An Introduction and Thanks

Greetings!

Thanks for the opportunity to introduce, or rather, re-introduce myself.

I was previously employed as an ADP Dealer Services Territory Manager working in Oklahoma and Kansas under Lee Novak. I left ADP to pursue opportunities locally in the energy industry but have found myself drawn back to ADP with a very clearly defined desire to be a successful ADP RSM. I have a strong desire to help dealer clients weather current market conditions and prepare for the future while consistently achieving President's Club status by selling Retail Solutions Products, unhooking the competition and protecting market share against competitors.

Some key examples where you might find my skills and experience perfectly suited to this position include:

1. Experience assessing Dealer Client needs and other criteria regarding the introduction of new processes or technology. In my previous dealership management positions, I was responsible for introducing service technician training programs, Internet sales systems, used vehicle certification, inventory management tools and managing a database of over 15,000 customers (our repeat and referral business was the highest among our dealership peers). As an ADP Dealer Services Territory Manager I also successfully made the case for upgrading / upselling DMS systems and other services to dealer clients.
   
2. Ability to understand and communicate technical information and concepts. I worked in close relationship with other baseline sales representatives, TSMs, RSMs and ADP implementation personnel. I am also capable of consultative selling with dealer clients by performing meaningful dealership discovery. I feel very strongly about the potential for CRM and associated products as tools to increase dealership sales and customer satisfaction and bind dealers more effectively to ADP.
   
3. Excellent customer service and leadership skills. My experience in retail automotive dealership management and outside sales territory management gives me the unique experience and ability to be able to understand the importance of managing a wide variety of dealer principal, decision maker and key manager relationships, with both large and small dealerships, and to understand how critical it is to deliver best in class customer service.
   

It is also my desire to express in plain language my level of interest in helping dealers improve their operations through proven industry leading products, practices, knowledge and training. I am convinced that this is the key to survival through some of the most challenging times facing the auto industry and the key for future success. I would like to be a part of helping confront these challenges while becoming a rainmaker for ADP Dealer Services. I can’t think of a better opportunity to use my experience and skills to make a difference and to achieve my personal and professional goals.

Check Out My Resume (Mouse over and click for larger image)

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True Multi- Dimensional Dealership Experience

I have had perhaps a little more "boots on the ground" experience than the average ADP sales representative. I would count myself fortunate to be able to leverage this experience for my own success and for the success of ADP as well.

I started my career in the car business at the age of 14 washing used cars and keeping the shop floors clean during the week after school. I also kept the parts warehouse organized. On Saturdays, I was responsible for keeping the lot clean, keeping the dust off the new and used inventory and cleaning the service department from top to bottom (our service department was closed on Saturdays in the early years).

When I turned 16 and earned my drivers license, I was put to work running parts deliveries in the afternoons and stocking in parts, I eventually worked my way to the back parts counter and front parts counter where I learned the value of accurate and timely information and the need for good communication between departments. Dayton Bird, our Parts Manager, was a good man and a great boss who set aside the time to make sure he was a mentor and not just someone keeping an eye on the dealer's kid. He had a great deal of respect for the power of the ADP DMS and shared that with me. I owe him a lot.

After Parts, I moved to the service department as a Service Advisor and eventually an assistant service manager. It was from David Sullins, our service manager, that I learned how to deal with customers, manage schedules and juggle several different tasks and customers at the same time. Of the four Honda dealerships in Oklahoma City, ours was in the 4th worst location so I learned quickly how important customer relationship management was to our survival. We had a database of over 15,000 customers that we guarded jealously and mined for opportunities. I wish CRM had been available back then.

I went to college at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma in 1984 and was lucky that we operated a smaller Honda franchise in that city at the time. This allowed me to continue working and learning while I earned a degree. I worked in new and used sales part-time during this period and eventually became the Service/Parts manager (the store was small enough to need only one manager for both departments) after graduating in 1990. In retrospect, this was a perfect arrangement as it allowed me to learn how to manage all fixed operations, manually at first and then with an ADP DMS later.

I moved back to Oklahoma City about a year later and worked as a new and used vehicle salesperson and then a new vehicle department manager. Shortly thereafter, I became the Vice-President of the company. The General Manager left in 1997 and I was promoted to General Manager.

In 2002 my father sold the dealership and I worked in the General Manager position for the new owners, Sonic Automotive. Throughout this period I saw the dealership through the transition from private ownership to public ownership and learned a great deal about dealership valuations and buy-sells.

I have been fortunate throughout my career to have had good opportunities but, most of all, I have been surrounded by terrific people who made my job easier that it may have ordinarily been.

Personal Marketing Action Plan and Work Priorities

Click the image above to view my Personal Marketing Action Plan

Click the image above to view my Work Prority Pledge

Personal Philosophy and Influences

My favorite business philosopher is Jim Rohn. Jim Rohn has some great ideas to share and one of his simplest and most powerful is the 5 steps from Average to Fortune. I decided to adopt and integrate these ideas in to my own daily life. I feel that they are important and I would like to share some with you.

Average to Fortune can be summed up in these 5 steps:

Get Serious - Don't be grim but be serious. There is no substitute for this. You must be serious about designing your future. How far do you want to go? What do you want to do economically? What do you want to share? If you want to design the future, you have to get serious. 10 years from now you will surely arrive, the question is where? To answer this question, you have to get serious.

Get Smart - To make life worthwhile, you must get smart. To succeed professionally, you have to learn the sales skills, get the experience, absorb the product knowledge. To succeed personally you have to commit to personal growth so you have to continue to work on yourself. Today more than ever, the future belongs to the people who get smart. The key is to be wiser this year than you were last year, and wiser still than you were two years ago.

Get Going - All the things you have learned will do nothing for you unless you put them into action. Some people are always learning but don't go into action. You have to have an action plan and get going. Design your days, design you weeks and design your months.

Get Excited - Not just the false enthusiasm of positive thinking but attitude. Get excited about your ability to make yourself do the necessary things. Discipline is major step one toward major personal progress. No telling what you can accomplish today, if you really wish to. Get excited about your potential.

Get Away - There is an important thing called life balance. Learn to get away and reflect and truly absorb what you have learned. Some people have money but they don't know how to spend it. Some people have time, but they don't know how to spend it. It's called lifestyle. Take time to re-charge your batteries, enjoy your family and remind yourself why you want to work so hard to be successful in the first place.

Traits and Skills Make Me the Best Choice

Desire: At this point in my career, I have probably the greatest desire to succeed than at any other time in my life. My choice is to succeed as an ADP RSM. My definition of success is, simply, to be the best RSM in the nation – one who sets the benchmarks in sales and dealer loyalty for others to follow, one who consistently achieves President Club status year in and year out, helping assure that my supervisors and team members do the same. I am ready to go.

Skill Set / Industry Knowledge: As a 15 year veteran of the car business, I know the dealership landscape. I have no problem selling decision makers on the value of CRM and other front end products because, as a former decision maker myself, I believe in products like CRM. I believe in the value of training and solid sales and customer retention processes. I have learned that, while this my dealership and industry experience is an advantage, it is not a substitute for hard work, determination, skill and a killer instinct.

Familiarity with ADP Dealer Services culture, ADP products and sales cycles: It takes about 2 years for an ADP sales representative to absorb the culture, processes, knowledge and to build the internal relationships needed to succeed. It is to my advantage that I have already cleared many of these hurdles and can use the knowledge to get a quicker, more well-grounded start than someone who is essentially new to an RSM position with ADP. It is also an advantage that I left ADP on very good terms. I am well respected and well liked by baseline representatives and would be able to use this to my advantage to quickly partner with them to take advantage of existing opportunities. I would also be able to work closely with them to dig up even more. This also applies to my relationships with sales directors and other supervisors. I have a very good relationship with potential superiors and a great deal of respect for them as well. Please know that I understand that my QC quota is THE measurement of my success, regardless of personal relationships.

Short term and long term goals: I think it is important for anyone involved in considering me for the RSM position to know that I am very goal oriented. As I mentioned above, my immediate professional short term goal is to become the best RSM ADP has and set the example for others to follow. I believe that short term goals are the short term “points of arrival” that mark successfully completed segments of the long term journey. I fully intend to achieve the level of compensation necessary to reach these goals. I know that there are short term goals and long term goals for everyone in sales management at ADP and I think it is terrific that I can help them achieve theirs while I am achieving mine.

The Family Blog

If you want to see a little bit about the Bailey family, feel free to visit our personal blog at: http://www.baileysawadee.blogspot.com/ I started this blog and use it from time to time to post information for family and friends. I also use it as a bulletin board of sorts on the occasions when my wife, Nisha travels. I am a lucky husband to Nisha and the proud father of Colleen ( 5 yrs.) and Andy (2 1/2 yrs).

Common Interests

I think it is very exciting that ADP continues to expand into other markets internationally.

The ability to think long term and see the advantages of continuing to invest in emerging and growing markets one of the character traits about ADP that I have always admired. I find it interesting and a compelling coincidence that some of the most recent expansion has come in Thailand and Finland. My interest in and knowledge of Thai culture and the Thai business environment (specifically the retail auto industry and OEM manufacturers) and familiarity with the Thai language is a result of my 11 year marriage to my wife, who is Thai. I have had the good fortune to travel to Thailand on many occasions to visit family, often for several weeks at a time. (Please see the family blog post above).

My interest in ADP's acquisition of Automaster Oy stems from the knowledge that it represents efforts to grow into the Eastern European and Russian markets. I have traveled extensively in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Russia, and Ukraine (living in Germany for nearly two years in the 1990's where I met my wife) and completed a minor in Russian studies at Oklahoma State University (with two years of Russian language studies) and maintain an intense interest in this part of the world.