"TURNED ON: EIGHT VITAL INSIGHTS TO ENERGIZE YOUR PEOPLE, CUSTOMERS, AND PROFITS"
INTERNATIONAL CARWASH ASSOCIATION CAR CARE EXPO
LAS VEGAS CONVENTION CENTER, LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, JUNE 4, 2001

Look at the changes in Vegas. That’s a little lesson on what’s going on in life. There are changes all around us. There is stadium seating in movie theaters. Marriott has bought the Ritz-Carlton.

What brings it home is when you see changes with your family.

How many e-mails were sent in the last year? 3 trillion. Compare that with the 160 billion items sent first class mail.

Look at the impact of internet sales. My daughter wanted to buy a specific basketball and so she went to Sports Authority. They didn’t have the basketball she wanted and they tried to sell her something different. She didn’t buy it. She went home and ordered exactly what she wanted off the internet and it arrived the next day. That’s bad news for Sports Authority. Is my daughter ever going to go back to Sports Authority? And she is good for sales for 17 years — or more.

Tom Peters says this is a fabulous, cool time to be involved in business because all best are off. Literally, everything is being re-defined. It is so possible to lose it all if you don’t stay on top if it.

This is not an environment that is forgiving to people who don’t step out and take a risk.

In the selling business, this is not the time to go for a little twist here or a little tweak there. Really go for it. Create a connection with your customer, new packaging, features or services.

We are so lucky. This is a once every 200-300 years time of change. For the bold, the aggressive, there is an opportunity that hasn’t existed to reinvent. I hope 5% of you listening have the guts to step forward.

What is the opportunity we have? What would Starbucks do if they owned one of your carwashes? What would Disney do? What would Ritz-Carlton do?