The Worst Boss Ever, Yoda Would Be I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. People worship Yoda as some Svengali or Jedi Master or something; but in all honesty, a pretty crappy boss he’d make, if at your job, he was in charge. If you’re a Star Wars fanboy, you’re going to have […]
Sales are flat – we need more training! Turnover is up – we need more training! Grosses are down – we need more training! We just got a bad review – we need more training! Salespeople aren’t making their calls – we need more training! I can almost hear Jan Brady now: “Training, training, […]
You Don’t Have Sales Managers; You’ve Got Deskers! Most dealerships I work with seem to suffer from too few managers. They don’t have enough managers to control the sales floor, monitor phone calls and other activities, oversee the basic Road-to-the-Sale, ensure the CRM is being used properly or even train their own sales teams. Why […]
The Solution to the Never-Ending Car Dealer Staffing Problem So much has been written about the decades-long issues of turnover and staffing in automotive retail that I continue to be amazed when I read headlines like this one from Automotive News recently: Dealership turnover squeezing profits – NADA study spotlights struggles in recruitment and retention How […]
As I wrote in 2015’s Self-Driving Cars: the Winners and the Losers, new car dealers will be among the “Obvious Losers” when, not if, self-driving vehicles become ubiquitous. However, I also predicted that this evolution wouldn’t likely begin impacting new car dealers before 2025. My timeline has actually contracted a little in the last […]
As my friend Jeff Kershner so eloquently Tweeted last week: “A few years ago everyone was going BONKERS over ZMOT and now going BONKERS over Micro-moments. It’s like breaking up a turd into pellets.” A few years ago everyone was going BONKERS over ZMOT and now going BONKERS over Micro-moments. It’s like breaking […]
We recently received the comment below on our Young Managers – How Do They Lead Older Subordinates post: Hi, I am a female, 28 year older manager leading a mix team of 8 people who are 15-25 years older than me in finance operations. I have slightly different situation. I am an EXPAT from […]
Dear Car Dealer: Congratulations on a record 2015! Yippee! Now, get the slings, because you’ve likely broken your arm patting yourself on the back. If you’re an average dealership – whether privately-owned or publicly-held – you had a record year in 2015. Heck, if you’re a below average dealer you had a record 2015. […]
The Great BDC Robbery: How Reconciliation Allows Your Business Development Center to Steal from You Do you have any idea what your BDC is doing right now? A few weeks ago a general manager I’ve known for some time was bragging about the performance of his group’s Centralized BDC. He was almost gushing about how […]
I almost titled this post “Perfect Data Matters,” but because it is one of the most important blog posts I’ve made this year, and because that title is so stinking boring to you and your managers, it would guarantee the least amount of interaction. And that is sad. Perfect Data matters. As boring as […]
Six months ago I watched a service manager struggle with the amount of customer complaints he had to deal with on a daily basis. Most of the complaints were just silly, and almost all of them should have been solved at the advisor level. Unfortunately for this manager, he was really, really good at […]
(Another helpful excerpt from the pladoogle.com free 2015 Car Dealer Mystery Shop Study of more than 400 automotive dealers.) Why Does Lead Response Matter? Lately, much has been written about the drop in the number of electronic sales leads dealers receive – not coincidentally, of course, most often by those wishing to sell more of their […]
Quick Quiz: If you’re part of an automotive dealer group comprised of anywhere between 2 and 290 stores and you do not run a centralized sales BDC, then you’re: A. Wasting Money B. Losing Sales C. At a Competitive Disadvantage D. Not Leveraging Your Economies of Scale E. All of the Above If you […]
I had a fun exchange with Walmart on Twitter last month that I believe deserves sharing here – especially given that the exchange can (I’m hopeful) remind corporations to separate my duties as a customer and their duties as an employer when it comes to training their managers. First, a little background: I was […]
Perception is reality. I wish I was the first person who ever uttered this unbelievably accurate view of the world. I guess I almost could have been the first, since the quote is most often attributed to political consultant Lee Atwater (who is only twelve years older than me). I find that odd, of course, […]
Before diving into this topic, I want the readers to understand why dealerships are so near and dear to my heart. While it’s true that I run a small company that provides technology and advertising services to lots of industries; I actually enjoy being in and working with car dealerships. You read that right: I […]
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the next down market in automotive retail is coming. No one knows precisely when – and none of us is certain what will trigger it – but, it is coming. Moreover, given the current market realities, it might be coming a little faster […]
(WARNING: Salty language ahead. Do not continue reading if you plan to complain about the choice of words used in this post – they were chosen with great care to evoke a very specific meaning. Originally published by The Manager on LinkedIn.) Nobody likes a know-it-all. Nobody. I’m not talking about the know-it-alls who actually […]
Have you ever wondered why some businesses – even after being alerted to oncoming, meaningful risks and threats – never seem to change direction? Or why the managers in these institutions seem content with the same old-same old despite instructions from above to adapt or die? Often, the obstacles to making real changes (especially […]
(The following guest post was written by a respected colleague of mine in the automotive industry. The author, who shall remain nameless, is one of the brightest, most energetic, hardest working and truest “team players” I’ve ever met. His/her frustrations are far too common in most industries; but are especially common in automotive. His/her words […]