32 By DJ Harrington How to do it Andrew McDonald Paul D’Adamo Andrew McDonald, of Maritime Auto Parts, was great, too! He spoke about purchasing his Mom and Dad’s place and how he acquired another loca- tion. He was very informative, revealing all he has done to achieve success in this industry. Andrew works no differently with his millennial customers than he does with his millennial employees. He utilizes Facebook and makes sure to have one-to-one time with every employee. Andrew lets his team know all the good stuff as well as the pitfalls they could get into when trying to grow a business. Andrew does lots of cross training with his team. He said, “Being real with your team is most important.” The Florida Auto Dismantlers and Recyclers Association just con- cluded their annual convention at beautiful, Sanibel Harbour Marriott Resort and Spa located in Ft. Myers Florida. The keynote speaker was Paul D’Adamo, of Rebuilders Automotive Supply. During Paul’s first talk, he reminded everyone about “Old school thinking” vs. “Our team working together with new thinking”. Other things he said were:“Our families bring lots of baggage with them, so hire some new blood.” And, “Always learn from people who think outside the box.” Dur- ing one of his talks, I recall Paul saying something like, “If it doesn't challenge you, it will not change you.” The GIG economy is why Lyft and Uber attract so many people; they offer staggered hours and leave drivers time for their family needs. Another important statement Paul made was, “A business should have an exit plan. Every business owner should know when to get out and a business owner should run his or her business like they’re selling it. If you have enough pride in your ownership, you should be proud of how it’s being run.” Rian Garner He keeps track of everything and believes measuring is an integral part of keeping his business a successful one. He measures everything. He measures how many parts are sold with warranty and how many aren’t. He measures quotes, quote follow-ups, and number of invoices. The next speaker was Rian Garner, from American Auto Salvage. Rian is a long-time recycler and a wonderful speaker. I quickly found myself taking copious notes. Rian doesn’t have weekly meetings with his people because most of the time, those meetings turned into complaining sessions. Imagine allotting time to hash out problems, but instead, hearing gripes. His fix for that problem is to meet individually with every person every two weeks for between seven to nine minutes about how they can sell more. Quote follow-ups are a big deal at Rian’s place and should be at yours, too. Imagine taking valuable time from the day to quote something, to get it right and then not following up to see if you have a sale. Rian says he, “Inspects what he With all the electronic tools provided by software companies, we can know who bought from us this month and who did- n’t. Sometimes, a personal visit makes more sense. When we see a company buying consistently every month from us In today’s world, social media plays an important part in your business. I spoke next and reminded everyone, “You can’t do today’s business with yester- day’s thinking and hope to be ahead tomorrow.” Social media attracts people from everywhere, every day. Since our marketplace changes every ninety days, we must change with it. We do more texting and emailing than we’ve ever done before. We text and email before we call. But, there are times when we should call and make a personal appear- ance, too. expects.” He sells everything with six months parts and labor. Additionally, Rian pays 20% commission on all war- ranty work. He has his team call a month after each sale if the customer didn’t take the warranty at time of sale, to revisit the need of a warranty. If a person ordered an engine or a transmission, his business will call back within thirty days and offer the warranty protection one more time. Chrysler does this also - ninety days after you buy a new car. They’ve found that around the seventy-second day after pur- chasing a new vehicle, a customer usu- ally does reconsider and buys the extended warranty. Social media “You can’t do today’s business with yesterday’s thinking and hope to be ahead tomorrow.” How to achieve peak production and have more success in your business