Embracing New Models.

My first thought when I saw today’s fortune was to quote Steve Jobs when he said, “be yourself, everyone else is taken.” I’m sorry, I just looked it up—Oscar Wilde said that one. But Steve did say, "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.” Either of these would be a great foundation for an inspirational cookie, but I don’t want to.

I’d rather share an inspiring story I discovered yesterday about a car dealership that changed its entire business model to become exactly what its customers needed.

A statewide stay-at-home order was issued on April 1, 2020. For David Dodge, a car dealership in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, it was an impossible situation. Even the most eager buyers were reluctant to visit the dealership in person, and for the entire month of April, they sold no cars.

Confronted with this crisis, David Dodge swiftly shifted their focus to online car sales, home delivery services and reinvented its entire business model and customer experience strategy. They set up a new business development center to manage online leads, greatly expanding their outreach through phone calls, text messages, emails, and Zoom meetings.

The dealership's salespeople innovatively began using FaceTime to virtually join customers on test drives, maintaining social distancing while still offering a personalized experience. This comprehensive overhaul of their approach to customer interactions yielded remarkable results.

In May, they sold 216 new and used cars. In June, an impressive 253 vehicles. By the end of July, they had shattered records, selling more cars than in any month in their 16-year history.

On any other day, I would have urged you to always be yourself, as trying to change yourself to please others is a waste of your time. But David Dodge showed that changing yourself is sometimes exactly the right move. Their willingness to innovate and quickly adapt their services to meet their customers' evolving needs perfectly illustrates today’s fortune in a new way when it says, “The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be.”