It’s funny the things I see. You can see much more clearly when you are not in the moment of battle. Successful Dealers, even those with struggling franchises, (who doesn’t have a struggling franchise?) have a different view; a different attitude; a different swagger about them and a different way of managing accountability.
Right now some of you are feeling a little better about things. The worm is starting to turn and that’s a good thing, but the real question is…are you ready? Oh sure, you’ve made a bunch of cuts, fine tuned a few things, but are you really ready?
Here’s some timely suggestions:
- Observe-Spend a Saturday just sitting in the tower observing. Say nothing. Take notes.
- Ask Questions-On Monday meet with your GSM/Sales Manager and ask him/her to review with you what the selling process is. Better yet, prior to meeting with them, ask them to write out the selling process to bring with them to your meeting.
- Beat them to death-Tell them what you observed and how far off track they are compared to the list and the discussion you just had.
- Re-Commit-Get them re-committed to what they say they are supposed to be doing.
- Re-Deploy-get them on a mission to get back on track through renewed focus, training, disciplines and processes.
- Create Accountability-create a daily check list to review what they are doing as compared to what they said they were going to do. Continue to observe and whenever it’s not right go back to step one and start over again. Your number one job is to “Guard the Processes.”
You have to raise your level of intensity and accountability. Human nature being what it is, people will do what little they have to do to get by. Most want to cut corners. If you take a square piece of paper and keep cutting the corners off it you end up with a circle. When you cut corners with your processes you end up going in a circle. (And your bottom line sucks.)
I wrote an article recently about lip service and loyalty. Your loyalty to certain staff members causes you to accept lip service, which then causes you to accept mediocre people and performance. If you keep it up you won’t be around three years from now. Only those dealers who are willing to make adjustments and take tough stands are going survive in the long run. Let the spankings begin. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs