There has never been a time in automotive history when it's been more critical to get our dealerships to a higher level of professionalism. Dealerships and manufacturers are putting more money, time and energy into making improvements than ever before.
Yet, somehow, around eighty percent of all training programs that dealerships get involved in end up being labeled a mediocre value. Eighty percent of all training videos end up on the shelf, never viewed. It's estimated that eighty percent of individuals who purchase products from the self-improvement movement never read the books, listen to the tapes or follow through on the prescribed changes. If you tell me this is just another one of those eighty-twenty things, I'm going to scream! I'm not being negative. The industry is improving, just not as fast as it could.
We've found that there are three ingredients to achieving outstanding growth for a dealership. The formula:
1. Skills, well-defined
2. One Operating System, well-executed
3. Leadership (Without this, you can scrap the formula - it won't work.)
If things aren't improving rapidly, check the formula. You're probably missing an ingredient.
Major revelation number one:
Training alone is not enough. You can train people until you're blue in the face (or they are). If you don't have an operating system that fits with the training, very little will change. I'll use a real life scenario from a service department improvement. The principles may pertain to sales, service or any department you choose.
I trained service advisors for one particular dealer group until I was blue in the face. Everything from active listening to conflict management, from proper documentation to selling skills. We made progress, but not my idea of progress. Why weren't we getting better results? I went to the source. I asked the service advisors why we weren't improving more quickly. I had overlooked the obvious. One of them told me that what I said went completely out the window after they went back to their department.
We didn't have management agreement on how the department would operate. One example was the service advisors going to the car with the customer before the write-up. I'd tell them it was critical to go to the car first, to gain rapport and to understand customer needs. What hadn't occurred is the managers agreeing on the process. We met, we bonded, we agreed (sounds warm and fuzzy, doesn't it?). We had an operating system!
I figured we'd hit pay dirt. We'd defined the system, we agreed, we conducted skills training and everyone does what they're supposed to do, right? Wrong. We made progress both in the workplace and the money. Meeting after meeting. Weeks of agony. We knew the processes worked, we knew the customers were happier and the numbers increased. Still no stellar results.
Additional months of agony, slow growth and frustration. We've got a system, we've got the training, where are the numbers?
Major revelation number two:
You can have skills and an operating system, but if you don't have leadership, you don't have beans. Our weekly management meetings had turned into flogging sessions. "George, you told them what to do, we defined the process and our service advisors aren't doing what you told them." (I'm starting to feel like a baby seal going through a weekly flogging.) Months of training, defining the process, work in the classroom, hands-on in the service lane. Eureka! They think I'm supposed to take responsibility for making people do what they're supposed to. If that's the case, what's the manager's job?
During one of our meetings I pose some well-prepared questions: Have I done a good job training them? Group consensus - yes. Is "our" operating system workable? Yes. Who's making sure that what we've put in place is actually occurring on a daily basis? "They're adults, they should follow through with the system." NOT! People left on their own will go back to what they used to do. We're all creatures of habit.
Leadership 101.
Meeting after meeting we discuss leadership, supply observation sheets and continue to prod managers to get out of their offices to lead. In an effort to make sure that managers are involved in leading and managing, we decide to make a bold move. Blow up their offices. If they have no office they can't help but be involved.
Construction crews are brought in. Walls are taken down. We build self-contained work areas where advisors and managers work together. I hold my breath. If it doesn't work I'm a dead man. IT WORKS! Record growth two years, back-to-back. Productivity and efficiency go up. I'm not nuts!
If you're looking for improvement and it's not happening, go to the formula: Skills, operating system and leadership. Ask yourself, do they have the skills, is there truly a system and is there leadership? If it's falling down, most likely one of those three essentials is missing. Now you have the formula.