The Business Case

In 1989 the Internet came online and disrupted the car buying and selling process by tipping the scales heavily in the consumer’s favor. The easy access to pricing and product information made shoppers better researchers and negotiators, and to an unprepared industry this shift was unsettling. Since then, manufacturers and their dealers have…

Change is never easy, especially when you’re dealing with individuals who are entrenched in their beliefs. It sometimes feels like trying to make a U-turn in the middle of a narrow street without the maneuver of a three-point turn; stopping, backing up and then going in another direction, yet that is exactly what is needed in most cases. The consensus is that no one has had…

The key to achieving good ROI with social media and social marketing lies in the business understanding of how to correctly use CRM as a process and not just software. The secret is in their understanding of the R in CRM as a process for establishing meaningful relationships. The challenge however, is that as businesses seek out technical solutions as a means of automating…

The knowledge that dealership professionals possess is inadequate to do the job for which they are hired. These individuals receive the bare minimum training necessary for them to interact with clients during the in-dealership sales process and in most cases, no more. This approach to professional development is wreaking havoc on all of the other processes that…

When it comes to training and the development of dealership professionals, what continues to bear true is that the ambiguous expectations of the results that the dealerships are trying to achieve is the primary reason for dissatisfaction and buyer’s remorse. For this reason, I have reinforced to my clients when I consult or train that “what you cannot define, you…

Process improvement programs from TQM, to EDGE, to EXCEL, to CEE & more…all these acronyms represent the manufacturers’ commitment to proactively impact the customer experience across their diverse distribution channels. The objective for all is the same; implement systems & processes that will equip their dealers with tools and strategies, which they will in…

Millennials are extremely tech savvy. They are a different breed that will significantly affect the customer experience, the speed of change, and your dealership’s bottom line. So, it’s critically important to develop a plan not just to deal with the buyer but your internal customers as well.

Key Point #1: Millennials multitask, walk, talk, listen and…

The ambiguous act of sales training is responsible for the high failure rate of salespeople everywhere, in every industry. Quit kidding yourself by engaging in activities to achieve a result that you have not yet defined.

For instance, most people refuse to acknowledge that success is an illusion chased by those that fail to identify what it is that they seek. They have never taken the time to clarify what it is that they define as success, yet they keep stating that they want to be…

Back in my home country of Jamaica, at certain times of the year the caterpillars would go through the evolution process where they would conceal themselves in cocoons to be transformed into beautiful butterflies. During the final stage of this process, they would break the tip of the cocoon and squeeze themselves through a tiny h*** and fly away. One year my friends and I found some of some dead on the ground because they were not able to pull themselves out of their shells. So, in our…

I have a saying that goes something like this, ‘What you cannot define you cannot measure; what you cannot measure you cannot reproduce; what you cannot reproduce, you cannot control or manage.’ I came up with this quote while designing the K-Method Systems & Processes to explain why most salespeople and the businesses that they work for are continually at odds when it comes to expectations and the results being produced. What I have come to realize as the ‘norm’ for most people is that…

"When you know better, you do better" – Maya Angelo-via Oprah Winfrey

When most people hear the word operating system, the first thing that usually comes to mind is a computer, and in this case, that is exactly what I want you to visualize. I would like you, for moment, to imagine your brain as an operating system and all your current skills and abilities are the software that is being controlled by it. To further this point, think about it this way, a child coming into the…

For many years consumers have been complaining about the buying experience at the local dealership and have often compared the experience to pulling teeth without the benefit of a painkiller. However, in the post internet era where easy access to information has changed the way that vehicles are bought and sold, consumers have expanded the radius for what they consider their local dealership to include those within the length of time they are willing to travel to avoid the hassle and to get…

One of the toughest decisions that most business owners struggle with is deciding whether to commit to training programs that are not associated to a capital investment.

Unfortunately, this resistance stems from the poor track record that many of these training programs have in producing measureable results. Although these concerns are often unspoken, it explains why many business owners are hesitant to commit to outside training solutions even though they know that it is desperately…

It is no secret that we are all experiencing some difficult times in our respective economies and that these times are causing many in the automobile industry to question their career paths. However, even in these challenging times, there are those that continue to flourish because they seem to know something that many or their counterparts do not.  These individuals continue to give themselves pay raises every month and every year.  They have figured out some time ago that they have to make…

It’s November and the weather is changing, so it’s time to get ready for our slow season. This is the time of year that many of us in the car business often dread because the days are long, quite boring and in the windy city where I live, you can actually feel your brain shrinking after one too many days of snow. However, this is the perfect time of year to do some housekeeping in preparation for spring, your true selling season. This is the perfect time to generate some momentum by taking…

Expectations – we will perform in direct proportion to the way we see ourselves and the way that those whom we respect see us.  The expectations of the individuals wearing the title of salesperson have been evolving as the reality of a new marketplace becomes apparent. The Internet has impacted a great many things about the world that we live in to include how we work.  Gone are the days when salesmen use to go door to door carrying their wares selling them to housewives. Now you have…

Yesterday I received a comment and a question from Terrell to a post I recently made that was titled Redefining the Sales and Training Models. The gentleman wanted to know what advice or tips that we, as experienced professionals could offer to a future leader in our business. I have been asking a similar question of anyone that I meet who exhibit the qualities that I would like to emulate, and my question goes something like this: “Knowing what you now know, if you had an opportunity to…

One of the most underutilized software applications within a dealership is its CRM software. This application has also been the source of much disappointment in regards to its ability to show a quantifiable return on investment. The reason that this is the case is that in most instances it is improperly sold and implemented as an application only and not as a process. The second reason that CRM gets a bad rap is that the users of the application are usually trained from the perspective of…

Building a successful selling career is not complicated, but it has remained a mystery to most of us in the profession. We celebrate the superstars because they have figured out their own personal formula and we punish the underperformers because they just cannot seem to get it. The fact of the matter is that if there was a formula for doing the things that successful salespeople do consistently, then you could move more of the underperformers into the high achievers rank. Well, there is…

In part 1 of this two part series, I shared in general terms the ingredients needed to create a super selling professional. I also hinted at several of the different processes that he or she would need to learn in order to be truly effective. My objective over the next few lines will be to introduce you to four processes that all super salespeople use on a daily basis to build, maintain and manage their businesses as well as impress upon you the importance of making these processes a…