To maximize your driving power, no matter how busy you are, you need to slow down in order to speed up business. Take the time to create an accurate road map to lead you to the best route for your business.

Take a good hard look at your business with the eye of an outside, unbiased consultant and gather honest answers to the hard questions on the High Performance Road Map below. Include your team, and keep their involvement ongoing.

HIGH PERFORMANCE ROAD MAP

What are our three greatest strengths as a business?

How can we leverage our greatest strengths to grow our business?

How’s our reputation in our community?

How’s our reputation in our industry?

Do we need to make a bigger effort to develop a reputation customer service excellence?

Are our advertising, sales, and marketing strategies working?

Do we need ads and visuals on our website that are more eye-catching than any competitors’?

Do we have enough video on our site to draw traffic to our site and show customers what we can do?

Are we obtaining business and inquiries from our website, or is it time to obtain the services of an SEO specialist?

Are we using online marketing to draw more traffic to our business?

Do we have a newsletter we send out with great visuals, ads, and the latest information on new products?

What are we doing that is different from other retailers that will make us stand out in the minds of our customers and promote word-of-mouth advertising?

Where are there opportunities to obtain more referrals or drive more business to us?

How much of our business comes from referrals? Are we asking for them?

How can we promote our business in a way that is different than the competition?

Can we depend on each other, so we can focus on the most important person to our business—the customer?

How can we improve communication on the team and with customers?

How would customers rate the level of service we provide?

Are we obtaining feedback from our customers, or should we start calling after every job or major sale?

Are we consistently working to improve our service?

How quickly do we respond to calls? Is it easy to do business with us?

Are we making a conscious effort to be friendlier than our competitors?

Do we make our customers feel like “family”?

What have we done to exceed expectations, and what practices can we put into place to exceed expectations in the future?

What three areas need the most improvement?

How is our pricing?

Do customers feel they receive value from the price they pay?

Do we consistently strive to be a better business?

Do we consistently work toward being better than our competition? Do we make an effort to be better than our competition in every aspect of the customer experience?

Do we strive to under-promise and do everything we can to over-deliver?

Who is performing well? Who is not?

What should be our major strategic initiative for the remainder of 2015?

Once you finish compiling answers, which may take some time, you'll be in a better position to see things more clearly, make decisions, and create your winning race strategy. This can be hard work, but your biggest challenge will be to implement necessary changes to sustain the momentum of the drive.  

So after this session take a good hard look at your answers, and then create an action plan that will help drive the growth of your business and improve profitability. Unfortunately, we sometimes (even unknowingly) put up our own roadblocks to success. We make an action plan with a road map to follow and we don’t follow it. We go back to “business as usual.”

Smart business professionals, however, understand that,

“Knowing what you should be doing and doing it are two very different things. Execution must be a strong part of your competitive strategy!”

Here’s another key: Put Knowledgefest as one of your destinations. There, you will obtain the knowledge and skills to accelerate your business.

Keep in mind:

 •    Always maintain a clear focus on your customers. Encourage everyone who works in your business to embrace an obsession for customer service excellence with every customer encounter.

 •    Follow your race strategy. Once you have completed the road map stage, you will have your own plan. Follow it as closely as you can in order to stay on course. But if something is not working, do what any smart executive or business owner would do—shift gears fast!

 •    You will always have to find ways to be better and smarter—and drive faster—than your competitors.

Once you decide what needs to change in your business, implementation is crucial. Attend my session, What Needs to Change in Your Business – 10 Steps to Successful Change Implementation, sponsored by the Consumer Electronics Association.

See you there!

To hear more of Carelli's insights, attend her KnowledgeFest seminar. Details are available at http://knowledgefest.org/exhibitors/item/95.

Words by Rosa Sophia

4-13-2018 Mobile Electronics -- The theme of this year’s Indianapolis KnowledgeFest was OEM integration, branding and profitability, while DSP took the forefront of the discussion as retailers discussed the future of 12-volt. Meanwhile, industry veterans shared advice on how to apply knowledge and lessons learned back at the shop.

On the first day of KnowledgeFest, attendees waited for the show floor to open. For newcomers, the crowds and classes, activities and trainings might have seemed overwhelming. There was a lot to do and even more to learn—but those who’ve attended many previous shows advise retailers to take notes, record trainings to listen again later, and don’t try to make too many changes at once upon returning to work.

At the Indianapolis Convention Center, crowds spread across the wide hallway while people lined up to check in and get their conference badges. On the event floor, some exhibitors displayed brands that were recently unveiled or set to be released in the next few months.

Many attendees had been to the event before. For some, it was a first-time experience. Wes Tyson, owner of Wet Audio & Accessories in Columbus, Ohio was there for his first KnowledgeFest, as well as to unveil an exciting build on a 2007 Jeep that he and two team members completed in 13 days. Memphis Audio sponsored the project.

“As a business owner, KnowledgeFest is a must,” Tyson said.

Read the rest of the story HERE.

Interested in getting free registration for the upcoming KnowledgeFest in Indianapolis? Then here are some questions to help you decide:

What are you doing to help your cause?

In the early 1990s the Internet was just becoming popular and a man with a vision left his job and home in New York to map out his course that would change consumer purchasing forever.

What did the man do after he moved away from New York?

There was a trade show for all “Book Store” owners and he drove himself for this four-day “INDEPENDENT TRADE SHOW” to learn how to become better at what he was planning on doing. Topics included “Selecting Opening Inventory” and “Inventory Management”. In the mean time, his associate was learning other aspects of the business to build one of the most successful teams in US history and with a threadbare budget.

Who was the man and what was the name of his business?

Before I answer you let me ask you this, between who the man is and what the man did to become successful, what’s most important? If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want and copy what they do and you'll achieve the same results.


- Tony Robbins

You see you have before an outstanding opportunity to do what the man I am talking about did!
 We have some of the best trainers in the field of car audio coming together to help you to learn to become better at what you are planning on doing!

We have people like Jason Kranitz, Micah Williams, Mike Bartells, Eric Carter, John Schwartz, Ken Ward, Harry Lichtman, Bryan Schmidt and of course yours truly. 
You have manufacturers wanting to invest their time and energy on how to make your facility better and more profitable, and yet you look for or make excuses not to go!

By the way, the man Tony Robbins is talking about above is Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com. 

Based on all the above info, you ask, "Del, what should we do?" 
The answer is, I would beg, borrow or do whatever it takes to get yourself and your staff underneath the teaching of these great leaders in our independent industry which we all love so much and come learn the secrets like Jeff Bezos learned in the early 1990s.

Now, as promised, here's what you do to get your FREE registration: 

1. Go to http://bit.ly/KF4Free.

 2. Fill in your contact information. Be sure to enter your title under 'Registrant Title.' 

3. Under 'Exhibitor Name,' select the vendor you're most excited to see at KnowledgeFest Spring Training. 

4. Under 'Registration Classification,' select 'I am a VIP retailer invited by an exhibitor.' 
 5. Click Registration Confirmation and that's it! You'll receive a confirmation in your email.

We look forward to helping you in Indianapolis at our own Independent Trade Show on April 11th-13th 2015.