Wasted opportunities are so frustrating to witness – whether they’re our own or those of others. The ball sent well wide of the open goal. Kodak’s refusal to develop the digital technology it had itself invented.

In the world of automotive retail, wasted opportunities can often be found in abundance.

We don’t call back. We don’t follow-up. We don’t keep in touch. Or we call after 35 months of silence to see if our ‘valued customer’ has thought about what they’ll replace their current car with in a couple of weeks.

As a result, the bucket (or sales funnel) we’ve worked so hard to fill with prospects and customers keeps on leaking. As we all know, it’s harder to find new prospects and win new customers than to convince existing ones to stay with us. Eventually, there’ll be nothing left to pour into the bucket.

How to we become blind to, or tolerant of, this waste?

Often, it’s because we focus on the numbers and the ‘things we need to do’ – a form of ‘sweating the small stuff’. Sure, there’s always paperwork and reporting to be done – but you can’t fatten the pig by weighing it, as the saying goes.

Taking the time to step back and evaluate what’s really important can sometimes be difficult; but only by setting the admin to one side for a while to see where we’re missing easy opportunities can we begin to plug the holes in our leaky buckets – and make our professional lives easier, more rewarding and more profitable.