Across all of the Star Wars movies, the evil Imperial stormtroopers have the resources of the most powerful organization in the Universe, the latest technology, cutting-edge weaponry, and endless supplies. Yet in nearly every confrontation with a small band of rebels they never seem to be able to hit anyone when shooting!

How can these untrained rebels overcome combat trained elite soldiers?  Why do the storm troopers always miss??

Because, across all of the Star Wars movies, what all of the stormtroopers do is “Ready! Fire! Aim!” And that’s because the writer and director made that happen!  They made it up.

That is a lesson for all of us in the car business if we want accuracy. Except that dealerships aren’t fiction and movies we’re writing. Dealers depend on real results.

And, unfortunately, dealerships across the country are full of “Ready! Fire! Aim!”  Or even worse, “Fire! Ready! Aim!”  We see it every day in our business, and, in fact, our aggregated data over four years with our customers shows the truth. Some dealers perform very well, but overall as an industry we don’t get ready with a proper customer meet and greet. Instead, we ask what car they are interested in before we even say hello—and especially on the critical sales calls, we don’t get customer information and set an appointment. For our critical “Road to the Sale”, we don’t use our CRM to aim sales by logging every phone call and showroom visit. We don’t do demo drives with customers on the landed vehicle. Instead we do numbers with the customer ahead of that—very often without a manager TO!

Who’s working the deal??  Well, to quote an infamous line from a renowned but now defunct newspaper comic strip, “We have met the enemy, and he is us!”

And the great football coach Vince Lombardy once said:  “The will to win is not nearly so important as the will to prepare to win.” And we need to prepare every day to do what it takes to win our sales.

So, are you ready for your day? Do you have your lot looking good? Is your showroom swept with the cars wiped clean? Have you had your sales meeting and your manager’s huddle? Have you reviewed your business from the previous day in floor and phone traffic reports and save-a-deal meetings?

Are you prepared to get ready, set your aim, and pull the trigger on your sales targets? And use your CRM to log customers, apply your “Road to the Sale” to sell them, and do proper meet-and-greets, demo drives, numbers, and TOs?

Are you prepared to win?

Coach Lombardi would’ve eaten the stormtroopers for lunch. SO, go now and win “and win and win and win and win”, as Mr. Lombardi also said.

Remember, for a great sales month and year: Ready, Aim . . . FIRE!