Dealer Solutions Magazine August 2015 by Dealer Solutions Magazine

Bringing it to the Motor City ... Jim and Debbie are coming to Detroit and weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re bringing the gang with us! Tammie LeBleu

Mat Koenig

Kerri Wise

Sean V. Bradley

Great Speakers with Quality Content - Mat Koenig - Sean V. Bradley Kerri Wise - Tammie LeBleu LeBlue and 15 More Top Industry Experts on Stage!

Two Information-Packed Days at the Detroit Greektown Hotel-Casino 18 great speakers on all aspects of Automotive Retail Internet Sales and Internet Technology Marketing, BDC, Phone Skills and much more

Call Jim at (770) 921-4440 For Group Discounts Dealers and General Managers Always Attend FREE!

www.internetbattleplan.com Produced by Jim and Debbie Ziegler Alpha Dawg Productions

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The No Pressure Selling® Process Start selling the way your buyers want to buy Business genius Dr. W. Edwards Deming said, “94% of all failure is caused by the wrong process, not the wrong people. If you’re selling bottom-tier cars to entry-level buyers, your sales process is simple, always have the lowest price. If you want to consistently sell high-margin premium cars to delighted buyers, your sales team needs to sell the No Pressure® way. Logic vs. Emotion Ford Motor Company controlled 60% of the new car market in 1917, by 1940 Ford had less than 20% market share. How could a company that sold the lowest priced cars lose two-thirds of a rapidly growing market in just over 20 years? What happened?

A selling process that appealed to buyers’ emotions is what happened.

In 1923, General Motors barely held 12% of the new car market when it named Alfred P. Sloan president. By 1931, GM had surpassed Ford once and for all to become the biggest and most profitable industrial enterprise the world had ever known. Sloan’s selling process was fueled by emotions; Ford’s was pure logic. Ford tried to wring out every cost by mass producing one model. Henry Ford believed his customers only cared about buying the lowest price. …. Does that sound like anybody you know…? Ford knew cars. Sloan knew people. Sloan understood buyers were willing to scrimp to buy a car with the colors, styles and features that would satisfy their emotional desires, something the logical Mr. Ford couldn’t grasp.

Under Sloan’s leadership, GM buyers could mix and match interior and exterior colors and add high margin accessories like duel-discharge heaters, upholstered seats and cutting edge AM radios. GM understood the emotional benefits buyers wanted and used customization to provide them. Stop and think about your own sales team. How effective are they when it comes to offering a customized solution that provides the emotional benefits their buyers want? Even if your customers can buy the same exact make and model for the same price, or maybe even less, from a store down the road, there are 4 emotional benefits they simply cannot get anywhere else. So what are those 4 things no one except you can provide? Your Dealership. Your buyers may be able to find the same exact make, model, color, and features down the road for a little less, but your store offers something more. Don’t just say --We’ll take care of you ...tell about Sally the go-to person if there is ever a problem. No one else has Sally.

Your Buyer’s Ideal Solution. Burger King said there are 221,184 ways to order a Whopper sandwich. Your sales team has infinitely more important benefits than mustard, extra pickle hold the mayo. The best way for your team to navigate the vast ocean of unlimited choices is by focusing on giving buyers the emotional benefits they desire most. It’s hard to go wrong doing that. Greatest Peace of Mind. One way to provide peace of mind is helping buyers see Their Ideal Solution as an emotional investment. An emotional investment is made up of meaningful benefits like; a sense of wellbeing, enjoyment of limited free time and freedom from worry. Emotional investments not only provide exclusive peace of mind they can deliver ROI’s no financial investment can match. Me (Salesperson) No software on the planet can communicate with buyers on an emotional level. It takes properly trained consultants to get people enthusiastic about driving a benefit-rich automobile they may need to stretch a bit to afford. The emotional bond between the buyers and seller very often determines what people buy and how much more they’ll spend to get the extra benefit they desire most. Have you ever been concerned a buyer could go down the road and buy the same thing from your competitor?

Meet Curt Zondervan Curt Zondervan brings almost 20 years of sales experience and a passion for the automotive industry. This experience included sales training positions with some of the world’s leading companies including Abbott Laboratories and Medtronic. Zondervan earned the highest sales honor at both companies and specialized in new product launches and creative ways to approach the customer. These initiatives were so successful they were rolled out throughout the entire company. Now, Zondervan is leading the development and growth of the automotive offerings at No Pressure Selling. He is responsible for finding and developing new clients in the industry. As an expert on the No Pressure Virtual Training Platform, he also assists in any training on the platform’s backend for team leaders.

Curt Zondervan

Vice-President of Global Automotive Sales 7

Focus on these 4 things and you’ll never worry about that again! Next time you hear … “I always shop around before buying,” try something different. Take out a sheet of paper and draw a big circle with a big plus sign in the middle. No, this isn’t a Round 4 Square. The 4 Square uses guided logic. The Wheel of Value helps buyers connect with their emotions; a night and day difference. While drawing your Wheel of Value say something like … IF you shop around there are 4 very important things to keep in mind, let me jot them down for you. First, ask the name of their go-to person, like Sally, if you ever a have problem. Next, make sure they ask questions like mine to get the right information to design Your Ideal Solution. Third, is the Greatest Peace of Mind; you know about the potential risks, so please make sure they address each risk to your satisfaction. And last is me. I’ll take care of everything. You won’t have to worry about a thing …. With your okay, I’ll get started….

Your buyers’ rational mind tells you “its owner” is only looking for certain features and functions … at the lowest price. While this is happening, the buyer’s subconscious mind is eagerly waiting for you to help “its owner” discover their next big desire. When your sales team asks the right questions, it’s easy for buyers to discover desires they weren’t consciously aware of until then. Let me ask you a question … One a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 high, how would you rate your sale team’s ability to help their buyers discover hidden desires? When your presentation follows the Wheel of Value, you quit selling and start having a guided conversation with friends. For 30 years, the Wheel of Value© has been one of our graduate’s favorite sales tools. Why? For one reason, it contains the 4 things only you can provide! When your buyers want those 4 things, 100% of your competition is eliminated! ... How powerful is that! No Pressure Selling® gives your sales team the right process for delivering a consistent customer experience that offers the emotional benefits buyers cannot get anywhere else and boosts close rate, gross margin, and CSI scores. To download a free special report or find out more about the No Pressure Selling® Process, please visit www.trynps.com or call (800) 515-0034 today!

Access the complete No Pressure Selling® course catalog anytime, anywhere. When we pioneered the No-Pressure way to sell back in 1985, the only way you could access this transformational sales process was attending a live 4-day seminar. Now, 30 years later you have a direct path to the most powerful, profit producing sales training available anywhere at any price in the comfort of your home or office, anytime convenient for you, 24/7. Let’s get started making happy customers and big paychecks happen... Visit www.solution.trynps.com and take a test drive today.

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The tide has changed. Customers are hitting your dealership prior to being a digital lead for you to respond to. Customers are privy to lead provider’s services and tend to only use them after the initial decision has been made and no value has been perceived at the retail location. When an opportunity in your showroom is missed, chances are someone else is getting the benefits as an Internet lead. You have to ask, how often is it happening? Or worse, how often are you paying for a lead that was already in your showroom and you didn’t know it? If you do not have accountability for every opportunity at your dealership you are allowing your dealership to be someone else’s “Showroom.” You have to stop letting your showroom benefit others. After hours of searching on the Internet, customers are coming in transaction ready. If your sales reps are doing a poor job at building value with the customer it will be costly. Each sales rep has to assure the customer that they should buy the product, at your dealership, end of story and the only way this will happen is through building value. Out of your total showroom visits, I assure you only a fraction of them are getting into your CRM. But, just how many are you missing? Most dealers are conservative when assuming a number, but what if it’s a lot more than a handful? Check out this quick formula to help you calculate the deals you are missing out on:

Takeaway

Calculate missing deals: Sold * 4 = Visits - CRM = Missing * .25 = Deals (Retail)

(Avg %)

(Showroom)

(Logged)

(Opportunities)

(Closing %)

(Additional)

Example

150 * 4 = 600 - 420 = 180 * .25 = 45 (Sold)

(Avg %)

(Visits)

(CRM)

(Missing)

(Closing %)

(Deals)

The biggest mistake you can make is thinking, “If it isn’t in the CRM it didn’t exist.” Create a culture and environment to have the accountability you need to be successful.

BY CLINT BURNS

Clint Burns is the CEO/Chairman of theNextUp. For specific questions contact him via - twitter:@TheNextUp or by e-mail at clint@dealersolutions.info.

3 LESSONS HAVING A STROKE TAUGHT ME (that are applicable to #AutoMarketing) BY Ed Brooks I woke up one morning at the end of the summer of 2012 feeling great. I didn’t know that something had already happened that would change my world profoundly. I didn’t know it, but I’d had a stroke overnight. There were no outward symptoms. No paralysis, no drooping face; as strokes go, mine was pretty minor. It wasn’t until I pulled up to the drive-thru at Dunkin’ Donuts that I even knew something had happened; I couldn’t speak well enough to order! I returned to work 90 days after the stroke. I was making sales and producing – but I wasn’t producing at the same level as before. I had recovered much of my ability to speak and communicate but selling effectively requires more. This brings me to the first lesson (and please note that you don’t have to have had a stroke to put these lessons into action – and in fact I wouldn’t advise it:

Lesson (1) - Perform a SWOT analysis on a regular basis In particular, if there has been a major change, examine your (or your organization’s) Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. In my case I just wanted to ask myself, “Can I still do the job”, but I should have been asking, “Is this the BEST position for me”. I wanted to push through even though an objective SWOT analysis would have led me to another conclusion. My strengths had changed, my weaknesses had changed, and more importantly the opportunities and threats had changed. With a bit of hindsight, it’s pretty easy for me to admit that I was in a bit of denial. Not unlike dealerships that still haven’t admitted that the Internet fundamentally changed their landscape and that they, perhaps, need to make substantial changes to their sales process.

Lesson (2) - Balance I made some changes to my life right after my stroke that I referred to as moderation, but that was inexact – really it was all about balance. Folks that talk about cutting this out or cutting that out when they chase the elusive ‘moderation’ are rarely successful; they normally revert to their old habits. For example I used to love hamburgers and still do; in an average week I would visit McDonalds at least 7 times for one meal or another. But I didn’t attempt to cut them out of my life completely.

Work

Life

Balance

I still eat hamburgers, but today I make them count for more. Rather than every day, it’s maybe once a week. Now if I’m eating out, and the restaurant is known for really good burgers, that’s when I order one – and I truly savor it. I choose the right time for one, I choose the right venue, and I put my all into it! The lesson for dealers is don’t put all your marketing eggs into one basket; not 100% SEO or all pay-per-click. Not even all digital or all traditional. Life (and marketing) is all about balance.

Lesson (3) Control what you can, don’t count on ‘luck’ Cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, etc. can all be controlled with diet, exercise, and medication. I was trusting ‘luck’ when I should have been taking more control. The marketing reality is that ‘control’ means spending money. Having a strategy that revolves around SEO means if Google decides to change the algorithm, you are at their mercy. As a GM or Dealer Principal, I can understand completely why I wouldn’t want to put my success in the hands of one entity – especially not one that I’m not even paying. When I pay a Cars.com or a KBB, they have an obligation to provide what they promise and I have recourse when they don’t. The other benefit is GMs understand what they are paying for with an AutoTrader or a TrueCar while a lot of SEO is still pretty mysterious to a lot of car guys.

Please note that I am NOT anti-SEO. I’m not. What I’m saying is that I wouldn’t make the heart of my strategy something I can’t control completely. And as always, refer to Lesson #2 – Balance. In conclusion, I’m doing great. It took a (small) stroke for me to change my life for the better. The changes that have occurred in retail automotive over the past decade or so could be seen as a wakeup call for dealers – the progression to a ‘more transactional’ online presence for dealers promises to be more disruptive than the research consumers have been conducting online for the past few years. These 3 lessons could be a big a help to dealers looking to navigate uncharted waters.

Sell more cars by selling the way your customers want to buy. Call 800-515-0034 or visit TryNPS.com and take a test drive today!

“That Grad Wont Sell” and why it’s a big problem right now!

By Frank Lopes

It was a beautiful commencement ceremony.

The speeches were entertaining and inspirational. Each graduate’s name was called and their family members all stood cheering with pride and enthusiasm. It really was a wonderful day! Tassels are turned from right to left in unison followed by a thunderous ovation. The master of ceremonies then took the microphone for the final moments and said… “Now… who’s ready to take an up? Silence ensues and the face of every fresh graduate is now plastered in a look of utter disgust.

Perhaps the scenario I just painted is a bit far fetched. But the fact that graduates consider careers in the automotive industry as attractive as the opportunities awaiting them in waste management and retail is an issue that we ALL must consider. I know what you’re thinking. Recent graduates have a reputation of being entitled, spoiled, hard to manage and have a poor worth ethic. While these may be traits of some 21 to 25 year olds, they are no more prominent in the members of the class of 2015 than they were in the class of 1980, 1987, 1993 or 2005. The problem is not with the graduate… the problem is the graduates perception of the auto industry. And as the years pass, this problem (and I know it’s not a new one) continues to worsen.

Dealerships across our entire nation are consistently in search of good salespeople. Ask any General Manager or General Sales Manager the question “Do you need salespeople?” and the answer will always be “Do you know anybody?” Combine the shortage of qualified candidates with the shift in consumer shopping behavior and the need for “new minds” is heightened to a level never before seen. Unfortunately, most salespeople with 20+ years of experience are now dinosaurs and are watching meteors pierce the atmosphere. Armed only with high pressure closing techniques and the unfortunate habit of answering any objection with a rebuttal that starts with “If I could…” the days of “If-ing” and going for the pressure commitment (“If I could get the payment down to $299, do we have a deal?”) are over.

Now take the graduate’s situation into mind. 71% of grads leave school with an average of $31,000 in student loan debt and only 17% have a job lined up before they leave their dorm room. Yet, a career in the automotive business (namely auto sales for this article), or at least one starting their career in this field is looked at with the same distaste as a “job” at Forever 21 or Target. “I’m just going to work here till something better comes along where I can use my degree” are the words most recent grads say to themselves to help muster up the strength and bury the shame necessary to make their 5:30am punch-in time. Is there a better alternative?… of course there is. But it’s up to US to inform and educate it to them. When I personally recently asked some members of the class of 2015 and 2016 about auto sales, I was told (on more than one occasion) that working at a car dealership would be “beneath them” and that they wouldn’t even consider it. What a shame. In another survey I recently conducted with adults in careers in management or entrepreneurship, 90% of participants agreed the automotive industry provided the “real world” education required to be successful in business. Specific lessons learned and mastered included… • • • • •

How to give an effective demo True “one on one” communication Persistence Patience Overcoming fears

• • • • •

Building self confidence Negotiation Networking Identifying a person’s need or problem Presenting solutions

These are all lessons that any truly successful business person MUST master to be effective and successful. The problem lies in the fact that graduates equate wearing plaid suits with paisley ties and changing their name to “Vito” or “Rocco” (nothing against all you guys named Vito or Rocco) with selling automobiles. It’s up to US to change that image and present real world examples of how auto sales benefits the graduate, giving them real world experience that they will use for their entire career. Dealers need to set up REAL training programs for new hires that includes certification from the manufacturer. They need to be invested financially and provide a lucrative pay plan with an earnings guarantee for a set period of time (a position in commissioned sales is frightening to most if not all grads). Most achievers will over-earn their guarantee, so there is minimal risk for the dealer and removal of anxiety for the new hire. Bonuses based on generation of positive customer reviews, manufacturer certification levels and advancement in sales training will be attractive as grads want to “continue their learning” and be in a position to “make a change for the better.” What could be better than being a part of changing the way people buy automobiles, thus changing the perception of the auto industry as a whole. What’s better than being the remedy for the anxiety and nervousness that comes with just the anticipation of having to buy a car. Nearly everyone drives, so the reach is limitless.

The time is NOW my Dealer, General Manager and General Sales Manager friends. 22

The herd is dwindling fast with even the strongest either retiring or leaving for greener pastures. Salespeople are our most prized and integral staff members. It is truly in EVERYONE’S best interest to appeal to the young, sell them on our mission of change, sell them on what’s “in it for them” and let’s staff our sales floors with salespeople that are “like minded”… not necessarily with us, but with our customers. Let’s allow them to sell some cars, gain some skills, make some money, and in the end, we will all benefit from it.

THE

DANGER OF

MICROMANAGEMENT By Dave Anderson

MICROMANAGEMENT IS OFTEN MISUNDERSTOOD.

On one hand, leaders are wrongly accused of it by followers not wanting to live up to certain standards; in other cases managers strangle the potential and drain the passion from its best people by nitpicking them and becoming overinvolved in their jobs. To accurately assess whether micromanagement is taking place, or not, we should first understand its definition: to control with excessive attention to minor details. Two key words in this definition are: excessive and minor. Based on this understanding, here are three examples of what micromanagement is not: It is not holding someone accountable for violating one of the core values of your organization. Values are not minor details, they are major components of an organization’s culture. Enforcing them is necessary to protect both the team member and customer experience. Micromanagement is not terminating an employee because they failed to attain your performance standards, for the same reasons I offered concerning core values. Performance failure is not a minor detail. Establishing clear expectations for what a person must accomplish and by when is not micromanagement. Creating clarity is a primary leadership responsibility and failing to do so betrays your people, leaving them confused and demoralized.

FRANKLY, there are SOME ASPECTS within an organiza-

tion that must be held in an iron grip; that are not up for discussion, debate, polls or census. They are the “this is the way we do things here” aspect of a culture that define what you stand for, and what you won’t fall for, as well as appropriate consequences for failing to live up to them. Without this level of clarity and resolve your culture will devolve into a politically correct cesspool, creating a sanctuary for three amigos of misery: the underachieving, entitled and ungrateful. Here are three examples of micromanagement in practice: A manager who expects to make every decision, solve every problem and have every idea, making his people so dependent on him they are immobile in his absence. A manager who designates desired outcomes, but then lays out every step a person must take to get there; this leaves nothing to the creative license of the employee and ensures the person takes no ownership of the plan or responsibility for failure since it was all his boss’ idea. A manager who persistently gets overinvolved in the work of subordinates; nitpicking, second guessing and basically making his people’s lives miserable.

WITH a CLEARER PICTURE of what micromanagement is 24

not, and what it is, consider the nine following truths about micromanagement:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

If you hire the wrong people you’ll have little choice but to micromanage them. After all, you’d be foolish to allow incompetent or corrupt employees to make decisions, solve problems, or implement their ideas. Micromanagement is a primary de-motivator for top performers. Your best people despise having to check with you for everything, and not being trusted enough to make the right decision or do the right thing. Micromanagement assures your people won’t grow. If people aren’t allowed to think for themselves, to innovate, try new things, or implement their ideas they may not make many mistakes, but they won’t grow either because the mistakes they make and learn from are essential to their development. Micromanagement assures you won’t grow personally If you’ve become the “go-to” person for every decision, problem and idea you’ll become so bogged down in nickel and dime nonsense you won’t have any time for bigger picture leadership responsibilities like creating vision, mentoring high potential people, strategizing or brainstorming future possibilities. Micromanagement works in the short term. This is why so many managers are addicted to it. It’s always easier to make the decision personally, or perform a task yourself than it is to teach someone else how to do it. Micromanagement will, however, extoll a significant price over the long haul though, as you consider the consequences of points three and four. Micromanagement is symptomatic of insecurity and an inflated ego. You’re afraid to push power down or give discretion to others because you feel it diminishes your value and importance; you’re afraid of losing control. The opposite of micromanagement is empowerment. Empowerment provides latitude and discretion for others to make decisions, spend money to solve customer problems, and implement ideas to move the organization forward. Whereas micromanagement alienates subordinates, empowerment engages them. Empowerment is about delegating outcomes without defining step-by-step methods. Naturally you may have certain processes where each sequential step must be followed, but in other cases you can empower employees by defining precise outcomes and deadlines, telling them what not to do in order to make it happen, and then let them run with it using their own creativity and talents to create a successful outcome. In cases like this they “own” it, will be more responsible for the result, and highly engaged throughout the process. They are also likely to discover a better way of doing something than has been done previously. A leader’s job is to ultimately make his or her people less, not more, dependent on them. Micromanaging actually has the opposite effect and makes people more dependent on their manager. Just as your objective when raising a child is teaching them to be self-sufficient—so they can eventually move out of your basement—the goal when leading a team is to do likewise. This multiplies your leadership throughout the organization, helping people to become more valuable in their roles so that together you can accelerate the organization’s progress. If all this talk of empowerment makes you a bit nervous, and you prefer to hold the people reins in your dealership in a death-grip: to make every decision, solve every problem, and have every idea , let me take the pressure off you; you’re not that good. No one is. To lead your organization to its fullest potential you’ll need to give up to go up; releasing some tasks and decisions you’re now executing to those in a better position than you are to do them; equip them, hold them accountable for results, and get out of their way. David Anderson is the President of Learn to Lead. For specific questions contact him via twitter:@daveanderson100 or by e-mail at davida@dealersolutions.info.

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How to Keep

COOL

July and August are two of the hottest months of the year. They are also two months that can make or break your sales percentages in service. It is during these months that many shops find themselves over-extended because of a sudden influx of customers. Business is hot! The average service advisor will write-up thirty percent more customers each day during the summer than they will during the winter, creating an invaluable opportunity to increase sales, customer retention and ultimately, survey scores. All of this potential success depends on how the increase is handled. This type of customer influx can usually be dealt with efficiently for a day or two, but by day three, the sales advisors job goes from one of advising and selling to one of survival. That is when word tracks are thrown out the window, walk-a-rounds stop, recommendations beyond what the customer requested cease, and technician inspections all but stop. It becomes a game of “how fast can we move the vehicle through the shop” rather than “how best can we serve our customer.” With that approach and mentality, sales penetration stops, retention takes a major hit and survey scores plummet. This situation occurs summer after summer, but it does not have to be this way. You can turn this madness around and transform what are normally bad months into your best of the year with these steps.

Step 1: STAY TRUE TO YOUR PROCESS.

Think Starbucks here. When you visit a Starbucks, it does not matter whether there are one or onehundred people in line. The process remains the same. Do not allow your staff to fall into the trap of rushing the check-in process, rushing the vehicle through the shop, and then rushing to deliver the vehicle back to the customer. Just as it takes a set time to make a drink at Starbucks, it takes a certain amount of time to properly work with a customer. Customers are very aware of being rushed.

Step 2: DO NOT ALLOW SERVICE ADVISORS OR BDC TO OVERBOOK.

Although high sales quantity and repair orders “look” good on paper, if your process and staff are not set up to handle the influx of summer business, you are setting everyone up for failure. The customer does not care how many people visit your shop- what they care about is the quality of the service they receive. If your process is set up so that each advisor can handle fifteen customers a day, then for every customer they write up beyond that number, two will get half the service they are expecting and deserve. As a service advisor in this scenario, when I help that sixteenth customer, I am realistically stretching myself too thin. As a result, I am going to rush them and give them half the time they need. I am stealing time away from him or her, resulting in my having core customers that are getting half the attention, half of the customer service and half the quality they deserve. You can see how an advisor that is set to work with fifteen customers and suddenly finds himself working with twenty customers will have at least ten of those customers getting subpar service. Goodbye customer retention. Goodbye sales penetration. And goodbye survey scores.

when Summer Sales Volume gets

By Jeff Cowan

STEP 3: PLAN AHEAD FOR EACH DAY.

This is where you can truly make an impact. Either the night before or the morning of a sales day, preprint all of your customers repair orders. Meet with each of your advisors and review each repair order so that you both have a clear idea of additional work the customer may need based off of mileage, history, or time passed since their last visit. By doing this, both you and your service advisors can mentally prepare for the day. You will have a clear understanding of the type of sales that are possible. You can review the areas where your service advisor may be weak and formulate plans on how to execute a given situation so that the service advisor can earn the maximum results. When doing this, do not underestimate the power of role-playing. These meetings should take no more the ten minutes per advisor.

STEP 4: HAVE THE SERVICE ADVISORS MAKE PREDICTIONS.

After completing step 3, have the advisor write down their predictions regarding customer-paid repair order hours, effective labor rate and total dollars sold for the next day based on the prewritten repair order review-we have a form for this at Pro Talk. Call us and we will send it to you. Have the service advisor sign the paper and submit it to you. Engaging in this step makes the service advisor accountable on a whole new level. This new accountability will also maximize their success.

STEP 5: REVIEW EACH REPAIR ORDER.

At the end of each day, review each repair order that was written with the advisor who wrote it. Discuss the successes, discuss the failures and discuss what caused each of those successes or failures. This will allow you to identify success factors so that they can be replicated. It will also shed light on the failures so that corrections can be made. This step is one of great importance. It is one thing to tell someone that they did a good or bad job- it takes on far more meaning to tell them exactly why. Recently I was presenting a workshop and a service manager questioned the methods I just outlined. He wanted to know how realistic it is to execute all of this every day. Before I had the opportunity to answer him, another service manager in the room answered for me. He said, “Two years ago when I came to my first meeting with Jeff, I was skeptical too. I found Jeff to be right on the mark when he told me to prepare and prevent or repair and repent!” Make the summer months your power months. You are going to have numbers at the end of July and August. Are they going to be the numbers you planned and prepared for and can be proud of or are they going to be numbers that you are surprised by and have to explain? Hot months should equal cool profits!! Jeff Cowan is the CEO of Pro Talk. For specific questions contact him via twitter - @JCowansProTalk or by e-mail at jeff@dealersolutions.info.

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Are You A Diamond? By Mark Tewart

A while back I was reminiscing with a friend of mine who was a fellow salesperson from the dealership where I started my sales career. We both agreed that the sales staff at that dealership was the strongest we had ever seen. For me, having been in thousands of dealerships, that was a big statement. The dealership was truly made up of superstar salespeople with amazing talent and I was lucky enough to start my career with those folks. It got me thinking about what it takes to be a superstar. It also got me thinking as to why that sales staff at that dealership and why it was so good. Yes, everyone had talent but it was more that the sales staff was made up of self-directed salespeople. The salespeople got after it everyday on their own without having someone tell them to get busy. The funny thing is, as much as we worked, we still had fun. We had a blast.

I learned my work lesson early on from a senior salesperson. There was a salesperson there who I witnessed sell 62 cars at 60 years old. One day early in my career, I was not busy, grabbed a newspaper and set down in his office. I received a scolding and teaching that let me know I was never to do that again and showed me why he sold so much. Lesson learned early. Recently, I was at a dealership client of mine providing consulting to the dealer and witnessed a veteran salesperson who sold the national average of 10 a month who everyday would pull his chair out from behind his desk, set it by the door of his office and sit there to watch traffic all day. This was self-induced behavior and tolerated for many years. When we tried to coach the salesperson as to what he could do differently with his day that would produce more sales, he quit. The salesperson fought so hard to be in his below average comfort zone he was willing to quit. Frankly, he should have been pushed for better behaviors years ago and if things did not change then fired. Coach-Counsel-Cut. Superstars don’t have to be told to get busy. Superstars have a burning desire to compete, to win and to get better. Superstars are never happy and are in some ways a little miserable because they are never quite happy with where they are and they always want to do better. You can psychoanalyze the makeup of superstars all you want, but I would rather just hire them and their chip on their shoulder. I have never seen a superstar who had to be micromanaged. As a matter of fact, micromanage superstars and soon you won’t have any. Superstars understand sewing and reaping as a rule to live by. Wishing and hoping is not their game plan. As much as superstars want to compete against others and win, they will never compete against a stronger competitor than themselves. It’s a competition they can never win and the competition never ends. There is something inside superstars that makes them want to prove to everyone and themselves they are worthy of top billing. Superstars are different and they don’t spend all day self-analyzing it or looking at their makeup as bad. Superstars can’t understand why everyone is not like they are. They shake their head at others and their behaviors. They simply don’t fit in with the vast majority of people and they don’t have any desire to. They are comfortable being uncomfortable. Superstars may have big egos and may be maniacal in their beliefs but they don’t have time to think about it because they are just too busy. I am not sure if superstars are born that way or if they are made that way by environment or a series of influential life events or even a combination of both. I do know that talent is common, knowledge is common and even hard work can often be found on display. What is not common is a combination of all those things woven into a delusional belief system along with drive and tenacity added to the recipe and then mixed with a big ole chip on a shoulder and put on simmer to cook. That is rare. It’s like a rare diamond. It’s very hard to find and it should be admired when you do. Do you have what it takes to become a diamond? Mark Tewart is the President of Tewart Enterprises Inc. For specific questions contact him via - twitter:@marktewart or by e-mail at markt@dealersolutions.info.

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