On today’s show, we’re very pleased to welcome Jonathan Dawson, automotive sales trainer, author, and consultant. Jonathan has also appeared many times on the CBT Saturday Morning Sales Meetings to lend his insight and motivation. He is joined, via zoom, by Frank Crinite, the top sales representative for Piazza Honda in Springfield, Pennsylvania. Frank regularly sells 100 plus cars a month, and today he and Jonathan discuss the importance of setting new challenges for top sales performers.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Jim Fitzpatrick: Gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us here at CBT News.
Jonathan Dawson: Glad to be here, we’re excited.
Jim Fitzpatrick: We’ve got one in the studio and then one remote calling in here. So let’s jump right in here. You guys, I wanted to get with you because of this very exciting program that you’re working on right now to bring sales people together. More importantly, top sales people together. So without any further ado on that, Jonathan, why don’t you start us off and tell us what the program’s all about?
Jonathan Dawson: Yeah, so what we decided to do, Jim, was you look at your sales floor and if you’re divide it into groups, it almost always falls into patterns. You have your top group, your middle group, and then you’ve got your turnover group, right?
Jim Fitzpatrick: Turn it over group.
Jonathan Dawson: I mean your bottom, your lower producers.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Rough.
Jonathan Dawson: Right? So that’s the way it is in most stores. And as a trainer consultant, of course, most dealerships look at that middle pack to that lower pack and say, help me.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Sure.
Jonathan Dawson: Reduce my turnover and help me take my middle people to the next level.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
Jonathan Dawson: How do you get my eight to 10 to 12 person to that upper teens, consistently move the needle.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
Jonathan Dawson: The challenge unfortunately is if you’re in that top pack, you’re not really being challenged at all. Most management, most dealerships are not sitting around going, how do I get my 30 car person to 40.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s exactly right.
Jonathan Dawson: What do I do? They’re not asking that question.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s right. If anything they’re thinking, how do we make them a manager so we can ruin a good salesperson and make a terrible manager? But go ahead.
Jonathan Dawson: Yeah, no, exactly right. So Frank obviously is a top performer in his right, also not featured in this particular interview, but part of the Pinnacle Society that we’ve created is Ali Reda, Many will know Ali from being in the news.
Jim Fitzpatrick: If you’ve been around in the car business longer than a day you know that name because every sales manager says, “how come you can’t be an Ali or a Frank?” Right?
Jonathan Dawson: Yeah, yeah. When a gentleman sells 1,582 cars in a year-
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s crazy. He needs his own franchise.
Jonathan Dawson: Right. So, but you look at somebody like Frank selling over a hundred cars a month, Ali’s selling over a hundred dollars a month.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Incredible, incredible.
Jonathan Dawson: There’s a model there that we have to start asking questions. What is the next level for our top performers?
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
Jonathan Dawson: So really what we’ve decided to do, Ali, Frank and myself is say what if we brought together the greatest minds, the people who have the model, who know what to do to make it grow, and what if we created an opportunity and an atmosphere for top performers to excel and to ask that question about their own personal next level.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Sure.
Jonathan Dawson: And so that’s really where the heart is. The heart is, you’ve got top performers, they’re committed to the industry.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
Jonathan Dawson: They’re committed oftentimes to your store.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Sure.
Jonathan Dawson: They’ve built a database. What’s the next level for them? Can we take that 30 to 40 or 50 can we take that 40 to 60?
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
Jonathan Dawson: And beyond? And the answer we know is yes we can. And that’s why we created the Pinnacle Society and the Pinnacle Mastermind.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Fantastic. Fantastic idea. The industry has definitely needed something like this because you’re exactly right. You nailed it. For some of the people that aren’t as familiar with your background as we are here at the show, tell us a little bit about Frank Crinite. Where did you start? How long have you been in the industry? When you started in the industry, what was that like? I’m sure you didn’t hit the ground and sell a hundred cars your first month, right?
Jonathan Dawson: I did hit the ground.
Jim Fitzpatrick: So kind of take us back. What’s your background?
Frank Crinite: I did hit the ground running. So this month, March 21st I will be in the car industry at the same place. Piazza Honda, Springfield for 20 years. So this is my 20th year this month. I’m so excited.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s great.
Frank Crinite: People see that I worked four days a week now, five days a week when I’m really busy. And they’re like, “oh, this is, there’s no way it could happen.” Now, I didn’t show up 20 years ago and just say, “hey, I’m just going to lay back and work four days a week.” You have to grind, you have to get it, you have to get the machine going, but once you have the machine growing and it’s scaling and the community is sending business in for you and you know how to make sure that you’re able to deliver the red carpet service that they deserve. I mean you come into a, we’re a new car Honda franchise. I sell a lot of pre-owned cars. Half of my cars are pre-owned, but I give everybody the same sales experience like they’re getting a Bentley. I mean, they’re in and out sometimes in an hour.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Yeah, did you sell cars prior to starting there?
Frank Crinite: No, no. It was my first, this is it.
Jim Fitzpatrick: First job.
Frank Crinite: I found that ad in the paper-
Jim Fitzpatrick: First job and then how many, give us an idea how many cars you sold in the first year versus your 20th.
Frank Crinite: My first month. I started in March. My first month, I sold my first full month, April, I sold 18 cars. I took the board that month and I never looked back. So I’ve never lost a month at my dealership. And since we’ve been keeping stats, I’ve never lost a month in my whole dealer group. The all the group together, we have, I think 28 or 29 stores.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Okay.
Frank Crinite: Right now and growing.
Jim Fitzpatrick: So Jonathan, let me jump in here. Frank is what we would call in the business, a natural. You’ve heard that.
Jonathan Dawson: Of course.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Every manager in dealer looking at Frank right now and I’m sure on the showroom floor and say, “that kid’s a natural, he’s going to sell 20 plus cars a month. I wish I had 25 of these guys.”
Jonathan Dawson: Of course.
Jim Fitzpatrick: And we’ve all seen those managing showrooms. But to the person that’s out there that’s struggling to get out 10, can that individual become a Frank and sell 20 cars, 30 cars, 40 cars? How much of it is it that you’re a born salesperson and how much of it is it that it’s a learned skill?
Jonathan Dawson: You’ve addressed one of the other common questions people have when they see somebody like Frank. They go, “well sure, he’s charismatic, he’s good looking. He’s got a lot of things working for him. He’s obviously in a great store,”
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right?
Jonathan Dawson: And there are things like that, that give him a base level of potential.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Sure.
Jonathan Dawson: That could get you to 20 cars.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Okay.
Jonathan Dawson: But that doesn’t get you to a hundred.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s right, that’s right.
Jonathan Dawson: So what we’ve and what’s going to happen, for example, at the Pinnacle Mastermind coming up in April.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
Jonathan Dawson: At this event, what we’re doing, and we’re doing it uniquely because we said, when we were first brainstorming this, when we were trying to figure out how do we create enough value to the person that’s coming but enough residual value so that whatever they learn doesn’t just disappear. I don’t want them to just walk away motivated, inspired by hanging out with somebody like Frank or Ali.
Jim Fitzpatrick: It’s like going to a ball game one day and thinking you’re a professional.
Jonathan Dawson: That’s not going to happen. So to answer your question, what we realized was there’s a couple of things that have to be in place. First of all, on the individual side, like on the 10 car person.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
Jonathan Dawson: They’re going to need a certain level of mindset. If their belief system, like Frank started with, if their belief system is the ceiling is 20 they’re going to struggle to get to the ceiling. So first of all, we have to focus on their mindset, but we realized that just having the right mindset is not enough. You have to have the marketing strategies, you have to be able to take your messaging and your marketing out into the marketplace so that you can start to generate that traffic, because sitting there staring out the window, that’s not going to work.
Jim Fitzpatrick: We’ve all spent a tremendous amount of wasted energy on a showroom floor.
Frank Crinite: When we were sitting around and talking, me, Ali, and Jonathan sitting around and talking about this, I’m just like, there’s euphoria going through my head, right? Because when I’m doing this and I’m scaling myself, there was no blueprint, right?
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
Frank Crinite: So I’m going through, I’m writing my notes down.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Not only was there not a blueprint, if you even went down this road with most managers or GMs, they would tell you, put that crap away. Be happy with your 18 cars a month.
Jonathan Dawson: That’s right.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
Frank Crinite: Well and that’s why we need, that’s why we want a manager that can make a decision and-
Jonathan Dawson: That has to attend with us.
Frank Crinite: See where we’re leading, what we’re trying to do for the salesperson, right?
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right, it’s a mindset.
Frank Crinite: My management didn’t fight me at all, but they didn’t know how to handle me at first.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Well the first thing that managers are going to listen to and say, “if you’ve got a guy selling 40 cars a month, actually, if you got a guy selling north of 20 cars a month, you don’t have enough salespeople on your showroom floor.”
Jonathan Dawson: That’s right. You need more people.
Jim Fitzpatrick: I’m sure you’ve heard that before, right?
Jonathan Dawson: That’s exactly right.
Jim Fitzpatrick: How is one guy able to sell 30, 40, 50 cars, a hundred cars a month?
Frank Crinite: But what if that salesperson, right, is not taking any leads from the dealer generated that are paying $500-$600 for, right?
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s right.
Frank Crinite: And producing, right? So every one of my deals, for the most part, 90% of them are repeat or referral business. So the business that I’m bringing in, no matter what monies we’re making on the deal, we’re netting an extra $400, $500, $600 a deal because that’s business that I’m bringing that they don’t have to pay all these third party sites for. So what if that salesperson that you’re bringing in could bring in market for himself, make himself his own brand and bring customers in just to see him?
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
Frank Crinite: I mean, I call some of the sales people at my dealership, they’re like my doormen, they stand out front, they wait for customers, they don’t get how to market for themselves. And people walk up to the door and they’re like, “hey, welcome to Piazza Honda,” “we’re here to see Frank.” “Great. Let me get the door for you.” Right? They’re the doormen out front. And I’m not taking a shot at them, but-
Jonathan Dawson: You just did.
Jim Fitzpatrick: A little bit.
Frank Crinite: Well you know what, then shots fired, right? Because they need to be able to step their game up from a model that’s actually working.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right, but as you know, and it’s a great point that you brought up where if the individual salesperson comes and you bring somebody in leadership position to that event to see them, because it’s got to be a mindset of the dealership. The reason that those guys are standing out on the point thinking about all the problems in their life and just wallowing in them before a customer even breaks their car door, is because that was taught somewhere along the line from the dealership.
Jonathan Dawson: It was made acceptable.
Jim Fitzpatrick: It was acceptable.
Jonathan Dawson: Tolerated.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Somebody told me a long time ago in the car business, what we allow, we teach and that’s proof positive of that, right? To say, yeah, go out on the front line, because that manager was taught the car business that way himself or herself.
Jonathan Dawson: That’s right.
Jim Fitzpatrick: So it’s one of those things that it doesn’t break.
Frank Crinite: But that’s where I’m excited.
Jonathan Dawson: That’s right.
Frank Crinite: Overly excited to do this, right? Because it’s not sometimes the managers fault, right? The manager can’t go into a book and learn general knowledge and then be able to regurgitate it to somebody and they become successful.
Jonathan Dawson: That’s right.
Frank Crinite: If that was the right model, then all I’d have to do is go to college for economics and I can come out and be a millionaire. No-
Jim Fitzpatrick: This guy’s got all the one liners, doesn’t he?
Frank Crinite: I have to find somebody in business that’s dominating that industry right now that actually is making millions and pay, follow, do whatever I need to do to find out how that person is doing it so that I can evolve my skills to get to maybe that level someday, right? Not just go to college and learn some general knowledge.
Jim Fitzpatrick: When do you get the three car guys together, it’s hard to jump in it, isn’t it?
Jonathan Dawson: I want to give you the three. I want to give you the three identifiers, the three markers. I mentioned two of them already. The mindset has to be there. The marketing has to be there and then you have to have the mechanics.
Jim Fitzpatrick: When you say the marketing, of the individual salesperson.
Jonathan Dawson: The individual salesperson.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Not the dealership.
Jonathan Dawson: No, no.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Because of social marketing, everything else.
Jonathan Dawson: We’re talking about right now, for the individual salesperson, the professional who’s trying to take their business to the next level.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right, they’re trying to build their own franchise within the franchise.
Jonathan Dawson: They need to be able to drive their own traffic because the dealership can’t spend enough to generate enough hundred extra leads for them to sell the cars.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s right.
Jonathan Dawson: So what the individual that wants to take their business to the next level has to develop is they have to develop the right mindset, they have to develop the right marketing and messaging and then they have to develop the mechanics, the daily principles, the daily disciplines, the daily habits. How do you manage? As sometimes Frank will have or Ali will have 10 people at the store at one time, all trying to buy a car from them.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Wow.
Jonathan Dawson: You know-
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s crazy.
Jonathan Dawson: So when you have somebody like Ali, I think his personal best is 31, 32 in a day. 32 sold cars in a day.
Jim Fitzpatrick: You know, those numbers are so staggering. I’m sure you’ve heard this before, that the people that are listening to us right now, salespeople, managers, dealer principals, OEMs out there. They’re going, there’s got to be a catch to this thing.
Frank Crinite: Well, the catch is that there is no blueprint that you can teach somebody that’s selling 30 some cars a month. Most of those sales people get left alone in the dealership because the management think that that person has it figured out.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
Frank Crinite: No, all they haven’t figured out is that’s the ceiling and they can’t break through it. I talk to salespeople all over the country, my DMS blow up, up my text messages, my phone number is everywhere, and everybody’s like, “man, I’m at 30, I can’t get past it. I’m struggling. I’m at the dealership every single day.” You’re doing it wrong. That’s why. Yes, you’re being successful but you’re going to burn out.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Like you said, and I think the analogy you had of going to the gym and working out and saying, “well, how come I’m not changing?” Because you’re right, you can go to the gym every day. You can spend two hours. If you’re not doing it right and taking the right action in the gym, it’s not going to work for you. You can work your hours on a showroom floor and it’s not about the 14 hours. It’s about what you’re doing in 14 hours.
Frank Crinite: It’s not about the gym, it’s not all about just showing up at the gym. It’s about eating right, it’s about getting the right sleep. It’s about the mindset. So it’s everything else that goes into it, right? People think, oh, I could just watch how to go to the gym. Google the 10 best exercises or watch YouTube or some dude working out who’s already on steroids, it’s not going to happen, right? There’s other pieces that have to go into it for you to be able to get physically fit. To be 41 and still look like you’re 25 I guess. I’m just joking, right.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Are you going to show these guys how to look like you and also had an act like you?
Jonathan Dawson: He’s going to give you the hair gel.
Frank Crinite: They don’t have to look like me.
Jim Fitzpatrick: It’s the full Frank kit.
Jonathan Dawson: I think we need also man you mention for a second, because we are having the management team there. I want to make sure management is not just sitting in the sidelines watching this all go down.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Yeah.
Jonathan Dawson: So for management that’s present. I want to talk for a second about some of the people that are coming. I have a dealer that sold, lifted 1500 units last year above their previous best ever year.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Wow. That’s an incredible jump.
Jonathan Dawson: Then they went from the low fourth-
Jim Fitzpatrick: No fleet we might say.
Jonathan Dawson: No fleet, these are retail sales. In fact, I’ll be at their store on Monday. They’re up in Mohawk Honda, shout out to Mohawk Honda.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Mohawk Honda. Okay so it’s a Honda store.
Jonathan Dawson: Yep, up in the Albany market.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Okay.
Jonathan Dawson: You look at a gentleman coming out of a Alabama, Jason Tapley, Jason Tapley’s at a small store, three salespeople in rural Alabama. When Jason first met me, he was selling about 12-1.5 this goes back to your question, can a person do this?
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
Jonathan Dawson: He was selling 12, 13, 14, 15 cars is a good month for that gentlemen. His personal best now is 48.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Wow.
Jonathan Dawson: In a small town in rural Alabama, at Bice Motors, Alexander City, Alabama.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
Jonathan Dawson: Brian Bice is coming, he’s bringing Jason. Now for the leadership, just like for the sales professionals. If you’re a sales professional and you’re coming to this event, we know that you need the mindset, the marketing and the mechanics. For the dealership, we’re looking at three different levels for management. We’re going to look at your people. We’re going to look at your profit opportunities and we’re going to look at your processes.
Jim Fitzpatrick: So is it two different classes? Will you have the salespeople divided from the managers?
Jonathan Dawson: There’s going to be formats of all kinds. We’re going to have classroom style one-on-ones. We’re going to have breakout small group hot seats, we’re going to have multiple different ways of extracting this information. Look, you and I both know you’ve been to events and sometimes the most meaningful conversation was over a drink at the bar or over coffee sitting around talking in a lounge chair.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
Jonathan Dawson: So there’s going to be plenty of opportunity for that. But there’s going to be structured format where we’re going to take the best practices. And my responsibility to my clients traveling the world, my responsibility is to the best practices that are duplicatable.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
Jonathan Dawson: And bring those processes, those practices to their store, and say, look, if you do this methodology, it’s going to work. Winging it doesn’t solve that problem, right? Every dealer gives lip service to, my people are my greatest asset. Everyone does it. They’ll all say it.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Don’t get me started.
Jonathan Dawson: They’ll all say it.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Don’t get me start. It’s a whole other show right here.
Jonathan Dawson: Right? But they’ll all say it, but the reality is you look at their checkbook and you say, where’s your money go? At church a pastor would say, “I can tell where your heart is by where your checkbook goes.”
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right, right.
Jonathan Dawson: What you care about is what you spend time and money on.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
Jonathan Dawson: If you care about your top performers, if you care about your people, you’ve got to have time invested in them.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s exactly right.
Jonathan Dawson: And you got to spend some dough on them, get their brain moving in the right direction.
Jim Fitzpatrick: It’s exactly right.
Jonathan Dawson: Where else would you have-
Jim Fitzpatrick: White church, I say amen.
Jonathan Dawson: Thank you. Give me a napkin to start. So where else will you ever have the opportunity to take a top sales professional like an Ali Reda, and a Frank Crinite, take a consultant who’s working with guys like this and helping sales people grow. Where else are you going to have that environment? This is the first time anything like this has ever happened to my knowledge in the industry.
Jim Fitzpatrick: You know, the residual effect of this is that that top person comes back.
Jonathan Dawson: That’s right.
Jim Fitzpatrick: And that a leader in that group, and just affects, in a positive way, all of those other salespeople, right?
Jonathan Dawson: That’s right. And the thing is, every dealer that’s coming to this is coming with the right heart and attitude. They’re saying, I want to learn from the other dealers in the room.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
Jonathan Dawson: And I want my top performer to learn from the other top performers in the room because they’re coming from different markets like when you have a store with three sales people with a store with 40 salespeople, you’re going to see such a dynamic. So we’re very, very excited. If you are a dealership that is looking to take your store and elevate the ceiling, raise the roof of your store. Take your 30 car person and get them selling 50. When they add 20 units to their average, then you have a bunch of other sales people struggling to get to 15 they start looking at themselves and going, “how did he add 20 I can’t even hit 20? What’s the deal here? I’ve got to change.”
Frank Crinite: There’s salespeople sitting out there and there’s managers, general managers sitting out there and they’re saying, “well, these guys have all these assistants and they have everything.” Well guess what? I’ve done this with no assistance, okay. I hit 1200 cars a month with a lock guy helping me change tags. So you don’t need to build a dealership around that salesperson to get them there. This is not what that is. Now take the other side of the coin now. I’m looking to actually still step my game up. I’m not at the bar, I’m not hanging out on the golf course, right? With the 35 car of the guy that you just mentioned. I’m the hundred car guy that’s looking to get to the levels that I’ll ease that. So I’m brainstorming and mind setting what his processes are, right? Because he’s one of the only ones that I can pick his brain.
Frank Crinite: So guess what I just did? I just hired my first assistant today. I am ecstatic, okay. So I already know, I’ve already proved to myself that I can do a hundred cars a month all by myself. Okay, they’re not all by yourself, the dealership helps you out here, there, moves from obstacles, right?
Jim Fitzpatrick: Sure.
Frank Crinite: But I can do it. Shaking hands, kissing babies, handing out keys all day all by myself. There’s a model to get to the level, okay. And the model, so I don’t water down my process for my customer, which is most important to me. I wouldn’t want to scale if I had a water down the process and it wasn’t as great of a red carpet experience for my client because then that just throws it all off for me, that gets the line and it’s throws it all, it skews everything, right? So there already is a model to do this.
Frank Crinite: So why not just follow that model? And that’s what I’m doing. So it’s the same thing that I’m trying to teach the salespeople to get the 30, 40, 50. I’m not sitting up here and saying “I’m at the pinnacle,” right? My buddy Ali is there, so he’s lifting me up the mountain right now and I want to get there. He’s giving me his blueprint and his model. I don’t want to have to reinvent the car business to figure out how to get there. There’s already a blueprint for it that I can get to that level.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Let me ask you a couple of things Frank, because I know that this is going to be asked. I tried to ask the questions that my viewers want to ask. A, how long was it before you got tapped on the shoulder from your dealer principal? Because I know this happened and said, “hey man, be the sales manager. You’ve got this thing-
Frank Crinite: Oh, it happened. It happened, but you know what?
Jim Fitzpatrick: “You’re selling X number of cars. You’d be a great,” well you’re obviously a great trainer as as well. So how long that you’re in the industry that that happened?
Frank Crinite: You know it was a few years in and it kind of got mentioned a couple of times. But to my dealer’s foresight, they actually never really tried to push me into management because they’ve seen the passion that I attacked every day with and to me, to be able to-
Jim Fitzpatrick: So the follow up question, right? The follow up question to that is how come you didn’t want to get into management? Many salespeople as you know, see the career path as salesperson, sales manager, GSM, GM, dealer principal. Do you aspire to be a dealer principal one day? And if so, do you see that path going from selling a hundred cars a month on the showroom floor to buying a car dealership?
Frank Crinite: I would rather be Babe Ruth than, name from any manager that ever managed a baseball team. You can talk about baseball, I can’t even think about one, right? But I know Babe Ruth. So my passion was always to be the Babe Ruth, the LeBron James, the Michael Jordan. I had the passion to push through it and not worry about being the Phil Jackson.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right? Because everybody in the business, as you know, all the sales people, especially in the new ones that are in the business. And I was one of them. You look to that corner office that’s got glass all the way around and in a brand new demo sitting outside and the guy practicing putting and that’s not in all cases, but that’s the sales manager and you say to yourself, right? “Oh man, if I’m going to do good in the business, I want to be that guy. I don’t want to be taking customers on the showroom floor.”
Frank Crinite: Let me just speak to the sales people right now that are selling 30 cars a month-
Jim Fitzpatrick: Go right ahead.
Frank Crinite: That are thinking about getting into management. If you want to make double what a manager makes, okay, stick it out, come to the Pinnacle Mastermind. Your life will absolutely change, okay? Not the suit you wear, not the watches that you can have, not the vacations you can take if that’s what you desire. Now that’s great to be able to make the money that you’re going to be able to make going from 30 to 40 to 50 will change your life. Okay? You asked earlier, am I building houses? Yes. The money that I’m bringing in goes right out to bring in residual income. I don’t have a really nice car like Jonathan has, but I have my money invested, right? So I never wanted to be a sales manager because there is a ceiling on a sales manager. Okay, this is, NADA says you can make X and that’s really right around somewhere within 10 to 20%.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s right, that’s right. There no ceiling on a sales person. Right.
Frank Crinite: There’s no ceiling on how many hands I can shake, how many keys I can hand out and how many pictures that I can take in front of my step and repeat. And that was the desire and the passion that I had. So there would be no way that I would want to take a step back and manage people’s time, right? Some managers are great at being managers and not great at being salespeople and some salespeople are phenomenal being salespeople and get talked into managing people’s time and trying to train them. Babe Ruth probably couldn’t train somebody how to hit home runs 100% at that time. I couldn’t manage when I was selling 30 cars a month, other sales people’s time, because back then I wouldn’t have been able to figure out why they just didn’t get it, right? But now I get it because there was no blueprint.
Jim Fitzpatrick: So let me ask you, and I know that this is another question that people that are watching are saying, what’s in it for him? What’s in it for Frank to take time out of his schedule to want to help other salespeople get to the pinnacle of their career? Why are you doing this?
Frank Crinite: So I have a real passion for helping people. I help run a charity, I help salespeople as much as I possibly can, so the notoriety I get online from the amount of cars that I sell. My phone blows up all day, my instant messages, my DMs, for the past two years now. The first group I joined was Jonathan’s Sellchology group, right? And I figured out, I never really knew where I ranked in the country. I knew I was selling a lot of cars, but you never really know where you’re at. So being that top producer, I have so many people reaching out to me that are struggling right now that tell me, “listen, I can’t afford to pay $500 to buy my course that I’m selling right now.” And I say, “how many cars are you selling?” Your like “30 cars, 32 cars a month.” I’m saying, “if you can’t afford to pay $500 a month to invest in yourself, that’s why you need to do it, right? That’s why you need to do it.”
Frank Crinite: So I wish I could give everybody 10 minutes of time, right, and change their life. Give them all my methodologies and all my, everything that I have for them. But I would just get 10 minutes of them and that would just go in there, like watching a baseball game. You get your score, your cheering, they won, boom. And then it wears off when you walk out of the stadium.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Yeah, there’s no question.
Frank Crinite: So the only way that I’m able to give back at this point in my career, and I’m not leaving sales, okay. I just basically came up with a plan with my dealer that’s going to keep me there for life selling cars.
Jim Fitzpatrick: I just thought about something-
Frank Crinite: Being able to help people scale, also.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Let me jump in here. For attendees that go to this and that get a lot out of it and what have you, are you guys on call? Who’s on call back at the dealership? A salesperson that’s attended wants to give you a call or let’s say a manager that says, “hey managers, I need 10 minutes on a conference call with you guys. Are you available for that?”
Jonathan Dawson: Great question. Yeah, so what we’re doing right now is the vision is, right now we’re creating this thing called the Pinnacle Society. And the Pinnacle Society is really the organization of top producers and that network. So the goal is to not only provide ourselves as the network, but even in this society, what we’ve already noticed happening is, we have a salesperson who’s selling 50 something cars a month, somebody selling 20 something cars a month. That gap from 20 to 50, they can answer a lot of questions anyway, right?
Jim Fitzpatrick: Okay, okay.
Jonathan Dawson: So we’re creating that network of top producers so that they don’t feel alone. In fact, our tagline is it’s no longer lonely at the top. Because that’s what they say about going, it’s lonely at the top. Well it doesn’t have to be, not with the Pinnacle Society.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s right.
Jonathan Dawson: So the Pinnacle Mastermind will be the small group gathering that’s going to be, like I said, April 5th through the 8th and that’s going to be really only 12 dealers can participate.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Wow.
Jonathan Dawson: 12.
Jim Fitzpatrick: It’s pretty elite.
Jonathan Dawson: Yeah, because you want that.
Jim Fitzpatrick: You’re going to have a lot of time with each individual.
Jonathan Dawson: That’s what we need. We need to be able to translate this information in a window of time that’s so compressed. We need to have that quality time with them.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Now, people are listening to us right now. We’re in the middle of the Corona situation. We’re in the middle of March. There’s still time to sign up. What’s your take on that?
Jonathan Dawson: Well, listen, I think that everybody knows the old expression of investing probably that when’s the best time to buy? When there’s blood in the streets, right? That’s just the ruthlessness of the-
Jim Fitzpatrick: Where’s he going with this?
Jonathan Dawson: He knows where I’m going with this because we’ve talk about this all the time.
Jim Fitzpatrick: I’m popping right now.
Jonathan Dawson: Yeah, he sold seven yesterday, ten the day before that. You know, guys like Ali, people who’ve built their business model on purpose, not on accident. People who came to work and created something where they’re truly celebrated and not merely tolerated by their management or their community. People who’ve built a business will thrive. They’ll find a way, they’ll innovate, they’ll create and they’ll dominate. So what we’re doing with the Pinnacle Society is saying, look, we know that most dealers are running scared. Everybody’s going to tighten their belts. Everybody’s going to freak out.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Yeah.
Jonathan Dawson: That’s great.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
Jonathan Dawson: That’s great for those that aren’t.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
Jonathan Dawson: And so we understand that that’s the tone in the market. Look-
Jim Fitzpatrick: But there is no cancellation. There’s-
Jonathan Dawson: Right now we’re going forward. I haven’t had a single one of our sold tickets, not a single one of our dealers has called us and said, are you, I haven’t even gotten a text message, are we still on?
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right, right. They’re looking forward to it.
Jonathan Dawson: So the people who are going to this, they’re going, look, there’s going to be 24 of us hanging out.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Sure.
Jonathan Dawson: Everybody’s coming, they’re coming healthy obviously. If you come take precautions, wear a mask-
Jim Fitzpatrick: Or whatever.
Jonathan Dawson: Wash your hands, whatever. But we’re all planning on living and we’re planning on thriving and we’re going to let the rest of the market run scared and we’re going to seize opportunity where everybody else is fleeing opportunity.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Fantastic. And who are the key players? It’s Ali-
Jonathan Dawson: Ali Reda.
Jim Fitzpatrick: It’s Frank, it’s you.
Jonathan Dawson: Ali Reda, Frank Crinite and myself.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Okay.
Jonathan Dawson: So we are the Pinnacle Mastermind hosts. So we’re going to be facilitating it. Like I said, as a consultant who travels and works with the dealer level, I’m going to be helping the dealership navigate it and they’re going to be working with the sales people.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Talk to us about the venue real quick.
Jonathan Dawson: Yes. It’s going to be hosted out in Colorado. It’s called Devil’s Thumb Ranch.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Okay.
Jonathan Dawson: It’s a private ranch. It’s a really beautiful location. The event has three different tiers of level of access, so we have a VIP level, we have a platinum, we have a standard level access. Each one with different perks or benefits of of attendance. The VIPs will be there for the full experience. The fifth through the eighth okay whereas the platinums and the standards will come sixth through the eighth so the forfeit of full day. The material is three days and it is covering those three areas. Salespeople will be focusing on mindset, marketing and mechanics. Management will focus on the people, the profitability and the process.
Jim Fitzpatrick: And what if a salesperson listening to us wants to go, but he can’t get one of the sales managers-
Jonathan Dawson: That has come up a hundred times, hasn’t it Frank, already? People raise their hands saying-
Frank Crinite: Oh yeah, we’ve talked about it.
Jonathan Dawson: “I can’t get my dealer to go but I want to go.”
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
Jonathan Dawson: So right now we haven’t officially made exceptions for that because we really believe the model has to be, you got to be able to go back and execute and if you come back, I almost feel like it would backfire. If you came and learned all the potential that was there and then went back to a management team that’s like, “we’re doing it our way.” You’d almost go backwards. You might even quit the store at that point, you’d get so frustrated.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Sure.
Jonathan Dawson: There are some Sellchology clients, my stores, my clients where because of scheduling conflict that they can’t get the management involved. I’m considering adopting them and bringing them myself because the dealer already pays me to help move the needle and make the changes.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Sure.
Jonathan Dawson: So we’ve talked about that, but officially right now the current policy, the current rule is, we want people there who can partner with their management team.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
Jonathan Dawson: And come back and raise the entire store effectively.
Frank Crinite: We are doing this totally different than any conference. This is not going to be, we stand up on the stage and just listen. When we talked, we were a hundred ideas going back and forth. But the main thing to me was, this is away from Vegas, Orlando, all these places with distractions. I was trying to find a cabin in the middle of the woods, in the most barren area, but there’s no airports to get there.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Right.
Frank Crinite: So we came up with the ranch out here and this is not going to be, I get up and just say how great I am all day. That’s not what this is, right? Stand up on stage for 45 minutes and try to get the best Frank Crinite that you possibly can. The way that I’ve learned and anything that I’ve ever actually absorbed and was able to actually take back an Institute in my processes, what Johnathan said, standing around having a beer, in the morning having a coffee, and this is kind of what we envisioned. That’s why we wanted to keep it really small. Okay. This is not just, “hey, let’s just shell out this coliseum or sell out a hotel and do it.” I think that’s the right way to do it. To me, they’re money grabs, okay.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Yeah.
Frank Crinite: This is not a money grab for me. This is me wanting to give all the knowledge and everything that I’ve learned from when I struggled to past 30 when I struggled to get the past 50. I know what it takes and that’s what I want to give back because a lot of times I’ve felt like I’m not going to get anywhere past this, right? Until I came up with the mindset and I did break through it. So I know that people are at 30 and they think they can’t get past that, or they have that blockage.
Frank Crinite: Well, guess what? That’s what I want to give them. That’s the knowledge I want to give them. So to me, I don’t want to die, I don’t want my legacy to be that I sold, to date 15,000 cars. I don’t want to be the guy that sold 30,000 cars in his career. I want to be the guy that sold 30,000 cars and simultaneously lifted an industry, a top performers up to the top. Because it is lonely at the top. It doesn’t have to be, I want to bring everybody up, a celebration with people is way better than just pounding your chest and you’re at the top of the mountain. When everybody’s up there celebrating with you at the pinnacle, that’s where it’s at. That’s where the euphoria comes in for me and that’s what my passion and my purpose is right now because I see the need for it because I hear it every single day.
Frank Crinite: So if you’re a dealer principal, if you’re a GM, your salesperson, your top performer is probably calling me and if he hasn’t or she hasn’t, they probably want to call me and try to pick my brain for everything. So you should pretty much grab that person right now, sit down and have a conversation and see if we can make this happen. See if we can get you out to Devil’s Thumb Ranch. I’m excited, I want to sit around the fire out back and just give you everything that I have, everything that I’ve learned from my processes to my passion for the industry and the marketing. I mean, marketing is what I’m kind of known for a little bit on social media. But you can’t just watch what I’m doing on social media and actually figure out how I’m dominating my area right now, my industry right now. There’s a lot that goes into it that you can’t see just by watching what I’m doing. It’s not just this big, goofy thumb standing in front of my pictures here every single time.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Well Frank save some for the event.
Frank Crinite: Oh I’ve got plenty. I have plenty John will tell you, I have plenty.
Jim Fitzpatrick: I’m going to give you the last word Johnathan.
Jonathan Dawson: Well I want to just close out by saying I appreciate the opportunity to introduce The Pinnacle Mastermind The Pinnacle Society to CBT viewers. I will say that again, this is something that has never been done before in the history of automotive.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Yeah, I’ve never heard of it.
Jonathan Dawson: Most top performers fall into a couple of groups of people. They’re either the top performer and they don’t know what they’re doing exactly. They couldn’t replicate it if they wanted to. They couldn’t teach you what to do because they do it naturally and they sell their 30 cars. And even if they wanted to help you, they wouldn’t even know what… they say, you know what, just be nice to people and it’ll come to your kid and that’s the advice you get.
Jim Fitzpatrick: I know.
Jonathan Dawson: Some other top performers, they know exactly what they’re doing, they know how they got there. But the thing is that they don’t want to share the secret sauce.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s right.
Jonathan Dawson: They don’t want to share the secret sauce. So what happens is they become a top performer and they’re like, you know what? You’ll figure it out kid. They don’t want to share it.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s right.
Jonathan Dawson: The third kind of top performer is the one who knows what they did. They made it on purpose and they get into management and they go, I’m going to now affect change. Except now they’re in management.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s right.
Jonathan Dawson: So now they’re putting out fires all day long, they’re handling inventory, they’re handing this.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s right.
Jonathan Dawson: And with good intentions, they’re supposed to hold training every week.
Jim Fitzpatrick: And they don’t.
Jonathan Dawson: And training doesn’t happen for a month.
Jim Fitzpatrick: That’s right.
Jonathan Dawson: So this is what most top performers worlds look like.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Yeah.
Jonathan Dawson: Where else in the world would you get somebody like Ali Reda, Frank Crinite, myself in a room.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Phenomenal.
Jonathan Dawson: To walk you through the process. This is The Pinnacle Masterminds happening April 5th through the 8th and we’d love for you to be part of it. The website is simple, it’s just pinnaclemastermind.com.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Okay, and we’ll show it on the screen here.
Jonathan Dawson: And we invite people to check it out.
Jim Fitzpatrick: We’ll also show some pictures of the venue itself, which looks amazing. So congratulations to both of you for putting this together. Much needed in the industry for dealers that are listening to us right now and more importantly, salespeople that are at the top of their game. This is something you don’t want to miss. Invest in yourself. Invest the time, invest a little bit of money, and take your career really to the next level to the nth degree, I should say, because that’s what it’s all about. I mean, if you’re going to spend 50 hours a week on a showroom floor, you might as well make a couple of hundred thousand dollars rather than just trying to squeeze out 50 right? It’s the same amount of time. It’s what you do with it. So Jonathan Dawson, automotive sales consultant, coach, author and founder of Sellchology sales training and Frank Crinite. Crinite, right? I got that right.
Frank Crinite: Crinite, you got it.
Jim Fitzpatrick: There you go. I love it. Frank Crinite, sales rep for a Piazza Honda of Springfield. Thank you so much gentlemen for joining me on CBT News.
Frank Crinite: Thank you.
Jim Fitzpatrick: And we want to do kind of a recap after the event.
Jonathan Dawson: Yeah, we’ll do a follow up.
Jim Fitzpatrick: Come on back in and we’ll talk about how it went.
Jonathan Dawson: Okay. Thank you so much.
Frank Crinite: You got it, thanks a lot. Appreciate it.
