By Chuck Barker President & Founder, Impact Marketing & Consulting Group // Dealership Management Shifting From Crisis to Opportunity Avoid Focusing on the Crisis & Quit Decision Wobbling Imagine for a moment you are walking along a trail in the forest which has a swollen swiftly running creek off to your right with a 100-foot waterfall drop-off well downstream. You decide to venture over to the edge and take a closer look. As you approach the creek's edge you fail to notice a tree root exposed above ground and you trip. Your fall tumbles you down the hill and into the fast-moving turbulent water. As you are rushed downstream you become a prisoner to the creek and cannot escape the power and grip of the water ever mindful of the impending upcoming falls. You are pushed under the water for several seconds at a time, surfacing briefly gasping for air. Becoming fatigued due to your struggles as you surface for the fifth time you notice someone downstream on the upcoming bank holding a life ring with a rope attached. You have to make a decision. Are you going to prepare and position yourself to accept the life-saving ring which will pull you safely to shore or are you going to say to yourself, "Well, I have never done that before so because I have no experience doing it I will continue to drift downstream?" Like most people in this life-threatening moment you would go for the life ring. Although not life threatening, in business we often get caught up in what appears to be never-ending swift-moving tasks of running the business where we often need a life ring to pull us out of the slump or craziness. The good news is that it doesn't matter what is causing the craziness or poor performance. What does matter is if and how you go about identifying the problem and instituting a winning strategy to correct the proverbial sinking ship. I will attempt to provide some insight to problems and then address how you can implement a few solutions. Remember, this is an ongoing battle and you're not alone, but if you don't monitor and affect solid change, things can become worse. Ask yourself this question; could we be doing 20% better? When I ask that same question, 90% of the dealers answer by Continued on pg. 16 CONTINUE TO LOOK FOR OPPORTUNITIES TO IMPROVE YOUR PROCESSES THEN IMPLEMENT WINNING SOLUTIONS." D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M JANUARY 2018 15http://www.DIGITALDEALER.COM