Mike Kunkel 
As life and business continue to happen, sometimes at breakneck speed, things in the business start to take on identities. It is often said that the identity or tone is set from the top down. Everyone knows that good leadership is required for any organization to prosper. There are many business management books that discuss … Read more
We recently started holding some Profit Team Peer Groups with people in attendance. We are fortunate enough to hold a number of our meetings in Fort Worth, Texas which has opened to the point of small social and business gatherings are permissible. One of the best parts of the peer group meetings in the interaction … Read more
There are a number of owner’s out there who are experiencing a nice run of sales and profits. Business is not without challenges, especially around buying, but sales have not been a much of a concern. That has had a tendency for management to ease off of sales managing. The theory being if it isn’t … Read more
How does mental health impact sales and why in the world should I care about mental health? The world we live in has always had problems but the last few years seems to have taken on a whole new definition of change and problems. All people experience highs and lows but as salespeople, we tend … Read more
The first quarter of 2021 is almost over. Both January and February were short months but March has an extra day or two in there to help make for the normal number of work days in a quarter. As winter starts to get ready to exit, we will be settled in for the coming sales … Read more
There is a saying that says second verse same as the first. There is another that says that the only constant is change. The final cliché saying I am going to recite is that history always repeats itself. What do all of these things have to do with the auto recycling industry? The calendar has … Read more
While the overall impact of COVID 19 has been negative, for a variety of reasons, the sale of used auto parts has been robust in 2020. We have been riding a wave of sales that in some ways defies logic. During this period of time, we have seen a visible decrease in the number of … Read more
The year of 2020 will be remembered, talked about & researched forever. All of those things will be good topics but the reality is we have businesses that need to be run profitably during a period of time that sees many different ideas and principals in play. Simple math and deductive reasoning — skills that … Read more
The calendar is clicking off the months and we find that fall is in the air. Fall means a lot of different things to people. From a business standpoint, this is the time of the year that our thought process needs to start looking towards the coming year. October starts the 4th and final quarter … Read more
I travel extensively and one of the things that I notice everyplace I travel to is the number of help wanted signs that I see on seemingly every business. The unemployment rate in the world is at an all-time low. This has created problems for the auto recycler as we have struggled to find good … Read more
A recent Profit Team Group meeting was hosted by Arizona Auto Parts in Phoenix. The meeting was attended by family patriarch and third generation auto recycler, Mike Pierson Senior. During the opening statements we were informed that it was the 100th anniversary of Arizona Auto Parts as they opened in 1919. Michael Pierson Junior is … Read more
The New Year is upon us. Do you have a plan in place to make 2019 a better year than 2018? Could you set some new sales and even better profit records in the coming year? Some of the things that you should have done by now include your annual SWOT assessment. What is a … Read more
If you visit most any auto recycler you will find that they all have a few things in common. They all have vehicles waiting to be dismantled, vehicles that have already been dismantled and parts that have been removed and placed in some type of warehouse or storage facility. The collection of these three is … Read more
Sales management is a really big thing. The need for a sales manager depends on the organization and size but that does not change the need for sales management. I was recently asked to help a Pinnacle site with this subject and wanted to share with you what we came up with. While this is … Read more
I made a choice to make a big change in my life recently and that change has allowed me to see things from a different perspective at times. An example of this different perspective is staffing a sales department. I want to go ahead and put a disclaimer out there that I am guilty of … Read more
I was recently asked which reports are the best to look over every month. One of the things that you need to do to continue to develop as managers and motivators of people, is create good habits and routines. As the leaders of the business you need to get your own routine in place of … Read more
We have a quarterly cycle involving the peer groups that we work with. We have just finished the latest round and it never ceases to amaze me how themes develop with common issues and problems that the recycler is battling. This round of meets saw us spending a lot of time discussing delegation. Delegation has … Read more
This calendar year has seen many changes for me both personally and professionally. Some of the really big things I have been hit with have been at the same time. Some people would refer to this as a run of bad luck. Others might call is coincidences while some might call it Karma as life … Read more
The first quarter of 2018 is over. A number of people are having strange weather patterns which could allow a strong start to the second quarter. We find that the first quarter of the year is our best sales period and we are very busy. Now that the second quarter is here it is time … Read more
Someone sent me a question asking about the best way to remove himself from sales and get his sales team to pick up the slack and increase their need to close sales. At the same time someone else is asking about creating a new position of sales manager. Both questions end up with a lot … Read more
I am a really big fan of the month of January. You get the best of both worlds. You get to look behind at the full year that we just completed while being able to plan for the 12 months that we are about to embark on. Failure to understand how we arrived were we … Read more
We have heard a number of stories over the last few months about the core / commodity buyers taking months to pay for the product they are purchasing. The core market has certainly changed over the last 5 years. The core segment of our business has been a true growth opportunity for the last several … Read more
I recently sat in on a presentation and the topic of reputation management came up. In the online visual world that we live in our reputation is being shown everywhere. If you stop and think about it, we have spent our entire lives managing our reputations. We are taught not to lie and steal at … Read more
Two hurricanes have hit in the United States in short order. The destruction in TX is devastating and the number of people who did not have flood insurance or low policy limits is going to be a staggering number. The number of total loss vehicles in TX alone is supposed to be close to 1 … Read more
I have been on a whirlwind tour lately and have seen lots of recyclers and one of the things that we spent time talking about is the customer experience. How many of us stop and look at the facility from the customer’s point of view? You have many different perspectives that you deal with. What … Read more
It is that time of year again! We have more sales months behind us for the year than we have remaining. How is 2017 shaping up for you? Profit Team Consulting feels that the current environment is conducive to making profits. Knowing where you currently stand financially is important for a variety of reasons. We … Read more
The used parts business is a bit different in how we operate than a lot of other businesses. With that being said, there is a lot about our businesses that are the same as every other business in every other industry. One of those commonalities is in the hiring of people being problematic. Why are … Read more
What are projected sales? Projected sales are the reason that you purchased the vehicle. Many people use bidding software to help them decide what they need to purchase and what they could pay for it. Even more people shoot from the hip using their intuitive knowledge to determine what to pay. These are extremely different … Read more
We had a new customer come to a group meeting and made a comment that they really liked the meeting but thought we would spend more time talking about bottom line profit percentage. I commented that we spent 2 days talking about nothing but making money. He accurately pointed out that we did not discuss … Read more