Lead or Follow, But Don’t Get Out of the Way

If not you, who? If not now, when?

EDITORIAL

For over a decade I’ve been hearing agency owners say, “What has an association ever done for me?” Of course, these are owners who are not members of any association at the national or state level. This logic resembles the analogy of someone who complains about never winning the lottery when they never buy tickets. The truth is, you will never win if you don’t try.

Likewise, I hear them brag about how this lender or that is paying them $400 a repo and how they’re picking up all these units. Well, that’s great, but you are forgetting another basic truth, you are still earning far less than an agency was making two decades ago. I’ve been beating on these numbers for over ten years and if you need a refresher, please go read my article “Three-Twenty-Five, Beating a Dead Horse.”

This is a time to “Lead, follow or get out of the way”, but not exactly, and I’ll get to that shortly. Although many believe General George Patton was responsible for the quote, it was actually 18^th century American revolutionary war patriot and writer, Thomas Paine, who penned this famous inspirational quote.

It is a personal statement of persistence, independence and accomplishing something, and of not simply accepting status quo and doing what you’re told and merely bumping along in life. It is meant to inspire people to become leaders, actively follow other leaders, or to step aside and get out of the way of progress.

But this is not the time to step aside, this is the time to contribute to progress.

Placating

While the lenders have heard the outcry over fuel costs over the past year, their responses are tepid and temporary. Like Band-Aids on bullet holes, they placate you with short term solutions for long standing issues. Issues that they have created for their own benefit. And why? Because you’ve let them.

What’s worse, is you’ve been letting the forwarders claim all or a portion of these surcharges. And it all adds insult to injury when a borrower shows up to reinstate a loan and shows you how much the forwarder charged them for vehicle storage, on your lot, covered with your insurance, on land that you pay for. Tell me that doesn’t make you feel like a sucker? Tell me that doesn’t embarrass you in front of your staff?

For all the facetious, kabuki like feigned benevolence most everyone has been distracted with by $40 fuel surcharges, there seems to be a lack of memory or an ignorance to all that has been taken away. Closing fees, that were $75 thirty years ago, personal property fees, which earned about $10 removal and $5 a day storage and of course vehicle storage, that averaged $5 a day in the 1990’s. Of course, these were incomes that you earned on top of an average $325 repossession fee.

But that was three decades ago and now, you’re satisfied with $350-$400 for a repossession? And over those DECADES, many seem to have forgotten your never ended rises of expense. Seriously? This is the direct result of a fragmented industry, divided and simply doing what you are told.

Darcy Case of Indiana Recovery Services recently said in the ATI “Repo Bunch” podcast, that she knows of no other service industry where the service provider allows the customer to tell them what they’ll pay. She was 100% right! Can you imagine calling a plumber and telling them that you’ll only pay $50 for a job and they just put up their arms in surrender and agree? Well, that is exactly what you have all been doing.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Excuses

“If I don’t do it, someone else will.”

Whether anyone has the honesty with themselves to admit it openly or not, this fear has always been present. It comes from the intelligent rationale of being competitive and has always been an overwhelming fear that hovers over this industry, and it is exactly what those who control you want you to believe. And all the while their profits grow by the hundreds of millions of dollars while yours erode, day by day and month after month.

This defeatist mentality has crippled the repossession industry for over thirty years. It needs to end.

At the root of it is fear and mistrust. And while most of the industries largest and strongest agencies have been engaged and involved in associations, there are still that 60%-70% of the industry who sit on the sidelines looking at the associations with mistrust. All the while, forgetting that most of these large agencies were once, small agencies just like them. But the majority of them, discovered the one thing that helped them grow and prosper; Engagement.

It is Coming

Over the pandemic, over 20% of the industry closed its doors. There are far fewer of you out there than their used to be. That means far fewer agencies to undercut you and be used against each other by the divisive tactics of lenders using forwarders against each other to keep the fees down.

In Illinois, the Alliance of Illinois Repossessors discovered that this attrition in competition had weeded out majority of the disengaged competition. What was left were the agencies responsible for over 85% of all repossessions conducted in the state. Once they banded together, they were able to take actions to improve their business operations and profitability. The lenders and forwarders for the most have given in to them, they have little other choice.

Now imagine if your company was represented by an association capable of pressuring the forwarders to pay your past due invoices, demand storage fees and stand up for you. This is no longer an unrealistic vision. It is happening and your participation can bring it to reality quicker than you can imagine.

Delinquency has risen back to pandemic levels and all signs are pointing to what could be the highest repossession volume since the Great Recession. Soon, every agency will be able to pick and choose their assignments rather than just accepting what is given to them at the terms offered. And now is the time to make those first steps toward what can be the greatest period of growth, professionalism, and prosperity the industry has seen since the resumption of auto lending at the end of World War II.

Time

The time is now, for agencies of all size and in all states, to unite and engage with their fellow agency owners in the betterment of their companies, selves, and employees. But this requires the casting away of the skeptical nature of the industry and embracing unity.

It is time for you to at very least join a state association. If you don’t have one, reach out to one of the others and they’ll point you in the right direction to either join one of the still many new ones in the development process.

Joining a state repossession association is not expensive and is probably one of the greatest investments that you can make in your business at this time. They require very little investment and little time if you choose not to invest too much energy in it. But your potential profits are enormous and your mere presence in their membership gives it strength. And in that strength, the leverage to create meaningful change from which your real success lies.

And while so many ask, “What has an association ever done for me?” I urge you to reconsider this perception and ask yourself, “What could an association do for me if everyone in my state was a member?” I assure you, if a mere 70% of your state were members, it could move mountains, and a rising tide raises all boats.

If not you, who? If not now, when? There will never be a better time than now for you to invest in your future and join an association.

Kevin Armstrong

Publisher

CURepossession and CUCollector,

Author of Repo Blood, A Century of Auto Repossession History

Below are the web links to the most current state associations.

California – www.calr.org

Carolinas – www.racarolinas.org

Georgia – www.galr.org

Illinois – www.air-repo.com

Indiana – www.indianapra.org

Michigan – Website under construction. Please contact President Jenny Liagre (RockwoodRecovery@gmail.com)