This is the story of my nephew's experience working at an auto dealer and what actionable items we can take away from it in any industry, particularly in the auto and truck ones.

Marcus was excited to land a job as porter for an automobile dealership, which spread its fingers across suburbia Chicago via nearly a dozen locations, representing several OE brands. For six months he performed the menial grunt work of this role without hesitation or complaint, often praised by customers for his good cheer and focus on them. (So much for myth #1 about iGen and Millennials--they don't want to pay their dues or work hard.)

Finally, the day he had hoped for, but had known was never guaranteed, came: Marcus was promoted to the role of sales associate. He was excited and eager to learn more than he had already picked up watching and speaking with sales reps during his tenure as porter. After all, he loved cars and trucks, and wanted a shot at a high, steady paycheck. A sales role at a dealership surrounded him with what he loved all day long, while giving him an opportunity to earn a large salary that many other roles couldn't offer him without a college degree. (Myth #2 debunked--iGen and Millennials are only interested in getting college degrees and the jobs that require them. Actually, more and more, iGen move in the opposite direction--they feel a traditional college education is not conducive to their success, especially given the great expense. In fact, Marcus, who is quite intelligent and well-read, opted to earn his GED instead of a high school diploma, as he felt that was a faster, better route for him.) He was puzzled, however, and somewhat alarmed, when one of the reps congratulated him, then added, "You work among a den of thieves and you're one of them." (Red flag #1--positive, supportive culture is important to iGen and Millennials; a veteran, seasoned sales rep just threw the culture of the dealership, and industry, into the trash, by putting down himself and the entire sales staff, including Marcus--brand spanking new to the role. "Welcome; congratulations . . . on becoming a thief.")

On his first day as a sales associate, Marcus, excited for his first sale, approached the sales manager and relayed, "I'm ready to sell some cars. What tips and training do you have? I'm an open slate, ready to learn." The manager replied, "What do you mean training? Go sell some fucking cars." (This, in case you are uncertain, is not a proper onboarding or training program. Red flag #2--iGen and Millennials expect organizations to invest in their success by providing them information and tools to be successful, requiring a minimum of an onboarding program and training. Red flag #3--iGen and Millennials want a supportive boss.)

Marcus, becoming more alarmed, kept his youthful chin up and decided to forge his own learning path by learning from the rest of the sales team. He quickly found their advice and methodologies incomplete, contradictory, and that they often flew in the face of the few recommendations provided by the OE regarding sales. For instance, one top rep told him not to bother to learn anything about the vehicles; that he, "Couldn't tell you one damn thing about any of these cars," while another top rep told Marcus to, "Learn everything you can about the vehicles on the lot and coming out soon." Slowly, via books and extracting what he deemed to work well while tossing other practices aside, Marcus developed himself. The process, though, was clunky, inefficient, and not what the franchise deemed appropriate, he judged based from team meetings. While Marcus navigated all this, the dealer doled out a paycheck to him of $20K, annually. "Quite frankly," Marcus remembers, "it was painful and should have been entirely unnecessary."

While both the dealer and Marcus prefer he be paid by commission, Marcus stuck with his salary for 8 months, as it made more sense for him to split sales with other reps, who then paid him chunks of their commissions under the table, earning him more money while providing him a safety net he deemed necessary because he wasn't getting any training or support from management. It quickly became clear to Marcus that managers, whether sales or general, did not care about the sales of individual reps but rather only about the sales total for each month. Instead of spending a significant amount of their time coaching staff, managers spent a significant amount of it refereeing between staff about who-earned-what in the commission of a sale. (Red flag #4--iGen and Millennials want to be part of team while also feeling like individuals. Marcus felt like management thought he and the rest of the sales team were as disposable as "daily contact lenses.")

Marcus and the sales team did receive training from an outside vendor at irregular intervals. These lessons tended to come every 6-8 weeks, for an hour or so on Saturday mornings. While he felt the content was good, management did not attend, let alone support it, and most of the staff was already ingrained in what they did, so the content typically wasn't implemented on the job. The trainer did not provide a method or support for the use of the content he taught. Also, attendance fluctuated, meaning not everyone got the same training. It felt like the dealer was "checking a box," he recalls. While Marcus liked the training, he didn't remember much of it after the fact. He wondered "why the hell are they not using eLearning for any of this, so I can review it whenever I want and don't have to wait six weeks for the next topic; I can take it at home on my own whenever I want?"

After 8 months on the job, Marcus switched to pay by commission. It was a move made more by need than desire. Just before he hit his 8-month mark, the sales manager gave the dealer two weeks notice he was leaving to be GM of another dealership. Management asked that he leave, immediately, which he did . . . promptly taking the top 50% of sales reps with him, as well as 2 finance staff and several service personnel. Marcus was invited to join them at a celebratory party that night but declined, as it would require he move to a smaller city nearly 3 hours from Chicago--not much for a 21-year-old to do there. He quickly found his pay drop, not only because he no longer had productive reps to split with, but also because reps with fewer sales often reneged on promised splits because they ached badly for the full commission. (Red flag #5--how bad can a company be to see such high turnover in a matter of minutes? Red flag # 6--the team could no longer be trusted, meaning it was no longer a team.)

2 months into commission pay, Marcus was told by his manager that he was going to be given a tremendous opportunity; that, as the newest member of the team (only because newer hires quit after 1-2 months), they needed him to "take one for the team" and relocate to their used car facility, where he would substantially grow his skills. (Red flag #7--imagine asking someone you have treated like a cog to "take one for the team." What team?)

Upon arriving at the used lot the next day, a longer drive from his home, Marcus promptly learned that both used sales reps had quit the previous day to go to another dealer. (Red flag #8--management flat out lied to Marcus about the reason for relocating him; it was entirely for the company and not his development at all. Red flag #9--more staff quitting in unison.) Marcus took it in stride and decided to push through, absorbing blow after blow as a learning experience. One of the blows was that he was moved to a set salary without any bonus or commission. Another was that he could not earn enough on salary to survive without putting in lots of extra hours each week. A third was that he was very limited in what he could sell due to a small, mostly undesirable inventory. Yet a fourth was that most of the leads who came in had a better chance of pitching for the Yankees than they did of getting approval for a loan to buy a vehicle.

After 3 months on the used lot, Marcus visited his original location and his manager, who had not visited or reached out to him once while he worked at the used lot, and inquired about how long he would be at the used lot, whether he could split some hours to work at both lots, and inquired about his role moving forward. His manager didn't have any answers for him, requesting that he "hold tight." He also declined to answer Marcus' question about when he would have some answers. Marcus resigned on the spot, leaving the door open to return once management had a plan for him. His manager didn't thank him or wish him luck; rather, he simply shrugged, nodded, and mumbled something about Marcus lasting longer than most. (Myth #3 debunked--iGen and Millennials aren't willing to work with the organization; they simply make demands and expect them to be met.)

As I often emphasize, contrary to the popular saying, it's what we don't know that often hurts us most. Marcus has 5 friends who were eager to join the industry by working at dealers. He was their resource for determining if it was a good move for them. None of them plan to work for dealers or in the industry in any capacity. Marcus' dealer lost 6 hungry, willing iGen for the industry . . . and countless others they could have recommended join the industry.

Marcus and his friends are part of a powerful group, of which we have never seen the likes before--iGen outnumber Millennials, who, in turn, now outnumber Baby Boomers, and iGen utilize both tech and social media to drive culture. They use sites many of us rarely think of or know exist. Forget Facebook ("That's for old people," says Marcus); they constantly share rapid fire messaging across platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and half-a-dozen others Marcus named that I have since forgotten, real-time via phones and tablets. Why read an article like this one when you can actually follow Marcus sharing his first day as a sales associate, live throughout the day, complete with images, videos and links? And they can do it all, privately, without a dealer or OE ever knowing what they are communicating. They mobilize quickly, efficiently and are able to pull masses of people together unlike anything we've seen, previously, often simply by sharing and resharing--for instance, organizing high school and college walkouts protesting gun violence across the nation, even the world, and not only compelling people to run against unopposed politicians they disagree with, but even driving some of those said politicians to quit... in a state from which they live 1383 miles away! They even effectively change business protocol by organizing boycotts on brands that piss them off.

So when we, as an industry, alienate one iGen, as either staff or customer, it's quite possible that, in a matter of minutes, 35,000 other iGen know about it; in an hour, 600,000; in a day, 1.3 million. You get the idea. Of course, the dealer could have a very different story than Marcus' recollection; however, it's a mute point, as it is Marcus, not the dealer, who is Tweeting, Instagraming, Snapchatting, and so forth. (I'm not sure if the preceding verbs are words, so don't use them with iGen, as you might be mocked...)

What's alarming about this story is that it isn't alarming. While it's certainly not indicative of every dealer, it is far from uncommon in the dealer world. (And, in Marcus' mind, it is indicative of every dealer. He doesn't look at anyone in his experience, unfavorably; he simply believes it is the nature of the industry as a whole, and, thus, won't be returning to it.) In speaking with 3 OE's, ranging from auto to heavy duty truck, the average attrition across their dealerships is 114%. All told me it was fairly common for someone to leave a dealership for another and take a large portion of the rest of the staff with them.

Marcus makes it quite clear that he doesn't blame managers for his experience, noting, "They didn't receive any training, either." In fact, as is often the case, when 1/2 the sales staff left the dealer to follow the sales manager, several sales staff, all underperformers, were thrust into management roles. So you don't have to be good at sales to become a manager. In fact, your strategy could be the opposite--be just good enough to keep your job, biding your time until the talented sales people leave for greener pastures, so that the dealer is forced to put you, due to your tenure, into a management role. Does that make for a qualified, quality manager?

The soft skills challenges dealers face--onboarding, training, customer service, time management, etc--have been challenges for ages. Unlike previously, though, tech continues to create a job market where virtually no iGen or Millennial have to work at a dealer. Dealers, and the industry as a whole, can longer afford to overlook soft skills. (Oftentimes, dealer ownership fall into the category of their staff--they weren't given direction for acquiring, let alone directly receiving, soft skills training.)

The good news? Soft skills, which create an inviting, customer and employee-focused culture (we must have this culture to implement our strategies; poor cultures simply swallow strategy after strategy), are easy to teach. Need some help? Reach out to me and I will get you all set up.

If you want to go it alone, start with onboarding. Not sure what that is or how to go about setting it up? Here is all you need for a good onboarding: Draw a simple Process MAP and follow it, as noted in the next paragraph. (Despite thoughts to the contrary, onboarding is effectively integrating new hires into both their roles and the daily ebb and flow of your business; it is not a welcome party, socially interacting with the rest of the team, a bunch of "fun" ice-breaking activities that have nothing to do with your industry, etc.)

A Process MAP is simply a diagram of an entire process. In this case, it would be a MAP of your desired customer flow--from finding you online, to initially contacting you, to coming in to seeing a vehicle, to buying the vehicle, to bringing it in for service, etc. Everyone involved in the process should be included in the MAP. If you'd like, reach out to me and I'll send you a few you can use as samples to reference as you build your own.

Creating a Process MAP can be a little daunting and challenging, so take it slow. If you need help, again, reach out to me and I'll help you. The important aspect is to capture each step in the process. Once you have your MAP, you give it to your entire team and new hires, showing them where they fit on the MAP, why their role is important, and going through all the steps of the process. They then quickly see how they integrate and feel valued as a team member, because they understand how everything fits. (Reviewing Process MAP's helps to knock down silos between departments.)

Having different departments speak, briefly, to their steps in the Process MAP, is all you really need to have in an onboarding. (Keep in mind, onboarding is ongoing--make sure staff get continued access to each other, particularly if they have questions about a step(s), which they will.) Meeting different departments helps with integrating new hires, too.

Want to develop training? Again, keep it simple. Take a step in the Process MAP, like "Receptionist answers incoming call." Determine how you want that action to look--how should the caller be greeted? Where does the call go when the receptionist is at lunch or can't answer it? Look at the next step: "Receptionist transfers call to proper party." What is the protocol you want followed to transfer a call? Write it out, make sure everyone knows it and has access to the protocol as an easy reference--perhaps by every phone? Keep doing this little by little, maybe just 1-2 steps a week, and, before you know it, you'll have a complete training program you can drop into a binder for new hires. (Of course, at the onset, you'll need all your current staff to go through onboarding and training.)

While there are other aspects ideal to add, such as training delivery methods, the above is more than enough to get you going and far better than not having anything. If you prefer to work with something that already exists, built and refined over more than 20 years, and is proven, simply reach out to me and we'll look at your options. Again, it's why I'm here.

Please, though, whatever you do, don't do this: Nothing.

Had a fun time speaking with Ryan on his show, which he shares after the fact on YouTube. We talked on several topics, including autonomous trucks and challenges the industry is tending to overlook. In case you'd like to check it out, here is the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLYMnDHxZn8

Have a good weekend, everybody!

Had a lot of fun being on Michael Cirillo's 159th episode. Check it out and feel free to share; we covered a lot of good soft skills topics and examined Amazon, Facebook and the Internet from an angle not often done--the soft skills angle.

http://thedealerplaybook.com/ian-coburn/

For anyone interested, here is the link to our Rethinking Industry Challenges webinar, hosted last week. It includes timestamps to key topics, such as paying advanced techs bonuses to train newer techs when those techs achieve certain certifications, thereby eliminating the chance competitors steal them away with a bonus, while also building your tech pipeline.

Feel free to share and get back to me with any feedback, etc.

http://www.gpasample.com/timestamps.pdf

GPA Training, Inc, is hosting a webinar on Feb. 28th, 11AM CST (register here). We invite you to attend, as well as to share with your network--fitting for both auto and truck dealers and OE's. I hope you can all join me as I present.

We will investigate and provide creative, often proven, solutions to the top challenges facing dealers.

Register early as attendance caps at 100. We'll add more meetings, as needed; however, this time slot won't be available once filled.

Topics include:

1) How our dealer-OE set up differs from other industries
- It opens the door for 3rd party competition, including from Amazon
- How to close that door

2) Closing the tech gap; hiring Millennials & iGen (23 years and younger)
- We say, "Have skills for a lifelong career;" they hear, "Prison sentence"

3) Transition from being order takers to hunting and capturing new business

4) Hiring and retaining staff to grow profits and customer relationships

Register Here (sometimes links in posts don't work, properly; if needed, go to www.gpatrain.com to register)

To see the review and Part 1 of this interview, please click here or search my blog. This is a continuation of aforementioned interview.

Brandin’s Brief Bio: Brandin Wilkinson is one of North America’s leading automotive professionals under the age of 40, as recognized by the #1 North American automotive business website, Automotive News. He went from being an accidental Sales Professional to General Manager of a 55+ team in 6 short years. From there, an opportunity opened up to Partner in with a Chrysler Franchise, where he increased the new sales volume 61% in 3 years. Now, Brandin’s main focus is on his new venture, ReThinkU Performance Coaching (ICF Certified), where he is maximizing the professional careers of Managers, C-Suite Executives, and Business Owners through personal performance.

You reference the importance of who to look toward for learning, such as a mentor, successful people, people who want to be successful and/or continue to learn, etc. What value can people who aren’t successful, who fail, who don’t try, offer, if any?

Great question. If you’re intelligently observant, you’ll potentially learn more from people on what not to do versus learning what to do from mentors. Mentors are great because they show you what they’ve done to become successful so you can model it. But it’s just as important in my opinion to look for what not to do from people who are underperforming. We must look for good and bad habits from everyone. From there, we extract the right ones that we would like to exemplify and begin to incorporate them into our life.

How can a reader ensure they don’t get stuck in the trap of planning without executing? How does a reader ensure they execute their plan?​​​​​​​

Discipline is the short answer. If we depend on our own devices, we will likely fail at execution. This is why developing good habits is so crucial. We have to create an environment for ourselves that sets us up for success.​​​​​​​

For example, if you struggle with a morning routine, or getting exercise first thing in the morning, start by laying out your gym clothes right beside your bed so they’re ready to go and turn off your snooze button! When you wake up, count backwards from 5 like a rocket taking off: 5-4-3-2-1 and jump out of bed into your gym clothes. Get the body moving, splash some cold water on your face, and get ready to attack the day. When you do this, it puts you into a proactive state which makes execution easier. This is where discipline comes in. The majority of people can do this for the first few days, but few can actually create a habit out of it and make it a part of their lifestyle.​​​​​​​

You cite a lot of good sources for continued education on a variety of topics near the end of your book (as well as throughout it). Any new sources you’ve discovered since publishing the book that you’d like to add to that list?​​​​​​​

Love this. Yes, for sure: Robin Sharma, Jason Silva, Shawn Stevenson, and Jairek Robbins. An app that I’ve been using lately for getting the day started is Insight Timer​​​​​​​.

In 2004, you reference that you had hit pretty much hit rock bottom. From there you made some deliberate decisions to be successful. Why do you think so many times it is the people who hit rock bottom that become some of the most motivated to not only achieve success in their industry but go beyond—like write a book?​​​​​​​

In my experience, hitting rock bottom was the stimulus I needed to wake up to life. I knew there was more value that I had to add to the world but somehow lost my way. The reason why hitting rock bottom is a blessing in disguise is because it scares you into success. You have two choices, either stay there and be comfortable or use it as leverage to start the life you were meant to live.​​​​​​​

You had a pretty draining schedule when you first started in sales. Would better sales training helped to alleviate that while increasing early successes?​​​​​​​

This is a tough one. I’m an advocate now for working hard and smart. In the early stages of sales, I was all about working hard and powering through everything no matter what it took. I’m a believer that in the early stages (especially in the first 3 years) of any business - which is what a commissioned salesperson essentially is - it requires an insane amount of work to grow it effectively. The tradeoff is that after year #3 you’re able to work fewer hours but reap higher rewards. I have yet to see a salesperson work the standard 40 hours per week for their first 3 years and not take any ups because they’re too busy with their own repeat/ referral clientele.​​​​​​​

As you note in the book, the skills to lead are vastly different than the skills to sell. Why do dealerships struggle with grasping this?​

To start with I think our industry is saturated with Managers and lacking Leaders. Management is easy. Leadership is difficult. We lack training in both areas but even more so in Leadership. Yet there is no shortage of Sales Trainers to teach the sales skills that we need to sell vehicles. We need to shift our focus on the development, coaching, and training of Management and Ownership if we want to get the most productivity out of our dealerships. Having the right leadership will lead to an incredibly healthy culture which will lower expenses and increase profit. We’re starting to see this but it’s coming slowly​​​​​​​​​​​​​.

You reference the importance of role playing with peers. Do you use structured role plays? If so, how do recommend structuring them for best results?​​​​​​​

I think it’s important to role play and quietly observe the top salespeople from a distance when they’re communicating with their clients to pick up on anything that you could incorporate into your sales process. I have yet to see or perfect the ideal role play situation. What I do prefer though is to do it one on one with another salesperson. Having Managers involved increases pressure and removes the fun of it. I like the idea of going outside, away from distractions and letting loose. No scripts. Approach it as if you’re a real client. It’s a good idea to review some of the top objections we commonly face and hear how each salesperson responds to them. But I find as much, or more, value in paying attention to what the top salespeople do and how they do it. Watch their body language, tone of voice, and pace of conversation. Success leaves clues, it’s smart to watch and learn from the top producers.

You reference the “Golden Circle” and leading with your “Why.” In my experience, this can often be misinterpreted to make the sale about yourself—i.e. you talk about your why, becoming prone to pitching. How do you suggest one learns the customer’s “Why,” which is what motivates the customer to buy, not your “Why?”​​​​​​​

Yes, good point. To find your Why you need to know what your Purpose, Cause, and Beliefs are. In order to have success with learning your clients Why you must understand what their Purpose (reasons for coming into your dealership and haven’t bought elsewhere yet), Cause (meaning as to why they are in the market for a vehicle), and Beliefs (why they believe they need a specific vehicle) are. This all stems from knowing and asking high-quality discovery questions. SPIN Selling is the best resource I’ve found for determining the right questions to ask.​​​​​​​

Why is workforce planning so lacking in our industry?

I think because we are a short-minded industry versus thinking about the long-game. We can’t seem to think past the current month and we definitely can’t see past the current year. This makes planning outside of 30 days difficult. It’s not the fault of the dealer owners in my opinion though. I believe that it stems from the pressures and incentive programs we get from the OEM’s on a monthly basis.​​​​​​​

When it comes to dealership sales training, where do you think the OEM’s responsibility rests, if at all?​​​​​​​

It would be nice to see more involvement from the OEM’s in terms of training and development. Especially when it comes, once again, to Management and Leadership. Discussing the OEM’s contribution to dealerships in numerous areas could be a whole separate interview!​​​​​​​

If you could go back and add three items to the book, what would they be, if any?

I honestly wouldn’t add any. I have definitely expanded my knowledge since writing the book but at the time that I wrote it, I gave everything I had. However, I am currently working on new content for my new website which will be launching in the first quarter of 2019. This could very well lead to a new book.

What’s the website?

https://www.rethinksellingu.com/ 

Anything we haven’t discussed you’d like to discuss?

No man you asked a lot of high-quality questions. Thank you! I’m looking forward to reversing roles and learning more from you.​​​​​​​

I want to thank you, Brandin, again for participating in an interview and for writing your book, which may find here. I enjoyed getting to know you better and learning more!

Brandin Wilkinson’s ReThink Selling: Why You Only Know 20% of Sales, is perhaps the most aptly named book I’ve read. It is truly a mirror that helps you look at how you can do sales much differently; more holistically. In fact, it is a self-improvement book not a how-to-sell book. Self-help is not a genre of which I am a fan but I am of his book because it sets itself aside from three standard traits of the genre:

1) It doesn’t promise success without work. Most books in the genre promise results with minimum effort, simply for marketing. When we dig a little, we learn that the authors and promoters of these books actually work very hard. For instance, Timothy Ferriss of 4-Hour Workweek acclaim has acknowledged he works far more hours than four each week. The Secret, which touts that results are largely rooted in only mindset, owes much of its success to promotion by Oprah, who may be perhaps the hardest working person on the planet--she didn't get where she is simply by 95% mindset.

2) Brandin’s work is based on his own experiences and he shares his own stories. Lots of works in the genre, such as The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, simply compile information from observations and interviews. Frequently, they share incorrect conclusions as practices to implement to achieve success, because they observe people who are already successful, typically even at the pique of their success. The problem is the habits and practices that got them to their success are different than the ones they now practice. The value is in the earlier not the latter.

Having started my career as a standup comedian for ten years before entering sales, I naturally think of the film Comedian, as an example. In part, it follows Seinfeld as he develops an entirely new repertoire to perform. Many aspiring comedians viewed it as the path to follow for success, of which it offers little value. This, again, is because it follows Seinfeld when he is already tremendously successful. For instance, it is nearly impossible to get stage time in New York but of course, not for Seinfeld, who can simply show up and get as much time as he wants (deservedly so). The value for aspiring comedians lies in learning how Seinfeld got stage time back when he was an unknown, which the movie doesn’t share.

Brandin shares experiences, including stumbles, of achieving his success, from which much of the value of this book comes.

3) Brandin does not expect you to share the same priorities and values he does, nor to do with your success what he does with his. Most self-improvement authors practically demand you share their values. Citing Ferriss again as an example, he spends a fair amount of time in the 4-Hour Workweek insisting people should value travel, even going so far to suggest that those who don’t value it live a lesser life than those who do. There are plenty of people who don’t like traveling; what I fail to see value in is in shaming them for their belief. Brandin does not shame people for not sharing his values. For instance, he provides ample insight and resources for developing healthy habits; however, he does not attack those who lack desire to be healthy.

In addition to lessons learned from Brandin’s personal experiences, ReThink Selling offers numerous resources to develop your own holistic approach to sales. I’ll leave it to you to extract the gems from this worthy book. What I want to do now is share what gems Brandin wasn’t able to get into the book. For this information, I interviewed Brandin.

Brandin’s Brief Bio: Brandin Wilkinson is one of North America’s leading automotive professionals under the age of 40, as recognized by the #1 North American automotive business website, Automotive News. He went from being an accidental Sales Professional to General Manager of a 55+ team in 6 short years. From there, an opportunity opened up to Partner in with a Chrysler Franchise, where he increased the new sales volume 61% in 3 years. Now, Brandin’s main focus is on his new venture, ReThinkU Performance Coaching (ICF Certified), where he is maximizing the professional careers of Managers, C-Suite Executives, and Business Owners through personal performance.

Why write the book; what do you have to say that is different from what has already been written?

It was mainly out of necessity and empathy. Necessity because it’s a resource that I can lean on to hold myself accountable but also pick me up when I’m not 100%. Empathy because as business owners, salespeople, and managers, we deal with a lot of stress, especially in the automotive industry. I feel there isn’t enough attention on the intangibles -- mindset, momentum, discipline, confidence, consistency, leadership, etc. These are the variables that need attention because of the volatility with what we do. When we feel fulfilled personally, it elevates our professional career.

How long did it take you to write the book?​​​​​​​

It took 11 years of learning the hard way, learning from mentors and colleagues, successes and failures, and countless hours of personal development to come up with the content for the book. It only took a couple weeks to put it all together​​​​​​​.

Is Steven James Rogers, the wrestler you discuss at the start, a real person? (I expected to see he was like “The Rock” or something at the end.)​​​​​​​

No, the first chapter of the book is fictional. It’s designed to set the reader up for what the content in the book is about, overcoming our limiting beliefs being one of them.​​​​​​​

Why do you think the notion of “This is always the way it has been done” is so ingrained in our industry?​​​​​​​

I think a lot of the dealerships are second or third generation. We look up to and respect our elders, especially if they’re our parents and grandparents. We inherit certain beliefs from them that we wouldn’t normally think to challenge. "If it’s worked for them, then it must work for us" is the mentality a lot of Dealers have. We don’t think to challenge the status quo. We end up getting caught in the trap of being good rather than finding new ways to be great.​​​​​​​

If a reader could only take away one piece of knowledge from your book, what do you want it to be?​​​​​​​

That success, no matter in what area of life, is 80% mindset and 20% skill. Work from the inside out and you’ll find true fulfillment.​​​​​​​

I'm going to add to that answer for you that it is also 100% work, just based on your other answers, what I read in your book, and what I've gotten to learn about you during this interview. Is that a fair assessment?

Definitely success takes 100% work.

Special thanks to Brandin for both writing his book and doing an interview with me. Part 2 of this interview will be posted on 12-26, Boxing Day for those of you up north. Be sure to check it out; Brandin gave some very insightful answers to key questions regarding what it takes to be successful in our industry.

Pantyhose. That's what was best for me and my car back when I was a comedian. Are you doing what's best for your customers or just giving them what they want?

I had a mechanic I always went to when I was a comedian (throughout the 90's) for reasons like this:

One day I went to grab my car after he had replaced the brakes. He tossed me a couple pairs of rolled up pantyhose. "Here, my wife tossed these out. Take 'em."

Of course, I was perplexed. He quickly showed me, though, how to wrap the pantyhose in place to replace any broken belts. In this manner, when I was, say, in the middle of New Mexico, 200 miles from anything (no cells back then), and a belt broke, I could use pantyhose (they stretch then retract back into place) as a temporary belt that would get me a few hundred miles down the road.

Do you do this for your customers or do you simply give them what they want and pay for? Incidentally, I used the pantyhose twice in my ten years as a comedian--lifesavers both times!

He got tons of business from me and my referrals. And it took him all of 45 secs to grab the pantyhose, toss them to me, and explain how to use them. In fact, he asked me to stop referring people because his book became so full.

Don't forget the pantyhose. That is true customer service.

GPA Training, Inc, is pleased to announce that President and Director of Learning & Development, Ian Coburn, will be the keynote speaker at Nissan’s Northwest Region Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) Meeting, taking place in Seattle on August 22nd, 2018. It marks the first time GPA has worked with Nissan. “We are always excited to work with OE’s to expand our reach to new dealers, helping to enable them to increase their success,” says Coburn. “It is an honor to be asked, especially by such a quality brand as Nissan,” he adds.

Coburn, author of The Customer is Never Right: Sell More Trucks, Cars, Buses, Parts . . . Anything in One Month, “will focus on getting past gatekeepers, cultivating your own leads as a sales rep, time and territory management, and a number of techniques for controlling the conversation in order to be certain customers always get what’s best for them,” explains Rod Belscher, Truck & Commercial Operations Manager for Nissan North America, and organizer of the meeting.

GPA Training, Inc, focuses on providing training and development programs for every customer-facing role in the dealership, emphasizing soft skills. The organization is on the cutting edge of eLearning, offering all live curriculum in a digital format that works with or without an LMS, on all mobile devices. “Our industry spends a lot of time on tech for consumers—online presence and videos, complete mobile functionality, and so forth. Those same consumers want that same tech, in fact more, on the job, which is where we tend to drop the ball,” notes Coburn. “This is why GPA Training offers and educates on eLearning as part of our services.”

You may learn more about GPA Training at www.gpatrain.com.