Exactly two years ago I spoke at a Tire Pros Convention in New Orleans and after my talk a Tulsa man by the name of Danny Smith walked up to me, looked me in the eye and said, “This commitment thing, I’m in, let’s do it!”

My talk was about how business and life show up in language, in the stories we tell ourselves about what we can do and what we can’t do and what we have time to do and what we have no time to do. Stories and language is how we live.

I spoke about my Language Of Commitment training program and why the distinctions surrounding ‘commitment’ were the most important thing for people to grapple with. I shared with the audience that the only time ‘commerce occurs’ is when ‘commitments are exchanged with customers. I shared that over about a 20 year period I had listened to and analyzed more than 1,000,000 business sales calls and that my study revealed that as a society we have ‘forgotten’ how to generate commitments. Yet this activity is the cornerstone of commerce.

Danny Smith threw his company into the Language Of Commitment program and he embraced the principles and implemented my teaching throughout his company.

His results have been amazing!

First of all, prior to embracing the Language Of Commitment Danny was quite happy with a 3-6 % growth rate which was normal. As a 5 store chain, he was happy to be growing at all. At the same time, he was under tons of pressure to maintain that rate of growth. Trying to figure the right mix of advertising and trying to balance payroll and overhead to achieve such a low rate of growth was very stressful. So when we met and her hears my message he was ready to try my approach which was simple. First, fix the language in the company. Second, put the money in the bank. Third, don’t spend more on advertising. Four, put more money in the bank.

In 2017, the first year on my program, Same Day Automotive, Tire Pros, grew 22% and Danny put a Million Dollars in the bank. During 2018, he repeated that by growing 20%. He took the excess cash (I like that term) and bought another store, where he’s in the process of implementing the ‘plan’ all over again.

The growth is fantastic, but there are some more important benefits of becoming a ‘commitment based company’. First and foremost, all 65 of his employees are now ‘on the same page’. They all know that Danny employs them to ‘make commitments’ of behalf of the company. Having everyone on the same page has reduced Danny’s stress level. His employees are so happy working at Same Day that they help with the recruiting of new employees. Same Day has a waiting list for both Technicians and Sales Staff. It’s just a great place to work. It’s become a ‘commitment based / listening organization’.

Results for 2019 are being written now, but from what I hear sales are moving in the right direction and Danny Smith is looking for more acquisitions.

Finally, Danny Smith and I are so encouraged with the results that we started the BPU - Best Practice University to share the secrets with other business people who are willing to learn some new moves.

You can learn more by visiting - www.bestpracticeuniversity.com

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