’t on the same team you cannot afford to keep them on the team. They will destroy morale and production

4. Guard The Customers-When you protect your customers, you build your business and set the bar for the team to do the same. The team is watching and emulating how you deal with customer issues.

5. Guard The Vendors-You must demand the same high quality and standards from your vendors as you demand from your team. Don’t lower your standards because you’re saving a few bucks.

6. Guard The Culture-There’s nothing more important that you can do than guard your culture. You cannot afford to hire people who aren’t of the same mindset. If you make that mistake you will wake up one day and there is no culture.

7. Guard Against Legacy Thinking-Just because you’ve always done it that way doesn’t mean it’s the best way. Stop looking back. Look forward.

8. Guard Against Making The Same Mistakes-Mistakes are a part of growing, but what you cannot allow is the same mistakes happening over and over again.

9. Guard The Training-You cannot train too much. It’s not “redundant training” until the team is perfect. The team isn’t perfect.

10. Guard The Passion-Don’t let anyone steal or drain your passion and don’t be afraid to show your passion for all the above.

That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

All Stopped Up?

Posted on by Tommy Gibbs

You might be constipated. When you’re constipated, it’s virtually impossible to be as productive as you might otherwise be.

Exercise, drinking lots of water and in some really bad cases taking a strong laxative can often relieve the problem and get you back on your “A Game.”

Having 60-day-old plus units in stock is a lot like being constipated. 60-day-old units will make you sluggish and hold back your potential to be as productive as you might be.

You can never perform your best when you’re all stopped up. Your “A game” will never show up when you have used car constipation. Think of it as Poop in the chute.

Until you get the water out of your used car inventory, you will never be but so good. You will have a few good months, but unless you commit to a good diet of solid processes you will always struggle.

One of the best ways to fix the problem is to reappraise the entire inventory, extract the water, give each unit a new birthday and put in my “Life Cycle Management Process.”

Constipation makes you stinky. You don’t want to be stinky.

Having aged units makes you stinky. Don’t be stinky. Constipation is fixable. Aged inventory is fixable. When you fix it, you feel better. When you feel better, you make more money.

If you give a hoot you’ll clean up your poop. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy GibbsTommy Gibbs

How Hurricane Harvey Has Affected Used Car Prices

Posted on by Tommy Gibbs

Auctions prices all over the country are on the rise. Without a doubt, the culprit in the rise of high prices is Hurricane Harvey. Dealers from the storm-ravaged areas are traveling far and wide acquiring inventory at record-breaking prices.

This sort of activity has a snowball effect on pricing for all dealers regardless of what part of the country you might be located. So what should you do?

Be cool.
Stay calm.
Don’t panic.
Don’t jump in too deep.

No doubt, the law of supply and demand is currently increasing the prices you pay and the value of used cars in the marketplace. Keep the following in mind:

A. Know your market and know your lenders. The market may not be willing to reimburse you for the added values, and for sure the lenders may not be willing to advance the money you need to make it work.

B. This is a short-term blip on the map. If you think this is a “new business model” that you’re going to see for much more than 45 to 90 days, you’re going to wake up with an ugly mess.

C. Avoid jumping too heavily into the game. Now is not the time to go nuts at the auctions. Now is the time to go nuts at the front door. Up your look-to-book north of 50%. If you’re going to bury yourself, then bury yourself in a trade. You made a deal. You sold a car. You have a new customer. Dig it?

D. Amp up your disciplines. I feel the same way about the fake news I hear about off-lease cars coming into the market and affecting used car values. If you know what you’re doing, and have discipline, then most of this stuff will have little or no impact on your used car operations.

F. When you turn your inventory, the law of supply and demand will only impact you but so much.

E. Turn baby turn is what you should always be thinking when you purchase auction units, but ever more so as this “hurricane of high prices” passes. The upper level winds will eventually carry it out to sea.

That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Who’s Your Joe Bullard?

Posted on by Tommy Gibbs

As you can well imagine I get to meet and work with some really great people in my travels.

There are a lot of things I miss about being a automobile dealer, and one of the things I miss the most is the people. I’ve always found my teammates to be inspiring and a source of energy that propelled me through my day.

I loved connecting with the individuals that come to work every day that do their best to help us succeed. Great leaders realize the importance of every individual on the team. They know everyone plays a role in the company’s success.

Joe Bullard Automotive is located in Mobile, AL and now being operated by third generation dealer Ty Bullard.

Meet Lee Dell Scarborough. He’s the real Joe Bullard. I hope you will steal this idea and acknowledge your real Joe Bullard. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Improving Used Car Operations

Posted on by Tommy Gibbs

1. It starts by selecting the right inventory. Unless you are an exception to the rule, most of those aged units are purchase cars. Therefore, you are obviously buying the wrong stuff. I continue to be fascinated at how many overage cars have been purchased from the likes of Enterprise Rent-a-Car.

2. Tackle my “Life Cycle Management” concept like your life depends on it, because it does. You will never get your inventory under control as long as you allow all units to have the same number of days on the shelf. You have to identify and acknowledge what each car is on day 1 not day 61. Can’t you spot a Zebra in a herd of horses? Acknowledging what you are dealing with is a major step towards improving your used car turn and eliminating problem cars.

3. Making smart and quick decisions on trade-ins you bury yourself in. Happens all the time. You step up for whatever reason, but since you don’t use “Life Cycle Management” you treat these units just like every other unit. Look Einstein, if you buried yourself in it on day one it’s only going to get worse. The best thing you can do is price that unit below market and make it disappear.

4. Don’t get too excited about a successful short term run. It will kick your butt every time. Stop it. All of a sudden you have a strong 30 day period when you sell 10 XYZs. For whatever reason they were hot. So, what do you do? You run out and buy 20 more of those bad boys. And guess what happens? They sit and they sit. And now you have some more huge wholesale losses staring you in the face.

You have much more control when you take them in small doses rather than choking yourself to death.

5. Understand that you are in the retail business. You need to make sure you are pricing your cars to market early enough and attractive enough to find a retail buyer early in the life cycle. In most cases, if you analyze your aged units you will discover that for whatever reason you overpriced them too long. Key words here are “too long.” Sure you might have them priced correctly now, but they are now stale, the sales staff knows they can’t make any money on them so they walk around them.

That’s all I’m gonna say. Tommy Gibbs

Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously

Posted on by Tommy Gibbs

If you’re in a leadership position or hope to be so one day and you don’t have a sense of humor then I’d say you are out of luck.

I realize there are people in top leadership positions who don’t have a sense of humor, but I have to believe by and large they are totally miserable people and not nearly as successful as they, and their organizations, could be.

I believe part of a leader’s responsibility is to create a workplace that’s well disciplined, functional, effective and a fun place to work. Just because you display a sense of humor doesn’t mean you’re not serious about your work or have lost your discipline.

It means at any given moment you know how to inject humor to lighten up the joint.

Working in a place of business without a sense of humor is like working in a room with the lights off. Humor turns the lights on and adds an unmeasurable element to the organization.

Back when I was running my dealerships, I personally conducted cultural training to make sure every team player knew the mission and what was expected of them. I was quick to point out to our new hires, as well as existing staff, that if they didn’t have a sense of humor then it was the wrong place for them to be working.

I stated to them, “If you can’t laugh at yourself, then you’re going be miserable here. So, it might be best if you make some plans to meet some new people at your next workplace.”

So go ahead, laugh at yourself. It’s ok, it really is and those around you will be better off for it and so will you. That’s all I’m gonna say. Tommy Gibbs

Relentless

Posted on by Tommy Gibbs

In a given week I probably answer somewhere between 25 and 50 emails from readers asking questions, seeking advice and searching for solutions.

I’m always thrilled when I get a chance to help someone solve a problem. Unless I just plain miss an email, I’m relentless in responding to any and all requests.

My youngest sister, Melba Gibbs, exemplifies the word relentless. When we were growing up she would drive our parents nuts until she got what she wanted. If she wanted a puppy, she got a puppy.

It might take her a month, but she would stay after them until she “won.” She’s no different today as the Director of Fund Raising for Easter Seals in Richmond, VA. Her relentless style serves her well.

Often when dealers and managers write to me, I end my return email by saying the key to fixing this issue is your middle name has to become “Relentless.” A relentless leader is aware that there will be peaks and valleys.

They know it’s going to be tempting to give up, fall off the wagon or get distracted just enough that the evaporation factor will win out.

When you are relentless you will have moments when you are annoying to others. (Hello Melba)…but, when you are relentless, the good things you put on the wagon of success are less likely to fall off. Let the relentless continue.

That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy “Relentless” Gibbs

Doing More

Posted on by Tommy Gibbs

I hope you’ve had some great mentors in your life. I’ve had some of the very best. My business partner for over 30 years, Ashton Lewis, Sr., taught me some of the best leadership skills I could ever have hoped for.

Ashton taught me nothing is more important than always doing more. More than is necessary, more than is fair. When in doubt as to whether you’ve given enough, give some more. Yep, I’ve had some great mentors. I hope you have too.

Great mentors develop great leaders and they all teach, Do More:

1. They do more than they know is necessary.
2. They do more than they know is fair.
3. They do more because it’s the right thing to do.
4. They do more not expecting anything in return.
5. They do more even when they know it still may not save the day.
6. They do more even when they know it may not save the customer.
7. They do more because they know it’s a teaching moment.
8.They do more because they don’t want to leave this earth owing anything.
9. They do more because they can.
10. They do more because they see the big picture.
11. They do more because if not them, who? Maybe you!

I wish I could do more, that’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

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