The Power of Self-Examination

Grace Lupoi 0:00

Welcome to Prepare to Win . I'm Grace and this is David Lowe , the automotive sales coach , and today we're gonna walk through the power of self-examination .

David Lowe 0:07

You're gonna wanna stay tuned . ["self Examination"] . Hey , I'm so glad that you're with us . We're gonna talk about a power principle , right ? Everything we do in this podcast , every episode , is dedicated to living and working with excellence . Right , leveling up whatever you're doing , becoming better at right . We believe a life in pursuit of excellence is one . It's a healthy pride , right . Joy , peace and satisfaction . Today , we're gonna talk about self-examination and really relate it in a practical sense to the coaching we do at automotive sales coach , right ? So what is self-examination ? I'm gonna take you back some thousands of years , like I always do .

David Lowe 0:55

The apostle Paul said each person should examine themself . And then we know that one of the famous quote nobody knows exactly who said it first , because it's been misquoted by somebody said that an unexamined life isn't worth living , right ? In other words , we want to constantly be reviewing ourselves . Self-examination . So view ourselves on what Today did I live according to my values ? Now we know that Ben Franklin did this 200 years ago . He had his 13 virtues . This is what I'm gonna do today . Every day I woke up . What good am I gonna do ? What am I gonna learn today ? And he was focused on one virtue at a time , right ? And then at the end of the day he would self-examine how did I do on it , right ? The joke is , when he was on the humility , I was really humbled . Today I did a great job , right , anyway .

David Lowe 1:52

So there's this thing of self-examination . It's not enough to set the course right . You have to make sure you're on track to hit your destination . So self-examination is like a timeout . How did I ? I like the daily one , as I'm reflecting on my goals for tomorrow .

David Lowe 2:13

My morning day planning now is at night , the night before , because I'm getting up really early to go to the gym and stuff . So I like to make sure that the night before I set out what I'm gonna do , review my calendar , review the tasks , the projects , whatever . And that's a great time for me to say how did I do today right ? Did I live according to my values ? Did I achieve my goals ? Was my attitude and actions good ? Where was I weak ? Where did I suck in ? Where did I really excel right ? That's the only that's like a self-aligning thing . It's like looking at your car on the road are you you know where you're supposed to be ? I think what if you don't align ? So self-examination is supposed to keep you on the road you wanna be at right .

David Lowe 3:00

So we know that for salesmen , we talk about areas of opportunity what are you doing really well ? And areas of excuse me , areas of excellence what are you doing really well ? And areas of opportunity what could you be doing better than you're doing ? So , area of excellence . Of course I'm doing this really well . I gotta keep doing that . Areas of opportunity holy crap , I wish I hadn't done that . I need to do better and that's really cool because that means you can excel . So , as you do this with salespeople in a real practical way right , I think you call it the deal self-examination . So let's walk through kind of what you do with that and how you interact with and how salespeople respond to that .

Grace Lupoi 3:42

So I mean also it really starts off with our BTTY better today than yesterday right . And how can we be better today if I don't know how I did yesterday ?

David Lowe 3:50

That's a good point , but it's just what you're talking about . You gotta have a benchmark right . Exactly , a measuring stick , yeah .

Grace Lupoi 3:55

Right . So I hold these meetings with these new sales consultants and really it's just like that , as we're developing these habits . What are the things I'm doing really well and what are the things I need to improve on Excellence opportunity . It's been really cool and I've really seen a pattern of the people who wanna take that personal responsibility and then we go through their deal and say , hey , I did this and I did this and I did this and I did this . They're having more success and they're still finding ways . Well , how about this ? And they ask some questions and how can I improve maybe the way I told the store or how can I improve the way I led my customers ? I still have phone calls all the time .

David Lowe 4:28

So let's go back , let's go back to that . So you're actually walking them through . You're making them go back to start , that's right , and walk through the last deal they did , or a deal right , one , two right . So it's like they're re-driving the route Right . And now they're re-driving the route as a spectator , kind of looking at themselves how did I do ? And you're going right down the sales process and what I think I heard you say is that at each step they're evaluating , based on the training or the best practice , the success model they've learned . Right ? Is that right ?

Grace Lupoi 5:06

That's right , okay , so keep going , exactly , yeah . So yeah , like you said , we go through how a deal that they either sold or one that wasn't sold . I'll let them pick a deal that you would like to talk through . Yeah , refresh yourself beforehand and I have them tell me . So , tell me about this deal . And it just starts off with a conversation Well , I had so-and-so come in . They called in , made an appointment , they walked me through . I went through everything . How did I meet them ? I walked them through , what did you learn at each step ? How did the step go ? And I allow them to tell me and we set the stage for this is in an area to talk about what you're doing well and how can I continue to get better .

David Lowe 5:40

Yeah .

Grace Lupoi 5:40

Right , I know that the more I do and the better I am , the more I make . So who wouldn't want to talk through that formula ?

David Lowe 5:47

right ? Yeah , so that self-examination , you're just facilitating it done Right , You're not examining them . I'm telling you what you did well , I'm telling you what you did wrong . You're saying let me facilitate , Let me walk you through this as you examine your steps . That's the power , isn't it ? That is our , so somebody else can tell you . But when you discover holy cow , it's like a the light bulb goes off , you're like , oh , I can't believe I did that .

David Lowe 6:15

I can't believe I said that , and it's kind of cool that you're there for coaching at that moment to remind them of the success model , right ? What does a good job look like ?

Grace Lupoi 6:25

Exactly .

David Lowe 6:26

Yeah .

Grace Lupoi 6:26

And as we're walking through , the cool thing is , like you said , I asked , hey , how did the trial close go ? And I say , well , I mean it went okay . And then that opens the door for some additional conversation .

Grace Lupoi 6:37

And this is an area that maybe they're not quite hitting their capacity on or maybe they're not doing it as the full potential that they have . And so , walking through that and allowing to have that coaching moment , they kind of get to be refreshed on here's why I do this step , here's why it serves me and they get to kind of lead themselves through that discovery .

David Lowe 6:54

So the self-examination is not simply for actions , right . It's also for uncovering areas of opportunity to have in training . What things have I mastered ? What things am I still struggling with ? Right , not just what am I doing and not doing , not just what am I saying and not saying , but as I'm going through this , I might find patterns of areas . The reason I'm not doing or saying what I feel like I should have is because maybe the depth of my knowledge and understanding isn't there yet . That's right . I got to go back to training .

David Lowe 7:29

That's exactly right so having you there to coach . I think everybody needs a coach , Right ? So we talked about . Yeah , right , we talked about . I think we all do . I think it was a few episodes back about accountability . Nobody's their best . I'm sure we're going to talk about again such a powerful principle , but a coach is an accountability partner . That's really all it is . A coach Help you . If you don't want to improve , the coach can't do anything .

Grace Lupoi 7:54

Right .

David Lowe 7:54

So the coach doesn't improve you . The coach is a facilitator for your improvement , Right ? That's why coaches and professional sports are so powerful . Every player wants to be the best , and so all that coach is doing is help them . See , there's your excellence , there's your opportunity . Let's go after it , right . Right , so it's fantastic . So how did that go ahead ? I'm sorry .

Grace Lupoi 8:14

Well , it just leads right back to those areas of personal responsibility . Yeah Right , I'm there , like you said , to facilitate that evaluation . How am I doing ? And then it's up to them whether they decide . You know what I'm going to continue to strive and work on my area of opportunity or I'm just going to ignore it and kind of focus on what I can do .

David Lowe 8:32

well , Isn't that amazing ? Yeah , so we do have two types of people . We talked about this in an episode not too long ago Yep , leaders and followers , right . And a leader takes responsibility . A follower is going to be like yeah , I did a deal examination and not do much with it Right . A leader is going to accept responsibility for their own improvement . And , when you look around , people who succeed and excel , make a difference or benefit to others Right . Typically make these decisions to get better in these areas . They don't need somebody , they need a coach to remind them , but they're the ones who are going to have to actively decide every day what they have to do to become better . So that's very good . Let me ask you this how are most students ? How do they respond to the self-examination ? Positive or negative ?

Grace Lupoi 9:23

Very positive , very positive , very positive , right , because once again , we are the ones that are facilitating it and it's really a conversation . How are things going ?

David Lowe 9:30

Yeah .

Grace Lupoi 9:31

And , like we said , those that choose to take leadership and take that person's responsibility . They've got that clear game plan of what am I going to do next , right , and even if they're not quite ready for that step or they don't think they're ready to take that step and just have the conversation , it still tunes them to be intentional on what they're doing the rest of that day , week , month , et cetera .

David Lowe 9:50

That's cool . So I've said for a long time we go into dealerships and the businesses and what do your employees want Right ? Do they know what a good job looks like ? They want to know that Right . They want to be treated with respect , valued , appreciate . We know all these things Right . One thing that many leaders don't realize is their team members want accountability . It seems like everybody's trying to get away from accountability , and that's true because I think a lot of the other parameters haven't been decided . What's a good job look like ? But what a good job looks like becomes more and more clear . People want to be told how am I doing Right ? What am I crushing ?

David Lowe 10:36

That's right , and what do I need to do better ? I feel like it's one of the missing ingredients in management and leadership . Is this positive accountability , our pillar number three in leadership . So it kind of fits together , doesn't it ? Personal self-examination , leadership , set clear and high expectations , hold them positively accountable and , of course , love unconditionally right . Pillar four Give that feedback , Coach correct and graduate Feedback to help inspire .

David Lowe 11:04

So today we're talking about a principle . I just don't think anybody's ever really become great without this principle , which is the principle of self-examination . How am I doing ? How am I living the life that I want ? Am I living the life according to the values that I've set , the things that are important to me ? Are they coming out ? Am I becoming the person I wanna become ? Are my actions and attitudes the ones that I want to relive and to write over and over ? And so we wanna remind you that if you want to be a benefit to others , if you wanna be a success , we call success living with

Defining Success Through Self-Examination

David Lowe 11:46

excellence . It's hard to define success in material things , but you can define it in peace of mind , joy , peace and satisfaction . You can define it in healthy pride , and we know that comes from pursuit of our best self . Self-examination is a tool and a principle that will help you live that way .

Grace Lupoi 12:06

And , like we said , that humility and taking that humility , it's power . There's power in saying I'm really great at what I do and I can get better , which ? Is gonna lead you to living with that joy , peace and satisfaction . Even just this morning I had a phone call from a sales consultant said hey , I'm coaching this newer sales consultant on leasing . How does this go again ? Did I do it right ? And even he is taking that hey , how can I make it better , not only for himself but also for the sales consultant he's teaching ?

David Lowe 12:32

Isn't that fantastic .

Grace Lupoi 12:33

There's power in asking for feedback . And how am I doing ? People wanna know , like you said , they want to know what does a great job look like . I'm not quite up to par . How can I get there ?

David Lowe 12:41

That's right , and self-examination is a tool that serves us . So I think we thank you for joining us for this episode , and thanks for following this podcast , joining in whenever you can and liking this podcast , sharing it with friends , and I think what you're probably gonna see if you watch or listen to more episodes is how interdependent these principles become , how one feeds the other . Is that right ? And so , in pursuit of our best self , we might as well pursue the principles that drive excellence into our life . They're timeless principles , they're free to everyone , and everybody who seeks them will find them . Seek is an active word , though , and one of the things that we're doing with this podcast , and every episode is dedicated to helping seekers find the information they need to level up , to become better today than yesterday . So thanks for joining us . I'm David Lowe , the Automotive Sales Grace , Lupoi . We thank you so much , and good selling .