The will must be stronger than the skill!

The Military is coming home... are you welcoming this crowd?

Our service men & women will be coming home in mass numbers over the coming months & next two years with the draw downs in the Middle East.

These soldiers will be landing at bases around the U.S. Many will transfer out & move into the civilian sector.

Here are some thought provoking questions to help you make your business attractive to these men & women who have so honorably served:

• What are you doing to draw this crowd to your dealerships?
• Do you have the right lenders in place? If so, are they advertised specifically on your website?
• Have your ever sold to a veteran in the past?
• What is your special offer for military service men & women?
• What are you willing to do for them in return for their service for you? Yes, they've served you.
• Are you & your staff military friendly & knowledgeable? Do you need to read up, catch up?
• Do you even appreciate them?
• Is there a flag flying at your dealership? As a vet myself, that is the greatest thank you.
• How does your website attract veterans?
• When in a hiring need, would you consider advertising toward & training a veteran?
• It is perfectly OK & you should require a military ID with any special offers.

The current federal pull out date for Afghanistan is 2014, with talks in place for training, transition, and handover of security to the Afghanistan soldiers. According to the Associated Press on April 16, 2012, the the US Troops count will be down to only 68,000 by September 2012. These troops are steadily coming home.

It is important to be friendly to this segment of your business. Friendly means serving them. Put them in the right vehicle that is truly ready to be sold. Give them your best effort. Use GAP & a service contract to protect you, the soldier, & their investment. Don't be the person to allow a total loss, or an unexpected repair become something the soldier has to worry about. Let them come home, focus on family, and living again.

WHEN IMPROVING YOUR DEALERSHIP, IT STARTS WITH YOU

by Willie Grubaugh
Preferred Warranties, Inc.

Where should you start when looking to improving your dealership?

YOU! It all starts with you.  Painting, a remodel, and, or changing inventory simply will not do it. Work to change yourself first to match up with the desired change you have for the dealership. Change is good. Change is how we find new, more efficient ways to accomplish things. Change will teach us it is ok to fail. A batter in the majors will fail 630 times, but we all want a batter line up who hits 330. We don’t just want one; we want NINE batters who fail 630 times each on average. Think about this math for a minute, we want an average of 630 failures X 9 batters & that is our choice team! That is 5,670 Failures. We don’t focus on the failure itself. We focus on the lessons from each. Batting averages are not – 630 (negative 630), they are 330; that’s it, 330. We use the lessons from failure for change. This change worked, that one didn’t, & drive on.

Appearance -

What do you need to change? Some people need to change the way they dress. Some change may be in talk, how much cursing you do, slang, too much jargon, or making people feel incompetent through words & digs; too much sarcasm for comfort's sake. What about grooming, shaving, & visibility of tattoos? It all matters. Ducks fly with ducks, and geese with geese. We draw people like ourselves. If we want a different crowd, it is in ourselves where the change has to occur first.

What do you want your employees to change? The same holds true for employees as you, but it still starts with your change. You may be the boss. You may own the place. They are going to follow your dress, your walk, your talk.

1. Goals -

Are you even goal oriented?

What is the motivation of each goal?

What are your written, defined, clear goals for change?

Do your goals make sense for your business? Test them with SMART

1. S - Specific; what is the specific goal, not general, or vague here
2. M - Motivation; what is the purpose & reward for achieving this goal?
3. A - Accountability; How are you holding yourself & your team accountable for the goal(s)? How often are you discussing it? Do you meet at the same time each day, week, or month? Do you even meet at all? It is important to meet to track & celebrate the successes & progress along the way. Do not ignore the shortfalls. Have the tough conversations with yourself & your team as soon as the shortfall is recognized. Ignoring & avoiding is the single best way to fail. It is important, & only fair, you know where you stand with yourself, as well as where your team stands with you. This prevents head trash, small things creating anger & frustrations over time until the inevitable blow up. Don't do that to yourself, or your team. It burns energy with zero positive results.
4. R - Realistic; Is the goal something YOU can realistically achieve? Do you have what you need in place? Do you have the right team in place? Who all will be rewarded for helping achieve the goal(s)? What do you need to go get, implement, or get rid of immediately to start toward the goal? Be honest with yourself here. What bad habits do YOU have in the way you need to dump? What strengths do YOU have to build on?
5. T - TIME! By when will you achieve this goal? Don't just leave the goal out there with a date of "Someday, I want to..." That is the worst thing you can ever do to yourself, & your team.

The Plan(s)

What is your written, detailed plan for achieving each goal? No plan, no goal. There is no such thing as luck; good or bad. Luck is what the outside world sees when hard work & a plan comes together. “Good luck” happens to those with hard work & a plan. “Bad luck” is what happens to those with poor work ethic, no plan, & no desire for the lesson from the failure.

Continuing Education -

Seminars – Look to your state & national organizations websites for dates & locations of what they offer. Look to your vendors to see what training they offer. Many offer onsite training. Some classes may be in groups; so ask about dates & locations & what your vendors offer. They may sponsor seminar events, or may even host the training themselves.

Books – Look for books related to your industry. Ask your peers what their latest read is, what did they get out of it, what change are they making because of that read. Look for books to help with your position. There are so many that have gone before you. Books are a great resource to learn from their mistakes. People worth following are humble & open about the mistakes they’ve made & they lessons they’ve learned. Know-it-alls will never help you. 

News & industry related articles for knowledge – This is the easiest. You never have to leave your chair. Open you laptop, or tablet, start searching & reading. It is really that simple. Use social media as well. Follow the people with knowledge & experience. LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, and so many others are out there. I would limit yourself to what you can handle. Over exposure will shut you down here. That is one mistake I have made in the past; trying to be all things, everywhere, at once.

Time -

Are you investing enough time for the changes you are looking for?

MENTOR! This one is big to me. Who is your mentor? Who are you able to comfortably able to call on for questions, advice, frustrations, & round table discussions with? It may be a group of people. I recommend one mentor inside your business, & one outside of your business, but in the same title position, or title above your current position. A solid mentor is brutally honest, encouraging, & humble. They will help build you up when you need it most. They will tell you to suck it up, pull up your bootstraps, & finish it when you need it most.... usually when you are on the edge of a breakthrough, but you can't see it yet. A mentor can see it. They are able to look at you & what is going on around you objectively.

Change has brought about things like electricity, phones to cellular phones, & indoor plumbing. I promise you, change is good. None of these things happened over night. Alexander Graham Bell had no idea what Steve Jobs was going to bring about. Both saw change & benefit to our futures. I searched, found, & saved the photo of this old phone with my iPhone. Paint is not change. Paint only covers the old, but underneath, everything is the same. Make the change you can clearly see needs to take place within you.

Ferdinand Alexander Porsche dies at age 76

Ferdinand Alexander Porsche dies at 76. For auto lovers, this is a sad, but appreciated day. The name itself should tell you the rest of the story.

The famed Porsche 911 was built from his drawings and design.

Porsches are collected and loved around the world. Their are some cars in this world strong enough to influence collectors, clubs, and crazes. Harley Davidson, Corvette, & Mustangs are are a few. The Porsche draws its own, elite crowd as well.

Ferdinand Alexander Porsche was Born in Stuttgart, Germany, Dec. 11, 1935. He was the first son of Dorothea and Ferry Porsche. Together, Ferry & Ferdinand founded the company & design that grew to become the elite craze today known as Porsche.

I remember as a teenage boy, even growing up in the country, the Porsche posters were in ever teen boy's room. They were sold like crazy at Spencer's & as the poster to have through school book sales.

It is no secret Jerry Seinfeld is a fan. The car is also represented in James Bond movies & Californication today.

I would encourage any readers to research his life further.

Here is the text from the article "Pay A Sales Call To Your Bank"

Pay A “Sales Call” To Your Bank

by Willie Grubaugh
Preferred Warranties, Inc.

Lending is off. So, what are you going to do about it? If you answer is, “Sit around and complain,” then join the crowd. I hear it all day long from dealers across Texas, from Cleburne out to Round Rock, and from Port Arthur down to Harlingen.

Will you be different? You can choose to set yourself apart from the crowd, and be proactive. Get out of your office, off the lot, and into the bank - lots of banks, finance companies, credit unions, any legitimate organization with money to lend. You need to put yourself across the desk from loan officers, VP’s, and branch managers and make their acquaintance.

Then what? Now you call upon your years of sales expertise - you do this for a living, remember? Except instead of selling a quality, pre-owned vehicle to a consumer, you need to sell yourself and your dealership to a banker so he wants to lend you money and wants you as a business associate. People buy from people they like, right? Tell them how you built your business, your personal success story, the ethical business practices you follow, and how you give back to the community. You need to build a relationship with the banker to the point where you can borrow his shovel if need be.

How often? You should pay a “Sales Call” to at least one banker a week. I can hear your excuse now, “I can’t afford to be away from the lot that much!” But you can easily accomplish this by making one “Sale Call” on your way to work in the morning. Most of your dealerships don’t even open until 9:30 or 10 am, while banks open at 9:00 am sharp. You need to make the commitment. How many bankers do you think you’ll see if you hurry right to your dealership instead?

Go see your banker. What’s the worst that could happen? So, you get a “no” or maybe a “not this month”. Go see a different banker, and then another, and another. You will get better at it with practice, and you will eventually find a banker who’s interested in building a lending relationship. It may happen because you discover you went through school together, or your kids play soccer in the same league, or you’re members of the same church, or it may simply happen because you do a darn good job of selling yourself and the banker likes the fact that you keep stopping in every month.

Have fun. Don’t put pressure on yourself. When they ask at the bank how they can help you, tell them, “I just came by for the free coffee! But while I’m here, I might as well talk to your loan officer.” Then, tell your story and start building a relationship.

Willie Grubaugh is Texas Regional Manager with Preferred Warranties, Inc. www.warrantys.com PWI service contracts are sold in more than a dozen states, available exclusively through quality dealerships. Willie Grubaugh can be reached via email @ wgrubaugh@warrantys.com or by phone at 214-244-3871

What we did then that worked, don't stop doing it today. Complacent is no place to be in the auto world!

Here is an article I wrote in August 2009 and was published in the TIADA Dealer magazine. The idea was right for the time.

Now, lending is competitive once again. Why not use these same practices in order to have lenders continually compete for your business today?

It still makes sense today to developed new as well as nurture our existing banking relationships. No one bank is the end all solution for any car dealer.

Article - Report: U.S. suggests Ally Financial breakup

NEW YORK — The U.S. Treasury Department, which put $17.2 billion into a bailout of Ally Financial Inc., has indicated it would prefer a breakup and sale of the lender — including selling the company's captive finance auto business back to General Motors Co., its original owner.

People familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that Treasury wants to make such moves because it no longer believes an initial public offering of Ally stock would succeed.

GM previously owned Ally when it was known as GMAC Financial Services. GM spokesman Jim Cain declined to comment on the report.

Treasury officials are telling Ally executives, directors and financial advisers that an IPO is unlikely soon because of the company’s high cost of capital relative to other banks, the potential bankruptcy of a mortgage unit, and its recent performance in Federal Reserve Board stress tests, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.

Treasury instead is pushing for Ally to split into at least two pieces, the people said. One part would be Ally’s auto finance unit, one of the largest in the U.S., and the other would be its online banking business, which had almost $28 billion in retail deposits at year end. Ally shareholder Elliott Management Corp. also recommends a sale, according to a letter sent to the board by Elliott and obtained by Bloomberg News.

Ally CEO Michael Carpenter and its board have resisted Treasury’s call for a split, the people said, adding that the department is reluctant to press Carpenter too hard for a sale out of concern about appearing as a heavy-handed owner. The Treasury owns 74 percent of Ally.

“Every action the company has taken and contemplated has been with the objective to fulfill our mission to support the auto recovery and fully repay the taxpayer's investment,” Gina Proia, an Ally spokeswoman, said in an e-mailed statement. “This is what will guide our decisions going forward.”

Ally was found to have some of the lowest capital ratios among 19 lenders in Fed banking stress tests released March 13.

Ally is likely to put its Residential Capital mortgage unit into bankruptcy in the next few weeks and sell some assets in a court-supervised sale, people familiar with the matter said last month. The firm also may lose its preferred auto-lender agreement with Chrysler Group LLC, which is seeking out banks like Wells Fargo & Co. and Santander Holdings USA Inc. to potentially replace Ally, people with knowledge of the matter said last month.

The U.S. determined that Ally was crucial to the survival of the auto industry during the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009 and provided multiple bailouts in return for a 74 percent stake.

Last year, when Ally was close to a public offering, it considered a joint bid from GM and Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canada's second-largest lender, until those discussions fizzled, a person familiar with the matter said last month.

Ally has financed about 6.7 million GM or Chrysler vehicles for dealers since 2009 and 2.4 million for consumers, Proia said. Ally has so far paid $5.4 billion to the Treasury.