The best way to describe my experience training managers over a 30-year span, is to equate it to rounding up wild cattle and trying to take them on a trail ride to one destination. If you don’t give them water, graze and move them on a safe path, they will run, stampede and create more problems than you can handle, but with proper nourishment and attention, they will pave a smooth path to your desired destination.
As a dealer or general manager, when you stop to evaluate each department head in your dealership, stop and think about your pre-owned manager. Look at what that individual has facing him or her on a day-to- day basis, armed with nothing but their personal education and pitfalls of what has worked and what has not.
They solve problems and make decisions solely based on their judgment. They are the truest management entrepreneurs in our industry, but they are rarely asked their opinion or given much credit.
These managers are only told three things: Make a profit, don’t have any overage cars, and put all the money in a trade-in to make a new car deal. When I ask these managers what guidelines they have been given by their dealer, those are the three things they tell me.
If you can take those three things, outline them and try your best to understand how you can best utilize your pre-owned manager’s skillset and knowledge to make those things happen, you will become a better general manager. Your manager will know that you truly understand what his or her responsibilities and challenges are, and together you can embark on that trail ride and get to the ultimate destination without having to sell and slaughter your lead bull.
Till next time.