Digital Dealer - September 2017 - 14

By Chuck Barker
President & Founder,
Impact Marketing &
Consulting Group

// Dealership
Management

Great Possibilities
Occur When Your
Team Members
Become Engaged.
My past few articles
have focused, for the
most part, upon the
development, retention
and the engagement of
your employees. The care
and concern we place on
our team members is the
most powerful initiative
you can do to raise the bar
on your corporate growth.
Continuing this theme, I
received the following
email from Marshall
Upright, the Corporate
Buyer for Southern
Automotive Group here in
Virginia and I felt it was
worth sharing as it
intertwines with this
popular topic.
Mr. Barker,
I just read your article in
the July Dealer magazine.
Wow! Just Wow! I am the
corporate buyer of an auto
group with 6 rooftops with
parts and service as well
as 2 body shops. We have
a little over 500 employees.
Couldn't agree more
with everything you said
about "caring." From
my view (I go to all the
locations) we have people
14

SEPTEMBER 2017

at all levels of care. At
our stores, we have (like
everyone) several layers
of leaders. We have a lot
of people that really care
and want to do a great job,
so I feel we have a good
starting point. My million-dollar question is how
do we get the top layer to
get more involved with the
"care" part. I don't mean
throw money at it, but
really make the connection with the people on the
front line.
We do have a great
company, but I am looking
for suggestions so I can
help get us to the next level. And, slow the turnover.
Training is expensive and
is time consuming. I am
almost 40 years in the car
business so I know "old
school management" as
well as the way today's
people want to be treated
or we just lose them and
start over again.
Again, thanks for the
great article and for reading my note.
My response to Marshall:
I hear your pain at
dealerships all over the

D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

Nation. Too bad we can't
just put managers on an
IV drip solution containing
a "relationship development leadership" concoction. I have always said it
takes growing managers
to grow team members in
order to grow the dealership. This of course begs
the question; when was
the last time your enterprise did something for
the first time to GROW
the management team
in becoming leaders?
Most managers came
up through the ranks of
sales and essentially stick
to the same paradigms
bestowed upon them by
the acting manager at the
time. The problem is we
continue to manifest the
same ole things not paying
attention to the changing
market and consumer
trends. Then, we end
up with the "tomorrow is
today one day later" effect
which does nothing except
perpetuate the same.
Your statement; "We do
have a great company, but
I am looking for suggestions so I can help get

us to the next level. And,
slow the turnover. Training
is expensive and is time
consuming, is one common
theme I hear from dealers.
Well, my answer is; going
to the dentist is expensive
and time consuming as well
but if you don't do it you
lose your teeth. Same holds
true for employees. Invest
in them and they will grow
and when they are growing
(and making you and themselves more money) they
have no reason to leave
you. If you don't, the signal
you send is "we really don't
care about you and we are
not investing in you." Zig
Ziglar said it best, "the only
thing worse than spending
money on training your
people and having them
leave is not training them
and having them stay." CSI
= ESI (employee satisfaction).
If you want me to send
you some Intel regarding
this let me know. Or, as
Albert Einstein said with
such eloquence; "Continue
to do the same thing day
in and day out hoping for a
different result" in defining
insanity.
One thing that might help
you that I have suggested
to my clients is when you
have a mangers' meeting
make copies of an article
that make sense to you,
pass out copies to all in
attendance, go around the
room and let everyone read
one paragraph then discuss
each. This way, as a team
everyone is receiving the
Continued on pg. 16
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