“The most we can charge is 35% margins because people in our area won’t pay more.”

I was conducting a coaching session with a floor dealer who wanted to grow his business, and he was trying to convince me that there was no way he could raise his prices.  I, of course, was having none of it.

Ten Quote Challenge

“I’ll make a deal with you, Bill.  I’ll meet with you in one month and give you a free coaching call, but you have to accept this challenge: on your next ten quotes, I want you to charge 45% margins and see what happens.”

Bill agreed.  When I met with him the next month, he had permanently increased his margins to 45%.  Why?  Because instead of his close sale ratio dropping (as he feared) it had remained rock solid.  For years he had been leaving thousands of dollars in additional net profits on the table for absolutely no reason.  The wrong mindset had cost him a fortune.

I call this the Ten-Quote Challenge.  Every dealer I’ve worked with who has accepted the Ten-Quote Challenge—and I mean every single dealer without exception—has wound up permanently raising their prices.  I created this challenge as a way to quickly recalibrate a struggling dealer’s self-limiting mindset.

Self-Limiting Mindsets

There are hundreds of potential self-limiting mindsets we can engage in.  Many of them stem from how we’re programmed as kids.  We’re taught phrases like, “Money doesn’t grow on trees,” or “Hard-earned money,” or “Filthy rich.”  These phrases are all born from a scarcity mindset.  They train us that money is difficult to come by, and that there’s something “dirty” about money.  These phrases become memes that run in the background of our minds—usually unconsciously—and shape the way we look at the world.  They limit us without us even consciously realizing it.

I’ve worked with countless dealers who have been stuck at a certain revenue level for years.  Phrases like, “Yeah, we’ve been at about $1.5 million for six years” are something I hear all the time.   What’s holding them at that level?  Who put that glass ceiling over the dealer’s head?

The dealer did, most likely without even realizing it.

 

The Internal Thermostat

Tony Robbins teaches the concept of the internal thermostat.  We all have a thermostat inside of us that regulates how successful we’ll be.  Let’s say your thermostat is set at $1.5 million a year in revenue.  If you drop down to $1.2 million, your thermostat will kick on and “warm” you back up to $1.5 million.  If you increase to $1.8 million it will kick on and “cool” you back off to $1.5 million.  If you don’t reset the thermostat, you’ll likely always be stuck at the same level.  This principle applies to losing weight, having healthy, fulfilling relationships, getting in shape, etc.   Through sheer willpower an overweight person may succeed in dropping that extra fifty pounds, but if they don’t recalibrate their internal thermostat to that lower weight, there’s a good chance they’ll regain it.

If you’ve tried unsuccessfully for years to make positive changes in your business and nothing has gotten better, or you’ve only experienced minimal improvements, there’s a good chance that your internal thermostat needs to be reset.  To reset it requires purposeful, mindful action.  Why?  Because your mindset—your thermostat—is controlled by thoughts and ideas which you learned years ago, and which run silently in the background, shaping your results without you even being consciously aware of it.

If you’ve tried to make improvements and failed repeatedly, you’re likely neglecting the internal, mindset work necessary to make those improvements a permanent reality.  In part two I’ll give some concrete exercises you can do to reset your thermostat, and experience the success that’s eluding you.

 

To Tons Of Customers!

Jim Augustus Armstrong is The “Coach”

Jim Augustus Armstrong is the President of Flooring Success Systems, a program that equips dealers to double their profits, cut their work hours in half and beat the boxes! Many dealers have totally transformed their businesses and their lives for the better after joining Flooring Success Systems.
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