Millions of years ago dinosaurs became extinct. They became extinct for one reason only, a failure to adapt to a changing environment. Not all dinosaurs became extinct. Many, according to scientists evolved and became the birds that soar in our skies today.

The theory is a massive meteorite struck the planet, changing the environment dramatically. This new environment made it difficult, no impossible to survive without adapting.

Metaphorically speaking the car business has been pelted with many smaller meteorites over the past two decades. Not enough to render the industry unrecognizable, but enough to have brought about the demise of hundreds of dealerships and great hardships for the survivors.

Don’t get me wrong, some dealerships have taken flight and are thriving in the new environment. Many, many others have not fully adapted, but evolution is a lengthy process and some may not make it and lots of them are today doing well. Not because they adapted but because there are fewer players and the manufacturers are keeping inventories at optimal levels for profitability. They're thriving but not at their full potential.

Lots of you that might be dinosaurs, may not think of yourselves as dinosaurs. You may think of yourselves as “Old School”. Old School, to me just means you still do things the same old way that you’ve always done them because that's the way it's always been done.

As a hobby I collect old sales training materials. Those materials include the old-style vinyl record and filmstrip training series that were produced by manufacturers and distributed to dealerships from the late 1920s up until the mid-1970s. I take these materials and convert the audio from the vinyl recordings and the video from the filmstrips into digital media. That way I get to enjoy the material, see what we do differently today, if anything and what is still the same and then share them with others.

This past weekend I converted a filmstrip from 1958 titled “Handling Objections”. I’ll include a link to the video here at the end of this composition. The length of it is sixteen minutes and fifty seconds. If you have a chance and the time, watch it. The concerns and problems of that day are the same as we have today. The sad thing is that many “Old School” managers still handle those issues and concerns in virtually the same way.

Those dealerships that have evolved to the point they’re beginning to resemble birds more than dinosaurs have embraced change. Their sales processes have changed to become customer oriented in ways never considered in the past or by the “Old-School” dealers and managers of today.

Forward thinking managers and dealers and even salespeople began this process of adapting not in 2006 or in 2007 or in 2008 but in the late 1990s. They are the ones that are out in front today.

Since the beginning of time in the car business the single biggest issue that we as automotive professionals identify as a problem is the “PRICE” objection. It was true in 1958 when the training film I’ve linked to was recorded and it’s true today in August of 2014.

Study after study has shown that the price issue is an issue to our customers. Not one single study however has identified it in the top five issues of our customers. We act as if it is the only issue, at least we do if we’re “Old-School”.

Our “Old-School” belief is if we don’t have the absolute lowest cost to the buyer that we won’t earn their business. That’s evidenced by our Internet approach. Respond fast and respond with a lowball price, as low as we can go or at least lower than the other guy.

One dealership I am familiar with implemented a process which included an initial response to incoming leads that did not include responding with a price while simultaneously addressing the price.

It was a Ford store. Looking specifically at Ford Direct leads in the first thirty days that process in that store resulted in a 102% improvement in closing rate. That put their closing rate at 2% higher than the then current top in the nation Ford Direct store, or an 18% better job than the top in the nation.

Ford Direct leads if sold had typically been the lowest gross profit deals in the store. Within this first thirty days they became the best gross profit deals in the store with an average of over four thousand dollars per unit sold and these were mostly new vehicles. Greater volume and higher gross profits. I am familiar with this store because at the time I was the General Manager.

Failure to adapt. It’s what killed the dinosaurs. Want to sprout wings and get off the ground?

Mike Stoner

(206) 715-8662

The Shopper Stopper

Here's the 1958 training program