Todd Crossley, Gary Crossley Ford

Despite the challenging economy, Gary Crossley Ford in Kansas City, MO implemented a strategy that dramatically increased their revenue and reduced their operating costs and just had the best month in the dealership’s history, outperforming last ye
Dec 1, 2010

Is Your Advisor Writing Bad Estimates?

I was consulting in a mid-sized GM dealership one evening. The service manager and I were looking through carefully prepared pre-write packets (menu, history, pre-write, recalls, MPI, and notes), to determine how well the service advisors had pre-loa
Nov 15, 2010

The Vital Battle to Build a Character-driven Company

These are complex times for leaders. Our sense of decency continues to come under siege from an array of antagonists: indifferent and entitled workers, a generation that embraces no behavioral absolutes, and from courts and governments that treat rel
Nov 1, 2010

Share Your Second Sense

As we all know, we wouldn’t be where we are if we weren’t good at something. If you’re like me, you probably have one good thing that you do better than most anyone else. And, if you’re really like me, then you have no trouble telling anyone
Nov 1, 2010

Translate Customer Buying Motivations into Scheduled Appointments and Sales

With so much focus on generating leads for your dealership, it’s important to recognize that success isn’t measured by the number of leads generated. As always, the bottom line literally is the bottom line; the number of cars sold and total profi
Nov 1, 2010

Social Networking: The Gift of Friendship?

Close your eyes. Right now. Close your eyes. Okay, open them. I just realized you wouldn’t be able to read the rest of the instructions. After you close your eyes, I want you to put yourself in the shoes of your customers. Share their mindset. I kn
Nov 1, 2010

There’s No Room for Sea Lawyers in the Automotive Industry

As some of you may know, I served in the United States Marine Corps back in the 1980s. I was lucky, and was allowed to spend most of my time in the service sitting on the tropical island of Guam. While I enjoyed serving with nearly everyone I met in
Nov 1, 2010

The 10-Minute Dealership: Building the Organization

The arrival of a lead is the moment of truth. Best practice is to execute a multi-vehicle price quote right away every time, followed by a phone call in 10 minutes. The dealer who consistently delivers his customer a 10-minute call in response to an
Nov 1, 2010

Technology and Zen Time Management

I recently gave a webinar on Zen time management to controllers and office managers. Over the years I’ve created various technology tools to enable controllers to get more time in the day by downloading from their DMS to Excel. This webinar opened
Nov 1, 2010