Digital Dealer - March 2020 - 14
DEALER OPS & LEADERSHIP
Spend Management
By
Doug Austin
Founder and President,
StrategicSource, Inc.
Best
Practices
to Reduce
Costs &
Drive Profit
>
The economy looks strong, the
markets are doing well, unemployment
is at the lowest levels in 50 years, and
the prospects for another good year
look promising.
Even though the economy is doing well,
and all the indicators are going in the right
direction, proactive leaders will still search
for tips and strategies that will help improve
operational efficiency, reduce costs, and
improve profitability because, at some point, a
downturn will occur.
Dealerships are highly complex organizations with thousands of moving parts as we all
know. Headcount, facilities, marketing, lending, service, sales, parts all have associated
costs that contribute to dealers only realizing
a 2.5% average net on their operations. With
all of that great complexity and all of those
moving pieces comes opportunity as well.
There are countless ways that dealers have
to reduce or mitigate those costs with hopes
of driving new efficiencies and new profitability into the business. On the right-hand
side, I've outlined 25 strategies to consider,
but there are 200 more expense categories,
audit and recovery options, and new revenue
options.
If you are targeting greater profitability in
2020, you should take a hard look at the strategies to see which ones might apply to your
organization. Most of these strategies are only
tweaks to your existing operation, but those
tweaks can add up to some serious dollars and
new profits.
To submit article feedback, questions or topic
suggestions, email magazine@digitaldealer.com
14
[ d i g i t a l d e a l e r. c o m ]
25 Cost Reduction
Strategies
Listed below are Best Practices that can help
you to reduce costs, drive new efficiencies and
increase profitability across your organization.
Labor and Salaries
1. Develop an organization
chart for the organization.
Review all positions for
potential overlap and reduce
where that occurs
Review opportunities to
combine responsibilities
into fewer FTE's
Redeploy strong existing
talent into key open positions
Eliminate positions not
supporting the core mission.
2. Declare a headcount freeze
on non-essential hires.
3. Consider outsourcing noncore functions (HR, compliance, IT, legal, procurement).
4. Revisit bonus, pay, and
incentive plans to adjust compensation to key performance
indicators (expense reduction - profitability) and place
controls on over-time usage.
5. Centralize services and
digitize where possible (payables functions, credit card
payments).
March 2020
http://www.digitaldealer.com
Digital Dealer - March 2020
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - March 2020
Digital Dealer - March 2020
Up to Speed|Tech, Dealer News, & People on the Move
Culture Three Tips to Improve Retention
Strategic Planning Strategic Planning for Sustainable Future
Leadership Five Lessons From Fearless Female Leaders
Spend Management Best Practices to Reduce Costs & Drive Profit
Fixed Operations What to Charge? How About a Little More Big Boss
Buy/sell a Generational Shift Is Boosting Buy/sell Activity
Meet the Speaker|q&a With Marketing Mastermind Phillip Stutts
Exclusive Interview With Jay Feldman of Feldman Automotive Group
Social Media q&a With Facebook
Speaker/session Spotlight|a Quick Look
Social Media Social Media Spring Cleaning
Ad Spend Marketing for Profit!
Cpo Toyota Led Record Cpo Growth
Fixed Ops Every Service Department Should Have a Salesperson Running It!
Fixed Operations
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - Digital Dealer - March 2020
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - Cover2
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - 1
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - 2
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - 3
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - 4
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - 5
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - Up to Speed|Tech, Dealer News, & People on the Move
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - 7
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - Culture Three Tips to Improve Retention
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - 9
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - Fixed Operations
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - 11
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - Leadership Five Lessons From Fearless Female Leaders
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - 13
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - Spend Management Best Practices to Reduce Costs & Drive Profit
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - 15
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - Fixed Operations What to Charge? How About a Little More Big Boss
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - 17
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - Buy/sell a Generational Shift Is Boosting Buy/sell Activity
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - Meet the Speaker|q&a With Marketing Mastermind Phillip Stutts
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - 20
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - 21
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - Exclusive Interview With Jay Feldman of Feldman Automotive Group
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - 23
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - 24
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - 25
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - 26
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - 27
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - Social Media q&a With Facebook
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - 29
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - Speaker/session Spotlight|a Quick Look
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - 31
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - 32
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - 33
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - Social Media Social Media Spring Cleaning
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - 35
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - Ad Spend Marketing for Profit!
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - 37
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - Cpo Toyota Led Record Cpo Growth
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - Fixed Ops Every Service Department Should Have a Salesperson Running It!
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - 40
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - Cover3
Digital Dealer - March 2020 - Cover4
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/202004
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/202003
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/202002
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/202001
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201912
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201911
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201909
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201908
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201907
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201906
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201905
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/dd26showdirectory_042019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201904
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201903
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201902
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201901
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201812
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201811
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201810
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201809
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201808
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201807
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201806
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201805
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201804
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201803
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201802
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201801
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201712
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201711
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201710
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201709
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/digitaldealer/201708
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com