Do You Know Where Your Business Is Going?

Do You Know How To Get There?

Written by: Randolph S. Lofgren

At the end of the day, what every company wants is growth. The word “grow” can mean many things, like more customers, an increase in sales, and higher demands in Sales, Parts and/or Service. If you think that you’re shrinking instead of growing, then you must be doing something wrong with your company.

In order to stay ahead, you must build and create something that‘s different from what the others are doing.

How do you build a successful business?  It starts with your management team and the beginning of your success will start from here.  If your management isn’t developed with details and doesn’t have the ability lead their team, what percentage do you think your business has of creating profits?  Don’t except your employees to have the leadership qualities your management team is lacking!  As an owner you need to spend time watching your management team interacting with your customers, employees, and how they handle difficult situations.  Take notes and during your next meeting is when you want to mention the areas you see that need immediate attention.  If your management hasn’t taken the proper action to improve the areas you see that needed immediate attention by your next meeting, then you know it’s time for you as the main leader in your company to make the necessary changes to reassure your employees that that you are aware of the leadership issues you had and you made the corrections needed in your leadership team to keep all employees on track and moving forward.  Also, this will give your employees the confidence they need to reassure they are at the right company to provide for their family and have options to advance their career as well.

A lot of successful leaders believe that the key to company growth is valuing the customer’s worth, employee customer service training, and implementing policy and procedures.  Keep in mind that in everything that you do, your focus should be on your customers.  Some people say that success is 90 percent persistence and 10 percent inspiration. This is so true when it comes to business because if you don’t constantly innovate, your effort is invaluable if no one patronizes it.  Remember, everyone wants to increase their customer base, volume of sales, and most of all the bottom line profits.  Is your staff ready for the increase of business you deserve to gain?  Worst thing that can happen to a company is not being prepared when the increase in volume appears and your staff is not trained. 

Listed below are the steps you need to follow to be prepared before you go to increase your business:

1. Create a business plan (based off your financial)
2. Set a training path for all employees at your company
3. Put in effect the gathered performance results of your team you had monitored
4. Create action plans
5. Set monthly quotas and goals (then break down weekly and finally daily)
6. Set meeting once a week to review results of your action plans
7. Set discipline and rewards

See below for each step in detail:

Number 1:  Business Plan (How and why is it needed?)

Business plan is the most important tool you need to make a business successful.  A bank won’t even consider giving you a business loan without one.  So, there are some key points you need to start with to making a business plan and you will see why it’s so important.

Your Business plan starts here:

• Your Business Objectives
• Your Mission Statement
• The Keys To Your Success

The Fixed and Semi-Fixed expenses costs you can expect for your business.

Products you may sell and services you might offer for the market. (Sales, Service, Parts, and F&I)

Market Analysis that includes:-

• What are the key issues now affecting the market?
• Your competition and how to make your business stand out.
• Who are your customers likely to be?

Promotion of your business; that includes:-

• The Marketing Strategy
• Your Pricing Strategy
• Your Promotion Strategy
• Distribution Strategy

Management Summary for the business

• The skills you will need to manage this business.
• How many managers and employees will it take to make your business successful?
• Training Procedures – CSI, customer service (meet and greet to delivery), customer follow-up, leadership techniques, and building winning teams.

Making your business plan is the key to you and your employee’s future.  Your business plan should involve all employees, if your employees don’t know where you are going, how can you except them to follow you?

Number 2:  Setting a training path for all employee’s at your company.

If you except the highest results from your employees don’t if you don’t have a continuous training path set for each employee at your company.

We all have been in a position one time or more in our life where someone had high expectations set and we had no idea on how to accomplish our leader’s expectations.  So, remember how they must feel.  That’s when you have frustrated employees and high turn owner. 

There is many different types of training that needs to be accomplished as well, like; manufacture training, role playing, customer service, product, profits, closing techniques, phone skills, computer, and most of all, team work.

When you set your employees with a training path, make sure you monitor their training path and don’t let anyone fall behind.  I suggest new employee’s not to have any contact with customers until all basic training has been completed and make sure continuous training is always ongoing.

Number 3:  Put in effect the gathered performance results of your team you had monitored.

After you have set your personnel schedule to monitor your managers and employees, you need to gather all your information you gathered and in detail, separate all the areas they have performed above company standards and as well, do the same with the areas you seen they failed in.

Praise for duties done that was above your goals and discipline on the areas they failed in.  You will have to sit down with each one of your managers separately and design their own business plan and make sure when you and your manager agrees on what you except in their duties and the profits you needed have your manager sign and date your business document.  That way, if in the near future you see your business isn’t receiving the profits or employees aren’t retrieving their results you can discipline as necessary.  Don’t forget, managers or employees aren’t your children and you can’t continuously forgive your management and/or employee’s for poor results.  Your children will just harm themselves in the future; poor performance from managers and employees can end your business and/or effect many families at your company. 

Number 4:  Create action plans

Action plans are only as good as you follow up on them!

Setting action plans aren’t that hard to come up with, but making them happen is the first sign if you have the right management team in place.  A poor management team is the worst situation for any business.  When you allow poor management here is the results you can look forward to; unhappy employee’s, poor work ethics, poor customer service, theft, bad attitudes, poor attendants, lack of profits, and the list goes on!

When creating an action plan, you must have your management team and employee’s to buy into it.  You must monitor throughout the week and have your own business plan as well.  When the dates of your action plan come due, hold your management team and employee’s accountable for their lack of results.  If there’s a continuous lack of results and/or efforts to their action plan, it’s time to make the changes at that moment with your management team and/or employee’s.  Make sure you have strict timeline’s dated and no confusion at all with your expectations! Always praise your team when action plan has been accomplished.      

Number 5:  Set monthly quotas and goals (then break down weekly and finally daily)

Whenever you set quotas and goals for your management teams and/or employees, don’t just set a “monthly” quota and/or goal.  You need to break them down by the week and again by the day.  If you set them by the month and it’s the 22^nd of the month, what difference do you think you can make up in the following days of the month?  Again, break down your quotas and/or goals.  If your quotas and/or goals are broke down by the week you just increase your odds of meeting or beating your quotas and/or goals, because it gives you additional time to change your game plan to achieve your quotas and/goals.  Imagine if you broke your quotas and/or goals by the day, it just gave you a 100% opportunity to achieve your quotas and/or goals.  If you meet every morning with your team and go over the day before results you will know every day want needs to be accomplished to increase your odds of meeting your quotas and/or goals for the month.  Don’t wait till the end, if there’s something you can change today to be successful, and then change it today.

Number 6:  Set meeting once a week to review results of your action plans

Your action plan meetings must be reviewed weekly and the reasons are; it makes your management team and/or employees aware that you as their leader is very serious that each action plan is completed.  Action plans must be in detail and taken very seriously by everyone.  Any business that creates and then reviews there action plans on a weekly basis, usually are very successful as a group.  The weaker management and/or employee’s stand out when their action plans aren’t accomplished.  Must of all, it gives the above standard employee the reassurance that they are at the correct place of business to either advance in their career.  Without the support and confidence of your team, you don’t have a team.

Number 7:  Set discipline and rewards

Whenever you are responsible for management teams and/or employees, you must know when to reward your staff and when to discipline your staff.  Systems in a successful business weeds out the weak and allows the good to perform with ease and allows your good employees to climb up the ladder.  Promotions are confidence boosters and create the drive to your employees to succeed.  Also, it give’s your company the additional profits you wanted and needed!  Everyone appreciates a pat on the back from time to time as well.  The smallest praises goes along ways.  Remember, if you don’t discipline in the right way and/or promptly, it can destroy your good employee’s.

A great business plan has its rewards! 

We at Mike Shaw Buick-GMC located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, have maintained 100% scores for General Motors CSI over 6 months and "World Class" Status with MPi Edge as well. Congratulations to my team for being number one!!!