Digital Dealer - April 2018 - 10

DEALERSHIP MANAGEMENT

Continued from pg. 8

provide courses on leadership to the thousands
of managers who are
managing the salespeople
who sell those manufacture's products. Sure, they
provide product knowledge and some selling
skills, but not leadership
skills. In order for a store
to grow, it must have
managers growing in
leadership skills before
they can grow their people. And, this applies not
only to sales but service,
parts, and administration.
You see, relationship
development needs to be
an all-inclusive dealership
campaign. The truth is
there are a lot of managers but so few leaders.
And, leadership is the
single most important
element in relationships
that must be present in
order to build a business
that withstands adversity. Conversely, without
effective leadership, it
becomes like a rudderless
ship. The wind blows from
the west the ship goes to
the east. Usually, we end
up going in circles instead
of choosing the direction
we wish to head because
no one is at the helm.
Leadership... choose it or
lose it.
"Real leaders transform
the present into something better. They say
'goodbye to yesterday and
hello tomorrow' with an
optimistic attitude."
Sure, technology can
help you get exposure
and get folks in but then
people take over the
process. When you open
a bank account what has
to happen before you start
using your debit card or
10

APRIL 2018

writing checks? That's
right - you have to make
a deposit. Similarly, when
we deal with employees
or customers, we have
to make several "emotional" deposits with them
before we make a single
"emotional" withdrawal.
I shopped a dealership
recently. The salesperson walks up and said,
"welcome to (dealership)
my name is Joe and you
are?" Then, got very close
and sticks out his hand.
This guy made three emotional withdrawals from
my emotional bank account before he made any
deposits. It saddens me
to see the perpetuation
of old techniques being
employed in today's new
marketplace. People simply don't know what they
don't know and if they
have never experienced
exponential team growth
they usually can't imagine
it occurring for them. But
this a fallacy because any
workplace can turn things
around.
Invest some emotional
deposits into your team
and watch the difference
it makes. Ok, sometimes
they mess up. Instead of
ruining their day and beating them up (which they
pass on to your customers), identify the error and
let them know the next
time you are sure they will
get it right. Let them know
you have full faith in their
talents and know they will
make better decisions in
the future. This way they
can maintain their dignity
and go out to pass on
positive deposits with their
customers. Remember,
praise in public, reprimand

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

in private.
You have likely viewed
the TV commercials for
eHarmony.com and other
various dating sites. Yep,
I'm comparing automobile
retail to online dating because eHarmony.com has
a truly remarkable feature
- Personality Profiling.
Profiling like the method
utilized by eHarmony
serves as a foundation
for connecting people
with deep, lasting relationships. If personality
profiling is strong enough
for launching long, loving
marriages, its positive
impact on your employees
and your customers could
possibly be outstanding
as well. And while personality profiling can improve
just about anything that
involves people, we're
going to delve into two
specific situations for you
to use in your store today.
THE FIRST USE
FOR PERSONALITY
PROFILING IS WITH
YOUR OWN TEAM.

There are essentially
four types of personality profiles each having
sub-profiles with various
specific attribute traits.
However, for the most
part, each of the four
major profiles is easily
identified and therein lies
the secrets or instructions
in how to deal with each
person exactly the way
they want to be treated.
Each personality profile
has its strengths, as well
as its weaknesses. As
a manager, it's vital for
you to understand the
personality profile of each
person belonging to your
team. This insight will help
you affirm each person's

positive actions, and alter
his or her negative traits
and help them be more
successful in the long run.
In addition, this enhances
the overall morale of any
business and productivity. Think about it, if your
employees are working in
a respectful and cohesive
fashion and they are more
productive then they are
less likely to leave your
employment seeking
other opportunities. Why
should they leave you and
end up in a toxic environment where everyone
is cutting each other's
throats? As a leader, if
you strive to develop a
pleasant workplace by
understanding each team
members' profile and
helping them to become
the best they can be
because you "understand"
them, your attrition goes
down and production
goes up.
Does your dealership
have people that just don't
get along or a team that
just doesn't seem to gel
as a single entity pushing
in the same direction?
If this is the case, the
solution may be found
by utilizing the first step
of personality profiling,
awareness. You, as a
manager, should implement a personality profile
understanding program.
Through the utilization
of this type of program,
each of your employees
will learn about their own
behavioral tendencies,
and how their tendencies
impact the people they
interact with daily.
This will have a greater
rippling effect than you
could ever possibly imag-
http://www.eHarmony.com http://www.eHarmony.com http://www.DIGITALDEALER.COM
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - April 2018
