Doomsday predictions

In the last year, I have been to several conferences centered on how to increase business and become more profitable. Hundreds of classes and seminars offered. Amazing, inspiring speakers. There are tons of people out there willing to show us, give us, teach us the best practices.

Doomsday prediction started about 1990. I was part of an internet steering committee for Toyota in 1996, 1997. Fast forward to 2017, its déjà vu all over again. The keywords have changed, but the doomsday prediction has not.

I will probably lose some interest here but will summarize anyway. The majority of classes and seminars are focused on how to drive more customers to your business. All are singing the same tune. Change or die. If you do not make it fast and easy, you must be transparent, must give the customer all they are looking for up front. If you do not change, you will die. Your business will falter.

SEO, SEM, face book lookalike, google, google my business, keywords, ad clicks,70% of your marketing must be the internet. If you do not respond in 15 minutes to an internet lead, they will go elsewhere. Stop with the tricks; customers will not put up with it. Wait, you must have tricks on your website to get the consumer to click thru. Clicks are key; customers hate dealerships, give everyone the option to buy online, click to buy, if you do not cater to millennials its over.

We continually look for the answer in data, look for the best practice, others tell us how to do it.

I listen to them, then check their websites. Trick payments, trick prices, no disclosure.

Sounds like a parent, do as I say but not as I do because it does not work. We continually look for the golden egg. Listen to others, look for the next best practice, copy others, living on hope and a prayer that it will work. Many of us give lip service to what sounds good then do it the way we know works anyway. If we are successful, it was our new process. If it does not happen, we find an excuse.

Recently out of 50 speakers at a seminar I went to, two mentioned what is most important. What would that be? Read Richard Branson's quote below.

Advertising from 1995 Price and low payment plus free stuff, advertising from 2018 price and low payment plus free stuff. Wait, change or die?

Recent surveys from Driving Sales,

What customers say they want

1-     Like the salesperson

2-     Transparency

3-     The process serves the customer.

What their actions say they want

1-     A deal

2-     Overcome my fear

3-     Must negotiate to feel like I got a deal

4-     A deal

Nothing in the seminars about overcoming the fear a customer feels. Give them all the information and they still want to feel like they got a deal.

What best practices work?

Take the top 20 dealers in the country? What are their processes, similar but different? The majority do not live by the three things a customer says they want.

Do all of these best practices work? No, they do not.

Good advice, stop looking for best practices. Finding the best practice should not be our goal. Finding what works best for us should.

Our first focus is on the wrong demographic. Richard Branson said it well.

Branson recently revealed that Virgin does not put the customer first. In fact, Virgin employees are the company's top priority. It should go without saying if the person who works at your company is 100 percent proud of the brand and you give them the tools to do a good job, and they are treated well, they're going to be happy.

We need to find what works best for us. How? We need to ask better questions. Find our best practice.

Take care of employees first.

People don’t just work for a paycheck — they want a purpose.

People are not just pursuing job satisfaction — they are pursuing

development.

People don’t want bosses — they want coaches.

People don’t want annual reviews — they want ongoing

conversations.

People don’t want to fix their weaknesses — they want to

develop their strengths.

It’s not just my job — it’s my life. One of Gallup’s most important

discoveries is that everyone in the world wants a good job.

More so than ever in the history of corporate culture, employees are

asking, “Does this organization value my strengths and my contribution?

Does this organization give me the chance to do what I do best every day?”

Because for most people, a job is no longer just a job — it’s their life as well.

To be cont.