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Effective Communication: Stop Playing the Telephone Game

September 17, 2014 By Arnold Tijerina

Bush telephoneMost of us are familiar with the telephone game. For those that haven’t played, the game is very simple. A group of people stands in a line. A simple sentence, starting with the first person, is whispered into the next person’s ear one by one until the message reaches the end of the line. Typically, the sentence that is revealed by the person at the end of the line is significantly different than the one that was started with.

Just as in the game, this phenomenon of simple miscommunication exists in the workplace. Once you realize just how easily spoken communications can be changed inadvertently, the importance of effectively communicating is reinforced. Car dealerships are particularly prone to this given the complexity of many of the activities occurring. If a salesperson misunderstands the sales manager when working a deal with a customer, it can alter the rapport and general experience for that customer significantly. When a service advisor communicates with a customer ineffectively, the same thing can happen.

The obvious solution is accurate and detailed documentation in every customer and internal transaction. That being said, there are simply too many things happening and sound bites of information being exchanged that recording everything would be laborious and inefficient.

The solution lies in ensuring that you have processes and technology in place that record and track everything related to a customer’s transaction with your dealership in the most time-efficient manner possible. In addition, you should take the time to train your staff some basic effective communication skills. Simply understanding these basic concepts will help avoid misunderstandings.

  1. How You Relay Information Matters – People learn and retain information in different ways. Think about when you were in school. Did you retain information better by reading the textbook or listening to the lecture? The same applies in the workplace. Some people retain information better and more accurately when it’s delivered to them in a visual manner while some prefer to have it spoken to them. By learning how each of your co-workers best process information you’ll increase the effectiveness of communications and decrease the likelihood of mistakes and misunderstandings.
  2. The Content Relayed Must Be Tailored for Each Individual – This simply means that everyone must be cognizant of the knowledge level of the person that they are speaking to. A service advisor and technician can have much more complex and technical conversations about what’s going on with a customer’s car than they may be able to with the cashier or receptionist. A finance manager may be able to interact with a sales manager on a higher level than they can with a customer or salesperson. When you are interacting with someone and they will be relaying information to another person, make sure that you are speaking to their level of knowledge so that they understand what you are saying. Most miscommunication occurs simply because the recipient didn’t understand exactly what he or she was told and this can cause a lot of problems that could have been avoided. This is especially true when the information is being relayed to a customer.

By understanding these two fundamental concepts, you’ll be able to increase the effectiveness of communication between all employees and reduce the probability that miscommunications occur. By doing this, you’ll create a powerful environment that will allow you to operate more efficiently which will translate into a more efficient workplace, better customer experiences and increased revenue.

Filed Under: Automotive, Best Practices, Drivingsales, Management, Training Tagged With: Automotive, Car Dealerships, Communication, Education, Effective, Information, Knowledge, management, Sales, service

How to Be Sensationally Successful As A Manager

June 2, 2014 By Arnold Tijerina

Young businessman acting like a super hero and tearing his shirtBuilding employee loyalty is almost as tough as building customer loyalty. If you’re not able to instill loyalty in your employees, how can you expect to be able to in your customers? According to Inc. magazine, in almost every exit interview, one of the top reasons for an employee leaving is a bad manager. HubSpot Founder and CTO, Dharmesh Shah, wrote an excellent article titled “10 Ways To Be Sensationally Successful At Your Job.” In thinking about the tips he gave, it occurred to me that while every one of his tips is fantastic advice, they would only be successful if a manager noticed and reciprocated, when necessary.

The best employee in the world can go unnoticed without attentive managers. This led me to turn those steps on their head and ask if some of these steps to being “sensationally successful” could be turned around and applied to management as way for a manager to be… well… sensationally successful at managing.

  1. Be a Manager who is helpful, not one who tells people what to do – Too often, managers get so caught up in goal-oriented tasks that they fail to really see what’s going on around them. In the performance driven world of car dealerships, top performers are easily identified and rewarded. There are very few directions that a manager could give an employee that couldn’t be phrased as a request for help rather than a directive from the boss. By changing how you give direction, your employees perception of you can change to one in which you are viewed as someone that is there to help them succeed rather than simply someone who tells them what to do. It will also build a relationship with your employee in which they don’t feel afraid to ask for help and, ultimately, that is what you want. By encouraging employees to ask for help when they need it and nurturing the relationship to one of a mentor, you will be more able to manage and train effectively. By being someone that cares about them they, in turn, will care more about you.
  2. Let performance build relationships – In this context, I’m not referring to your top producers but rather to those employees who make an effort to perform and/or increase their performance. Employees who are actively trying to better their performance are invested in your company. That’s the first step for an employee in developing company loyalty.
  3. Watch for those who go the extra mile and reward them – The second step for an employee towards company loyalty is becoming engaged with the success of your business. The best way to identify these employees is through their actions. These are the employees that are going out of their way to assist a customer that is above and beyond. They’re the ones who stay late when you need them to; the ones that come in early or on their day off for an appointment rather than have another salesperson assist a customer that they have built rapport with. Your employees have lives outside your dealerships and when they give up more than the large amounts of time they already invest in your business to personally assist someone, they should be recognized above and beyond normal. If they give above and beyond, you should reciprocate for them and show them your appreciation.
  4. Find the employees who mimic your top performers – These employees are exceptionally important as they are the ones that are actively seeking to improve themselves by identifying your top performers and mimicking them rather than hanging out with your average or sub-par performers. Just as good managers recognize the value in training, your future superstars will develop out of employees who are seeking to better themselves and further their success.
  5. Identify employees who stand out – These employees are the ones that are providing not only exceptional customer experiences but are the ones providing exceptional company culture experiences. They are the ones who are bringing positive energy into work; the ones that their peers like to work with; the ones that you like having around and, most importantly, the ones that your customers like to deal with. Most of the time, these employees will also rank amongst your top performers naturally.
  6. Identify employees who help others – Employees that actively seek to help their peers become better are engaged in your company. They are the ones who want their peers and your dealership to succeed. An engaged employee is actively showing their company loyalty whether they realize it or not. They are invested emotionally. These employees are not only satisfied with their job but are also actively working to make your dealership better both for customer and their co-workers.
  7. Don’t forget why you hired them – At some point in time, employees came into your dealership needing a job. They all possessed qualities that you felt important to be successful and you made a decision to hire them. Always remember what those qualities were and seek to assist them not only in retaining those qualities but also in improving qualities that may need improving.

Employee loyalty is something that must be earned by a company. In this day and age of high turnover, businesses need to recognize that the days of an employee earning the loyalty of a company are no more. As the Internet has opened up the world to employees and job-hunters alike, employment opportunities have expanded from strictly local ones to national and even worldwide possibilities. Great employees are a dime a dozen and by showing that your company is loyal to them you will vastly increase not only employee retention but also create employees that are engaged in your business’s success and are loyal in return.

Your employee’s loyalty is crucial to developing customer loyalty and retention. If your employees don’t like working for you, you’ll be hard pressed to build the excellent customer experience needed today to differentiate yourself from your competition.

Filed Under: Management, Training Tagged With: Advice, Dharmesh Shah, Employee, Hubspot, Loyalty, management, Manager, Motivation, Relationships, Retention, Success

Identifying Loyal Employees Can Be Counter-Intuitive

March 25, 2014 By Arnold Tijerina

Businessmen at loggerheadsA few weeks ago, I presented at Fran Taylor’s “30 Sales a Month” workshop in Philadelphia, PA. The presentation was mainly focused on my retail sales “story”, if you will. Part of what made me successful, however, was that I questioned… well, just about everything. If I saw a better way to do something, I said so. If I disagreed, I spoke up. My sales managers got so fed up with me that, at one point, both the GSM and Sales Manager walked into my GM’s office and announced that they “washed their hands of me”. My GM’s response was that I could report directly to him then. The fact that I had a great leader and mentor that believed in me and was willing to give me leeway was what allowed me to go to the next level in my career.

I remember what he used to tell me every time I came to him with some crazy idea, “I’ll give you all of the rope that you want. You can either hang yourself with it or make a basket to carry all of your money.” I never hung myself. While my presentation was mainly geared towards salespeople, I wanted to leave the dealers and managers present with a takeaway encouraging them to change their perception of employee loyalty. Attendees really liked the message and shared it on social networks with their peers so I thought I’d share the origins of that and explain it for those who couldn’t attend.

Many experts have extolled the fact that the genesis of customer loyalty lies in first ensuring that you have employee loyalty. Your employees are the front-line people that can make or break the best designed and intentioned customer experiences. The porter washing that new car just purchased could send those otherwise happy customers leaving with a slightly less wonderful taste in their mouths. The receptionist who sends a customer off into on hold limbo can send a service customer elsewhere. Don’t think that just because you care that your employees do. I believe most successful businesses, however, intuitively understand this concept. The trick is identifying these employees and sometimes that can be tough.

In a recent article, Hubspot founder Dharmesh Shah listed what he believed to be the 7 qualities of a truly loyal employee. In that article, he illustrates that while it may seem easy to identify loyal employees based on things like how long they’ve worked for you, some of the traits of a loyal employee are the same traits that may actually lead you to firing them. It’s a fact that, in general, there is high employee turnover at dealerships. Some managers are also not the most sympathetic people to work for either. It was easy to see how some of these traits could be easily have their intentions misunderstood.

The first quality he lists is the display of loyalty through integrity. In his opinion, the employee who openly disobeys you to “do the right thing” actually has your long-term best interest at heart. Secondly, they generate discussions. Shah explains that a loyal employee knows what peers understand and assists them in learning how you think by asking the questions others are hesitant to. Third, they praise others. They recognize hard work or a job well done and care enough to verbalize their praise. Fourth, they disagree with you and share their opinions because they want to improve the company and doing so leads to better decision making. Fifth, they support your decisions regardless of whether they disagree. Six, they tell you “what you least want to hear… especially when it’s awkward or even painful to do so.” And last, they leave when it’s time to. That last one would seem to particularly illustrate disloyalty but, according to Shah, when your best employees leave, they help you fill their places while doing so.

His article was very thought-provoking and certainly presented a compelling argument listing qualities that many would deem insubordinate and reversing them into qualities of a loyal employees. At one point in all of our lives, we’ve all had that boss that exhibited the “my way or the highway” method of supervision. They weren’t much fun to work for.  I certainly displayed many of these qualities and, while I may not work for my mentor anymore, when I left, it was simply my time to do so.

In the turnover challenged industry that is automotive retail, managers must pause and take a moment to reflect on these qualities. List first the employees that you would say were your most loyal. Afterwards, reassess everyone using the qualities presented by Mr. Shah then compare the two lists. Are they the same? Chances are that some different names will suddenly appear. Loyal employees are key factors in business success. Identifying and understanding employee loyalty can assist you in not only increasing customer satisfaction – but also in identifying your future leaders.

Filed Under: Automotive, Editorial, Industry Events, Management, personal experience Tagged With: Arnold Tijerina, attributes, authority, Automotive, challenging, Dealership, Dharmesh Shah, Employee, Fran Taylor, Hubspot, identifying, insubordinate, Loyalty, management, qualities

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?

November 18, 2013 By Arnold Tijerina

16-aroundtown-will-you-still-love-me-tomorrow-482x298Salespeople often get frustrated and discouraged by their inability to reach online customers that submit a lead. Many have processes in place that send auto-responders, templates, schedule tasks and impose time limits. Despite the time and effort spent creating quotes, emailing and attempting to reach customer, frequently there is no response. The customer does not answer the phone or return the call.

Why?

Let’s examine this from the customer’s perspective. They’re at some point in the buying process. Whether they’re just beginning their research or are ready to buy, they’ve either landed on your website, or any of the countless car shopping portals and microsites which have calls-to-action for price quotes and information. They submit their information with certain expectations. There is an expectation of reciprocity on the part of the customer. They’re giving you their information in return for you providing them a price quote or answering their questions. They don’t know that their information is being sent to 4 dealerships. Very quickly, auto-responders from these dealerships that contain generic messages explaining why they should buy a car from them bombard their e-mail inboxes. Sadly, most of the time these e-mails don’t contain the actual pricing or answers they were seeking.

Shortly thereafter, their phone starts ringing. These calls are continuous throughout the day, from dealerships calling all-hours of the day, regardless of appropriateness of the timing, such as right in the middle of dinner or at 8:00am.  The consumer receives a string of voicemails from salespeople asking for return calls. In the beginning, they may plan on returning some calls. However, as the voicemails continue along with an overwhelming flow of manual e-mails sent by the salespeople and automatic e-mails sent by the dealer’s CRM, they start to get annoyed. Occasionally, they get the answer or price quote they were seeking. However, it’s buried amongst a barrage of e-mails so is easy to miss. Frequently, the questions are not answered and pricing never sent. What they do get, however, is a ton of irrelevant e-mails, invitations to come to the dealership and voicemails from salespeople. Most templates (manual, automatic and automated) are written as if they were sent by the ISM so to the customer, it looks like this salesperson is continuously e-mailing them yet never providing the information they requested or answering their questions. They get frustrated in the process.

Imagine if you had submitted a lead to a company you wanted information from and suddenly started getting bombarded by e-mails and phone calls, but received no actual information or answers. Wouldn’t you get annoyed?

In no way am I implying that you shouldn’t attempt to call a customer. Of course you should. You just need to be aware of the time of day and what normal people may be doing at that time. Ensure your timing is appropriate. Yes, you should respond quickly to leads. I’ve found that responding to a customer in less than 2 hours can increase your closing ratio. However, turn off your auto-responder and make your first e-mail one that is personal and includes either the quote or information they requested. By doing this, you’ll immediately stand out from the pack. Customers will appreciate it and be more receptive to you. When you leave a message, tell them that you just sent them an e-mail with the pricing or answers they requested and would like to verify they received it. That you would like to know if they need additional information instead of a generic “Call me” type message.

When a customer is on your lot, is the first step in your sales process to tell them how wonderful your dealership is? No. It’s typically to meet and greet them. Why would it be any different online?

In today’s age of transparency and easily accessible instant information, car dealerships are the one retail business that doesn’t conform. Change the way you interact with your potential customers and be different then your competition.  You’ll see more responses, build rapport faster and see your closing ratios increase.

[Update 11/19]: This comment was made when someone shared my post. I thought it was relevant to hear an actual consumer chime in.

Screen Shot 2013-11-19 at 8.54.53 AM

Filed Under: internet sales, Sales, Training Tagged With: Automotive, best practices, Communication, Customer, Dealership, Internet, management, Sales, tips

Why Not Paying Attention Is Costing You Money

May 20, 2013 By Arnold Tijerina

It’s the last few days of the month and the store is either below the number of sales they should have or they’re close to hitting a unit goal for some stair-step money. The sales manager is pushing everyone. He’s pushing the salespeople to not let any customers walk without not only a turn but also talking to a manager. He’s holding meetings to review all the deals that weren’t made during the month frantically trying to see if any can be revived. He’s listening to phone calls on their call recording service to hear if there were any phone calls that were mishandled and could be deals. He’s combing through the Internet leads to see if there were any deals that they were close on but didn’t make. Every minute of those last days matter. As stress and frustration (mixed with just a little sweat) mount, he’s fielding calls from his GM, possibly his owner and definitely his OEM rep who are continuously inquiring where the numbers are and pushing him to reach his goal, increase sales, and reduce the heat sheet. While the sales manager continues to down Red Bulls and triple-shot lattes, he’s making salespeople call everyone they’ve met this month. He’s throwing out spiffs that are higher than normal. He’s spot-delivering anything that “might” stick and throwing deals against a wall that for the first three weeks of the month he would turn away. The last day of the month comes and goes and it’s time for “the reckoning”. Maybe he made his number, maybe he didn’t. What he does know is that on the last few days of the new month, he’ll be doing it all over again.

Why did I tell this story? Because we all know that this is exactly what happens in a high percentage of dealerships across the country. Depending on ownership/management, some of the same pressures will always exist. This is the car business and no matter what you do, on those last few days of the month, more is expected.  I don’t have a magic solution to all of these problems but I believe that there are things that you can do – whether you’re a Sales Manager or an Internet Director – to avoid a few of these each and every month.

Almost every dealership does two things: use a call tracking service and buy third party leads. Both of these cost money and, in most cases, dealers might as well be lighting that money on fire. Many Sales Managers and Internet Directors don’t bother listening to their staff’s phone calls or looking at what the Internet Managers are doing with the Internet leads that they’re spending a bunch of money on. At least they don’t until those last few days of the month when, most of the time, it’s too late.

Managers should be listening to phone calls and paying attention to their Internet leads daily. I’m pretty sure that this is not an original idea. I’m also pretty sure that many managers agree and have the best of intentions to do so. However, from my experience, I also know that both the story above and the fact that these two things aren’t getting done are, in many cases, fact.

Let’s assume, for a minute, that Mr. Sales Manager truly doesn’t have the time to do some of these things. There is so much floor traffic and deals lined up to be desked that he literally doesn’t have the time to monitor everything. In these cases, the enlightened dealers will outsource some of this monitoring. The unenlightened ones will turn a blind eye… until those last few days of the month when the days magically turn longer and Tylenols transform into Tic Tacs.

For the enlightened ones that are truly under-staffed, help is available for two of the most time-consuming activities I’ve described: call monitoring and Internet lead monitoring.

The first service I would recommend is Phone Ninjas. Their service is phenomenal in not only listening to your phone calls but providing your staff training on how to handle calls through both in-store training and during each lead they review during the month. I have no idea how much the service costs but my guess is that the extra car deal or two you get every month would probably cover that expense.  You can see and hear and example of a call here. [Coaching Review]

The second service is Task Teacher by DealerKnows. This service will go into your CRM and analyze Internet leads based on a process and send you individual reports on how the Internet Managers handled the leads. The reports include valuable coaching feedback for the salespeople on how they could do better in the future and inform you of not only how well they are doing but could also help you identify deal(s) that could be saved whether they weren’t because they weren’t handled properly or because the customer had issues that were never addressed.

Dealers spend a lot of money to drive phone traffic and receive Internet leads: tens of thousands of dollars a month and, in some cases, more. If you can’t pay attention, at the very least get someone to pay attention for you….

… or you can keep buying triple-shot lattes and Red Bulls at the end  of every month while you start listening to these calls and reading these Internet leads and realize just how many deals you “could” have made had you paid attention.

[Disclaimer: I am not affiliated in any way with Phone Ninjas. In fact, the owner, Jerry Thibeau, won’t even invite me to dinner with the rest of the “cool kids” when those occasions arise. That doesn’t mean his service is bad (hence the recommendation), it just shows that, eventually, I’ll get voted off the island at tribal council. I am, however, affiliated with DealerKnows and while my recommendation could be interpreted as a pitch, it really isn’t intended to be. I recommend this service because I know it intimately and, as far as I know, it’s the only one of its kind.]

 

Filed Under: Automotive, Editorial, Internet, Training Tagged With: Automotive, bill playford, coaching, dealerknows, Dealership, Education, Internet, Jerry Thibeau, joe webb, leads, management, monitoring, outsource, phone calls, Phone Ninjas, Sales, services, Training

Buffer: What It Is and Why You Want It

November 16, 2011 By Arnold Tijerina

When I went to BlogWorld LA, I met up with a friend of mine, James Stayton. As I’m walking around googly-eyed at the likes of Chris Brogan, Jason Falls, etc., he jumps when he sees this one guy with a “Buffer” shirt on. We go over and James starts telling this guy how much he loves Buffer and about how much he likes the new features, etc. I had never heard of Buffer so I asked the guy (who turned out to be a co-founder, Leo Wid) to show me how it worked. I signed up (as it’s free) and told him I’d check it out. At the time, the Facebook posting was still in beta, (he let me in on the very tail of that) but now, I believe, it’s live for anyone who signs up.

So, what is Buffer?

Buffer is an easy service that allows you to share information without overwhelming your networks (the networks in this article I’m referring to are Twitter and Facebook). How it does this is that they use an algorithm that determines what the best times of the day (ie. most trafficked and used) are and it schedules them for those times automatically. It also “buffers” your posts so that you aren’t sending a ton out at once and overwhelming your followers/friends. It will determine how many you should be posting and automatically schedule them for when they are most likely to be read or clicked through and it will space them out in time for you also. There is also a “Post Now” button if you don’t want to send it later.

I’ve been (and I am) a Hootsuite Pro user for a long time. I love Hootsuite but it is a pain to schedule tweets with any kind of strategy involved. I still use Hootsuite but now I use Buffer as a compliment to it so that I can share great content without having to even THINK about when I should tweet or post something and how much is too much, etc.

…and one of my FAVORITE parts of Buffer is that it allows me to use my custom URL shortener automatically! You just plug in your shortener information (in this case, I use bit.ly for my shortener –  arni.es) and it automatically uses YOUR shortener for any websites you add to your buffer. Hootsuite charges $50 per month if you want this feature!

Anyways, I don’t get this excited about a new service (God knows there are plenty of them popping up all the time.) but this one has me pumped. I’ve been using it now for a couple of weeks and I love it.

A dealership (or any business) could use this to pre-load a week’s worth of content very easily then sit back and sell some cars!

Check it out , sign up and send your first tweet by clicking HERE!

Filed Under: Internet, Reviews, Social Media Tagged With: buffer, Facebook, management, schedule, Social Media, tool, Twitter

Can Your Dealership Be Too Social?

November 16, 2011 By Arnold Tijerina

I hope dealerships realize that a social media presence is necessary these days. Hopefully, there is someone at your dealership handling this. More likely than not, this task has been assigned to someone which this is NOT their primary responsibility.

That being said, is there a thing as being “too social”?

There are many social networks out there and new ones popping up everyday. In a perfect world, dealers would have a dedicated person that could keep up with and manage them all by posting new content (preferably original) via blogs and all the social networks with their listening ears on. Most dealers, however, don’t have the budget for this type of person. It’s hard enough for ME to keep up with them all much less to ask a dealer to.

Would it be better if a dealer picked a few and concentrated on being really good at those instead of spreading themselves so thin that they aren’t managing or maintaining an active presence on them all? It’s not enough just to have a Facebook page or G+ page or Twitter account, you have to engage and keep fresh content on it.. nurture it.

Right now we have Facebook, Twitter, G+, Google Places, LinkedIn, YouTube, … and the list goes on. Now Microsoft is about to enter the game with Microsoft Socl.. yet another social network to maintain. Right now, there are 205 websites listed on Wikipedia as “social networking sites” (Yes, I counted them). You can’t effectively manage all of them (and most of them wouldn’t apply either) but you do still have to figure in managing your online reputation through sites like Yelp, DealerRater, etc as well as the location-based services out there like Foursquare.. Oh, and don’t forget about blogging!

It’s exhausting to think about, isn’t it? I promise it’s just as exhausting to actually do.

My advice: If you don’t have (or can’t afford, or don’t want to afford) a person that can actually manage this full-time, pick a few sites mixing up social, reputation management, location-based and a blog… and be good at them.

Filed Under: Best Practices, Marketing, Social Media Tagged With: best practices, Facebook, g+, linkedin, management, microsoft socl, networks, Social Media, Twitter, youtube

How To Be (And Make Others) Successful Selling Cars

June 17, 2011 By Arnold Tijerina

The other day, I started thinking about all the friends I’ve made that I met because they bought a car from me. I’m not talking about acquaintance-type friends, I’m talking about people that are involved in my life, and have been for a long time.

I’ve been out of retail for about 2 years now. When I was in retail, I made a lot of money. As a commissioned salesperson, to make a lot of money you have to make profit on cars. Many people think that “making a profit” and “giving a good deal” can’t co-exist. There were times that I even felt guilty getting a hefty commission voucher. I was averaging 30 cars per month while maintaining a CSI score of 98% (and I had a high return rate on surveys).

So what was I doing right?

I always treated everyone like they had 800 credit scores. I made sure that all of my customers were happy and, if they weren’t, did everything within my power to make them so. I helped solve problems for any customer at my dealership, whether they were mine or not. I made sure that I respected all the parties involved and thanked them for their business sincerely. I followed up with them religiously to insure that they were satisfied and to recognize important occasions in their lives. I made sure my customers got not only the car they needed, but one they wanted, not necessarily the one I wanted to sell them. I truly cared about my customers and treated them all like they were my personal friends… and, guess what, many of them became just that.

While I enjoy money as much as the next person, I was never really “money-motivated.” A “good job” and recognition went farther for me. It wasn’t until I went to work for a particular manager that many of these ideals were instilled in me. He truly cares about his employees and took me under his wing. His leadership and personal attention truly made me want to work harder, sell more, and make the dealership successful. By doing that, not only did I care more about my job, the dealership and its customers, but I made more money. He inspired me to want to do a good job for him, not just for the money. Don’t get me wrong, he held you accountable. He just didn’t do it through fear as I see many retail managers do. He empowered his employees and trusted them to do their jobs. His favorite saying is “I’ll give you all the rope you need and you can either hang yourself with it or make a basket to carry all of your money.” I attribute my success in this industry to him. Without the culture and leadership he provided, I wouldn’t have achieved what I have.

Leaders can motivate in many ways. Sadly, many think the only way to motivate is through either fear, money or a combination of the two. By choosing the leadership style that he did and helping mentor me into the sales style and ideals that I adopted as a salesperson, I became successful, not only professionally, but personally. Too many salespeople (and managers) are looking for the next big voucher and not paying attention to their customers’ needs. Take care of your customers and do business right and the money will come.

So, thinking back on my retail career, as I recognized how many people I have in my life that are my friends simply because fate brought them into my dealership and I happened to assist them with their vehicle purchase, I realized that this provided me far more of an indication that I did things right than any “good job” could have and it was all possible because I had a great leader.

Filed Under: Automotive, Dealer magazine, Management, motivational Tagged With: dealer magazine, leadership, management

Carpe Diem

October 5, 2010 By Arnold Tijerina

“Progress always involves risk; you can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first” – Frederick Wilcox

People like comfort and fear change. In today’s economy, people are afraid to take risks whether in business or in their personal lives. In our industry, change is continuous yet nobody wants to do it.
A new sales manager comes in and forgets the fact that his predecessor was probably terminated because he/she did not perform yet they are afraid to do something new to change that cycle. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Since dealership turnover of sales personnel is considered a normal part of the retail sales department in a dealership, new managers feel that the solution is changing personnel. Why? Because that is a change that conforms to expectations.
Whether the change involves processes or vendors, I guarantee that success doesn’t come without risk. If you, whether in your personal or professional life, are unwilling to take risks to achieve different results, you will fail just as the person before you did.
Our country was built on change. Most successful people in business made a change, whether that was by doing things differently or thinking outside the box.
If you’re not achieving the results you need and/or are being demanded of you, the worst thing you could do is maintain the status quo.
Be open to change. Embrace it. Think outside the box.
If you don’t know what to do, learn. If something isn’t working for you, change.
If you live in fear, you will never achieve success. Whether that is increasing sales, employee morale, or getting better results from vendors.
Do what you want to be doing, not what you are being forced to do because you are living in fear.
Carpe Diem.

Filed Under: Editorial, Training Tagged With: cars, change, Dealership, editorial, management, Motivation, Sales

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