Counting My 2008 Blessings! Thank you!

I'm counting my incredible blessings in 2008. I sure try to do that as I go, but now I can look back at a larger piece of time--a whole year--and add them up. It was an incredible year for me. Easily one of the best ever! 2009 is expected to make 2008 look like a practice session.

I can hardly believe what has been accomplished in 2008. It is a very long list. One thing stands clear to me: I am a Fire, Ready, Aim kind of guy and if I had been a Ready, Aim, Fire person, almost nothing would have changed. Sometimes you just have to trust and move out and see what happens. We did and its amazing.

I especially want to thank all of you who have given me encouragement and your kind thoughts. It has been a joy sharing ideas with you. On behalf of my partner Ryan Stone and myself, we thank you!

No Competition. Really.

The definition of competition from Webster's New World Dictionary is "1. the act of competing; rivalry, 2. a contest, or match, 3. official participation in organized sport, 4. opposition, or effective opposition, in a contest or match, 5. Rivalry in business, as for customers or markets, 6. the person or persons against whom one competes, and 7. Ecology the struggle among individual organisms for food, water, space, etc. when the available supply is limited."

There is no competition. It is you doing what you do and you can do all you can do or you can do less than all you can do. It is what it is. It is not a race and it is not up to someone else.

As a dealer, you don't compete with the dealer down the street, or a nearby town. Your focus area is your focus and you do what you can do with what you have to work with. Fearing others coming in and taking away what is yours is ludicrous. The only way that happens is if you are not doing all you can do with what you have to work with. This doesn't cause competition to increase, it causes your potential customers to go elsewhere because of you. There is plenty. When I was with a dealer, I could care less what the dealer in the next town was doing. I just paid attention to what I was doing.

I worked for a body company for 10 years and there were a number of other companies building similar products and calling on the same clients, but I never really saw them as competing with me or I with them. I was just doing what I could do to serve the clients who wanted to do business with me and I served them to the best of my ability and skill. Sometimes we might have a new product, but that wouldn't last long, so you just have to concentrate on being the best you can be in product and service.

I used to hear dealers complain about the dealer in the other town that was just giving the products away and they just couldn't compete with them. Baloney! They aren't giving them away and never have. They are just serving the customer and the customer chose them. You get all the chances you want.

I've heard the same with body companies. If you've got a good product and you have good service and your pricing is fair, you've got plenty. I will tell you that from my experience, the service is the most important of those three. I was hardly ever the lowest price, but I got plenty.

You got you and you. There you go. No competition.

It's An Old Idea Whose Time Has Gone

I know a few dealers and a few bailment pool body companies who think that their inventory is their value. They think the inventory is a draw for them. They think that if they have it, the buyers will come to them because they have it. That could work in a few instances, but it is an old idea whose time has gone. It is a lack mentality and it will limit their growth.

Before the Internet, information was power, now anyone can have the information. Yet business has grown as a result. Think of sharing your inventory openly and all will benefit including you. I've watched this over the years and tested the holding the inventory and opening it up theories and I can tell you that holding it doesn't pay off. Your value needs to be elsewhere.

Think abundance and think of your fellow businesses not as competition, but as partners helping each other grow. You'll be surprised how well this works. Flooring expense will eat everyone's profits. There is really no such thing as competition in an abundant world--just constant improvement.

Here's a better place for your value: Building customer relationships, expanding services, product innovation, product expansion, marketing assistance to your customers, training, quicker and more efficient service. These are ideas whose time has come and will always be the best of ideas.

You Don't Turn the Tide

I love great quotes from famous and not so famous people. I love them because they tend to stick with me and the remind me to think. Today's post is about one of my favorite (in my top 10 easily) quotes:

"There is a tide in the affairs of men, when taken at the flood, leads on to fortune." - William Shakespeare

You don't turn the tide, you prepare for it.

Think about this "worldwide financial crisis" (sounds pretty demonic . . .) as a low tide. Matter of fact, the tide is so low that you can see the mud flats for a very long way. The stink of the mud is all around. You can see the debris that careless people have tossed into the water that is now fully exposed. It is not your normal view. This is a very rare low tide. It's almost like what happens prior to a tsunami.

There's no point getting used to this view. It is extremely temporary, unless you want to view it the way it is now. Even though this might be an extended low tide as if Venus and the Moon and Mars are all aligned and pulling as never before. . . it is temporary.

If you're fond of circumstances, you will talk about the low tide at length. You will even get involved in all sorts of predictions about how it happened, who's to blame and what the future of stinking mud is. You might even be on the littering committee that is focused on all that trash that is now exposed out there. There's so much to do and so little time. . .

Or, you could be reminded of Shakespeare's quote and start focusing on the flood of the tide coming in and being prepared to deal with that instead. Low tide is an excellent time to prepare for high tide. There is no better time, matter of fact. While the tide is low, what changes can you make that will affect a greater positive change for you when the tide comes back in? You've lived enough years to know that you can seriously count on the tide coming in as well as it going out, so you know it is not long before the tide will be in again. If you haven't prepared for that change, your fortune will lost in the mud.

Change Your Mind In 2009

Whatever you hate about 2008, you'll continue to find in 2009 . . . unless . . . you change your mind. Without a change in thinking, there will be no real change in 2009. Circumstance doesn't control you, your thinking controls your circumstance. The changing of the date, even the year will matter not.

I hereby resolve to . . . It is that time of year when this long list of resolutions come out and on January 2nd, they were just brief passions. I know because I was an expert at resolutions. I quit smoking thousands of times. Then, one day, I just stopped. No plan. No resolution. Just stopped. Not going to do this anymore no matter what. No patch will change it. No support group. It is a change in thinking and that leads to a change in actions. Together they change the world.

You are going to get that website built in 2009? Just make the call and get it done. Forget about 2009, just do it. You are going to get a serious follow up program with your customers? Start today, right now. Need help? Call us. Call someone. Go online. Just do it. You're going to really grow your commercial department and stop all this flooring expense? We know how. Stop thinking about it and do something. Call us. Call someone else who knows how, but get it done today.

It's not a matter of money. That's BS. It's not a matter of time. That's also BS. It is a matter of thinking. Change it. Decide what you want and reach out for answers. It is truly a simple matter once the thinking changes.

Run the Tapes - Tally Oh!

A few more days until this year is over. Part of the planning process should be running the tapes, taking the tally of this year. It's a great time to do this. Some good questions will get it going. . .

• Do the numbers and compare this year with previous years. This is a given, and you might as well do it, pretty or not.
• More important: In what ways have you grown this year? Maybe sales and income were off, but you can still grow in all kinds of ways. Did you? In what ways?
• What worked well? You already know what didn't work, so concentrate on the easy things to forget like what did work. In what ways did you improve this year? Improve your skills? Improve your methods?
• Run the tapes. Take a good close look over this whole year and see what you can gain from the process.

You might find reasons to celebrate and that makes it worth the effort all right! Tally Oh!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas gift suggestions:

To your enemy, forgiveness.

To an opponent, tolerance.

To a friend, your heart.

To a customer, service.

To all, charity.

To every child, a good example.

To yourself, respect.

--Oren Arnold (1900-1980)

Merry Christmas!

Planning Ahead & Looking Forward To Change

If your sales were up this year, a celebration is in order and you are fortunate. I think most might admit that sales were off somewhat this year over last and perhaps that isn't a strong enough phrase. Let's celebrate this too, because this change has most likely caused you to not want that repeated. You may be thinking seriously about what you might be able to do to affect an upward trend in your sales and income even though it is generally a downward market. That is worth celebrating!

Here's some ideas to ponder. It's always been true that people like doing business with people they can trust and with whom they feel comfortable. In other words, it is the relationship that is the key. It has also generally been true in most businesses, but the auto business in particular that developing a relationship with your customers is not a priority. The focus has predominantly been on new business and repeat business has always been a blessing, but it is extra. In addition, as time goes on, there are more and more outlets to buy from, so it will pay handsomely to get some of your attention and focus on to your customers and who they know and can influence. If you changed this one thing, it could change everything for you.

I suggest that you make a plan on how and when you will communicate with your customers; how you will market to your customers and how you will expand your sales to your customers. It is your own personal gold mine! The real key to change is to think differently in order to change your actions and outcome.

Ask yourself some questions: How have you followed up with your customers in the past? Did you have a follow up system? How did you communicate with them? What methods? At what cost? Did you do any marketing to your customers? If so, how was that done and what were the results? Do they come to your store for regular maintenance service and repairs? How regularly? Did you expand your customers without adding any first line customers? In other words, what did you do to grow your customer base without adding any new walk-in sales? How detailed is your customer database information? What program is your database in?

Some recommendations:

• Use good customer management software such as ACT!, Maximizer or other similar inexpensive and effective programs. I have used Maximizer since 1997 and it works nicely. ACT! is the world's most popular CRM software and we also use ACT!. Get as much detail about your customers as you can. Consider the Mackay 66 by Harvey Mackay (here is a pdf download: Mackay 66 PDF.


• Study the concept of multi-level marketing at least at the basic level. It will be very helpful. Do a Google search for multi-level marketing explained and you will find a lot.


• It is a good idea to follow up on a regular basis and include marketing messages. In addition, it is as much who they know as knowing them. I highly recommend getting all the email addresses that you can and use HTML email marketing for your follow up and many of your marketing messages. It is almost free. The best program that I have found and currently use myself is Constant Contact. It is easy to learn and you can make some very nice looking emails with photos, links, etc.


• For those without email addresses, you can do a small amount of mail and of course, the telephone will be a valuable tool, especially for the more personal contacts.


• Another tool you can use is to build your own website. Building websites has become a pretty easy thing and very inexpensive if you can do the work yourself. You could even have several websites.


• A more valuable tool that is free is creating a blog. A blog is a great communication tool for sharing information and it is easy to create links to it in your emails and other communications.


• Develop some video presentations of various products you sell and post the videos on your blog, website and you can also email them to prospects and clients. People love video. Open a YouTube (TM) account for free and post them there as well, which makes them easily linked in any of your email messages.

This is much more than just staying in touch. It is seriously looking at your customer and prospect base as a marketing target in order to solidify your sales and income. It will create a whole new business for you--and, you have the power to get it done with or without the dealerships help. You're in charge. Go for it!

Need more ideas? Give Terry a call at 707-434-9967 or Ryan at 707-480-0959.

Planning & Forcasting Like Football

A company I worked for have their planning and forecasting meeting for the following year near the end of the first month to the middle of the second month. One year it was in the third month. What's wrong with that picture?

Planning and forecasting like that is like a football team showing up for the playoffs and in the middle of the first quarter, calling a time out to strategize how to deal with this team. You know they had to have watched the films, made the play plans, practiced and planned and forecasted and readied their strategies long before this game. It is way too late even the day before, let alone the day of the game.

If your company is going to be planning and forecasting next year, it might have started in October, but worst case scenario is early December. You want to hit the ground running, right? By the time you get to December, it is pretty much done except for the results. So, it makes perfect sense to get the game plan going for at least the next quarter if not the whole year. Get it planned out. If it doesn't meet the plan, modify the plans as needed, but have a plan.

How will you market? What will you market? What sells best in the first quarter, second quarter, third and so on? What new products do you want to bring to market? Considering the current business climate, what will be changed to try to move the needle upward? What were the successes last year? What were the failures last year? How is my mix of product? What should I change about my mix? What about services? Can I increase my business in another area to help make up for the lower amounts in other areas? How do I market that? Where can I get some help?

Waiting until the next year is under way is completely ineffective. You might as well plan your day after lunch--that is, if you can stop it long enough to do so. Do your planning and forecasting like a great football team. Get your game on!

Don't Fire Them, Fire Them Up!

I recently heard of a company who decided to cut their costs by firing their entire outside sales team. Is that like trying to increase sales by locking the doors, or what? If your company lives by sales (like which don't?), this is a questionable strategy to say the least. Sounds to me like we need a new general manager--someone with a real vision.

I ran across the book Don't Fire Them, Fire Them Up: Motivate Yourself and Your Team by Frank Pacetta a few years ago and I must have given away 25 copies to other managers. It is a great read right now in this business climate. It holds a lot of wisdom, ideas to change gears, and strategies to build teams--all for under $11. What a deal. You can read it in one day if you wanted to, or two tops. Don't fire your team, fire them up! And, you don't do that by talking about the problems, but showing them solutions and leading. Go for it!

YouTube Is ________!

YouTube is disgusting. It is also quite enlightening. It is sad. It is funny. Downright hilarious, matter of fact. YouTube is many things and it has become one of my favorite places on the Internet. It is one of my favorite places to see funny stuff. YouTube has pretty much anything you could imagine, but you need not be bothered with what you don't like--just focus on what you do like. And, there should be plenty of that on YouTube.

I'll give you some of my favorites (and I've only just begun to find them, let alone the many that are posted every minute of every day. . .) and see if you think they are funny!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYmsr8Sy4K0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s44-Fs7VcmY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCZKrAnRTfg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM7GB3dPI6Q

This is a very small selection. Find your own. Go to YouTube and type in funny or hilarious, or silly and see what comes up. You never know, you might just forget your troubles for a few minutes. Hey, that's a great idea!

Some Inventory Solutions - Engine Mix

It has been my experience in the last number of years that the supply has exceeded the demand for diesel trucks. This is one of the reasons that there is a glut of old inventory: 95% of them are diesel. It's time to change and stop doing the same thing over and over again--stocking the same bodies on the same chassis year after year. As the market goes back to normal in the next number of months, plan to make different decisions on your stocking and I predict that you will have a good deal more success and less flooring costs.

It has been my experience and that of others that the market in round numbers is about 50% gas and 50% diesel. I like diesel, but I would stock about 65% gas and 35% diesel now and in the near future. I know a lot of dealers are dropping their overall inventory levels due to very slow sales, and what is happening is they are losing sales because they are not replacing units that do sell. Do what you can about that, but make a decision to change your approach from here on and it will serve you well. Even if you stocked 50/50 you would make a lot more sales.

Back in the early 1970's when I first started selling trucks, diesel fuel was about 25% less cost than regular gas. Now diesel fuel is between 35 and 60% more than gas. The fuel economy of the diesel is not good enough to make up this difference. The only real advantage left is that there is more power generated per mile per gallon. That advantage is only used under certain circumstances. Bottom line: gas is the winner overall. If diesel ever goes back to being substantially less than gas, this may change the percentage, but it will never be what I have seen many dealers doing by stocking 80-90% diesel. That doesn't reflect the marketplace at all.

With the addition of the new emission systems for diesels the maintenance costs have risen sharply. Diesels were always higher cost in maintenance and now it become much harder to justify owning a diesel except for certain companies and situations. These are things that can very easily be pointed out to customers so they can see what their costs will be.

Last item is reliability. One of the great selling features in the past was the longer life of the diesel motor. GM and Ford have been playing around with diesels since the 1980's with very mixed results. This makes the reliability and longevity seriously in question. Having a 100,000 mile warranty doesn't help much. Another good reason to change your mix.

The bottom line is selling more trucks and having happy customers. One way to do this better is to change the mix of engines to favor the gas. The demand for diesel will be there for a long time, but the demand generally doesn't exceed 50%. Don't forget to calculate the flooring cost savings as profit.

Some Old Inventory Ideas

Here's some ideas to help move some old inventory without taking major losses.

• Always keep this thought in mind: the truck goes down in value, but the body does not.
• Bodies are not permanently mounted to the chassis.
• The more expensive the body, the harder it is to move the whole truck. Lighten the load. Put a lower cost body on the truck and blow it out without a huge loss. The lower the overall cost, the easier it is to move.

Let me give you some examples of trucks I've seen on lots recently.

Problem: A dealer had a single rear unit with an 8' service body and it was a past year model and over 500 days old. Incentives are cashed out. It is a diesel (main reason it is still there and makes it more expensive by $6k).

Solution: Take an '08 or better yet, an '09 same color with a pickup bed, have a body company switch them so that the units are re-certified. Now your old unit is about $4-5,000 less without a discount. This works because the 56" CA chassis is really a box delete pickup model, so the body company can install the bed no problem.

Problem: A 14' contractor body on an LCF. Past year model, over 500 days old.

Solution: This is not a good body choice in general for this chassis, but the good news is that this is a great chassis and the 108"CA will be a great selling feature. The rack is specially made for the LCF, but the rest of the body is fine. It needs to come off this truck and a body that makes more sense to go on. If they had a current model LCF, we could swap, but in this case, the body needs to come off and go on the ground temporarily. Next, install a 14' low cost van body, 84" height, no options. You will not reduce the cost a lot, but have a much more popular and saleable body on this chassis, so it will move much faster now. Another great choice is a landscape body. That will not reduce the cost, but raise it; however, it is a great body for this truck.

Problem: A 12' landscape dump on an F550 past year diesel. Well over 500 days.

Solution: The chassis is nice, but very expensive compared to a F350 which will do fine for this body. I would flop the landscaper onto a new F350 Gas unit and throw a plain flatbed with a hitch on the F550 and cheap sell the truck. You should make a nice profit on the landscaper now.

Problem: An F450 with an 11' service body has been around for a long, long time.

Solution: One more time, flop this body on to a new chassis out of the pool and have them put a standard flatbed with a hitch on the F450 and move it on down the road.

Problem: A past year F450 empty chassis in stock.

Solution: Empty chassis do not sell well. Do not keep empty chassis longer than two months before putting a body on it. Also, taking chassis out of the pool will get more free flooring by some manufacturers than ordering them yourself. Empty chassis are just dead weight. Put bodies that will sell on them and move the package. This includes most of your medium duty units. At least you have something to sell then.

If you have specific units you would like advice on, I'll be happy to help you on this at no cost. Call Terry at 707-434-9967 or send an email to tminion@commercialtrucksuccess.com.

Back to School - 6th Period

6th Period. Last class of the day. And this is truly the best class of the day. The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale. What a pleasure to go home with the power of the message in this great little book and continually mold my life by my thoughts.

Of all the books and recordings I've come across, this is very high on the list of the most enlightening and powerful. I first heard it in late 1972 and recently bought the Special Millennium Edition CD, a duplicate of the original recording in 1956. A perfect way to review.

What an end to a great day! See you tomorrow!

Back to School - Fifth Period

Fifth period is all about communication and these two classics are constantly in demand. Even though How to Win Friends & Inflence People was written in 1937, it is just as powerful today as then. Try some of the other books that Dale Carnegie wrote and you'll find a good list. This classic is available in audio as well and that is a great way to have it so you can play it while you commute.

Another book that has become a classic is How to Talk to Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere by Larry King. Larry is a master communicator and as you know already, it is much about questions and getting the other to talk. A wonderful book.

So, for less than $25, here is a whole course in communications skills. A must on everyone's sales skills list.