Archives for February 2022

I have had the opportunity to meet and interact with a lot of people in my life. My goal in life has always been to help others achieve their ambition of the “spotlight” (or whatever help they needed) while I’ve always been a “behind-the-scenes” person.

While others have wanted to get exposure, attention, jobs, needed personal help in their lives or whatever, I have always tried to help or be supportive in any way I could. Sometimes it didn’t happen. Sometimes it did. And sometimes it was wildly successful even beyond my belief.

I cannot take credit for any of these outcomes other than connecting dots in a world filled with them. The tale of the dots relied on themselves.

Achieving success is subjective. You can be successful in whatever way you define it. Great dad? Make lots of money? Be a thought-leader in your industry? Write a book? Build a charitable foundation?

It’s up to you what makes you feel as if your life is successful. Not what other people say or think. Do you need to be in the spotlight to feel that you’re successful? I certainly don’t.

What hurts the most (and is the lightbulb that illuminates above your head in your own version of Spidey-Sense) is when people that claim to be your friends ask for advice or help when they want it but then you never hear from them again… until the pattern comes full circle.

My wife loved the Oprah Winfrey show. One year, I bought her the entire library of her shows and felt obligated to watch them with her. The most important thing (in my opinion) that I learned is that you should always lend people money (or anything) with the expectation that you will never get it back. By thinking that way, you never lose friends or family members over anything.

I use this same advice when I think about helping people who ask me for it. I don’t expect anything in return.

Cheers!

As a manager, you have to lead. Chastising an employee is counterproductive and only increases the odds of them not wanting to follow. There are times, however, when a manager does lose their cool. You can’t “take it back,” but you can have a sincere conversation with that employee, admit that what you did was wrong and apologize. Oftentimes, by doing that, you may find that you’ve actually motivated the employee to follow you moreso than they would have if you not only hadn’t lose your cool but also if you had done nothing at all.

When a customer gets to the point where they are sitting in front of a salesperson at their desk, the typical scenario is that the salesperson disappears and comes back with some version of a foursquare – whether that’s old style with Sharpies or the new digital ones. Then the salesperson goes through each “box” asking questions.

What if it started with the customer? The salesperson hands the customer a blank “foursquare” and is instructed to fill in the boxes? Is it possible that the customer fills in numbers that benefit the deal?

Most customers know more when they step on the lot than the salesperson. What if the customer wrote down a trade value that was lower than the dealership would have given them? What if the sales price, interest rate, payment or down payment were?

It’s a novel thought. But just might work.

Buying a vehicle of any type is secondary to the consumer decision making process. Consumers want to know who you are before they choose whether they want to do business with you.

If you can’t convince a consumer that they should do business with you without using price as your lure, you’ll never catch them.

Find ways in which you can tell your story that consumers care about.