Pub. 9 2019 Issue 2

27 E very industry has that challenge, or that choke point, that prohibits it from being an easy business. The choke point that creates separation in busi- ness results between competitors. The choke point that makes the difference between a wildly profitable business and one that loses money. That one thing, that if you can solve it, you will be ahead of your competition. It can sometimes be invisible, and it can sometimes be blatantly obvious. Our industry choke point is people. That’s right, advancing technology is not our problem. A more sophisticated consumer can present challenges, but they are not our real problem. We live in a very litigious society and we have tons of compliance demands but that is not what is really holding us back. We can get distracted by compressing margins and the challenges brought forth by digital deliveries. We have bloating inventories, slumping sales and increasing factory pressures. But each of these challenges while not easy, are manageable. Consider this, if you have a great website, does that increase or lower the customers expectation of who they will be doing business with at the dealership? If you have great digital advertising when the customer arrives at the dealership will an undertrained or unprofessional salesperson get the job done? We all know customers are spending an average of 15 hours online shopping. We know they are much more likely to call than email. Can poor phone skills undermine everything else you are doing right? What value does your multimillion-dollar renovation have in helping any of these situations? Once again, I would argue that the gorgeous facility only increases the expectation of professionalism and knowledge. When you finally do get the customer on the lot do you sometimes groan when you see which of your sales people are going to help the customer? The fact of the matter is, if you have the right people with the right training in the right chairs, you are going to win. We are still in the people business and people buy from people they like. Sound over simplified and naive? It is not simple. There is so much that makes up this cocktail of success. Starting with what is your hiring process and who are you hiring? What is your onboarding process? What is your training process? How does your pay structure work and does it support both who you are hiring and what you want them to do? Do your managers have the skill Choke Point By Joel Kansanback Executive, Vice President, Automotive Development Group CONSULTANT’SCORNER set to train and develop a more enlightened sales professional? If you can’t get the right people hired and you continue to have a turnover problem, like most dealers in our industry, then you are fighting a losing battle of margin compression and expense control. You cannot outrun it. You cannot manage inventory or advertise your way out of the problem. Conversely if you have a superior teamwith high employee satisfaction does it make it easier to execute well? Does it make it easier to meet customers high demands? Does it make it easier to be more compliant and reduce risk in that area? If your team can execute on the phone and with the customer will you have an advantage over your competition? AutomotiveDevelopmentGroup can help. Starting with leadership training, sales person training and sales meeting in a box we have helped dozens of dealerships have a better trained team, with lower turnover, all while driving results. Ultimately our training can be the catalyst to a complete culture change. Contact your ADG professional for more information.  For more information, please contact Francis Fagan with Automotive Development Group at 312-608-4979 or ffagan@adgtoday.com . Francis is the Regional Training Director for Illinois and Indiana. At Automotive Development Group we put the emphasis on training. Visit our website for our training calendar and to meet our nationally renowned trainers. www. AutomotiveDevelopmentGroup.com.