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Unfortunately, the majority of Dealer Principals and General Managers expect solutions for maximizing profitability and overall dealership health to materialize out of thin air. As a former DP myself, I know because I’ve lived it. Reactive advice coming to you from employees, OEM’s, vendor reps, feet-on-the-street salespeople, attorneys, and heck, even your customers will tell you how to run the business.

In reality, all of these people lack perspective of the entire picture, and usually after a few hundred doses of heeding bad advice and bleeding cash from bad decisions it’s easy to understand how a dealer can gravitate to the land of skepticism, paranoia, and barriers to prevent access. 

Most don’t realize it, but running a dealership can be a lonely place. I can remember describing to my wife that it felt like I was on an island with no one who understood me, and no one to talk to. But, eventually I learned it didn’t have to be that way.

Here are 4 big breakthroughs I’ve discovered through years of trial and error that separate okay dealers from great dealers:

1. RESOURCEFULNESS – not just resources. But RESOURCEFULNESS - this means that you go pro-actively looking for solutions and don’t just expect (or hope) the answers to your business and marketing challenges will appear out of thin air. 

HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY. 

Resourceful is officially defined as – full of initiative and good at problem solving, especially in difficult times. 

Every high performing dealer I’ve ever met over the last 2 plus decades have embraced this important quality. And, best of all, it doesn’t require rocket scientist intellect or super human ability. Any dealer who wants it bad enough can do this.

2. THE POWER OF ASSOCIATION – meeting with and networking with other success-oriented, like-minded people. To achieve success, you must put yourself in an environment conducive to success, as has been continually documented since Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone and Thomas Edison’s first ‘Mastermind Alliance’ meeting.  

We all tend to become like those who we hang around with the most. The problem is this is often driven by convenience and circumstance rather than intent. 

When you choose, by design, who you’re going to associate with, you can truly harvest the POWER OF ASSOCIATION. 

3. MODELING – Learning from, borrowing, and duplicating with intent, proven business best practices from both within and outside of the industry. There is no reason to re-invent the wheel. I learned more best practices and financial benchmarks in one 2-day 20 Group meeting than I’d learned in the previous 5 years combined. 

There is no shame in learning from those who have gone before us. In fact, the reason so many of the super successful write books is they want to share their story and have others learn and benefit from their successes and failures.  

4. SYSTEMS vs. RANDOM ACTS – SYSTEM is an acronym for Save Yourself Stress Time Energy and Money. The systems should run your dealership and your people run the systems. 

If you look at business like a game, the systems are the rules of the game. A game without rules is no fun because the players can’t focus on playing the game. They’re too busy trying to figure out how to play.  

A business without systems is chaos. Many business owners don’t own a business, they own a job, because they have no systems. The lack of systems within a business is one of the biggest underlying causes of failure. 

It’s because of these four breakthroughs that we host our Marketing Boot Camps here in Atlanta twice a year. The Powersports Industry landscape continues to change at rapid pace. The customer has changed and continues to change, and thanks to the internet the options to send relevant and compelling marketing messages to those customers have also undergone drastic transformation. 

And, right now, our country is going through extreme change due to the TRUMP effect. Many experts are predicting a huge increase in blue collar jobs and growth in the middle class. Guess what blue collar guys love to do on the weekends? You got it, motorcycles, hunting, camping, etc. Could be good, if you communicate with them. 

In case you’re not familiar… our Powersports Marketing Boot Camps, are THE place where the most successful and progressive dealers come to discover the latest and most lucrative marketing programs and systems to increase the bottom line and improve quality of life. 

It’s THE place for dealers to gather, exchange new ideas, see what’s working, what’s not working, and of course to network with other like-minded Powersports professionals.  

So if you haven’t already signed up, it’s not too late, but you need to do it now. As always we offer money back guarantee so you have nothing to lose.   

Three easy ways to enroll: 

1. Go to www.powersportsmarketing.com/boot-camp

2. Call 877-242-4472 

I look forward to seeing you in Atlanta.