Chapter 39 — Further Reading

A short, honest list of where to go deeper on surviving your first ninety days, building activity habits, and turning a plan into a career. These are real organizations, regulators, and widely known resources — described plainly, with a note on why each is worth your time and who it's for. Where I'm not certain of an exact title or detail, I say so; don't take any title here as a precise citation, and always check the current version of anything legal or data-driven, because the industry and the rules change.

A note on tiers (from this book's sourcing standard): everything below is a real source you can verify yourself (Tier 1) or a widely known, attributable pattern (Tier 2). The people and deals inside this book — Jordan, Carmen, Summit — are illustrative composites (Tier 3), not real sources. Don't confuse the two.

On the industry, turnover, and what a real onboarding looks like

  1. NADA (National Automobile Dealers Association) — nada.org. The main trade association for franchised new-car dealers in the U.S. NADA publishes workforce studies and dealership-operations data, including the kind of turnover and compensation figures this chapter references in round terms ("70%+ annual turnover," the slow income ramp). Worth it for: the new salesperson or manager who wants to see the real workforce numbers behind the "survival filter" claim, and dealers benchmarking their own retention. Caution: find the most recent report; the figures move year to year, and the exact turnover percentage varies by source and period.

  2. NIADA (National Independent Automobile Dealers Association) — niada.com. The counterpart association for independent (used-car) dealers — the Del Rio Motors side of this book. Worth it for: anyone whose first ninety days are at an independent lot rather than a franchise store, where you are closer to "everything" and the onboarding is often even more sink-or-swim. Training and compliance resources for the independent world.

  3. Your manufacturer's (OEM's) dealer training portal and certification program. Nearly every brand runs a formal sales-consultant certification (product knowledge, process, sometimes a structured new-hire path). It's usually free to you and required anyway. Worth it for: every new hire — it's the single most concrete way to do the "learn the building" job of month one, and completing it early marks you as serious. Ask your manager for your login on day one.

On activity, habits, and the leading-vs-lagging idea

  1. Atomic Habits, by James Clear (Avery, 2018). A widely read book on building small, consistent habits and designing your environment so the right behaviors happen automatically. The chapter's "model day" and "protected blocks" are habit-design in a sales context, and Clear's framing of systems over goals is essentially the leading-vs-lagging-indicator idea in everyday language. Worth it for: anyone who struggles to make the prospecting/follow-up blocks stick when motivation fades — the failure mode that washes people out.

  2. The Compound Effect, by Darren Hardy (Vanguard Press, 2010). A popular treatment of how small, repeated actions accumulate into large results over time. Maps directly onto this chapter's core promise: hit your daily leading indicators and the income compounds, even though no single day feels decisive. Worth it for: the new salesperson in the discouraging months one and two who can't yet see the payoff of the daily work and needs the long-view argument for staying consistent.

  3. Any reputable, current resource on goal-setting research (process vs. outcome goals). The chapter's insistence on process goals you control over outcome goals you don't reflects a well-established line of thinking in performance and sports psychology. Worth it for: readers who want the "why" behind §39.5 and Chapter 6's process-goal framework. Caution: this is a broad research area — read a credible summary rather than trusting any single popularized claim, and be wary of over-precise statistics.

On the sales process, follow-up, and the CRM (the skills you're scheduling)

  1. CRM vendor learning resources (your store's actual system). Whatever CRM your dealership runs (there are several major automotive CRMs), the vendor almost always publishes free tutorials, help docs, and short videos. Worth it for: week one. The chapter says learn the CRM before you have customers to log — the vendor's own quick-start guide is the fastest way to do exactly that. Ask which system your store uses and find its training library on day one.

  2. Reputable automotive-sales training organizations and content (e.g., long-running dealer-training firms and well-regarded sales trainers). There is a large ecosystem of automotive sales trainers, podcasts, and YouTube channels covering walk-arounds, phone-ups, follow-up cadences, and prospecting. Worth it for: sharpening specific skills the model day schedules. Caution — read this carefully: this space is uneven. A lot of it teaches the grind model this book warns against (high-pressure closing, manipulation, survey-coaching). Filter everything through the question Carmen taught: would I be comfortable if this customer could hear my thoughts? Take the skills; leave the grind.

On the money side of the first ninety days

  1. CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) — consumerfinance.gov. The federal consumer-finance regulator. While its auto resources are aimed at buyers (financing, leasing, add-on products), reading them is the fastest way to understand the back-end products and disclosures that will make up a real part of your income — and to make sure your own deals stay on the honest side of the line. Worth it for: the new salesperson who wants to understand the F&I side they're handing customers to, and who wants to be the trustworthy salesperson the CFPB's buyer guidance is implicitly looking for.

  2. A basic, reputable personal-budgeting resource (for irregular/commission income). The chapter's "live below your best month" rule is a budgeting discipline, and managing a lumpy income is a specific skill. Many credible personal-finance educators and nonprofit financial-counseling organizations cover budgeting on a variable income. Worth it for: every new salesperson — the people who blow up financially in year one are usually undone by budgeting a commission income, not by failing to sell. Caution: stick to reputable, non-sales-y sources (nonprofit counseling agencies, well-established personal-finance educators), not anyone selling a product.

How to use this list in your first ninety days

  • Week one: Items 3 and 7 — your OEM certification and your CRM's training library. These are the month-one "learn the building" job.
  • When motivation flags (months 1–2): Items 4 and 5 — the habit and compounding books, to keep the daily blocks alive when the payoff isn't visible yet.
  • When you want the real numbers: Items 1 and 2 — NADA/NIADA, to see the workforce and turnover data behind the survival-filter claim.
  • Ongoing skill sharpening: Item 8 — but filtered hard for the consultative model, never the grind.
  • To stay solvent and honest: Items 9 and 10 — the back-end/compliance picture and budgeting a lumpy income.

Read selectively, apply immediately. The point of your first ninety days isn't to read more — it's to run the plan. Use these to deepen the parts of the plan you're actually executing this week.