Delta Boarding Zones, Gate Crowding, and How the New, New, New Boarding Zones Might Be the Dumbest Alternative Yet Delta knew they had a problem. Their Delta Boarding Zone System (DBZS) was confusing and caused massive gate crowding. Inferior rivals, faced with the same issue (think United), didn’t wrack their brains solving it, they just […]
Quick… make a list of the top five issues that are negatively impacting your dealership’s profitability that also have little to do with sales team turnover. If you’re like many of the dealers I’ve spoken with over the last year, your list probably contains items like these: Mediocre Online Reputation/CSI Higher Discounting/Lower Grosses Flattening […]
(This is an updated and edited version of my two-part series originally posted on the 3 Birds Marketing blog.) Before we dive into why Carvana will fail (and how it might succeed), I want to make sure we’re all up to speed on the used car market, in general. Unless you just don’t pay […]
You Don’t Have Sales Managers; You’ve Got Deskers! Most dealerships I work with seem to suffer from too few managers. They don’t have enough managers to control the sales floor, monitor phone calls and other activities, oversee the basic Road-to-the-Sale, ensure the CRM is being used properly or even train their own sales teams. Why […]
Previously, I wrote about how I Will Never Own a Self-Driving Car (and Neither will You). In that post, I discussed why self-driving cars would not only become a reality, but how the leaders in this industry (folks like Google and Apple) will likely capitalize on this revolution. At the end of that article, […]
I almost titled this post “Perfect Data Matters,” but because it is one of the most important blog posts I’ve made this year, and because that title is so stinking boring to you and your managers, it would guarantee the least amount of interaction. And that is sad. Perfect Data matters. As boring as […]
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the next down market in automotive retail is coming. No one knows precisely when – and none of us is certain what will trigger it – but, it is coming. Moreover, given the current market realities, it might be coming a little faster […]
92.6% of LinkedIn Users Believe Made Up Statistics If you’ve spent any time at all on LinkedIn, you’ve no doubt been exposed to some terrific statistics about how perseverance pays off for salespeople. These stats, courtesy of a National Sales Executive Association study, detail some shockingly stark data that prove the average salesperson is lazy and […]
(The following guest post was written by a respected colleague of mine in the automotive industry. The author, who shall remain nameless, is one of the brightest, most energetic, hardest working and truest “team players” I’ve ever met. His/her frustrations are far too common in most industries; but are especially common in automotive. His/her words […]
My kids get it. They don’t think about it; they don’t hire gurus to guide them through it; they don’t contrive anything about it; and… they can sniff out anything contrived in an instant. It’s social media, and it’s not mystical or complicated; and it especially doesn’t require any real expertise. Of course, if […]
Imagine you are an executive of a large corporation that competes in a number of verticals and enjoys a monopoly or near monopoly in many of these. Your company generally produces great products that meet the needs of many consumers. In some verticals your products are even considered best in class. While some people may […]
Leadership Lessons from Cash for Clunkers Without diving too deeply into a mini controversy from last week, let me just enlighten you with some quick facts: Edmunds.com estimated that the recent Cash for Clunkers program cost US taxpayers about $24,000 per incremental vehicle sold; The chief economist of the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) […]
Delta Renames In-Flight Wireless Internet Dubbed GoGo when released (see our original excited post about GoGo Wi-Fi published on January 12, 2009), it is rumored that Delta has decided to rename their in-flight wireless Internet service NoGo to signify that the service is still not available on all flights nearly nine months since its release. […]
Keep Everyone Busy So You Can Kill Creativity In the current economic climate (one that we’ve dubbed The Great Necession), it seems that companies are so concerned about productivity that they’re forgetting about innovation and creativity. Whether we’re all trying to cover our asses as managers or whether we truly believe that micromanagement and piling […]
Leadership Decision Making and The Law of Unintended Consequences Certainly you’ve heard the axioms “nothing happens in a vacuum” and “for every action there is a reaction” before. We’re pretty sure that every thinking adult not only understands these sayings, but also believes them to be true. Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and […]
Cash 4 Clunkers Causes Conservatives 2 Clamber 4 Gov’ment Cheese An interesting sociological experiment and a great leadership lesson has emerged from the US Government’s Cash For Clunkers program: We observed the previously fiscally-conservative put their hands way out, looking for their version of Government Cheese. It is difficult to get a man to understand […]
Cash for Clunkers: What we can learn about Leadership from Bureaucrats? Whether you agree or disagree that the US Government should be in the business of incentivizing the populace to buy new cars, the fact is that the so-called “cash for clunkers” program simply demonstrates that our government, like all governments, does not employ an […]
Leadership Lessons from the NBA – The Surprisingly Aware Richard Jefferson Weeks after being acquired by the San Antonio Spurs, star NBA forward Richard Jefferson was scheduled to marry his redundantly named fiancé, Kesha Ni’Cole Nichols, last Saturday. As you’ve likely heard, Jefferson, late of the New Jersey Nets, got cold feet and called the […]
The Short Term or the Long Term I’m often asked by young managers whether a given decision should be made for the short-term or the long-term well-being of a company; and I always give the same answer: both. No matter what the issue is, the ultimate decision should weigh the pros, cons and consequences over […]
Quitters Never Win and Winners Never Quit Argh! I can hear my mother misquoting Vince Lombardi in my sleep: “Quitters never win, and winners never quit.” A simple saying that forced me to keep my word throughout my life – even when it cost me money. Why is it these simple clichés can hold such […]