pas·sion·ate - expressing, showing, or marked by strong feeling; having, compelled by, or ruled by intense emotion; fervid. 

I recently wrote an Up To Speed blog post about vehicle personalization. In it, I implored dealerships to take advantage of the potential profitability in “personalizing” the new and used vehicle purchases for their customers. However, shortly after reading, a client of mine called and said, with his best Robert De Niro impersonation, “Hey…Why don’tcha personalize THIS?” After I asked a few questions, he explained what he meant,

Garry, you are, and always have been passionate about the retail automobile business, but all your readers now know about you is what’s published on the NCM website or in your profile on LinkedIn.com. They need to get to know you better! They need to understand your passion! You need to personalize You!

Well that challenged me! I realized he was right. If I expect you to pay attention to what I say in these Up To Speed short bursts of wisdom and experience, you do need to know more about me than what you’ll find when you "Google^®” Garry House, former dealer, professional consultant and trainer, 50 years in the business, etc.  Likewise, if you want your customers to pay attention to what you have to offer at your dealership, you will need to personalize not only yourself, but your store. Your customers need to know there is more to your dealership than the “Meet Our Staff” page. They need to understand your passion--that which sets you apart and keeps them coming back!

When personalizing yourself, try to define your (or your dealership’s) proudest accomplishments. Like most of you, as a dealership manager and principal, I was darn good at selling cars one at a time…and proud of it. But when I define my pride as a dealer, I most frequently think of the half dozen (or more) people I trained in my dealership who went on to become successful dealers in their own right. When I define my pride as a retail consultant, I think of the dealership teams that I’ve help coach through incredible improvement cycles and to great financial success. When I define my pride as a trainer, I think about the look of accomplishment and relief on the faces of the students when they finally “get it.” This is the love of mentorship, coaching and teaching…this is passion about the automotive retail business.

I began teaching for the Sonic Dealer Academy in 2001. In 2002, one student tagged me with the nickname “Yoda.” For those of you who are not familiar with the original Star Wars film trilogy, Yoda was the Jedi Master and the trainer of the Jedi Knights. He had great passion, but little patience. I know exactly when and why they tagged me with that Yoda nickname; it stuck for the next seven years with Sonic, and it still sticks today with NCMi...

Tuesday, October 8, 2002 – 3:45 PM – Sonic Dealer Academy (SDA) – Dallas, Texas

I had just completed teaching a module on Service Department Sales Mathematics. It was a big class…nearly 40 students. They had partied hard the night before. Didn’t matter to me! One of the SDA Rules of the Road was, “If you’re going to howl with the big dogs at night, you better fly with the eagles in the morning!” (And in the afternoon, says Garry.) “So do you understand the concept?” I asked. Everyone gave me a positive nod. Continuing (Trust, but Verify), I ask, “So, Mr. Smith, can you now take this information back to the dealership and translate it, in a meaningful fashion, to your Fixed Operations Director and Service Manager?” His unfortunate reply was, “I’ll sure try!”

I lost it! I walked up to the whiteboard and in as large letters as possible, wrote (from Yoda in Star Wars):

“THERE IS ONLY DO…OR NOT DO!

THERE IS NO TRY!”

That was it!  A new Yoda was born in the World of Automotive Retail Education. Now, during NCMi classes, students are warned that after 3:00 p.m., I begin to get impatient. This is my cranky period when you do not want to bring down the Wrath of Yoda! Dictionary.com has one additional definition of “passionate”:  easily moved to anger; quick-tempered; irascible. That certainly describes me in a management training environment after 3:00 p.m.!

Now that you know a little bit more about me, I suggest you let your customers know more about you, too. As in most businesses, the measure of success is net profit and/or personal income. But what many don’t realize is that passion, while there is no objective measurement for it, will lead you to all of these things. Passion will keep your customers loyal to your business.  And the only way to show your passion is through personalization.

What about you?  What is it that keeps customers coming back to your store?

Want more insightful guidance from Garry House and our NCM Institute faculty?  Garry will be posting here on dE Monthly. See you next month