Gordon's "The REAL World"

"YOUR OWN SENSE OF REALITY"

If we say it enough it will eventually become true. Nobody is spending any money, our customers won't buy services like that, our customer is different here, and the list goes on and on. We create our own destiny just by saying it out loud and probably without even thinking. Last month, I got more verbal feedback than I have gotten in the almost two years I have written these letters, and it really got me thinking as to what I am trying to accomplish by writing. I have recently been told that some of the things I write are not my place to say and that may be true, then exactly whose place would it be? I tend to make a lot of blanket type statements in these letters that are really not directed towards anyone in particular, but if something I write ruffles someone's feathers, could it be that maybe the words I wrote were speaking to them and they were guilty somehow of doing what I was talking about?

I figure that the only person that can truly change you is you. Now, if that is the case how do you know what changes might need to be made? I think it is pretty obvious by looking around and watching people that change in themselves is not a high priority, so what can be done to motivate that change? Over the years I have been associated with this side of the car business I have found that in order to be more successful I have to be more than just a chemical salesman, more than a trainer, more than just a pretty face. I have to help my customers change their sense of reality, and in turn help them change their customer's sense of reality. Sometimes it is no easy task.

I mentioned earlier about the feedback I got on last months letter, I found it to be divided pretty well evenly between management and employees, managers giving a thumbs up and employees giving a thumbs down. Now why would that be? Could it be that our employers see a behavior in certain employees that the employees are not willing to see in themselves? Something that probably has been happening for so long that management feels almost helpless to change? Lets look at both. One, managing a group of people is no easy task; only so much time can really be spent in training per person one on one. I find a lot of “well [he or she] has just always been that way” in describing a problem employee, and very little time can or will be put in to change anything for the better.

Now, lets look at the employee. Why would an employer see something in us that we are not willing to see in ourselves? Why aren’t we willing to see the better and more productive in ourselves when we look in the mirror? Why is it so easy to see what everyone around us is doing wrong and think we are without fault? The hardest thing we will ever do is look in the mirror at ourselves and honestly see the reflection. Change is hard, unfortunately it is the only constant thing we have in our lives. We get older; move slower, get more opinionated, and what used to just roll off without bothering us drives us crazy for weeks. We work in a business that is all about change, if you are at a dealership you have seen the ratio between warranty and customer pay completely reverse, how have you changed to make up for that change? Independent shops have seen cars become a lot more complicated and the expense of having a shop increase in order to repair all the different makes that might come in, what changes are being made there?

Here is the reality, if you are doing things the same way as you always have you will not be a leader. If you don’t take the time to learn about what you have to sell and then learn how to sell it you will not be a leader. If you spend your day watching and waiting for the person next to you to screw up instead of taking interest in yourself to be the best you can be you will not be a leader. What do you see in yourself?

The other reality is that there is money to be made right now, lots of it, and if you are not being a leader and asking each and every customer for that money you wont have to worry about asking for long because that customer will find someone to give that money to. It just won't be you. And I take that personally. Is it my place to take it personally? Probably not, but I cannot quit. We all have to be held responsible; I will do it for you and promise me that you will do the same for me. That is my sense of reality.

Talk to you next month-I know you cannot wait.

gordon@bgfox.com

Posted on: August 9, 2010

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