The Dealer Playbook

Wait, Where'd The Tariffs Go?!?

• Michael Cirillo

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Tariffs. Chaos. Panic. The sky is falling! Or… is it?

If you’ve been anywhere near the news lately, you’ve seen the headlines. “Tariffs are coming! Businesses are doomed!” And yeah, for a hot minute, it looked like we were in for a wild ride. But then—mid-recording, literally while the cameras were rolling—everything changed. The news flipped. No tariffs (for now). Just like that.

And that right there is the problem.

We live in an industry that thrives on fear and uncertainty. But here’s the reality: the businesses that thrive—no matter the market, politics or economy—don’t react to uncertainty. They prepare for it. They invest in their people, they stay laser-focused on what they can control, and they don’t waste time chasing what everyone else is doing.

So, the question is: Are you playing defense, waiting for the next crisis to knock you down? Or are you building a business that wins no matter what?

 Hit play. Let’s talk strategy. 

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Speaker 1:

What's up? Auto industry? It is Monday, february 3rd at time of recording this. What a whirlwind of a day.

Speaker 1:

I'm not a news watcher, but I did kind of have a funny experience today. I want to talk a little bit about the tariffs, more importantly, what we should be thinking about anyways, what the playbook is anyways. But I want to start by using the tariffs as a jumping off point and share with you kind of a funny story. I mean, we've been hearing all about the impending doom of tariffs and, of course, the news latched onto it and there's lots of commentary and social media latched onto it with their narrative about what it could mean if the United States imposes tariffs on Canada and Mexico and China and whoever else. And as we got close to the deadline today well, this evening at time of recording, at midnight being the deadline in which those tariffs would come into effect, we started to see nations scrambling. Canada, of course, my home and native land jumps into the mix and says, well, we're going to impose a bunch of retaliatory tariffs. Well, kind of a funny experience today, because all of the commentary leading up to this, all of the headlines leading up to this, it's like oh my gosh, tariffs are coming. We are going to, you know, just blow things up, essentially right.

Speaker 1:

Well, earlier this afternoon I am pre-recording tomorrow's episode, or today at time of you listening's episode, of the Automotive Troublemaker, which is a morning show that we produce over at A so Do More Than Cars. I'm with my pal, paul J Daly, and we sit down with Dave Adams, who's the president and CEO of the Global Automakers Association in Canada, which represents a number of Canadian automakers, and I think it's interesting because we've got him on the show and we're talking to him about the tariffs and what they could mean, and he shares some really interesting perspectives and sentiments with us. And then the thought dawns on us like, okay, well, hold on, what if? What if something magical happens and the tariffs end up not happening and we're like, oh shoot, well, then we'll have to kind of record a second version of the morning show, um, to account for either situation. Either you know the the tariffs happen, and we need to account for that, or the tariffs don't happen, and we need to account for that, or the tariffs don't happen and it comes to that. And so I've got my teleprompter in front of me and we've got the notes up and we're doing our reads and we're talking about it and we've just interviewed Mr Adams and we're grateful for his time and in real time, I see the notes changing and it's one of the few experiences I've had where this happens and our producer, nathan, is in there and he's changing the notes.

Speaker 1:

Come to find out that we've just prepared this whole show on account that the tariffs happened and, oh my gosh, what does this mean? And we've got narrative around all of that and our position on that and what we think our community should be thinking about. And then, all of a sudden, I see that delete and it's like actually, prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Donald Trump are on the phone at the exact same time that we are recording this episode. And oh my goodness, what if the outcome is different? And so we realize OK, hold on, let's pause and regroup and record an alternate version of this prerecorded stream. And, sure enough, before we're done recording, it's like well, there it is. News breaks no more tariffs, they've kicked it down the street. They kicked the can down the street for another 30 days, regardless. The thought came to me, and it's what I want to talk about here, using those tariffs as a jumping off point. So much news and narrative and doom and gloom can cloud our view so quickly. It's shocking how quickly it can take over, right?

Speaker 1:

I remember I was at a 10X growth conference. Kevin Hart was one of the speakers and he says I really like to focus on the positive, but it is a harder job because positivity does not travel near at the velocity of negativity. Negativity just travels, doesn't it? And that stuck with me and I was thinking about it. In this situation, it's like holy crap, all of the narrative about dude, what's a tariff going to mean? I mean, how much more expensive are things going to get? And you typically hear much more from people that are just like whoa, this is not good news at all. This is really really bad news, actually. And, man, really Really, can we just get a break? There's a lot of people that are just like can we get a break? You know there's a lot of people that are just like we get a break. I know I'm guilty of it at times, I try not to go there, but then it got me thinking. You know, a few years ago, 2019.

Speaker 1:

In fact, I was a keynote speaker at an event in Toronto a beautiful venue, you know. Good, good attendance, all of that and for whatever the reason let's not read too into this but for whatever the reason, I was like you know what we need to talk about being prepared. We need to talk about how to create action plans based on anticipation of what may happen. And it was basically this long, you know diatribe about these books I used to read in elementary school. They were like a choose your own adventure book. I'm sure you're familiar with those. If not, you'll have to look it, look it up. But basically you read the book in first person as the hero of the story, potentially, and you're periodically faced with decisions to make. And it's like you know, if you want to, you know, skirt around the sleeping dragon, turn to page 50. If you want to try and slay the sleeping dragon, you know, go to page 67, that sort of a thing.

Speaker 1:

And I thought it was funny because really the premise of that talk is like you can be prepared, you can really and readily create an anticipatory plan so that when unprecedented circumstances happen, you are prepared. Right that you're not going holy balls, what do we do? You are like right that you're not going holy balls, what do we do? You are like. We accounted for this. Here's the playbook bop, bip, bop, right, knock it out of the park. Well, unbeknownst to me and the whole world at the time, we were on the toes of a pandemic, where we were faced with one of these unforeseen circumstances that we had to react to really, really quickly and fast forward to today with the tariffs. At time of recording, the can has been kicked down the street 30 days, so no tariffs, thankfully, right now. But it does create a moment of pause, doesn't it, to say well, wait a minute, what is our plan?

Speaker 1:

And I wanted to just take a minute here on the playbook to talk about what the plan should be, what I've observed as I work across a lot of dealerships. The plan should be, as I've observed it from the most successful dealerships, because there are things that the most successful and thriving dealerships do, and these aren't just thriving dealerships. In the good times, the good times, it's easy to thrive. Everybody thrives. Look at what just happened just a couple of years ago. Right, there are dealerships that thrive throughout all circumstances. And I want to talk about just a little bit what I've observed. The playbooks are what these dealerships and businesses have in common, so that maybe it can bring some hope and some help to you. Maybe you're in a position right now where you're scratching your head and you're saying what am I doing wrong, or what are they doing right, or what am I missing? Right or not missing? Hopefully, what I'm about to share with you will eliminate some of the guesswork, some of the gut feeling, and will show you what thriving dealerships do.

Speaker 1:

The number one thing that I've observed thriving dealerships do is recognize that people are their most valuable asset. Not only do they recognize that people are their most valuable asset, they invest deeply in these people, and by invest, I don't just mean from a financial or monetary perspective, but mostly from a time perspective meeting with their people, getting to know them what makes them tick, collaborating with them, counseling with them, getting their ideas and opinions, helping them develop a sense of ownership so that when they show up to work it's no longer a J-O-B, it is like this is my house right? They invest in their people by way of creating an environment with which happiness and fulfillment can exist. This, believe me I know this sounds like la-di-da fluff, unicorns and rainbows to some people, but it's just a fact of the matter. Dealerships and businesses who thrive, regardless of the circumstances, invest so deeply in what they know is their most valuable asset, which is their people. They are constantly looking for ways to help their people rise and succeed. And I mean that makes sense when you cross-reference it against phrases like you're only as strong as your weakest link, right Well? How do you reconcile that? How do you say, well, yeah, of course that's true, you are only as strong as your weakest link, but not acknowledge in the same regard that if you're not investing in your people and that's too ooh-la-la for you that there's somehow a better way, that it's not going to work. They so oppose one another. That it must be true. You know what I mean. It must be true that if you invest in your people and it makes sense, right, when the going gets tough and you've got a tough team who has ownership, who has buy-in, who's happy to be there, they will show up and fight, won't they? So there you go, it makes sense.

Speaker 1:

The second thing that I see thriving dealerships do that help them just dominate unforeseen circumstances, whether it's a pandemic, or whether it's an unprecedented snowstorm in the South, like we just saw it in New Orleans, or whether it's political unrest or tariffs or whatever it might be is that they focus their time, energy and talents on them. They do not focus their time, energy and talents trying to figure out what their competitors are or are not doing, or the perception of their competitor's success. You have to think about this for a minute. If you spend the majority of your time focused on your competitors or, let's just say, focusing your time, energy and talents where they're not going to yield the greatest return for you, what you're effectively doing is you begin to pivot. It happens naturally. You almost don't even realize it's happening and you start chasing the wrong thing let's say it's your competitor. You start chasing and patterning your moves after what you perceive is bringing them their success or perceived success, and then it's kind of like to zero with a bullet, because you are left in a place of dissatisfaction and lack of fulfillment, not feeling successful, still feeling like a failure. And of course, that would be the case because you just put all of your time, energy and talents chasing somebody else's perceived definition of success, not your own. So that's the second thing that I observe. The level of focus on their operation not anybody else's is incredible. It's insane.

Speaker 1:

The third thing is leadership, and I know we all say that. But who's training your leaders? I love that thought process. My pal Bart Nolenberger and, by the way, if you're not following Bart, go look him up. He's a Maxwell certified coach, but he talks a lot about this. It's like we put so much time, energy and focus in training salespeople, but who's training our managers? Who's training our leaders? I think sometimes not sometimes most of the time, dare I say we get a leadership title and think that that somehow magically makes us a leader.

Speaker 1:

What I've learned over the years of leading organizations is probably the first 10 years of me having a leadership title. I was not a leader at all. Not at all, certainly not worth somebody working with. I'll tell you that it was just not pretty. Do I look back with some measure of fondness and grace? Absolutely. I had to pass through those moments of non-leadership in order to get the clarity about what works and what doesn't work, what's important and what's not important. But who's training your leaders?

Speaker 1:

Leaderships are the ones inside of an organization who should not just know the operation inside and out, but are capable and willing to demonstrate the behaviors and mindsets that they expect in others. If they expect rock stars the word we use all the time then they better well be a rock star. They better know how to communicate with such efficiency and the ability to articulate that nobody can misunderstand. They better have the patience of I don't know the most patient thing you can think of. They better be a servant, one who gains joy and fulfillment from being in the service of and lifting others. The most successful dealerships that I've found, who thrive no matter the circumstances, believe in their people and set them up to succeed, they are focused with precision, clarity, and they develop leaders, these are things that are available to each and every one of us.

Speaker 1:

There is no secret sauce here. We just have to do. We must be willing to do that way, no matter what happens in the future. We have some playbooks, some ingredients in the recipe book that we know for a fact. We can inject and imply and apply to get the desired outcome that we desire. Anyways, no tariffs for now.

Speaker 1:

I had time of recording this, Boy. This is why I don't record the news, by the way. It just happens so fast I wouldn't be able to keep up. There's just too many things happening in our beloved industry. Hey, listen, if you need more proof that we are the most resilient industry out there. Gosh, what has to happen next? You know what. What has to happen next in order for us to prove to ourselves that we are resilient, that we can make it through, that a tariff isn't going to stop us, just like the pandemic did not stop us. Be prepared, focus on you, believe in your people and set them up to succeed, and you will be set up to thrive, regardless of the circumstances.

Speaker 1:

Hey, listen, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the podcast. If you'd like more of these, please let me know. Michael at the dealerplaybookcom. Of course you can follow me on all the social networks. I would love to hear from you and, of course, I love seeing all of your messages. Please keep it up and, hey, do me a favor. You enjoy this show. Would you leave me an honest review on Apple Podcasts? I mean the world to me. New episode coming out with a guest this Thursday. Stay on the lookout for that and until next time, keep the playbook open and dominate. See you guys later.

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Michael Cirillo

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