Lesson learned

It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood. My old truck sold and sold for a price thousands more than the dealers were offering for a trade-in. Tonight, I went out and celebrated the victory. The victory wasn’t that it sold as much as how it sold. It was a celebration of a lesson learned; learned about 40 years ago. It was my first professional job and I was meeting with my boss. He brought up that our sales were running behind budget. I had analyzed that and cited the market conditions that were reasons for it. He had been somewhat reclined in his executive chair, but sat up and leaned toward me. “Dorfman, I don’t hire people to come up with reasons why we’re behind budget. I can get hundreds of people who can do that. I pay people to find ways to hit our numbers.” Message and lesson received. Deciding to sell the truck on my own, as opposed to taking a lowball dealer trade-in price, I had researched the best places to advertise. I came up with three well-rated ones and placed the ads. I anticipated a good response because I had intentionally selected a hot seller when I bought the truck. I gave the ads a week to gain traction but it was tepid, at best. Analysis showed that someone had apparently acquired a number of similar models coming off lease and dumped them on the market. Great timing. But, the lesson is that you don’t sit back and suffer poor outcomes. You do something about it. I started by assessing my “product” and where it had differential advantages. Then, I listed the types of buyers to whom these advantages would have the most appeal. In this case, farmers, boaters, landscapers, trailer campers, etc. Using this template, I compiled an email list and composed a sales email the illustrated how this acquisition was a rare opportunity. The truck sold almost immediately. If you assign outside factors and other people responsibility for your outcomes, you lose. If you take responsibility and control, you win. It’s a lesson that served me well.