"The game changers at Southwest Airlines, who have prospered for nearly 40 years by challenging conventional wisdom in the airline business, have embraced the “hire for attitude” philosophy more intensely than any big organization I’ve encountered.", Sherry Phelps explains. Miss Phelps spent 33 years at Southwest, and as a top executive in the People Department while helping to design many of their hiring practices.

Sometimes the culture has to change within the organization. I completely understand the resistance of some who have been doing this a very long time and think if it’s not broken don’t fix it. However, there is always room for improvement and if it weren't broken you probably wouldn’t have read this deeply in. In this information age as retailers in the automotive industry we need to consistently engage our customers and that means inspiring their first point of contact.

Automotive managers struggling to reach their sales goals with little time to direct and motivate their teams, may find themselves circling back around to gain market share missed while they were hustling to make yesterday's goals. Let’s face it - with so much on your plate you too may need some inspiration.

I recently read an article on radio ratings and chasing after demographics that fall outside of the 25-54 “sweet spot".
The article asked an intriguing question: What’s the ROI on survival? Though this speaks of radio advertising revenue anyone in the sales industry will certainly relate and benefit from the message conveyed - The long term investment tactics that should be considered today, can also hold true when hiring prospective candidates. In the end there must be a balance.

When asked "What if you lost everything today and had to start over, what would you do?" Self-made millionaire and the star of CNBC's hit show "The Profit” Marcus Lemonis says he’d sell cars. "I'd be working with somebody else's inventory and I could control my own pay plan as well as my schedule. I can get up at 5:00AM in the morning and work until 10:00PM at night and enjoy it!" The last bit is crucial . Lemonis says he has never done a job that he hasn't enjoyed. After a few odd jobs in school, ranging from mowing lawns to being a club promoter in college, he got into the automobile industry and then the RV business.

With 40-70 thousand dollars per month in advertising and marketing dollars spent it would be a wise investment to make into keeping our employees loving the car business too. As low as 2% of that marketing budget can go towards making that happen.

I’ve been told by many automotive professionals that there aren’t necessarily any specific skills to selling cars. This might be true, however it takes training to unlearn old habits that can hold them back from super stardom. A skewed perspective or different mindset.

One thing is for sure in sales - the attribute needed is a solid and yet positive attitude -and that my friend takes encouragement.

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