Digital Dealer - February 2018 - 17

them."
There are lots of new
leading-edge communications, relationship
development and sales
technique tools out there
which conform perfectly to
today's marketplace. Ask
yourself this, "What have
I done in this area for my
employees lately that is
different from what I have
done in the past?"
Numerous studies over
the years indicate that if
you hire someone, don't
train them and they leave
in 120 days it could cost
you upwards of $50,000.
How you ask? By brooming customers because
employees don't know
what to do, training time,
damaging your reputation
because of their frustration being taken out on
customers, administration
time required getting them
on board, employment
advertising costs, managers spending unproductive "maintenance fix-it"
time instead of on productive tasks and finally
creating a morale problem
to mention a few. Lots of
money gone down the
drain. And, if you would
have just invested a small
percentage of your ad
budget this person could
be contributing to the
overall growth of the store
instead of making it slide
backwards. The lack of
training is also commensurate with high attrition
problems.
Would you agree that
your greatest assets are
your people? If so, invest
in them and your ROI will
be multiplied several-fold
month after month.
WORKING

ENVIRONMENT:

I can walk into any
dealership and immediately determine the
personality complexion
of the employees which
in turn permeates the
customers. Does the
store and its employees
radiate a comfortable,
professional, organized,
secure and confident
environment or does it
radiate the common haphazard-crazed approach?
One of the primary
reasons for the latter is
that the employees are
not given enough positive,

every customer, whether
it be their customer or not,
they cross paths with a
simple "good morning or
afternoon" and a smile.
We like to practice this
with employees greeting
each other as well then it
becomes second nature.
ACCOUNTABILITY:

Cultivate accountability because it creates
motivation. We must hold
people in the same roles
accountable for the same
performance outcomes
but challenge each
person to reach these
outcomes by capitalizing

...BUT CHALLENGE
EACH PERSON
TO REACH THESE
OUTCOMES BY
CAPITALIZING ON HIS/
HER UNIQUE TALENTS."
motivated attention and/or
they are not trained well
enough to feel competent
at their job. Your store
does radiate one of these
two. The question is,
which one? Look around.
Are there papers laying
in a mess on employee's
work areas? Are there
dated posters hanging in
the waiting area? Is the
coffee area messy? Is it
time to paint the walls and
clean up the boxes laying
around the showroom.
A clean, efficient-looking
work environment sends
a signal to your customers
and your employees that
this dealership takes pride
and care in everything
they do. Make certain
that everyone who works
in the dealership greets

on his/her unique talents.
We must teach managers accountability in how
to distinguish between
talents -- which cannot
be transferred from one
person to another -- and
skills and knowledge,
which can. We must build
performance management systems that label a
person's talents his "areas
for development" and that
encourage him to "work
on" strengthening his
talents with the relevant
skills and knowledge. And
we must stop promoting
people out of their areas
of talent, and instead
build paths that encourage them to grow within
their areas of greatest talent. Accountability should
be on everyone's job de-

scription. For it is through
accountability that things
get done. You cannot
allow some employees to
not be accountable and
then insist that others be
accountable in various
day-to-day tasks or you
will destroy team synergy
and working relationships
within your team. When
you wait - you lose, when
you act with accountability - you win. As a leader,
do what you say you will
do. If you, as the leader,
emulate accountability
the team will follow suit.
Consistency is the key to
accountability.
Just like the components in a vehicle are
equally important for
driving, the above nine
areas of dealership building components for your
store are equally important as well. These are
critical elements required
for accelerated business
increases. Which one or
two of these do you feel
your store could eliminate
committing to? Most likely, your answer would be
none of them. So, begin
today to take your store
to a new comfortable
cruising speed.
Please send me an
email with any thoughts or
questions you may have
on this discussion. I would
like to hear from you
regarding your thoughts
on building a rock-solid
dealership.
CHUCK BARKER is
President & Founder of
Impact Marketing & Consulting Group, located in
Virginia. EMAIL: Chuck@
impactgroupcrm.com

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

FEBRUARY 2018

17
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - February 2018
