“I’ve been thinking….”

I call this my 21 Keys to Success, although I have picked up a few more that I feel have earned the right to be included, and it looks more like 33 things now. Please do me a favor and do not read this right now. Print it out right now, and read it when you have at least 15 minutes or so to digest. With my experience, it will mean a lot more to you, if you have some private time to absorb the words and the meanings. Over the years, I have had many hundreds of people write me and call me and say that my simple words in this little note have helped them in some fashion. If you do not change, or try to change, or even pause to take a close look at your life and where you are and where you want to go……when will you do it? Just do one little thing today…..today-as soon as you read this, take action-Now!!!

1.    Marry the right person. This one decision alone will determine 90% of your happiness or misery.

2.    Work at something you enjoy and that is worthy of your time and talent.

3.    Give people more than they deserve, and do it cheerfully.

4.    Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know.

5.    Be happy-people like to be around, and do business with, happy people with positive energy.

6.    Be generous.

7.    Have a Grateful Heart!

8.    Persistence-Persistence-Persistence-Persistence…….etc.

9.    Discipline yourself to save money-even on the most modest income or salary-this will work wonders for your self-esteem.

10.    Treat everyone you meet like you would want to be treated.

11.    When you meet someone, turn your heart towards them. This will send a signal you want them to like you and that you like them.

12.    Commit yourself to constant improvement.

13.    Do one “thing” every day.  Make a list of the “things” you would like to do or get done. Pretty soon you have some “things” done. Hey-you have to start somewhere.

14.    Commit yourself to quality.

15.    Understand that happiness is not based on possessions, power or prestige, rather on relationships with people you love and respect!

16.    Be loyal.

17.    Be Honest.

18.    As my grandfather once said: “If you always tell the truth-you never have to remember what you said….and that’s when life gets real simple”

19.    Be a self-starter

20.    Be decisive-even if it means might be wrong sometimes.

21.    In sales and in life….every “No” gets you closer to a “Yes”

22.    The “Sale” begins when the customer says “No”

23.    Stop blaming others. Take Full responsibility for your actions, and every area of your life.

24.    Understand that life is not “fair”. “Fare” is what you pay to ride the bus.

25.    Take real good care of those you love.

26.    Don’t do anything that wouldn’t make your Mom proud.

27.    Life is a “do-it-yourself project”….open up the box and get started on it today.

28.    My childhood friend and ultimate mentor, Tom Green once told me-Never say anything real bad about your Mother- – -she is one of the only two only reasons you are here on earth. Keep Respect in your heart for her, even if you might get upset with her. There is a big difference.

29.    Money isn’t everything. The sooner in life you realize this-the happier you will be. Take a real close look at the people who have real money….and ask yourself, are they really and truly “happy?” Are folks like Donald Trump, and Paris Hilton, really happy? Look at the professional athletes who, it seems like are more and more getting in trouble. Are they happy?

30.    There is no excuse for being rude to someone. If someone cuts you off in traffic, just take your hand and wave them into your lane, it will make you feel absolutely tremendous.

31.    The right decision comes automatically to you- – -no thought required. When you have a ‘decision’ to make, and you have to ‘think’ about it, it’s probably not the right thing to do.

32.    Don’t ever forget that our life here on earth is temporary. Don’t treat life as a dress-rehearsal…..this is the real thing.

33.    (and my favorite) Be bold and courageous. WHEN YOU LOOK BACK ON YOUR LIFE-PLEASE DON’T REGRET THE THINGS YOU DIDN’T DO MORE THAN THE ONES YOU DID.

“I’ve been thinking…..”

To Set Goals:

I firmly believe everyone should have Goals for themselves. Personal and Business. If for nothing else, it just helps your mind and makes you feel good. As Jim Rohn says: “The future does not get better by hope, it gets better by plan. And to plan for the future-we need Goals.”

Goals can give amazing power to your life. I know you have all heard about someone being Re-active v Pro-active. If we all just sit around and wait for things to happen, then whatever happens, will happen and we have little or no control over our destiny, or our fate. We are adrift with the tides and currents.

Goals should be S.M.A.R.T. goals.
S.pecific
M.easurable
A.ttainable
R.ealistic
T.ime related

Specific-Fine tune the specifics of your Goals. Don’t just say “I’m going to make two hundred thousand dollars this year.” Make it-“I am going to sell XXX cars every month and have a minimum gross profit of $xxxxxx with a total payable commission of $XXXX per vehicle.” In order to do this I will need XXX amount of “Ups” and XXX amount of Repeat and Referral customers. Once you say this and PUT YOUR GOALS IN WRITING, its amazing how your plans will just automatically develop and take shape. Many people work their Goals backwards, starting at the end result and working back towards a pure starting point and filling in all the blanks as they go. Exactly what you do is kinda unimportant here, just do something and get started.

Measurable-What is your goal for tomorrow? Do you need to get someone into your showroom by 10:00 or 11:00 in order to get a unit delivered by 5:00 or 7:00? “On the 5th of the month I need to be at this point and have this and that done.” Where do you need to be by the 15th, by the 20th, the 25th and the end of the month? Put you hourly, daily, weekly and monthly plans in writing and take stock of where you are every day.

Attainable-Maybe earning $300,000 is just not physically and realistically possible for you, to do at your dealership in your community. Average out your income for the past 5 years and see where you are, and set the notch up by 20% every year and make plans to get there. Think about this: A 20% increase per year, over the next 5 years, will double your income-Wowser! So What!……even f you only increase your income by 30% or 40% or even 50%, you had a plan, and that is more than 90% of the salespeople out there selling cars right now have. I know…… there are a few of you snickering right now, but you are probably the guys who will still be sitting by the front door, waiting for “Ups”, and waiting for someone else to determine your income, for the remainder of your career in the car business. (Can I shame you into making more money for yourself and the dealership?)

Realistic-Make sure you have a talk with yourself before you sit down to set your Goals. If your store is in a town of 5,000 people and your total market base is only 20,000 people, it is probably a given you will not start out and make $100,000 your first year in the car business, but there is no reason why you cannot branch out your second, third or fourth year in the business, and set your personal market increases and your income levels slightly higher each year. The Dave Smith Auto Group, in Kellogg, Idaho, with 2 dealerships, delivered 11,003 new vehicles and 4,240 used units in 2007, and ranks #68 in the Top 125 dealerships in the U.S. Kellogg, Idaho isn’t that big, but somehow they deliver a lot of cars.

Time-Related-make sure you build in some time measurements when you are setting your Goals. Instead of “I’d like to make a lot of money and do it soon!” narrow down your time goals to a realistic and timely standard. It’s good to have a long term (5 Year Plan) goal, after you have filled in tomorrow and next week and next month and next year. Use your past performance as key indicators; be flexible, realistic, and completely honest with yourself, when you set up your personal Goals!

OK-to my strong procrastinators out there: Since getting started is the hardest part: My strongest advice….if all this specific stuff overwhelms you, just sit down, draw 5 numbers on a piece of paper and set 5 really simple goals for yourself….

1. I will make 10 packets (I Love Me Packets) of info, that will tell people who I am, what I do, and where I do it.

2. I will arrive at work on Monday, by 7:03 instead of 8:00 (the traffic is lighter at that time of day anyhow)

3. When I get to work, I will be prepared to work the service drive, (for leads)

4. When I talk to people, I will put them into my personal data bank, and I will ask them for more referrals, if they are not interested in buying right now (you WILL get their email address-not negotiable on this one)

5. I will make good notes on what they are currently driving and I will send them a hand written, personalized note every month, telling them about all the special deals I have brewing in the New Car or Used Car departments, at your store. Have these notes prepared during the first few days of the month, and ready to mail out on the 15th of the month, and keep track of who you send personalized notes to. Start here and grow into setting slightly larger goals and then larger and then larger and pretty soon, you will be up to speed and up there with the top producers.

The bottom line is: none of this stuff is easy and nothing will help you if you don’t help yourself. It’s all up to you to take care of you!

That’s all for now….See you later on down the road!!!
Sam Milton-the King of Auto Sales

“I’ve been thinking……”
Hang on! I am going to surprise you here today, with the results of my Top 5 Expectations from Today’s Customers! You know- – -I just reviewed this article I wrote a few days ago, about the Top 5 Expectations of Today’s Customers, and it really made me realize about how much power these words have. I need to, and I will do more for you, in this area.
In the meantime, here are the answers to the little quiz I gave the other day-(by the way-not in any specific order):

1. Respect and Courtesy (somehow these were grouped together by the people I interviewed)
2. Value
3. Positive Attitude
4. Good Information
5. Exceptional Service

Honesty Time:

Now I would imagine these would fluctuate in the order at any one given time, but my purpose here is to get you thinking about what you do every day out there, to people who are expecting things like this. Just do me a favor and think back to the last 10 customers you didn’t close and see if one of these Top 5 was a factor, or a factor missing, in your process. I think you’ll be surprised at what you find.

Thank you for your time, see you later on down the road!

Sam Milton-the King of Auto Sales

Serious Staffing: Hiring a good sales staff is hard. Retaining a good sales staff is HARDER. Working with a staff that is inadequate is miserable.  There are so many things to do and so little time, however-if you want to make your life easier…Hire Good People. If your job, at the desk is slightly overwhelming at times, just step back and take a look at the big picture. You will probably find that you have failed in on of the Key areas of staffing. We all know what those are:

1.     Recruit good people

2.     Hire them correctly

3.     Merge them into your store

4.     Train them effectively

5.     Continue their development

6.     Offer them hope for gain

It always seemed like my biggest issues at the desk were from my new-hires and that one or two vets that I should have released from their non-committal lives long before they got to this point. (They were just taking up space that could have been filled by someone who was interested in becoming a Pro!

There are people out there that will come to work for you and perform well and to your standards. This next week or even next month, identify your Top Producers and your Mid-Level Producers and your Lower-Level Producers, keep track (and be honest with yourself) of how much time you spend with each group. You will probably discover you are spending the most time (keeping them busy and productive) and with them, especially at the desk. You need to ask yourself, EVERYDAY-“A: Do I have the staff I need to get where I want to go, and B: What do I need to change to have a properly staffed store?” Then sit down and analyze every person on your sales team, in all areas of performance. If you will be honest with yourself, you will uncover exactly where you have the biggest challenges. You have a choice: Be honest with yourself or keep on tolerating what you have now. Speaking from experience-you cannot attack every area of getting new team members tomorrow. Just take one step at a time, but take ‘a step’….. Today!

Have you hired and trained well? Are you happy with the staff you have now?

I will offer more info later, on prospecting for New Hires and all of the details associated with getting a good solid team. I will also offer more info as we get into this key area and offer some of these specialized columns later, looking at each specific area of staffing.

Thank you for your time, see you later on down the road!
Sam Milton-the King of Auto Sales
 

Most of us try to get the customer to like us. How do we know what to be and how to act? I will share the secrets with you today-of how and what the customer expects, and in some cases- – -demands!
I will offer you the choices, (below left)- – -Print this out-make your decisions (on the right) and I will surprise you with the answers in a few days. In the next few weeks, we’ll take a closer look at each one of these areas of ‘Expectations’ and I will offer you some tips and suggestions to be a better person, and how to be what they expect. After all…..people will make good, positive decisions when they are comfortable and relaxed, so it just makes sense you want to try to be what they “expect”.

The Choices:

1.    Loyalty                                1. ______________________________________
2.    Respect                                                
3.    Information                         2. _______________________________________
4.    Value
5.    Courtesy                             3. _______________________________________
6.    Knowledge
7.    Professionalism                4. _______________________________________
8.    Listening Skills
9.    Consideration                   5. _______________________________________
10.    Positive Attitude
11.    Exceptional Service
12.    Common Sense
13.    Sense of Humor

See you later on down the road,
Sam Milton-King of Auto Sales