Interesting Observation. When people want to compliment a successful dealer principal, they will often say he “has a lot of ambition.” The comedy surrounding that statement is the fact that ambition is as commonplace as fast food. I have met very few people that don’t have some level of ambition and as such I don’t believe it is a key element for a dealership’s success.
For example I in my experience the essential element for success is initiative. This is especially true for a BHPH because having initiative means you are willing to take action and that you are willing to work with what tools you have on hand. As apposed to standing around waiting for directions, you take action even if it’s not perfect or near perfect.
Those who lack initiative hesitate to do things that they feel they cannot do well. When one has ambition in the absence initiative they live their lives in a fantasy of what is possible but go no further.
Ambition without initiative in the BHPH industry can result in spending too much time trying to figure out how the industry can come to you. Dealers with initiative regarding BHPH have always been the ones to try and figure our how they can bring their game to the industry. Both have ambition but which do you think will rise higher, be more likely to start a BHPH and make more money?
Dealer principals with initiative are needed in the BHPH industry. They are needed because they find answers to the problems pointed out by the merely ambitious. They are the glue that will hold the BHPH industry together and see it through it’s infancy into long term prosperity.
“Anything worth doing is worth doing well.” Most of us have heard this on several occasions. If you have ever played golf you know clearly that the first time playing can be nothing short of grueling and embarrassing. Of course so can the hundered and fist time as well. We all know it’s part of the price we pay for learning to play better.
Anyone with initiative knows intuitively that anything worth doing is worth doing poorly until it can be done better because if it’s worth doing at all then they need to start actually doing it. You will find that anyone who serves the BHPH industry will tend to be patient with a dealer principal whose initiative causes them anguish because it is these people that ultimately will do well in the end. I am and have always been a believer that “if it can’t be made fun it shouldn’t be done.” In the end the key to having fun is preceded by the ability to “pick a rope and climb it.”
In our leadership training we teach two formulas and then a third formula for knowing which of the first two to use and when. The first formula is called “preparing to deliver.” It is the science of how to prepare for something before it is attempted. The second one is called “coping while one expands.” This formula teaches how to take any activity and cope through infancy while it expands into prosperity.
Invariably we find that coping while one expands is almost always the right formula for both immediate and long-term success. This is because that over preparing to deliver a new service involves more activity than productivity and also creates a natural slowness. Slowness in turn gives consideration to fear. On the contrary when a dealership starts a BHPH perhaps a little sooner that they should have, it requires a greater degree of initiative and results in more productivity than mere activity. Since productivity in life is the basis for both personal a group moral, new ventures that are set in motion that force us to cope while we expand have over an 80% greater chance of succeeding.
In the end a balance between preparing to deliver and being willing to cope while you expand is essential however with the abundant resources and assistance in the BHPH industry today, the barriers to quickly starting a successful BHPH are at an all time low. With that in mind, if a BHPH is something that your instincts tell you is the right move and will create the greater profit for the greater number in your dealership then I would invite you to take the initiative and get started today putting your money more effectively to work for you.