Two friends are out hunting, and as they are walking along they come upon a huge h*** in the ground. As they approach it they are amazed by the size of it.

The first hunter says “Wow, that’s some h***; I can’t even see the bottom. I wonder how deep it is.” The second hunter says” I don’t know, let’s throw something down and listen and see how long it takes to hit bottom.”
The first hunter looks around and spies an old automobile transmission lying in the grass. He tells the other hunter “Hey, there’s this old automobile transmission here. Give me a hand and we’ll throw it in and see”.

So they pick it up, carry it over and count “One, two, three!” and
throw it into the h***.

They are standing there listening and looking over the edge when they hear a rustling in the brush behind them. As they turn around they see a goat come crashing through the brush, run up to the h*** and with no hesitation jump in head first!

They are totally shocked and suprised to say the least! While standing at the edge of the h*** looking at each other and then looking into the h*** trying to figure out what just happened, an old farmer walks up.

“Say there”, says the farmer, “you fellers didn’t happen to see my goat
around here anywhere, did you?”

The first hunter says ” Funny you should ask, but we were just standing here a minute ago and a goat came running out of the bushes doin’ about a hunert miles an hour and jumped headfirst into this h*** here!”

The old farmer said “Why that’s impossible…… I had him chained to a
transmission!”

The moral of the story…don’t chain your 2011 Fixed Operations Gross Profit to anything that can be tossed into a deep h***. If your 2010 ended up like a goat chained to a transmission, now is the time to make a plan for 2011.

This is the time to measure what you accomplished or did not accomplish in 2010, what you want to improve in 2011 and plan how you are going to do it.

Goal setting is critical for achieving Success.

Here are 10 0f the most important areas to measure in Fixed Operations and their standards to help you set defined Goals for 2011.

■Labor Gross Profit Margins (75% is the correct number)
■Parts Gross Profit Margins (45% is the correct number)
■Parts to Labor Ratio (80% is the correct number)
■Multi-point Inspection Completion Rate (100% is the correct number)
■Additional Service Requests (30-40% of CP ROs is the correct number)
■ASR Closing Ratio (30-50% is the correct number)
■RO Count to Sold Units (6-1 Ratio is the correct number)
■Effective Labor Rate (90% of Door Rate is the correct number)
■Gross Profit Increase Year over Year (10% or more is the correct number)
■RO Count Increase (Yearly 10% or more is the correct number)
These are the bare minimum numbers for planning next years Goals. By planning now you are keeping yourself from “chaining your goat” to something that can be tossed at the first sign of trouble or adversity, which we all know happens when things are not going smoothly.

Goal Setting with everyone involved will prevent the possibility of 2011 being tossed into a deep h*** before it even gets started.

Send an email to lbuchholz@dealerprotraining.com put “Send me the 20″ in the subject line and I’ll send you a free report on “How to Increase Your RO Count”