F&I and Showroom, July 2016

www fi magazine com 18 July 2016 F I and Showroom Miller is also keenly aware of how a no haggle one touch process is viewed in the industry In fact some of his most trusted friends think hes crazy for implementing his Power of One process But he remains unfazed and committed to his plan And the more he defends his plan the more his real reason for stepping down as LHMs CEO becomes clear For me its about freedom and control I am one that has always been a free spirit and has always liked to be the one to have the final say in how something is done Thats not to say that I rule with an iron fist Miller says But I like to say My instincts are telling me that this is the right thing to do and then move in that direction and not have to justify my decision to a board or other people who may have contrary points of view Its about wanting to be able to run and spread my wings and fly or die based on the qualities of the decisions I made how hard I work and the quality of the people I surround myself with he adds THE RIGHT CRITERIA It seems almost serendipitous that the Toyota brand has delivered Miller his first dealership given that he started in the business at a Toyota store But he admits he didnt limit himself to Toyota when he began his search for a store He was open to any manufacturer as long as the dealership met a set criterion The store needed to be a Tier 1 manufacturer and be image compliant The dealership also needed to be averaging at least 2000 retail units a year new and used combined but also be underperforming relative to the manufacturers potential He admits an underperforming store was appealing from a pricing standpoint And like his father who loved turnaround projects Miller wanted a challenge Millers final requirement was the dealership needed to be within a twohour flight of Salt Lake City which would allow him to fulfill his duties as a member of the LHM Groups board of directors and remain committed to his Utah community Gate to gate a flight from San Diego to Salt Lake City is about an hour and 50 minutes With his requirements met Miller agreed to buy He also purchased a small condo just a few minutes from the dealership and close to the airport to help with his hectic schedule which has him in the air multiple times per week Miller says his main objective for the dealership is to retail 250 vehicles per month As for F I he has his sights on a per copy average of 1300 service contract penetration above 50 and a product per deal average of four And he wants to accomplish all that while keeping customers happy Six months from now I hope we have some cadence built up with our sales process Id like to think weve rounded out our staff with high caliber individuals start to finish and that weve rejuvenated our fixed operations Miller says Also that were sales efficient and that weve hit our sales quota for used cars as well as new cars and that were having fun and making money while taking care of the customer DEALER PROFILE The lack of F I offices and traditional F I managers might seem like Greg Miller is willing to sacrifice F I profits but the dealer says thats not the case Thats why his dealerships pay plan rewards salespeople more for selling service contracts than selling vehicles Trainers are also at the dealership every day to train Millers sales force on product presentations Miller also added a document specialist to audit deals for compliance and to ensure all forms are complete and accurate before theyre sent to accounting The dealer has his sights on a 1300 per copy average service contract penetration above 50 and a product per deal average of four Millers main objective for the dealership is to retail 250 new and used vehicles per month