Dealership management is the heart of the dealership. It keeps the people, finances, mission and goals aligned and flowing, and has the greatest impact on the dealership’s culture and bottom-line. Being a manager is so much deeper than a title, a pay raise, and increased responsibility, but for some dealerships, sadly that is all the difference, when in reality, management needs to know how to handle the different personality types, motivate team members, understand how to conduct effective 1-on-1’s, hold their team members accountable, just to name a few. However, dealership management generally doesn’t possess the necessary skills to be an effective leader, and if not trained properly, will most likely turnover. The key is to give management the skills needed to be an effective leader that will in turn make everyone else around them effective too. Below you will find the most common management/leadership challenges that exist in the automotive sales industry today, and if applicable to you and your dealership, we can assist in solving the challenges:
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The Top 6 Challenges Plaguing Dealerships' Management/Leadership:
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Managers Train the Least
Managers hold the highest positions within the dealership, yet tend to train the least. They are so caught up in the “busy” of things, putting out fires and plugging holes, that it is easy to put training on the back burner. When you enter management, you don’t get to stop training because you are in a managerial position, you should work twice as hard and train twice as hard because you are a manager.
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Managers are the Worst with Using Tools
When it comes to using the dealership’s tools and resources, management is not held to the same standards or expectations as their subordinates, and too often, the paradigm is “don’t do as I do, do as I say”. For example, when it comes to utilizing the CRM, management is typically the worse. They either neglect to use it properly, or in some cases, don’t even know how to use it and compensate for it by having others do it for them.
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Horrible Time Maximization Skills
Another challenge for management is how they utilize their time. Most managers are bombarded with responsibilities and tasks, but don’t have the necessary time management skills to filter through activities and tasks and assign priority levels. Furthermore, they don’t understand the art of delegation. They work a lot of hours only to find themselves feeling overwhelmed and stressed, which can lead to burnout and turnover.
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Bosses Rather than Leaders
Anyone can be a boss, but being a leader is a different story. Bosses can be subject matter experts in their position, but a leader possesses high emotional intelligence and is sensitive to its team members. A boss will ordinarily take credit for success and point fingers for failures, where a leader will look in the mirror when failure happens and point to the team for accomplishments and successes.
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Weak Management Equals High Turnover and Low Productivity
If management is subpar, that will highly reflect in the dealership turnover rate and its results. Goals will be missed, deadlines will be missed, company culture will be terrible and passed on to the customer, and the dealership will have an all around not so good vibe. The good news is that weak management can transform into strong management with the right resources, tools and training.
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They have Horrible Work/Life Balance
In the dealership world, management tends to work the most hours and neglect themselves, their health, their family members, their friends and their community. They work constant bell-to-bells and may take little to no days off at all. They don’t have time for training or professional development and are often mind-fried and physically exhausted. It’s important for management to sharpen the saw and have work/life balance.