Digital Dealer - January 2019 - 14

C O V E R S TORY (Continued from pg. 13)

THE SALESPERSON PRESENTED HER WITH
THE KEYS TO THE CAR AND A ONE-YEAR COSTCO
MEMBERSHIP. THE CUSTOMER BROKE INTO TEARS."
of little boys growing up, I liked cars.
And I liked people. Seeing family
members in the car business, those
things marry themselves nicely in the
retail automotive space.
In this job, every day, you don't
know who you're going to meet
or what situations you're going to
find yourself in. I find that fun and
challenging, all at the same time. I
like trying to solve that puzzle every
day, where a customer needs help. It
doesn't matter if it's Sales, Service,
or Parts, they need help, and the
challenge of trying to solve that is
something that's exciting to me every
day. If it wasn't still exciting, I'd go do
something else. For almost 25 years,
I've enjoyed trying to solve that puzzle.
DEALER MAGAZINE: Your store is
part of what's called the Performance
Automotive Network. What is the
group and what does it mean to you to
be part of it?
DAN: First of all, it's a very forwardthinking organization. Mike Dever
is the owner, and he is a great car
guy. He's surrounded himself with
people who really want to take care
of customers. And my boss, Shane
Dever, is always looking for new ways
to make it easier for our customers
to do business with us. Our company
motto is, "Every Customer, Every
Vehicle, Every Day." When you're
looking to hire someone, you can
ask, is this person going to find that
way to really 'wow' a customer. We
started something called The Wow
Fund, which is money available for
our associates, either sales or service,
to go out without having to go through
seven layers of management to wow a
customer.
For example, our store is across
the street from a Costco. A customer
remarked to her husband that when
14

JANUARY 2019

she brings her car here for free car
washes, she can finally get that Costco
membership she always wanted and
have an excuse to go shopping there.
When she came out of the finance
department, the salesperson presented
her with the keys to the car and a
one-year Costco membership. The
customer broke into tears.
That's what we mean by a wow
experience and it's that kind of
personalization she'll always
remember. The salesperson took
the receipt up to the cashier and we
reimbursed him. I like being part of
an organization like that, that's always
looking for a new way to take care of
our customers.
This company started back in the
Seventies, and we have customers who
will walk in and say, Dan, I've bought
25 or 26 or 27 cars from this group,
whether it's one of our Toyota stores
or Honda stores or the Lexus store.
Customers really feel a connection
to this group and that means a lot.
When you are part of an organization
like that you feel as if you're part of
something bigger than yourself, part
of a bigger mission.
DEALER MAGAZINE: How do you
define leadership?
DAN: We talk about that a lot. It's
not something you wake up and say,
today I'm going to lead. Every great
leader has to be a great follower. You
have to be following someone who is
following someone else. I might be the
head person at this store, but I'm also
a follower because I'm always looking
to make a better version of myself.
I expect my associates to act the
same way. Everybody in this store,
they're all leaders in their own right.
They see that as a collective mass,
from Mike Dever all the way down to
the person doing the job that nobody

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

can see.
Leadership is not just barking out
orders, it's also following the policies
and procedures or doing something
outside of what is considered your
responsibility. That's leadership
because it's part of the culture. I
think you can feel that when you
walk into any business, where
you immediately feel welcomed.
There's an energy when you go into
businesses like that. You can tell
whoever is the head person there is
leading by example, not just by an
email or some other dictate.
DEALER MAGAZINE: Expanding
on the previous question, what is
your management philosophy?
DAN: My goal is to surround
myself with people who are smarter
than me. For example, every Monday
morning at nine o'clock, we have
what I call a "leadership meeting."
It's all the department heads and
myself. We sit down, I set the agenda
for the week, we look at what's
going on in the store. We look at
the numbers, obviously, to see if
financially we're on track. Then we go
around the room, and the managers
are encouraged to speak to one
another about topics that are top of
mind. If there's a problem, we deal
with it on a management level. So,
when the meeting is over and we're
back with the other associates, we
don't have a situation where, say,
the used car manager complains
that the parts manager is trying to
make too much money off of the
used car business or that the used car
manager never wants to spend any
money on reconditioning and so on.
At the departmental level, you
can have internal conflict. It's not
as if we sit around and everyone
sings "Kumbaya." It fosters a level of
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