Dennis McCarron, formerly Bridgestone’s National Management Instructor, joined Dealer Strategic Planning, Inc. (DSP) as a group facilitator and is now Executive Director. This is Dennis’s second appearance on the podcast.
He passionately studies behavior analysis and teaches sales. His experience includes 8 years managing retail stores for Bridgestone and 10 years designing, instructing and facilitating Bridgestone’s management courses. This development training covered the company’s 2,200 retail locations.
I asked Dennis to come back in part two to share his sales philosophy. The talking points below will outline all the great wisdom that Dennis shared. He stresses technique over style.
At DSP, Dennis and his team help independent aftermarket dealers manage the financial, branding, and human resource aspects of running a business. Listen to Dennis’s previous episodes HERE.
Maryann Croce of Croce Transmissions in Norwalk, CT was opened in 1999. Maryann was a banker turned business owner. Tony was technician turned shop owner. A big transition on their parts and that extensive wisdom makes Maryann the perfect guest on the Academy series.
Their 4 bays, 4 techs, and one service advisor shop is successful because as husband and wife Maryanne and Tony work at their roles and have abundant trust in each other.
Maryann is also a member of Women in Auto Care and owns smallbizvantage.com. Hear Maryann in her previous episodes HERE.
Tom Lambert, Automotive Manager at Shadetree Automotive. Tom Lambert got his start right at home. His dad and uncles always had projects going on in the home garage. During the summer vacation, his dad would have Tom remove engines from the vehicles that were being sent to the local machine shop for rebuilding.
He signed up for business management at a local community college and attended night classes and sometimes would have to go back to the shop and finish up jobs.
The business continued to grow. By 2007, the operation was doing over 1 million in sales. By 2013, they were doing over 2 million in sales. This was such fast growth but they never seemed to get ahead financially. Even the financial management classes helped a bit, but they never truly got a great grasp of their finances. They were too busy working countless hours in the business to keep up with demand instead of taking a step back to figure the business out.
In the...
