Someone once told me that most aeronautical engineers will tell you that there is no possible way the bumblebee can fly. His wingspan isn’t broad enough, he is too heavy and his body build makes it impossible for him to fly. Fortunately, the bumblebee doesn’t understand aeronautics, so he just goes along and flies anyway!

Decide to have a “bumblebee attitude” and just fly anyway! All of the good this world has to offer is on your side. Fight to be the best you, you can be! Fight to reach success! Fight to make it big in every area of life! Despise second best! Despise the fear of failure and rejection and live your life to the max! Don’t listen to the naysayer’s and critics. Don’t listen to the media, the economy and the news. Have a bumblebee attitude and fly anyway! 

 “Success means doing the best we can with what we have. Success is the doing, not the getting; in the trying, not the triumph. Success is a personal standard, reaching for the highest that is in us, becoming all that we can be.”

- Zig Ziglar

Do Your Best Today!

When we do the best we can, where we are, with what we have now, we will live in success! So many people hold back and save their best for later. They wait for a reunion, an occasion, an event, a specific job, an important person with a special title or even a stranger before they show off everything they know and can do. The difference between “The Average Joes” and “The Pros” in sports, business and in every area of life is the discipline to do your best in your field every day.

Think like a champion!

Champions are people with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them. They are a bit unrealistic in how they see life, as they don’t reason with reality. They make the impossible happen and never considered it impossible.”

- Grant Cardone

So many times we can get hung up on focusing on the things we don’t have, rather than on the things we do have. We think we need more equipment, more programs, more incentives, more people, more training and more money to be our best. Now, don’t misunderstand me; more equipment, more programs, more incentives, more training and more money is good and will add value to our lives, helping us become and release our best. However, if we are not maximizing what we have in our ability, in the areas of the influence and equipment we have now, we won’t when we get more, either. Use what you have now. Sharpen your skills you have now. Master your craft! Practice doing your best and when it comes time for “Game Day,” you’ll perform your best.

“Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are hard jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the bigger ones tend to take care of themselves.”

-          Dale Carnegie

Give your best in every matter, both small and large, and you will experience the best each matter has to offer. Give your best now! Don’t wait until later or tomorrow. Start where you are now. Don’t let circumstances, people or excuses hold you back from giving your best. If it’s in your power to do it now, don’t wait until tomorrow.

“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

- Matthew 6:34 (New Living Translation Bible)

Don’t Wait Till Tomorrow!

Tomorrow has enough worries, problems and situations of it’s own. Why add more on top of it to make things even more difficult to deal with. Deal with it today! I once heard someone say that today is a gift, and that’s why it’s called “the present.” We need to open up our today with the same excitement, attitude and efforts as if it really is a present. We are alive today. Today, we can make a change. Today is always the best time to deal with ourselves. Today!

One of the biggest problems that face our today is our worry about tomorrow. Worry is one of the greatest issues that paralyze people, keeping them from moving into the greatness for which they have been created. I once heard someone say, “I don’t worry about the things I can change, because I can change them. I don’t worry about the things I can’t change, because I can’t change them. Therefore, I just don’t worry.” This is probably the most liberating statement I have ever heard! Stop and think about the truth of that statement! How many times have you changed the situations you were going through by worrying about them day and night? And if they did change from you worrying about them, they probably changed for the worse! Someone once said, “Worry is like a rocking chair — it gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you anywhere.”

Share your best with the world today, have a bumblebee attitude, don’t worry about tomorrow and, no matter what happens, you will be an Ultimate Success!

“It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not.” ~ Author Unknown

            I’d like to start out with a story that maybe some of us in the automotive industry can relate to. This deals with the number one obstacle of the sale. You! The demo is completed, they love the car, they love you, they love the ease of everything so far and now it has come to this. Your so-called friend now sits across from you and tells you that they will take delivery of their new vehicle if the numbers are right. The customer is sold and wants to drive the car home today. You are pumped up; full of confidence and the adrenaline begins to flow through your body. You go to the desk and you tell the GSM where they need to be in order for you to seal the deal. You explain everything word for word and as you are talking the GSM begins to pencil you the numbers. It’s as if he’s not even listening. You feel like Charlie Brown’s parents, “WAH WAH WAH WAH WAH WAH!” It’s like everything you say doesn’t even matter. You look down at the up sheet to see if you’re in the ballpark and you notice that the number is way higher than where the customer wants to be. Not only are you not in the ballpark, but you’re not even in the same state. You than see that the customers trade that was explained to be a gem has 2 car accidents on the Carfax and is coming in thousands less than what they want for it. The GSM finishes writing the numbers, turns the paper to you and slowly slides the up sheet back into your hands and with a smile softly says, “let’s make this deal!” You think, “Ok I will if you’d just do the customers numbers!”

By this point your heart is racing, you have fallen into a deep black hole and feel like you are miles apart from where the customer is and where the desk wants to be. Your confidence doesn’t slowly disappear, but it has been shattered, blown up and destroyed. You put your head into your hands, look at the paper and start to try and close the desk on where the customer wants to be. You think, “Maybe he didn’t hear me so I’ll explain it again.” You finally come to grips with the fact that the desk is not budging so you peek over your shoulder to see what your customers are doing. As you look they see you look their way and smile at you as if you’re gonna come back and not only give them what they asked for on their trade but exceed that and give them a thousand more than they asked. You look back at the paper huff and blow out a deep breath. You get up, grab your paper, look at the GSM as if he’s the devil himself and with your head down looking at the paper, dragging your feet, in total disbelief and defeat you begin to walk back towards your customer. You sit down and as you’re shaking your head back and forth you say, “ Well, I have bad news. I’m so sorry to say that I CAN’T BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!”

Don’t Lose Confidence in Yourself

As exaggerated as this story is I believe it speaks to us in one way or another. The point of this entire case study is that if you lose confidence in yourself to close the sale you’ll never close the sale. We are the number one obstacles that obstruct the path of buyers saying yes and driving home in their new vehicles. When we lose the confidence in our-selves to present the customer the numbers that we are given, the customer can pick up on that and pull back their confidence to say yes. When you are confident in your presentation, demo, walk around, product and competitive knowledge your customer feeds off of that. The more confidence you display the more confident they will feel in making a major decision to purchase. A lot of your success in closing is dependent on your ability to empower your customers with the confidence they need to make a decision. How you speak, how you stand, the body language you show, the inflections and tone of your voice all have to do with the success and failure of instilling confidence into your customer. It begins with you. Be confident in your ability to sell, present numbers, deflect stalls and overcome objections in the sale. Practice your transition points of one word to the next. The more fluent and articulate you are with your words the more at ease people feel. The more you stumble, sigh, and trip through your words the more hesitant people feel. Your words and how you say your words are your tools that you use to be successful in what you do. We should take the time to practice using these tools.

“Whether you think you can or think you can't - you are right.” ~ Henry Ford

Always Think You Can

An unknown author said, “Success comes in cans, not cant's.” That is so true. Think you can close every deal. Think you can overcome every objection. Think you can be salesman of the month every month. Think you can be more productive than you’ve ever been. Think you can do the impossible and you will. Think you can reach your goals and you will. The ones who say they can’t usually end up getting passed up by the ones who think they can and just did. It’s more than just thinking you can in your mind but also in your heart. Your heart is the core of your being. It is the center of your-self. As a mirror reflects your face so your heart reflects back to you your true self-image.

Proverbs 23:7 (Amplified Bible) For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.

Whatever you think you are in your heart that is what will eventually come out in your character and words. Allow your heart felt thoughts to help govern your actions and words. The more confident you are in your ability to believe that you can be successful and achieve outstanding accomplishments the more you will begin to experience what you already thought you can do. 

Think big! Think success! Think on good things! Think on things that instill a positive outcome!

"Before you change your thinking, you have to change what goes into your mind."

Zig Ziglar

As you think on things that empower you to be the best you can be and stay strong in your self-confidence you will overcome the hardest obstacle you’ll ever face in this life and achieve success, victory and promotions in all your endeavors. Please email me to receive a copy of an article to help strengthen your self-confidence.

http://www.dealersynergy.com 

An Email From a Random 17 Year Old Girl Who Saw One of My Videos on YouTube and My Response To Her...

I was about to record a new audio series when I received her email, I was motivated to create this video for her. I hope you all enjoy too. There is a lesson here we can all learn from this 17 year old girl-

http://www.dealersynergy.com 

What is the One "Thing" you can do today to dramatically change your life, your future, maximize your career, evolve...?

I am still in Indiana and have been up for over and hour now (Central time)... I have been working on a project for my client as well as getting caught up on over 100+ emails (That is just from yesterday LOL!). I am also finalizing my most recent article for AutoSuccess Magazine. And its NOT even 7:00am... Today I am going to be training an entire Internet Sales Department. What I do today will influence and enhance numerous people and their future. Then when I have finished, I will jump on a plane and head home to my wife and children. I am truly Blessed, I love what I do and am so grateful to my entire team at Dealer Synergy. Without them, there would be NO Dealer Synergy-What are you going to do today when you wake up...? What is the 1 thing that you can focus on today that will dramatically make a difference in your life, your career, for your company, for your family...?  Life is way too short, live today to its fullest... Be the absolute best you can be and settle for nothing less. Make sure you tell the people that you love that you love them. Try to make a difference in someone's life today... Start with yours :)

http://www.dealersynergy.com

Don’t talk about it –

be about it

You truly have to be committed to being successful. If you just say it without actually living it each and every day — without exception and without fail — you are not going to be successful. To build my company, I am on an airplane all over this country every week training and consulting. I do what I have to do to be successful in order to provide my family and myself a lifestyle we enjoy.

What are you doing to be successful? Are you just saying that you want to be all you can be, but only do what you have to in order to get by? Are you convincing yourself that mediocre is a good thing? I want to be brutally honest with you — it takes a long time to be an “overnight success.”

If you want to be successful, be successful — every breath you take, every thought you think, each and every day should be to personify the word “successful.” No excuses. No exceptions. If you want the things that the average person does not have, you have to be willing to do the things that the average person won’t do (within the bounds of law and ethics, of course).

Don’t talk about it. Be about it.

So, maybe you really want to be about it, but maybe you’re not sure where to start. In our industry we are told over and over again that “this is your own business,” but no one ever shows us how to run “our own business.” If we teach, lead and motivate people in the right direction, however, and show them how to build, maintain and evolve their own business, they will have a more realistic opportunity for that to actually happen.

If you really think about it for a moment, human beings have accomplished so much since we have been in existence. We have invented some amazing things, like automobiles and computers, and we have traveled to the moon. There are those who have made billions who were college drop outs. So, if all of that is a reality, then the possibility that you can achieve greatness is possible. It all starts with one simple thing: You have to make the conscious decision to be successful. If you make the conscious decision that you are going to be successful and nothing — I mean nothing — is going to take you off of your goal of success, then nothing will. Every thought you think, everything you do and your very essence will personify that word “success.” For example:

• Every morning, take a moment to be grateful for everything you have (even if you don’t have much, you are alive and that is a gift we should be grateful for every day).

• Every morning you tell yourself that today is going to be a great day. Today you are going to move one step closer to being even more successful. Cleanse your thoughts of stress, negativity, of “haters” who tell you that you “can’t” or that you “won’t.”

• Begin with the end in mind. Have a clear picture in your mind and your heart of exactly what success is to you. If you can’t do this, how are you ever going to achieve something that has no definition? Remember that success is different for different people — only you can determine what success means to you. Is it being the best in your career? Is it making a lot of money? Is it having freedom to do what you want, when you want? Is it providing for your loved ones? Is it the ability to help people and change lives? Whatever it is, you must understand exactly what “it” is and you must understand exactly how you can achieve this success. What is it going to take each minute, each hour, each day, each week, each month, each year?

• You must surround yourself with people who are successful or are on their way to becoming successful. It just doesn’t make sense to surround yourself with lazy, complacent, negative, excuse-driven people who have no desire to change their life or situation. I’m not saying that you should drop long-term friends or be snobbish, but you need to be realistic. If you are at a dealership with people who are always complaining about this and that (not making any money, the manufacturer stinks, the incentives stink, they don’t like the President of the United States…), that’s a problem. We all know that these people exist in our dealership. Do you really think hanging around this type of person will help you on your path to success?

• You need to constantly self motivate and self educate. Read as much as you can. There are countless magazines, newsletters, Websites and blogs in our industry that focus solely on automotive sales success, automotive Internet sales, automotive digital marketing and so on, and there are books both in and out of our industry that are awesome, such as The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. You need to master your craft. If you are an automotive sales professional, you must become an expert in communication, qualifying, identifying expectations, objections and rebuttals. You must also become an expert in psychology, sociology, public relations, marketing, reputation management, digital marketing, analytics, trends, time management, leadership, motivation, customer service and product knowledge. You need to practice, drill and rehearse and have a great attitude. You also need a contingency plan, in case things don’t go perfectly — and not just “plan A” and “plan B”; you need plans A through Z.

Why aren’t most people great at anything? Because it takes hard work, strategy and consistency.

Don’t talk about it. Be about it.

If you have any questions about this article or you would like some free advice or suggestions to

start or evolve you on your path of success, please feel free to call me or e-mail me.

Sean V. Bradley is the founder and CEO of Dealer Synergy, a nationally recognized training

and consulting company in the automotive industry. He can be contacted at 866.648.7400, or

by e-mail at sbradley@autosuccessonline.com.

Money Motivation

Do you enjoy it small, or would you love to increase the size of your paycheck?  Coordinators round the world are being asked this question every day.  No one likes a sub-par paycheck.  If we can agree there, then I would like to share some action steps you can take that will be sure to enlarge the numbers in your bank account.

The first thing we have to realize, understand and embrace; is that as internet coordinators “WE ARE IN SALES!”  The individuals who do exactly this in life (not just in our business) are the ones who prosper.  In order to be successful here, every day on the phone we must sell three things…and here they are:

1. Ourselves
2. The Dealership
3. An Appointment with the Dealership.

When we make or receive a call, we have to be the most friendly, /excited, /knowledgeable business person in our galaxy; and then we must sound like it. What do real business people do?  First off, they always know the name of the person with whom they’re speaking.  If you catch yourself asking “by the way, what is your name?” more than sixty seconds after your greeting, then you might be guilty of being unprofessional.  When people are preparing to spend (especially large amounts), they want to talk to professionals…don’t you?  In addition to the old rebuttal, we need to internalize: How about this, if we don’t handle our calls in the most professional manner possible, we could NEVER expect people to buy vehicles from us...OK?

“Here at XYZ Motors”…Do you find yourself using this sentence starter?  You could be selling your dealership.  This is exactly what you want to do if you are truly money motivated.  Think of it this way: a dealership is worth lots of money right?  If I constantly sell the dealership…then over time I’ll make lots of money…it’s that simple.

How do we sell appointments you say?...Good Question!  The easy answer is to sell the aforementioned products extremely well.  If we do a great job of selling the dealership and ourselves as a package, the appointment is a synch…unproblematic.  However, we do understand appointments to buy cars aren’t selling like hotcakes these days; so here are a few extra incentives you can put on the table for your prospects.

Tentative appointments:

People seem to be more afraid than ever of commitment.  Appointments give the impression of rigidity, so what can we do to flip the connotation?  Use the word tentative to soften the word appointment.  Statistics show that American people keep sixty percent of their commitments…no matter how strenuous.  What does that tell us?  We should just get our customers to agree to show up, then follow up.  (The OH-SO important follow up…which deserves its own article entirely…as it shall have.)

Talk to your personal phone trainer or internet director about helping the customers to understand the benefits of setting appointments verses just popping by the establishment.  Dealerships are once again worth millions and should be treated with respect.  As doctors, lawyers and realtors, so are car guys.  Maybe we could title them something a bit more astute like:…“Vehicular professionals”…I’m taking suggestions.

Either way, having a more professional approach to our jobs will help us to grow our compensation.  I’ll leave you with an old saying from the old See-Do-Get wisdom vault, “If we wanna get paid more, then we gotta do more for what we get paid for.”  Think and comment about it…THANKS!  Until next time, go out there and sell more cars, more profitably, more often!!!