For most dealerships, times are tough. The leads have slowed down, the hurdles of financing should qualify as an Olympic sport and advertising just doesn’t work like it used to.
And the reality is that several dealers are going under. There’s going to be a lot of victims after this one….your store included.
OR maybe not.
This current financial ‘crisis’ may really be your greatest blessing as a small business owner.
Sounds crazy, but here’s the deal.
Several dealers are going out of business. No doubt. It’s already happening. Your job is to make sure it’s somebody else’s business going beneath… not yours. And there are terribly real ways to do this, if you’re really serious about being among the 20% of dealers who can outlive the storm.
I’m going to offer you some cold, hard stats and methods to help you in simply a moment, but let me start by saying that if you don’t have the correct systems or processes in place, work them out now. If you have personality conflicts, deal with them today. If you don’t have a system for staying in touch with past customers and unconverted leads, get one.
If you don’t have a crystal clear answer to the question, “Why should someone choose me over other dealers?” figure it out this weekend. If you don’t have a predictable way to get new clients into the door, at will, now is the time to do something about it. If you have floor plan issues or problems with your lenders, it’s better to sort it out this month than next.
Why?
It all comes back to the eternal eighty/twenty rule, also called as the Pareto Principle.
If you’re not familiar with the Pareto Principle, this rule dictates that 20% of dealerships easily get 80% of the business. In different words, the 20% of dealers who can outlive this present economic storm will do so because they make 16 times as much as those in the 80%.
And as a result of this capability to earn additional capital, when the market does come back (which it always does), they’ll be bigger and higher than ever, readily positioned to eat up new shares of the auto market.
That might mean more dealers go out of business once more-but it won’t have an effect on you if you’re among the 20%.
So what will you do to make sure your dealership rapidly and effortlessly ends up among the 20% if you’re already in, or teetering towards the 80% class?
Well here’s what dealers in the 20% group are doing, and what you’ll need to do if you intend to survive:
1. They’re sharpening their axe to make sure the dealership runs smoothly…
2. They’re going through further lengths to make sure the employees is well trained…
3. They’re getting a firm grip on the marketing engine that can drive their business over the next few years…
And most importantly, they won’t panic or talk themselves into defeat. They know people will still purchase cars. Just not as many. They also know there’s going to be less deals to go around and they’ll do what it takes to safeguard that business.
Now, what happens if things get real bad, and unemployment rises to 15% or more? Well if you’re in the 80%, you’ll be forced to lay off and you won’t have the necessary support staff to run your store.
BUT, if you’re in the 20%, 15% unemployment rates mean you’ll have the choose of the litter of who you would like to work at your store. It means that you’ll have the cash to fire your deadbeats and riff-raff and be in a position to replace them with experienced, skilled, hard working folks in an instant.
Thus high unemployment rates can be a good thing…if you’re in the right group.
The 20% group can see these hard times as an opportunity.
Smart folks (those within the 20%) know that now, and the months ahead are prime time to invest in stock, real estate, human capital, marketing, inventory — and they’ll be the ones who really rake it in when the market comes back.
Thus where will you fall as it relates to the eighty/twenty rule?
Here’s something else that we know for certain…
1. 80% of the folks reading this can create solely 20% of the results they have to be successful (harsh, however true)…
2. But 20% of the dealers reading will create 80% or more of the results they need to make it…and make it huge!
A small proportion of the dealers reading this right now are prepared to make marvelous progresses in the coming months, while the rest are doomed to mediocrity.
Now here’s where things get really serious. The 80/20 rule repeats itself, infinitely. That means the top 20% splits itself into 80/20. So there’s the top 4%.
Then it happens once more. 20% of the top 20% of the top 20% — the top 0.8%. That’s where you actually need to be. If we didn’t already challenge you enough to be in the top twenty…if you REALLY want to come out ahead, try to become a top 0.8% person.
Let’s take a closer look at the .8% person:
Each decision is carefully made by a 0.8% person because it’s far more valuable than a decision made by an 80% person.
A 0.8% person knows a way to focus and narrow their labors on those things that are actually important. Even though he may have a listing of forty three things to do, he’ll hone in on the 3 or four that are more important than all the others combined. However the 80% people treat all things like they’re the identical, or worse, work on the 40 less important tasks before they tackle the three or four that basically matter! They have no sense of priority and hence they “busy work” themselves out of survival.
The 0.8% person carefully discriminates what information he will permit into his mind…what he reads, listens to, or watches on TV… who he surrounds himself with. The 80% folks are “open minded” and “broadminded” to just about anyone or any idea.
The 0.8% people belongs to some kind of mastermind or “good ol’ boys” club. This is the kind of group that can support, hold up, and go the additional mile for its members. And most of the 0.8% people pay BIG cash to be in these clubs! Yet again, unlike the 80% who would see it as a waste, they understand the value and that some of the most brilliant men of all time, (i.e. Carnegie, Henry Ford, Ben Franklin) all participated in the same.
The 0.8% person is perfectly resistant to disapproval from others…doesn’t care what most folks think… is not affected by pessimism on the news, from neighbors or family members. He realizes that the mass of humanity is almost always pathetically wrong. The 80% people…well, they’re the masses.
So, friend, what’s it gonna be for you? 80%, 20%, 4%, 0.8%? Your actions now can finally determine your fate of your future. So pick the winning team and start down the road to success-even in these tough financial times!
Jimmy Vee and Travis Miller are the nation’s leading experts on attracting customers and the co-authors of Gravitational Marketing: The Science of Attracting Customers. Get important Auto Motive Advertising tips for FREE by requesting their FREE video training called The New Rules Of Automotive Marketing created especially for Car Dealers and Managers by visiting www.RichDealers.com
