Follow ups? Who has got time for those?
“Follow up with your customers” is one of those phrases in the car business that draws eye rolls, confused looks and/or outright blank looks on employees’ faces. Unfortunately for some of us, this concept wasn’t really taught to us, rather it was directed (yelled?) at us by a manager many moons ago. We dragged our […]
Giving numbers to everyone!
Do you give numbers to every potential client you come in contact with? It’s a topic that gets thrown around a lot in management meetings and training seminars and I’ve been in some rather heated discussions about what direction to go. I’ve thought about it a lot and we can examine both sides of the […]
Creating an appointment-based culture!
I don’t like it any more than the next person when some word or phrase gets overused in our language (i.e., “literally” and “the new normal”), but disruption has become the new buzzword in all businesses, not just the car business. And I know that I have been guilty of using it too, so please […]
How to solve a problem?
I don’t know about you, but I run into problems that need solving every day, both professionally and personally. And I don’t mean that to be taken as a negative. No, I want problems to solve. I think if I didn’t have any, I’d probably be dead and that’s just no bueno. The retail automotive […]
Does anyone even TO?
If you’ve been in the automotive retail sales environment for more than 5 minutes, you’ve most likely been taught and/or drawn into a discussion about TOs (or turn overs). The bane of many a salesperson’s existence, I am here to talk about the “why” behind it and how it leads to more car sales. First […]
End of the month stress!
Unless it’s your first month in the car business, you know how stressful the end of the month can be. Realizing that we did this to ourselves as an industry is a topic for another day, but regardless we must deal with all that is thrown at us during the last few days of every […]
How to deal with stress?
Stress is all around us. It’s a fact of life and you really can’t get away from it. Anyone who is not dealing with stress is either lying and/or dead. Some level of stress is actually good for you and helps keep you sharp. Too much stress leads to all sorts of health problems, and no one […]
So, you are promoted. Now what?
My last post was about things you can do to get promoted, so I thought I’d follow through on that and talk about what comes next. Just because it says manager (or something like that) at the end of your business card does not mean you have all the answers. So where do we start? Once […]
What are you actually doing?
Let’s face it, we live in a world of distraction. Every day there are seemingly thousands of different things that beg for our attention. Our email, text messages, televisions, computers and yes other people will try to pull you in a million directions, seemingly all at once. This is not a problem if you don’t […]
Your Mastermind group!
The auto business is stressful. Heck, all business is stressful. The frantic, day to day challenges that pop up are just part of the gig (and one of the things that keep it interesting, but that’s a topic for another post). How you deal with these challenges is up to you. One of the things […]
Processes are a pain…
If you want to improve any and all areas of your business, you have to make some changes. Just the word “change” can strike fear into the hearts of everyone in your group (and probably you too). Don’t worry, the changes are going to be worth it. To make those changes stick, you are going […]
Other People’s Baggage!
I was recently at a training seminar and the leader mentioned that we are all just “people taking care of people” in our daily business. The fact that we sell and service automobiles is really a side note. First of all, we have to take care of our fellow employees and then we have to take care […]