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Appeared April 2007 - Volume 4 - Issue 4 - page 18
If you truly want to finish the month strong or finish the year strong, stop thinking short-term and think “no-term.”
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Appeared March 2007 - Volume 4 - Issue 3 - page 30
As a business owner, car dealer, sales manager, salesperson, or anyone who sells for a living, our primary job is to “build” business. We do so by attracting prospects and offering our product or service and doing it better than the competition.
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Appeared February 2007 - Volume 4 - Issue 2 - page 30
Each month Dealer Business Journal features one of our successful Twenty Group members to showcase their dealership. We take a close look at their history, vision, goals, operations, best practices, lessons learned and their secrets to success. By sharing knowledge, best practices, and lessons learned, everyone improves. This is the fundamental key for our Twenty Group success and the reason we exist – To Improve your Profits, Your People and Your Business.
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Appeared February 2007 - Volume 4 - Issue 2 - page 30
The most significant event during a special finance transaction is getting the customer interested in the “right car.”
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Appeared January 2007 - Volume 4 - Issue 1 - page 30
Sales training is an essential part of the automotive industry, but like much training, it is debatable as to the overall value it adds. Individual training sessions can vary from being simply brilliant and inspiring to real snoozers. What is often called “sales training” in our business is actually “product” or “process” training, with the focus on training the staff on how to demonstrate a vehicle or how to follow a specific sales process. Although this is essential, it is not really teaching people how to “sell.” Too many sales trainers get you all pumped up, but don’t tell you what to do next or how to do it. It’s like giving a soldier a gun and not telling him how or where to use it.
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Appeared December 2006 - Volume 3 - Issue 12 - page 23
There are five key stops on the road to the sale that all of us are taught at one point in time during our sales careers. However, over time and with “experience,” many talented sales people tend to forget these fundamentals and become lost on the road without a map and too proud to pull over and ask for directions. The end result is a lost sale or a low grossing deal.
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Appeared December 2006 - Volume 3 - Issue 12 - page 28
This month’s featured dealership is Herbie’s Auto Sales in Greely, Colo. Lee Yoder is the president of the S-Corp and the dealer principle. He is an active Twenty Group member who owns and runs the company with his general manager, Ms. Cindy Christensen – a talented, enthusiastic and dedicated leader. Lee started in the business in 1970 selling cars for Joe Marsh Ford in Denver and then got into the service business. That business today is now known as Weld County Garage, which has 33 bays and Buick, Pontiac and GMC franchises, and Truck City Service Center (22 bays).
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Appeared November 2006 - Volume 3 - Issue 11 - page 42
This month’s featured dealership is Gene Koury Auto Sales in Leesville, La. Gene Koury is the president of the LLC and the dealer principal. He is a long-standing Twenty Group member who owns and runs the company with his two sons Mark and Matt. Gene started his business 38 years ago in October 1968, and has grown it to become a successful and thriving buy here-pay here business that has more than 600 active accounts with less than 4 percent charge offs. The dealership sells more than 35 vehicles per month. Gene has also spun off a successful consumer loan company from his original concept by staying close to the action, making sound credit decisions and really understanding his customers. He is as passionate for the business as he was 40 years ago and still a true student of the profession. The company is now expanding retail operations to include a special finance department and Gene has just joined his second Twenty Group. He is a down home straight shooter.
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Appeared November 2006 - Volume 3 - Issue 11 - page 34
Are your salespeople still talking about price? Customers all want to talk about it, so, let’s take a moment so we can talk about it. Price is the first line of dialogue between a salesperson and a customer and to be effective at sales, particularly in Special Finance, you must be able to bypass it without frustrating the customer. Otherwise, you are blowing profits and risking deals simply because you are not heeding the one of the cardinal rules of sales — don’t discuss price with the customer, discuss value.
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Appeared October 2006 - Volume 3 - Issue 10 - page 46
Each month, Dealer Business Journal features one of our successful Twenty Group members to showcase his or her dealership. We take a close look at the dealership’s history, vision, goals, operations, best practices, lessons learned and the dealer’s secrets to success. By sharing knowledge, best practices, and lessons learned, everyone improves. This is the fundamental key for our Twenty Group success and the reason we exist: To Improve your Profits, Your People and Your Business.
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Appeared October 2006 - Volume 3 - Issue 10 - page 37
What may be bad news for the economy can be great news for Special Finance dealers. Chapter 7 Bankruptcy filings rose 54 percent during the second quarter of the year and all indications are that this trend will continue. Consumer bankruptcies had plunged following the passing of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 late last year. But, by the second quarter the pace of filings had picked up to more than four times the level in November 2005, after the new law went into effect. This is still significantly less than the record number of filings last year, but represents an important trend that economists are watching. So should car dealers.
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Appeared September 2006 - Volume 3 - Issue 9 - page 46
Each month, DBJ features one of our successful Twenty Group members to showcase a dealership. We take a close look at the dealer’s history, vision, goals, operations, best practices, lessons learned and secrets to success. By sharing knowledge, best practices, and lessons learned, everyone improves. This is the fundamental key for our Twenty Group success and the reason we exist: To Improve your Profits, Your People and Your Business.
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Appeared September 2006 - Volume 3 - Issue 9 - page 37
There is one and only one constant in business: change. Former General Electric CEO Jack Welch once said, “If the rate of change on the outside is greater than the rate of change on the inside, the end for the organization is near.” Change is inevitable and it’s going to happen no matter what. If you don’t believe that, just ask any employee who worked for IBM in the early 1980s. Today’s business environment is layered with fierce competition. Even the biggest, wealthiest businesses on the block are vulnerable to the changes in the marketplace. Winning today does not go to the big and strong, but rather to the swift and fast. Winning goes to the companies that truly understand what the customer needs and delivers the solution to these needs faster than the competition.
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Appeared August 2006 - Volume 3 - Issue 8 - page 46
This month’s featured dealership is Rocky Ridge Auto Sales. Dealership general manager Jeremy Zimmerman runs the company with his father, Mark, who opened the operation in 1979. Together, they specialize in low-mileage vehicles at a fair price. They also operate a service facility and a detail shop in conjunction with the retail store. Jeremy and his wife, Jill, have a 2-year-old daughter, Lauren. He has worked at the store for the last 10 years and in March, joined U3 – a Leedom and Associates, LLC Twenty Group. The company sells 30-35 vehicles per month retail, finance half, and sell an additional 10-25 per month wholesale. They don’t do special finance or buy here-pay here…yet.
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Appeared August 2006 - Volume 3 - Issue 8 - page 37
It is amazing how much money car dealers waste every week on advertising. Just open your local newspaper this Sunday and count the number of dealers engaged in price wars. Then, next Wednesday ask the general managers how effective the ads were. Or, to get a clearer picture, analyze the actual results and review the gross profit that was generated.. These types of ads are expensive and ineffective at branding your business. If you want to cut expenses, stop wasting money on ineffective advertising and build a marketing plan with a purpose.
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Appeared July 2006 - Volume 3 - Issue 7 - page 37
Details of the New Vantage Credit Score system were outlined to attendees as the nation’s top automotive lenders gathered in Fort Worth, Texas, June 12-14, during the 10th annual National Automotive Finance Association Non-Prime Auto Financing Conference.
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Appeared July 2006 - Volume 3 - Issue 7 - page 38
This months featured dealership group is Camacho Auto Sales, Inc., which has four locations, three in Lancaster, Calif., and one in Palmdale, Calif. Gus Camacho is the president of the corporation and the dealer principal. He runs the company his father started in 1980 with his two brothers Cesar and Joe. Together, the three brothers have grown the business into a four-store (soon to be five-store) automotive group and industry leader. The company sells approximately 150 vehicles per month and averages $3,600 gross profit per retail vehicle sold. Thirty-five percent of its business is BHPH and financed through its related finance company. The remaining 65 percent is sold and financed through various non-prime lenders. The company is expert at special finance and BHPH. Camacho Auto Sales has been a Twenty Group member for more than three years and, in fact, is a member of three separate specialty groups.
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