Pub. 6 2016 Issue 1

16 AUTOMOBILE DEALER NEWS ILLINOIS www.illinoisdealers.com n Monthly Goal = Daily Focus — continued on page 18 I n today's competitive, customer friendly environment, setting a goal or having the appropriate expectation is paramount to the profitability of your stores. This naturally leads to an important starting point: how do you set a goal, and how do you ensure that you will reach your goal? While setting a goal may seem simple or unnecessary, it is the daily focus and discipline that having a goal provides that makes goal-setting a valuable tool-it focuses you on the very things that are within your power to control and provides a clear benchmark when you are not progressing towards your goal. How do you set a meaningful goal? There are three critical steps. First, goal-setting should be done in a collaborative fash- ion with the management team. This participation will at once allow the management team to take ownership of the goal so that everyone will understand what he/she is responsible for and will go a long way to prevent the goal from becoming arbitrary or theoretical. This is a very intuitive point, and this concept is similar to someone who is trying to lose weight without even knowing his own weight. One practical, useful way to begin goal-setting would be to take a look at the ADG Top 30 Report because this will give you an idea of what the top performing stores are producing. Second, you need to track your production. Some of the tools you will use to do this include the manual logs, vision menu re- porting, or perhaps your own measurement tool, such as an excel spreadsheet. Whatever your flavor is, make it easy to measure; you do not want to have onerous hurdles or mental pushups in- volved in your calculations. Third, have your ADGDistrict Manager show you the spread of business needed using the Calculator that we have developed. Think of us as a resource; we've spent time to make this an easier process for you because we do not want you to wear out your pencils and fingers with your phone calculator. Have you ever had a month where there seemingly weren’t enough days to hit your target? Can you imagine a professional golfer muttering to himself in frustration, “I shot 72 and still have 4 holes to play.” If you have felt this or can imagine what it must feel like, this article is for you. Monthly Goal = Daily Focus BY FRANCIS FAGAN , AUTOMOTIVE DEVELOPMENT GROUP CONSULTANT’S CORNER