As I sit down to write this letter the Super Bowl hype has begun. Of course, the Super Bowl is the holy grail of football. It is what every football player, armchair coach, and odds-maker looks forward to. It is in the back of the minds of everyone connected to the first kick-off of the year. In fact, it goes beyond that to the day after the previous year’s Super Bowl. With very little down time plans are made for the next football season. The executives decide who they will seek and who they will trade or cut; the fans decide the value of purchasing the pricey tickets. But the real planning is done by the players themselves. After a brief rest, these professionals take to the gym with their trainers and begin the process of preparing for the next season.
Can you see where I’m going with this? The metaphors beg to be made, so I hope you’ll bear with me as I make my points. Professional football and professional selling—it’s all about practice, preparation, and determination. Your executives may or may not be in the “back office” deciding if you make the cut for 2014. Your coaches and trainers are ready and willing to work with you and get you in position for a successful year. But just as in football, the real work has to be done by you.
Have you taken a look backwards? How was your 2013 “season?” If there were a Super Bowl of F&I Managers, would you be in it or would you, like my beloved Steelers, find yourselves making excuses for why it didn’t happen and how you’ll “get ‘em the next time”? And although it doesn’t have the magnitude of the Super Bowl, Jeram Marketing rewards the best F&I Managers in the pages of this newsletter. Have you made the cut? Do you even send Jeram Marketing your monthly F&I production numbers? It’s a little like the lottery, you can’t win if you don’t play. Either way, maybe this is the year to do some soul searching and decide that you want to be number one (with or without the foam finger and team colors) or that you want to be included in the search for the F&I Manager of the newsletter. I hope you do because you have a lot of “fans” and cheerleaders who will work with you to make it happen. If you are one of those who don’t currently send your reports to us, your representative can help to get that ball rolling.
Making that decision is the first step. The next step is actually more difficult. It’s making some changes to the way you are currently doing your job. I always find it interesting when I am asked for advice by a Finance Manager, and when I make suggestions he says, “Well, that isn’t the way I do it.” Uh-huh, I know. That’s why you aren’t having the success you’re seeking. Change is always the toughest part of a decision; it’s why most fail miserably at New Year’s resolutions, diets, and making the cut for a professional football team. Our goal at Jeram Marketing is to give you the tools to achieve the goals you set for yourself; your job is to get out of your comfort zone, get out of your own way, and learn to use the tools. That takes practice and practice can mean the uncomfortable task of role-playing, or going to one or more of the seminars that we offer. It can mean changing the way your sales people work with your department and being the one to train them on the new process. It isn’t easy—but if success is your goal, you’ll find no bigger fans then your representatives and trainers at Jeram Marketing.
Your Super Bowl may not be recognition. It may be achieving a pay tier or hitting levels that no one in your store has hit. Whatever it is, we will work with you to achieve it. Although 2013 is in the rear view mirror, I’d like to personally thank you for partnering with Jeram Marketing. We have enjoyed another successful year and we know that isn’t possible without you, our clients.
2014 is a new year filled with new opportunity to be seized. We can’t wait to congratulate you on your achievements when we look back in 2015!
Jerry O’Neill
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