21 May 10 How You Will Be Among The 20% Of Automotive Dealerships Who Survive The Current Economic ‘Crisis’

For many dealerships, times are tough. The leads have slowed down, the obstacles of financing should qualify as an Olympic sport and advertising just doesn’t work like it used to.

And the truth is that a lot of dealers are going under. There’s going to be a lot of casualties after this one….your store included.

OR perhaps not.

This current financial ‘crisis’ might really be your best 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 be 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 give you some cold, hard statistics and strategies to assist you in just a moment, but let me begin 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 different 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 80/20 rule, also referred to as the Pareto Principle.

If you’re not acquainted with the Pareto Principle, this rule dictates that 20% of dealerships naturally get 80% of the business. In different words, the 20% of dealers who will survive this present economic storm will do so because they make Sixteen times as much as those in the 80%.

And because of this ability to earn additional capital, when the market does come back (which it invariably does), they’ll be bigger and better than ever, readily positioned to eat up new shares of the auto market.

That might mean a lot 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 can 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 do, and what you’ll need to try to to if you plan 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 staff is well trained…
3. They’re getting a hard hold on the marketing engine that will drive their business over the following few years…

And most significantly, they won’t panic or talk themselves into defeat. They know folks can still purchase cars. Simply not as many. They also know there’s going to be less deals to go around and that they’ll do what it takes to secure 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 required support workers 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 you’ll have the cash to lay off your deadbeats and riff-raff and be in a position to replace them with skilled, professional, hard working people immediately.

So high unemployment rates can be a good thing…if you’re in the right group.

The 20% group will see these hard times as an chance.

Smart folks (those in 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.

Therefore where will you fall as it relates to the 80/20 rule?

Here’s something else that we know for sure…

1. 80% of the people reading this can create only 20% of the results they need to be successful (harsh, but true)…
2. However 20% of the dealers reading will create 80% or more of the results they have to make it…and make it big!

A small proportion of the dealers reading this right now are prepared to make marvelous progresses in the coming months, whereas the rest are destined to mediocrity.

Now here’s where things get really serious. The 80/20 rule repeats itself, infinitely. Meaning the top 20% splits itself into eighty/twenty. Thus there’s the top 4%.

Then it happens again. 20% of the top 20% of the top 20% — the top 0.8%. That’s where you really need to be. If we didn’t already challenge you enough to be in the top 20…if you REALLY need to come out ahead, try to become a top 0.8% person.

Let’s take a closer look at the .8% person:

Each call is carefully made by a 0.8% person because it’s far more valuable than a call made by an 80% person.

A 0.8% person is aware of how to focus and narrow their labors on those things which are truly crucial. Even though he might have a list of forty three things to do, he’ll hone in on the three or four that are more important than all the others combined. But the 80% folks treat all items like they’re the same, or worse, work on the forty less crucial 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 info he will allow into his mind…what he reads, listens to, or watches on TV… who he surrounds himself with. The 80% folks are “open minded” and “tolerant” to just about any person or any idea.

The 0.8% people belongs to some kind of mastermind or “good ol’ boys” club. This can be the type of group that can support, hold up, and go the additional mile for its members. And most of the 0.8% folks pay BIG money to be in these clubs! Yet again, unlike the 80% who would see it as a waste, they realize 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 people is almost always pathetically wrong. The 80% folks…well, they’re the masses.

So, friend, what’s it gonna be for you? 80%, 20%, 4%, 0.8%? Your actions now will ultimately determine your fate of your future. So choose the winning team and get started 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