Posted on

I can see clearly now…

I was driving home after a business meeting, I had a cooler with cold water, plenty of fuel and the 231 miles should be behind me in just over three hours, barring traffic or construction. I wanted to get home by supper time, enjoy a nice home-cooked meal, sleep in my own bed and spend the upcoming holiday weekend with my wife.

My cell phone alerted via the weather app and I was approaching the two counties where it was said that a storm would produce high wind and hail. My thoughts then turned to my new truck and images of ping pong sized balls of ice bouncing from the hood and windshield. I could see the thunderstorm on my left coming from the South-Southeast. I pulled over on the roadside recalling my always used business advice given to many a client, “It is a poor plan that admits no modification.”  I reached into the console and pulled out the road atlas. Let’s see, Missouri now Kansas now Missouri again. Got it. Travel 21 miles to Butler and take 56 West for 18 miles then resume northbound on 69 highway. Here we go.

 Soon after taking the detour It began to rain and I set my wipers at intermittent mode which worked well for about ten miles. Then the deluge. Hard, heavy rain began to fall. As I turned up the wiper speed one setting at a time, I went to maximum wiper speed before I could clearly see the road. That’s when the thought (and the song) hit my mind, “I can see clearly now, the rain is gone; I can see all obstacles in my way.” Almost immediately the rain began to slow and then fall lightly. I was heading North in only a few minutes this time following the storm. Had I continued with my original plan I would have driven directly into its’ path.

Obstacles to business plans are sometimes predictable and sometimes from the blind side. I frequently tell associates and clients that, “if you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” As with my road trip I was fortunate enough to have technology and open minded enough to amend my plan. I must admit that in my younger days I would have opted to forge ahead and try to out run the storm. However, even with my weather app and GPS technology I did get a little archaic when I referenced my road Atlas. I liken that to looking that up in your Funk and Wagnalls rather than doing a Google search, but hey, it worked.

My life’s work has been to develop business plans and do analysis for auto dealers and entrepreneurs, finance representatives and lenders and others who need to see more clearly regarding their prospective or current business plan or model. Like any other field of work, we look to those who can offer success stories and share experiences when they did try to drive through the storm and what those results turned out to be. Oh, and for anyone who needs consulting and training or the best technology available in a DMS please contact me at your earliest convenience.

I have a special offer for the first to tell me who the artist was and the year the song was released.

Talk soon.

-Mike Eskina, June 29nd, 2018

Posted on

Make Your Bed!

Make your bed every morning! This may seem like a useless task; why bother your just going to mess it up again.  Life does not require you to make your bed every morning and an unmade bed does not stop you from going to sleep each night. However, when you make your bed, it will help change your mindset and attitude. Doing this little task each morning will give you a sense of pride and accomplishment. Your first task of the day is done, and it will encourage you to do another and another.  Doing this little task matters; you will feel the difference on the first day.  Keep in mind that if you can’t do the little things right, it is hard to accomplish the bigger things.  After a long day of work, you will enjoy sleeping in a made bed, that you made, and that little task will give you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.

Little tasks matter at your dealership as well; one of the little tasks that should not be skipped is your morning staff meeting.  It should be your first task of the day with the goal to encourage your staff to be focused on all the other little tasks that should be accomplished that day.  This, in turn, will help motivate your staff to accomplish the big things.  Not having a morning meeting leaves you and your staff unorganized and unable to do the little things right the first time.

-Virginia Witter, June 22nd, 2018

Posted on

Time to make the donuts!

Meet, Greet, Test Drive! Over the years I have seen the simplest tasks we do become our biggest success or biggest failure.

Who remembers the commercial from years ago (circa 1984) when the Dunkin Donuts guy would walk in and out of the door repeatedly saying, “time to make the donuts”, “time to make the donuts”. I live next door to a gentleman that has been doing just that for over 40 years. He and his son own one of the first Dunkin Donuts and only Baskin Robbins franchise in town. It is almost a guarantee my neighbor is out of his house by 3:30 AM everyday (7 days a week) to be at his store to help “make the donuts”. Their pride has always been to make sure they are ready for that first customer who gets there at 4:30 AM and wants fresh hot donuts and coffee.

Although most of us who sell automobiles have not actually made them. We can make sure our cars are ready to be driven off the dealership. If we are prepared with clean, mechanically sound cars, ready for a test drive then we know we have done all we can to prepare to be successful.

The Meet, Greet and Test drive are our fresh donuts and coffee:

Meet – Acknowledge your customer. Welcome them on your dealership.

Greet – Introduce yourself and ask for their name. Most people appreciate when you remember their name and use it.

Test drive – It’s another way you can get to know your customer and they will get to know you as well.

Doing these three simple tasks increase your opportunity to turn that prospect into your customer. It’s not necessary to be the first one open at 4:30 AM, though it is necessary to be prepared to Meet, Greet and Test Drive. Happy Selling!

-Bill Elizondo, June 15th, 2018

Posted on

What’s The Problem?

Lightbulb on blackboard idea bubble

Some days it’s more like “what’s NOT the problem”! Of the many hats we wear daily as owner/operators or managers, the Problem Solver hat often occupies much more of our time than needed.

Consider the following questions:

  • Do I have the right associates in the right positions?
  • Are my associates adequately trained considering their tenure?
  • Have I empowered them to make decisions within the boundaries set for them?
  • Have I created a culture in which my associates aren’t afraid to make a mistake (customer service withstanding) without fear of reprimand?
  • Can my business function smoothly if I am unreachable for one week?

If you answered no to any of these questions, then you my friend are the problem. As your business grows, so does your staff, inventory, customer base, and sometimes your facility. When you feel that you must make all the decisions, or at least be in control of the outcome of decisions, you become a bottleneck that slows associate productivity and stifles associate growth.

There are problems that only you can solve; decisions that only you can make. Those belong to you and no one else. But train your associates to handle the problems that are inherent to their position, establish the boundaries within which they can freely make decisions. Then provide routine follow up.

As owners or managers, we can get in our own way and make things more difficult than necessary. I can’t speak to their validity, but I want to close with some humorous but very real examples of how management can allow a problem to become much larger than the solution.

In the early days of our space program, NASA discovered normal pens would not work in space. They subsequently spent years and millions of dollars developing a pen that would write on any surface under any condition. Russia simply chose to use pencils.

A rather sizable Japanese cosmetic company received a consumer complaint that a couple of the boxes purchased contained no product (which happened to be bars of soap) inside the box. Management demanded immediate action and the engineers implemented a high definition X-ray machine monitored by two associates, to see inside the boxes as they passed by on the line.

A rank and file associate questioned the need for such an elaborate and time-consuming process and asked he could have a crack at it. He returned with a pedestal fan, plugged it in, faced it towards the production line and turned it on high. A $40 fan accomplished the same thing as the X-Ray machine for a fraction of the cost. I can list a few examples that relate directly to your business, but you get the idea…

  • Train your associates
  • Establish boundaries
  • Empower your associates
  • Get out of their way and allow them to do their job, so you have the time to do yours!

Training and empowering your associates will!

-Eddie Hight, June 8th, 2018