over the curb / parting thoughts The Best Type of Savings
An 18-year former dealer principal with focus on Special Finance since 1989, Greg Goebel is CEO of Auto Dealer Monthly, LLC, the parent company of Greg Goebel Training & Consulting. He is a leading industry consultant, trainer, author and speaker serving retail automotive dealers. Contact Greg at 941.685.9629.
Greg@AutoDealerMonthly.com
Subprime Conference and inaugural CRM Conference held in September as part of the 2012 Industry Summit in . If you missed it, and too many of you did, it was a phenomenal event. It was a record crowd in spite of the fact that manufac- turers did their very best to schedule their mandatory new car announcement meetings on top of our dates.
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But this isn't a column to talk about the convention. I learned of a life-changing event of another dealer and friend of mine while in Las Vegas, and that has me climbing back on my soapbox again this month.
Many of you remember that about a year-and-a-half ago I "died" from sudden cardiac arrest while in the middle of running a marathon. Only through extremely good fortune was I revived by the efforts of a physician—Dr. Bob Aby of , Minn., who happened to be running about 100 yards behind me—and a nurse—Heather Ann Holley, also of , who happened to be a spectator). Very simply, they had been trained and were confident to use cardiopul- monary resuscitation (CPR). Due to their quick action, I was able to wake up four days later, whereas any rescue efforts by
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t the time of this writing, I am just back from our sixth annual
EMTs would have been delayed too long and been too late.
As you can imagine, I am rather passionate about CPR. When I run marathons now, my singlet has a simple and large message on it: "Learn CPR, it saved my life." It dawned on me upon learning about another friend's scare that I have been too quiet on the subject of CPR in your dealership in this forum.
While all my friends and clients know about my situation, they have done little to foster CPR training in their dealerships, let alone their communities. They ask questions about how I am doing (excellent, by the way) and marvel at my miraculous recovery. Then, I always ask them what would happen should a similar incident occur in their store. I always tell them how dealership-wide CPR instruction could save their life someday. And I always tell them how inexpensive an auto- mated external defibrillator (AED) is, along with reminding them that half their sales team appear to be heart-attacks-in- waiting, and if not them, many of their customers. They always say, "Good point! That's a great idea!" And, of course, it stops there.
Consider the following from the American Heart Association Science Advisory:
• Fewer than 8 percent of the people who suffer sudden cardiac arrest outside of a hospital survive.
• In many areas of the , fewer than one in three victims of cardiac arrest receive CPR from a bystander.
• Of people trained in CPR, 35 percent offer help in a cardiac emergency.
• Of those not trained in CPR, 5 percent offer help in a cardiac emergency.
• Cardiac arrest survival rates can at least double in areas where AEDs are available and emergency response plans are in place.
• The chance of survival from cardiac arrest decreases by 7 to 10 percent for every minute of delay until defibrillation.
All 50 states provide "Good Samaritan" protection for people who use AEDs to help cardiac arrest victims.
Several states require CPR training as a requirement for high school graduation—in- cluding Alabama, Indiana, Louisiana, North Carolina, Nevada and Rhode Island and Texas. Several other states have introduced legislation this year to follow suite.
According to the NADA 2012 State of the Industry Report, in 2011, franchise dealers em- ployed 933,500 people (more than the population of all but 10 U.S. cities), averaging 53 people per dealership.
Dealerships are always looking for ways to savehow to cut
insurance costs, floor plan, advertising, etc. How about a way to save lives? Doesn't that count? I have two dealer friends who have also been saved by CPR and/or AEDs. I am sure there are more. (I'd love to hear your story if you have been, too.)
From a selfish side, the more people in your organization who know CPR, the better the chance you have of surviving a similar event. From a commu- nity standpoint, dealerships are always looking for genuine ways to give back to their community. This is exactly that type of thing.
Our magazine has a little more than 66,000 readers each month. I realize that 99 percent of the people reading this will think, "Wow, he's got a point; that makes sense." Then the phone will ring, or someone will need something to make a car deal, and all will be forgotten. If just one half of that remaining percentage take action by training their staffs, that could cause more than 17,000 people to learn CPR and I am confident at least one life will be saved due to it. That means this occasional soapbox of not discussing something directly pertaining to the retail automotive industry is worth it and is why I will continue to advocate for CPR training and AEDs in dealerships.
Until next month, get your team trained!
Greg Goebel Publisher