Professional vs. Non-Professional Salespeople

I had an interesting conversation with someone this week. Our team went to a sales seminar last week and came back with a lot of ideas on how to use social media to make ourselves better (and hopefully earn more business). I had made a comment about how I use an email marketing tool to reach my clients and prospects at about $25 per month...pretty good investment if you ask me. He couldn't believe I spent my own money on a 'work' tool.

This got me thinking and after a very non-scientific poll I conluded that out of a group of any 20 salespeople, only one has invested $25 of their own money on their own development and improvement in the past 12 months.

The non-professional salespeople don't think it's their responsibility to improve themselves. They won't buy a book, or attend a seminar without their bosses paying for it and requiring it of them. To them, it's just a job.

The professionals invest in themselves. Since they see themselves as professionals, they understand that they must constantly and continually "sharpen the saw." They buy the books, get the newsletters, attend the conferences, listen to the podcasts, etc.

Can you imagine your CPA, as he delivers your tax return, mentioning that he hasn't spent any time updating himself in years? Or the doctor, as he goes into surgery to work on your spouse or child, off-handedly tossing out the fact that it's been years since he bothered to take a class or upgrade his skills.

These seem like silly examples. But most salespeople (95 percent) don't bother to take the initiative to upgrade their skills and develop their competencies. Only the professionals do.

Professional vs. Non-Professional...Which one are you?

School Vouchers Work

When President Obama first moved to phase out the D.C. Opportunities Scholarship Program, which finances tuition vouchers for low-income kids to attend private schools, his Education Department was in possession of a federal study showing that voucher recipients, who number more than 3,300, made gains in reading scores and didn't decline in math.  The administration claims that the reading gains were not large enough to be significant.  But the program's merits don't rest on reading scores alone, says the Wall Street Journal.

• In a study published last year, Patrick Wolf of the University of Arkansas found that voucher recipients had graduation rates of 91 percent.
• That's significantly higher than the D.C. public school average (56 percent) and the graduation rate for students who applied for a D.C. voucher but didn't win the lottery (70 percent).
• In testimony before a Senate subcommittee in February, Mr. Wolf said that "we can be more than 99 percent confident that access to school choice through the Opportunity Scholarship Program, and not mere statistical noise, was the reason why... [voucher] students graduated at these higher rates."

The positive effects of the D.C. voucher program are not unique.

• A recent study of Milwaukee's older and larger voucher program found that 94 percent of students who stayed in the program throughout high school graduated, versus just 75 percent of students in Milwaukee's traditional public schools.
• And contrary to the claim that vouchers hurt public schools, the report found that students at Milwaukee public schools "are performing at somewhat higher levels as a result of competitive pressure from the school voucher program."
• Thus vouchers can benefit even the children that don't receive them.

Source: Jason L. Riley, "The Evidence Is In: School Vouchers Work," Wall Street Journal, May 3, 2011.

Nissan beats Ford to win 10-year contract to supply NYC taxis

Nissan North America has beat out Ford Motor Co. to win a 10-year contract to supply small commercial vans to New York City for its entire taxi cab fleet starting in 2013.

Nissan's bid also topped a small Turkish competitor, Karsan Otomotiv Sanayii Ve Ticaret AS, for the 13,000-vehicle deal, Nissan said in a statement today. Earlier this year, Karsan -- a clear underdog in the competition -- triggered a groundswell of public support around New York when it vowed to assemble its taxis in Brooklyn from kits if selected.

Ford proposed to supply New York with its small Transit Connect van, which is manufactured in Turkey.

Although 13,000 units is a relatively meager volume for mass producers such as Nissan and Ford, Nissan plans to use the taxi deal to launch other product plans, including a new small commercial van for the United States.

Ford connection

Leading the negotiations for Nissan was Joe Castelli, a former Ford commercial vehicle executive who now is Nissan's vice president of commercial vehicles and fleet business. Only a month ago, Castelli led the launch of Nissan's first commercial vehicle in the United States, a large commercial van that competes head-to-head with Ford's E-series vans and General Motors' Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana.

Until then, Nissan had not been a player in the U.S. commercial vehicle market, although it sells vehicles including delivery trucks and taxis in markets around the world.

"Beating that competitor was not a piece of cake," Tavares said of beating its larger U.S. competitor. "The merit goes to Joe Castelli. He did the job. He pulled resources from across the company and carry the flag. He was very persistent."

Ken Czubay, Ford's vice president of U.S. marketing, sales and service, said Ford has provided New York's taxis for a long time.

"We were happy to participate in this bidding program. It’s not over yet. Our Transit Connect is well received in many parts of the country. We’ll continue to work with the city of New York and will put various Transit Connects throughout the city.”

Mexico production

New York's nod will now set bigger plans in motion for Nissan.

The official New York taxi -- an exclusive deal that replaces 16 current taxi manufacturers beginning in 2013 -- will be Nissan's new NV200 small van. The vehicle is designed off of Nissan's global B-segment platform, which also yields the Versa in the United States.

The Versa is made in Mexico, but the NV200 is built in Japan, Spain and China, and not yet sold in the United States.

That will now change.

To supply taxis to New York, Nissan will produce the NV200 in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and also prepare a version of the vehicle for Nissan's U.S. retailers, Tavares said. In addition, Nissan intends to build an electric version of the NV200 -- including an electric New York taxi -- for the United States.

Electric cabs

"That makes sense," Tavares said. "If you want to improve the quietness in New York and improve the quality of the air, there is no reason to exclude that."

But first, the city's cabbies will have to be confident about how electric vehicles work. Part of the new contract calls for Nissan to give the city six electric Leafs in order to study how electric cars perform in city driving and how they recharge under heavy use.

Nissan also now intends to begin to solicit other major cities for taxi dealers. Nissan sought the contract also as a means of getting more U.S. consumers to experience a Nissan product, considering the large number of tourists who visit New York.

"This is going to give Nissan not only visibility," Tavares said, "but also high credibility."

Lindsay Chappell - Automotive News

GM poised to reclaim the global auto sales lead from Toyota

General Motors Co., less than two years after declaring bankruptcy, is poised to reclaim the global auto sales lead from a Toyota Motor Corp. rattled by both natural disasters and reports of slipping quality.

 

More surprising is that GM may retain the top spot after auto-parts production in Japan recovers from the March 11 earthquake.

Improved products and China's booming auto market are boosting GM. The automaker plans to invest at least $5 billion in China to double sales to 5 million vehicles by 2015. After years of losing ground in the U.S. to cars like Toyota's Camry, GM's Malibu has won better reviews and a new version is coming.

Add it up and GM may retake the sales crown lost in 2008, when the U.S. automaker lost $30.9 billion and sought a federal bailout following Toyota's most profitable fiscal year.

Today GM is on the mend while Toyota confronts a slumping reputation, a stronger yen that hurts profit on U.S. sales, and the prospect that its production in Japan won't recover until November.

"It's safe to say that GM is crawling back in the mature markets and growing quickly in emerging markets," said Jeff Schuster, executive director of forecasting for J.D. Power & Associates, a research firm in Westlake Village, California. "It's a challenging road ahead for Toyota. They face some real issues in the U.S."

Toyota President Akio Toyoda in March said he would start a campaign to rebuild the company's image in the U.S. following recalls that totaled more than 10 million vehicles.
Toyota had to repair the cars because sticking accelerator pedals and faulty floor mats led to some sudden acceleration claims.

Toyota this week plummeted to 43rd place from No. 20 in a Harris Interactive's annual poll assessing the reputation of 60 corporations.

Rivals catching up

Even before the recalls, auto critics were saying the competition had started catching up to Toyota. Edmunds.com rated the 2008 Malibu higher than the Camry.

While Consumer Reports still recommends many Toyota models, its critics find Toyota is using cheaper interior materials these days, said Jake Fisher, senior auto engineer with the magazine.

Toyota's margins have also been hurt by a weaker dollar. Of the cars and SUVs the company sells in the U.S., about 30 percent are made in Japan, including 11 of 12 Lexus models and all Prius hybrids.

After years of a weak yen boosting profits, the Japanese currency has strengthened to 81 yen to the dollar from 112 at the end of 2007. Each 1 yen change versus the dollar equates to about 30 billion yen ($370 million) of effect on profit, Toyota said.

GM's China momentum
In China, the world's fastest-growing car market, Toyota has been slower to invest in factories and small, inexpensive cars.

GM arrived earlier and has won over consumers with high-end Buicks and cheaper Korean-engineered Chevrolet models, said Michael Dunne, president of Hong Kong-based Dunne & Co., which consults on the auto market in China and the rest of Asia.

"GM has the right products and very good momentum," Dunne said. The bankruptcy proceedings left GM with a strengthened balance sheet, and the carmaker has maintained market leadership in the U.S. and China.

GM earned $6.17 billion last year, the most since 1997, and CEO Dan Akerson is hurrying new models, pushing for more electric-drive cars, and investing in Brazil and China.

GM even gained share this year in profitable U.S. pickup sales. Its Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra have increased deliveries in the first three months of the year by 30,418 -- more than the total number of Toyota Tundra pickups sold in those months. Toyota in 2007 approached its goal of selling 200,000 Tundras a year. In 2010, it sold 93,309.

GM gains in tight race
J.D. Power had predicted another tight race in 2011 after last year, when Toyota's sales of 8.42 million vehicles exceeded GM's by 30,000. Now GM is gaining, said J.D. Power's Schuster.

Toyota has lost production of about 500,000 vehicles since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, said Javier Moreno, a spokesman. Full output won't return before November.

GM has also boosted U.S. deliveries through March this year by 69,000 more than Toyota.

"Given the turmoil Toyota is in right now, GM is poised to take the No. 1 spot," said Henner Lehne, global director of sales forecasting for research firm IHS Automotive. "In the near term, we have GM overtaking Toyota. It will be a battle over the next several years."

GM, which last month revealed a redesigned Chevrolet Malibu in Shanghai and New York, needs to keep growing in China to stay ahead of Toyota and Volkswagen AG, he said.

Volkswagen aspirations
Volkswagen also aspires to lead global sales, Lehne said. "Volkswagen wants to be the next GM just like Toyota did," he said. "It's not about market share and it's not about size. It's about producing the right number of cars to get higher pricing and profitability."

VW has said it aims to surpass GM and Toyota with 10 million sales by 2018. Executives privately aim to meet the goal by 2015, a person with knowledge of the matter said in October.

VW last year reported the highest net margin among the five largest carmakers at 5.4 percent, according to Bloomberg data, and Ford Motor Co. posted a 5.1 percent margin.

GM was at 4.6 percent, while Toyota earned a 2.5 percent net margin in the calendar year. Toyota plans to report fiscal fourth-quarter profit May 11.

GM reports its first-quarter results May 5. "We're focused on running a profitable global enterprise," said Jim Cain, a GM spokesman. "So sales races aren't important to us."

GM and Volkswagen are also looking to win buyers from Toyota in segments such as family sedans.
GM will begin selling the new Malibu in January to take on the Camry, the top-selling car in the U.S.

VW will open a factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, this year to boost volume of the midsize Passat.
VW also slashed the base price of the Passat in the U.S. from $28,000 to around $20,000 to take on Camry and Honda Motor Co.'s Accord.

China may determine
The winner will be decided in China, the world's largest national market, said Dunne. GM and Volkswagen, whose joint ventures are the top sellers, have been introducing the more models for less than $10,000 that make up the fastest-growing segments.

GM, like Honda and Nissan Motor Co., is starting a China-only brand of low-cost vehicles called Baojun. GM and its Chinese joint venture partners will expand sales to 3.5 million by 2014 from 2.3 million last year, according to J.D. Power.

VW will build its China sales to 2.8 million from 1.9 million, while Toyota deliveries are expected to grow to 1.2 million from 857,000, the company said.

"Toyota has been more conservative and methodical," Dunne said. "Most of their growth has been where the Camry and larger Crown play. That's the slowest-growing segment."

Carmakers should be wary of the global sales title, said Sean McAlinden, chief economist at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan. GM boosted profit-eating incentives to keep its lead through 2007 and Toyota ran into quality problems after becoming No. 1, he said.

Private Social Security Accounts

Although many American retirees now enjoy a comfortable lifestyle financed by a combination of Social Security, private pensions and personal savings, many other retirees are far from financially secure.  Someone who retires now after earning average wages all his life will receive Social Security benefits of less than $20,000 annually -- not enough to maintain the middle class standard of living that he had during his working years, says Martin Feldstein, a professor at Harvard University.

Social Security must be reformed in a way that protects overall retirement incomes by creating universal supplemental personal retirement accounts that generate an annuity for retirees.

Here's how such a system might work.

• Each individual would designate a broad-based mutual fund from a large list of funds approved by the government.
• The designation could be done on the individual's annual tax return and could be changed once a year.
• Employers and the self-employed would send an additional few percent of wages to the Social Security Administration each month in addition to the current payroll tax.
• The Social Security Administration would then forward those dollars to the mutual fund chosen by the individual.
• The returns on those funds would be untaxed just as they are in an IRA or 401(k).
• With a 3 percent payroll deduction, someone with $50,000 of real annual earnings during his working years could accumulate enough to fund an annual payout of about $22,000 after age 67, essentially doubling the current Social Security benefit.
• That assumes a real rate of return of 5.5 percent, less than the historic average return on a balanced portfolio of stock and bond mutual funds.

Source: Martin Feldstein, "Private Accounts Can Save Social Security," Wall Street Journal, May 2, 2011.

Ford, GM, Hyundai up on healthy sales of fuel-efficient models

Demand for big SUVs drops as gas prices rise

General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Hyundai Motor Co. -- helped by strong retail volume and new fuel-efficient models -- posted increases in April sales today.

GM recorded a 27-percent gain, spurred by a 50 percent jump in demand for cars including the new Chevrolet Cruze. But large pickups rose just 2 percent, and sales of some of the automaker's biggest SUVs slumped.

Ford said sales rose 13 percent last month. At the Ford division, volume jumped 24 percent on higher sales of F-Series pickups and the new Explorer crossover. Both models now offer more fuel-efficient powertrains. But at Lincoln, demand eased 1 percent, reflecting a drop in crossover and large SUV sales.

Hyundai, propelled by the new Elantra small car, said sales rose 40 percent to set an April record of 61,754 units.The Korean automaker said it expected its U.S. retail market share to hit a record 5.7 percent for the month.

The results from the first automakers to report mark the first indication of how the industry fared in a month where the steady recovery was tested by rising gasoline prices and dwindling inventories resulting from the March earthquake in Japan. U.S. auto sales were up 20 percent through March.


Nissan said higher sales of fuel-efficient models such as the Altima, Sentra, Leaf and Rogue offset a drop in truck and SUV demand and pushed its overall April sales up 12 percent.

“Consumers are continuing to rethink their vehicle choice," said Don Johnson, head of GM’s U.S. sales operations. “A lot of sales continue to go into the compact car segment as well as the compact crossover segment."

Sales of the Cruze compact topped 25,000 units in April, with retail volume nearly triple the car it replaced, the Cobalt, from a year earlier.

GM said Chevrolet, GMC and Cadillac each set April total and retail sales records for crossover sales, led by a 49-percent increase in combined retail sales of the Chevy Equinox, GMC Terrain and Cadillac SRX.

But demand for the Chevrolet Suburban dropped 31 percent last month. Chevy Tahoe sales fell 16 percent.

GM said its incentives per vehicle dropped by about $400 from March to April, without providing specifics. Truecar.com, an online shopping site, estimated GM’s incentives averaged $3,524 last month, up about 6.3 percent from the previous month and up 5.8 percent from a year ago.

It was the eighth consecutive monthly increase for GM and its biggest gain since a 46 percent advance in February.

Sales outlook
The average April sales forecast of 40 economists polled by Reuters was 13 million vehicles on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis, which would be a 16 percent rise from an 11.2 million-rate in April 2010 and on par with March.

“There’s a recovery going on in the auto industry and the economy,” Ford sales analyst George Pipas said Monday. “There are more people working today than 2 or 3 months ago, and there’s more income.”
But rising gasoline prices and model shortages stemming from the March earthquake in Japan are expected to dampen sales in coming months.

Barclays analyst Brian Johnson this week cut his 2011 sales forecast by 300,000 units to 13.2 million, still among the highest estimates among analysts.

Truecar.com expects April sales to hit 1.145 million units, up 17 percent from a year earlier.
Discounts are forecast to drop 11 percent from April 2010 to $2,386 per vehicle last month, Truecar said.

“With inventory dwindling, automakers didn’t have to spend as much money to move metal,” TrueCar.com analyst Kristen Andersson said. “Incentive spending was at its lowest level since January 2006.”

J.D. Power and Associates said new-vehicle retail sales continued to perform well in the second half of April despite growing inventory concerns, specifically compact vehicle supplies.

Power expects the retail selling rate in April to reach 11.1 million units, while the SAAR for all light-vehicle sales is expected to hit 13.1 million units.

“Increasing gas prices and shortages in vehicle inventory have yet to trump the overall recovery that has been progressing since the fall of 2010,” said Jeff Schuster, head of global forecasting at J.D. Power and Associates.

“However, looking at the remainder of the year, growing uncertainty about gas prices and stockpiles is increasing the risk that that the industry may not reach the expected 13 million-unit level for total light-vehicle sales.”

Gas prices
Average U.S. gas prices -- $3.80 a gallon -- are higher at this point in the year than they were in 2008, when a surge in fuel prices sent industry sales tumbling.

But U.S. car shoppers are responding to higher gas prices by choosing smaller vehicles and engines.
Ford says nearly 50 percent of the F-150 pickups it has sold in recent weeks and months have been equipped with one of 2 new V-6 engines now offered. In April, V6-equipped F-150s accounted for 50 percent of all 2011 F-150 retail sales, up from 40 percent in March.

During the first 24 days of April, retail sales of small cars represented 23.9 percent of all light vehicle sales, up from 21 percent during the same period in 2010, Ford said.

Overall, retail sales of cars accounted for 52.9 percent of industry sales, up from 51.7 percent during the first 24 days of April 2010.

Minivans and pickups lost ground industry-wide in April, Ford says.

Healthy truck demand
Still, truck demand has remained resilient despite the surge gas prices.

Sales of the redesigned Porsche Cayenne SUV have surged 91 percent this year. Land Rover sales are up 19 percent.

Ford sold 45,435 F-Series pickups in April, an increase of 11 percent from a year ago, and sales are up 20 percent year-to-date. Ford Expedition SUV sales rose 8 percent last month and are up 15 percent for the year.

But in April, Cadillac Escalade demand slumped 25 percent and Yukon sales eased 4 percent, GM said today. GMC Yukon SUV demand is up 40 percent through April.

Analysts say wealthy consumers and small business owners are behind the rise in truck and SUV sales.
“Rising gas prices are pressuring truck sales, but the impact is more manageable this time around,” Johnson said in a report Monday.

“We estimate less share loss than in 2008 for large trucks as most discretionary buyers have already moved away from the segment.”

Dealers are also bracing for a shortage of models built in Japan.

Honda Motor Co. on Monday became the latest Japanese automaker to warn of more inventory shortages following the March earthquake in Japan. The quake, tsunami and nuclear crisis have disrupted parts production across Japan, forcing Honda, Toyota and other automakers to curtail output.

The inventory shortfall is expected to become more acute with smaller models such as the Honda Fit and Toyota Prius hybrid that are only assembled in Japan.

David Phillips Automotive News -- May 3, 2011 - 11:00 am ET

Limbaugh's Cure-A-Thon Sets New Records

Rush Limbaugh's 21st annual Leukemia and Lymphoma Cure-A-Thon -- which kicked off during his daily national radio show -- has surpassed last year's record-breaking total of $3.1 million, with more donations continuing to be counted. The event kicked off with a bang, thanks to a $500,000 donation from "El Rushbo" and his wife, Kathryn, to "get the ball rolling."

At first reluctant to reveal the amount of his personal donation to the cause, Limbaugh said, "I'm not like one of these TV telethon hosts that says, 'I'm donating my time.' I never ask people to do what we don't do. I'm not going to sit here and ask you to contribute financially to this if I don't."

Later, during a Friday edition of Limbaugh's Premiere Radio Networks syndicated show, special guest Donald Trump added to the pot with a $100,000 donation toward finding a cure for blood cancers. More details and updated totals can be found at Limbaugh's website HERE.