I didn't make it to NADA 2013 this year but I know a lot of my friends who did and as always, they had a great time.

It's funny though, so many people I know spend a ton of money to fly to NADA, or Digital Dealer or some other workshop only to come back and keep doing the same thing they did before the workshop.

I'm sure this won't be a popular comment but I'm going to make it:
Stop wasting your time, and your money, going to these workshops if you're not even doing the common sense things needed to make your store run right!

It never ceases to amaze me when people will go to all these workshops and rave about some kick-ass speaker or some great new tidbit of information yet, back at the dealership, the house isn't in order.

To hell with your workshop happiness! You have 20 salespeople at your dealership who as a whole are averaging 10 sales each - that sucks! You hired these people and as a leader it's your job to not JUST give them tools to succed but to also HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE for their activities.

When is the last time you, as a manager, had each of your sales people sell you a vehicle?
When is the last time you, as a manager, stood in the showroom and sold one of THEM a vehicle?
When is the lsat time you, as a manager, had each of your sales people pick 5 customers they can't get back in touch with and then sat with them to call those customers?

I'm sorry but all the new, happy, yippety frickin' skippy things coming down the pipe don't mean JACK if we don't care enough to get the foundation solid.

What's that saying in the bible about the house built on sand? Oh yeah, “But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.”

I'm no Jesus (obviously) but I know that those same words have a kick-ass meaning in today's dealerships. If we come back with all the excitement from these workshops but don't put common sense into practice, we'll have a bunch of new ideas that once again get washed away by the storms of every day F*&KED UP fundamentals.

Come on gang, before you spend a nickel on any new products. Spend a WEEK with your sales people to see what needs fixing there first.

Once the fundamentals are in order: They can walk you through a sale. They can make a prospecting call. They can make a follow up call. (You do realize that you can look in the CRM that you spent a shitload of money on and see that they're really making those follow up calls right?). Once you would feel comfortable letting your mom buy a car from any and all of your salespeople because you know she will be treated right....

Then maybe you should start looking at new ideas to implement that go beyond common sense.

I hope by now you see that the title was a bit tongue in cheek even though the principals hold true.
Make today amazing,

m@