Standing in line in front of the J.C. Penney store at the Cedar Hills Shopping Center in Jacksonville, Florida…wearing a Beatle haircut…a genuine bleeding madras shirt with button-down collar and a hanger loop …Weejuns…and London Fog jacket. It was February 1964…and, when the store opened, the new Beatles album, "Meet the Beatles" was going to go on sale for the first time.

June 1998…cleaning out the basement…rummaging through some old cardboard boxes…chuckling at old high school memories and moldy baseball gloves. My old record collection was there still packed from two moves ago. Hard to believe that I ever owned a Monkees album…and the Doors…and Cream…and, yes, there it was…"Meet the Beatles" in monaural on the Capital label. My first thought was to rush upstairs and pop it on the stereo. Then it hit me…really hard…I don’t own a turntable.

The vinyl record industry didn’t die…It never slowly faded away. In less than three or four years compact discs assassinated the technology that had endured since the turn of the century.

People tell us that the retail automobile industry is changing. Of course most of these "Waves of the Future" are unworkable fantasies created on the drawing boards of idealistic propeller heads with advanced education and little to none actual hands-on experience in the retail automobile industry. They usually give them some catchy name…like "Project 2000" for instance. Doomed to failure by flawed concepts, most of these Waves of the Future never make it to the beach

With more than twenty-five years of in-the-trenches experience, I am currently working as sales, advertising and marketing consultant to some of the most successful dealers in the country…more than thirty-five thousand managers and executives have attended my seminars. With that being said, maybe it might be a good idea to use this month’s article to discuss some of those things that are actually working and generating additional profitability for dealers. 

As a consultant, my mission is to increase the dealership’s profitability through increased unit sales and profit per unit sold. The first thing I look at in any dealership is the quality of the sales force. Most dealerships do not require performance standards to remain employed and there is no management review with the sales people. In truth, most dealerships are hanging on to people who should be fired simply because they don’t know how or where to get a quality individual to replace them.

Sales people don’t produce because no one in management holds them accountable. We’re talking about the people that you put in front of the public. Sales people are the representatives of your company that your customers spend the majority of their time with. That is the most important priority. In short, get rid of bad people…have twice-a-month sales person evaluations with management. Review performance levels, sales skills, CSI, and monthly forecast based on unit sales and profit…and make termination and advancement decisions based on these evaluations.

Track your prospects as well as your existing customer base. It always amazes me that dealers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars advertising for strangers to come into the dealership and buy a car when, at the same time; They have completely lost touch with their existing and past customers.

Every dealership needs to generate a monthly newsletter with articles, photographs, specials and human-interest features. Part of your advertising budget should be dedicated to keeping a continued presence in front of your customer and prospect database.

One of the best investments an automobile dealer can make is to create a

Telemarketing Center focused on business development and customer-tracking. Not just another "Phone Room"…I am talking about a professionally managed center to handle all in-bound and out-bound telephone, customer tracking, CSI Engineering, as well as Internet Management.

 I have been an outspoken critic of the so-called internet buying services like Auto-By-Tel, etc. It is a sad note when dealers advertise in such a way as to turn retail buyers into fleet customers. My experience is that these buyers are the demographic of customer that I would least like to show up in my showroom…They are the grinders…The "Show me your invoice" type of buyer who will be a problem long after the deal is done. I feel these buyers double-cross the dealer and use the initial figure as the starting price. My recommendation is to cancel all of the outside internet buying services and bring it in-house, under control.

The problem with most dealer’s websites is that they are stale…not maintained…out-of-date…the very look of the website implies "cobwebs". Every dealership should look at their website as an expansion of their advertising message…not as the message itself. The trick is not as much about building the site as how to get people to visit the website…and actually respond to it. This is why I am getting dealers I work with to hire an in-house website programmer who "sweeps" the site every few hours and responds to leads promptly, as well as changes the site on a daily basis. Be sure that all of the search engines have registered the words and flags that will direct the most people to the site.

A website should have pages of advertising message about the dealership and specials in sales and service. I view a website as the opportunity to have a dozen additional full-page ads for the customer to see. Every ad in the newspaper or on television or direct mail should feature the web address in large type…twenty picas or more…bold print. "For additional specials visit us on the internet at http://www.greatdealer.com

It is incredible to see just how many dealers cannot quantify lost sales or missed business…much less how many dealers have an action plan to maximize opportunities to do business. It remains a fact that you can’t control what you can’t measure…and most dealerships do not have an accurate handle on their traffic. 

My philosophy, as a professional manager and as a consultant, is centered around a concept that I call "Hyper-Awareness". It occurs to me that most managers are not aware of exactly what is happening with their sales people and the customers…How long they’ve been with them…Why they were leaving…What could have been done to make business happen.

If someone doesn’t buy today for any reason, someone in management needs to recontact them within twelve working hours…not the sales person. Does it not occur to some people that most sales people hope the customer never comes back. Most sales people prefer a fresh up to a be-back who has already worked them into the ground on the first visit. Managers need to assume the responsibility of getting the customers back into the dealership.

I have read all of the negative press concerning the secondary finance business. Facts still remain that perhaps as many as 53% of Americans do not qualify for conventional Bank Financing or Manufacturer Financing. With more than a million personal bankruptcies every year, mostly due to economy issues beyond the consumer’s control, we have to continue to creatively find ways to sell in this arena. Even though this paper is very "time intensive" and complicated, a dealership must have a "Special Finance Department" and train their people how to deal with the complex requirements to move into this market.

"One-Price Selling" is a documented failure…just look at the lackluster performance of the so-called superstores who banked on "No Haggle Selling". Your sales force needs to be trained and retrained on consumer-oriented negotiation processes and especially on the "Word-tracks" that give the customers confidence and the impression of professionalism. A dealership without an organized and measurable selling system is a lost puppy on the interstate during rush hour.

F&I Managers need to be elevated in respect and authority with the sales force. There are complicated disclosure issues currently under the microscope…soon to intensify. State Attorney Generals are going to be looking closely at "Payment Packing". ( Including F&I products into a payment to the customer) F&I is going to have to learn to offer the customer menus, packages and options instead of the traditional assumptive sale that we have always relied upon.

 Under the new interpretations of the law, if your sales people are telling the customers interest rates and payments on the parking lot without management supervision…You are going to wake up one day with a four-hundred thousand dollar fine from some baby-kissing Attorney General looking to carve a couple of more notches on their political guns.

Of course the CarMaxs and the AutoNations of this world keep laying down asphalt and making noises in the wilderness…The factories are still doing extremely stupid things…and somewhere, as I put these words to paper, J.D. Power is probably handing out another trophy following extensive alleged research…But…the truth is the consumers really are dictating the market and they are not playing the no-haggle game…not at those prices. There are many more issues and subtleties that I would like to have included in this article But, I am out of space and time…in this issue anyway.

Sitting here on the back deck, I am watching Zachary kicking a soccer ball in the back yard while the Labrador is over in the corner creating fertilizer.

Smoke pours from the grill and my little boy looks up and asks me if I have ever heard of a band called "Smashmouth". I have to admit that I haven’t heard of them although my wife says they’re very popular with the kids.

Zachary comes up the steps and says "You know dad, Smashmouth is really a great band…They’re sort of like the Beatles".

Almost choking on my cognac, I look at my son….and say "I don’t think so".

If you are leaning toward believing that J.D. Power is a serious, credible, research firm, It may help you to make up your mind if you refer back to USA Today Money Section, May 13^th, 1998.

In an article by Donna Rosato titled "Airline Surveys Becoming Flighty?" Ms. Rosato appears to be questioning just how TWA and America West airlines could possibly rate Number One in customer satisfaction with the famous J.D. Power surveys when these airlines rate at the bottom of Department of Transportation rankings for late arrivals. America West had the highest number of consumer complaints to the D.O.T. and TWA had the 3^rd worst ranking for lost luggage complaints in the D.O.T. March report.

Of course my slant on that is that who knows best how satisfied they really are…J.D. Power or the actual customers?

To quote James Cagney in one of his most famous gangster movies…

"The Fix is On"

In the immortal words of Gomer Pyle… "Surprise…Surprise…Surprise".

Ford Motor Company is teaming up with Republic Industries in Rochester New York. I view this as one of the most monumental double-crosses in automotive retail history. The Manufacturer is teaming up with their largest retailer to operate dealerships in competition with smaller, less equipped to compete dealers…many of whom were loyal to Ford long before Ford decided to throw them to the wolves. I don’t believe for a moment that Henry Ford would have stood for this ethic.