How many Signals do you need???

[TheOne]

sarcasm, sarcasm

I actually checked seems there were a matter of months between the two times.....

I am however amazed how easily sidetracked people get. I guess ADHD is real and alive in the car business....

I met with two today, and they were both terribly nervous about the state of the industry as a whole, AND LOOKING TO RECESSION PROOF THEIR STORES THROUGH FIXED OPERATIONS. Big beautiful stores with empty showrooms........

[This message has been edited by TheOne (edited 10-21-2008).]

[TheOne]

Gasser,
I'm pretty close to DP, he said he appreciates your comments...

[sallen1]

My dad gave me a management guide about how to survive one of the inevitable downturns in the car business and the title was something like "A new way of thinking". The author wrote about the typical dealership response to declining business: attack expenses, "hunker down" for a while, etc. and pretty much at TheOne stated at the top, the old school way.

The author then wrote about a different approach: Fire everyone (figuratively) and start over. Size the organization to the size of the business. Act as if you are just building the business. Ask yourself: what is the minimum I need to provide the appropriate amount of sales to make the business work.

I'm about there, now. We are in a situation where we have much more capacity than we need: management, infrastructure, the works. It all needs to be reassessed. Starting over kind of makes sense but it is scary. Anyway, car dealerships may continue to be "big" but the organizations are going to be much, much smaller.

Oh, when was that story written? October, 1937. Some things never change.

s

[KLINK]

We are going thru a major reorganization as we speak. The front end has halved their traditional advertising and is redirectng that money into new new technology and new ways of doing business. I feel very fortunate to have a smart dealer principle. We are positioning ourselves for the future. We will get there because we have a dp that is not afraid of change, does not accept excuses, and is willing to listen to new ideas, and more importantly to try them. The dp knows they wont all work. But knows to keep doing the same thing we have always done is certain suicide! I have never been thru a downturn this bad, but I have never been this excited to be in charge and able to try just about anything I want to try to increase the profits of the fixed operations. For those of us still around when the upturn comes, and it will, whatever the name brand happens to be out front, whatever they want to call it, or combine it into, I am going to make so much money I am going to retire!

[TheOne]

Well said Mike

[This message has been edited by TheOne (edited 10-22-2008).]

[ZOOM1]

TheOne and DealerProfit-sounds like the same person to me.If so, it's a shame he operates under deception.Other than a possibly inflated ego, I think the post from TheOne makes a lot of sense.The world,and particularly our industry is changing,and if we don't adapt,we will not survive....

[TheOne]

Deception???
I don't know about DP, but I was hoping the discussion could be about the subject instead of personalities. Ego? I wrote about my observations and the conclusions that I personally drew from them. I don't recall offering myself up as the solution, or the one to solve the industries issues.

My only comment that I believe could be construed in as the least bit offensive was pointing out that there may be a lack of courage in our industry as a whole and the individuals entrusted with management of it at all levels to look at themselves critically and embrace new ideas and quite possibly need to admit that they might not be strong enough in fixed operations to survive the current changes required.

On the other side of the coin I appreciate that you find that I made sense. Thank you

[This message has been edited by TheOne (edited 10-22-2008).]

[X476]

TheOne

I for one say speak loud and proud. We all need the so called kick in the butt once in a while to make ourselves better. Out of the box thinking and attentions to details (expenses). That and building our Fixed Op's is the way to survive in this climate. People are not going to buy new cars they are going to fix and/or maintain the current ones we have to be ready to challenge ourselves to be better than the competition. So preach on and offend those who can't see the future, the rest of us will be glad to listen and consider any topic.

[calgm988]

What are we talking about here? This market is forcing dealers to adapt or die...nothing inbetween. Those dealers who focused on fixed operations years ago, are actually seeing a considerable amount of growth. Simply said, the strong survive and the weak fade away.

The bigger picture here TheOne is about taking care of your customers AND your staff. It's no surprise the dealers that are closing all around the country are dealers who didn't give a rats ass about their customers or about the staff. Look around you and ask your employees about the reputation of the dealers going under. For the most part, they didn't take care of either of them. This is a people business! It's plain and simple...hire good people, train those people and irregardless of circumstances (although the market is real) those dealers will still have growth.


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"focus on the purpose, not the outcome."

[ZOOM1]

TheOne-my apologies. I may have misinterpreted your post.And you are correct-we need to focus on the subject and put personalities aside.Thanks for reminding me-sometimes we all get a little off track.I do agree 100% with your views on this subject-a healthy,profitable fixed operations is the only way to survive in the current and future automotive market,and I for one want to THRIVE, not just survive ! Out-of-the-box thinking will be required if we are to make it.