Sometime in your automotive management career, I’m sure that you’ve all been asked, “How do you know whether you’re winning or losing without a scorecard?” Scorekeeping and scoreboarding is a discipline that falls within each of the following major Elements of Effective Accountability Managementas discussed in previous blog posts:

• Plan your Work and Work Your Plan!

• Clearly Define and Communicate Your Expectations!

• Measure What You Need to Manage!

• Inspect What You Expect!

• Develop and Implement a Systemic Structure!

Before you begin the practice of scorekeeping and scoreboarding, you must first perform the following important steps:

1. Envision your end results. This is part of Planning Your Work.

2. Determine the activities that are necessary to achieve the desired end result. Establish the objectives that you wish to apply to these activities. These steps are part of Working Your Plan and Clearly Defining Your Expectations.

3. Train your subordinates on how you wish these activities to be performed and what you wish produced from each activity. These steps are part of Developing and Implementing a Systemic Structure and Clearly Communicating Your Expectations.

4. Establish a method to accurately measure and report, on a timely basis, whether the required activities are producing the desired end result. These steps are part of Measuring What You Need to Manage, Inspecting What You Expect, and Developing a Systemic Structure.  

Now you’re ready to begin the scorekeeping and scoreboarding process. It is important to recognize that to be effective, scorekeeping must be relevant, timely and accurate, and scoreboarding must be highly visible to all. Let’s look at an example of how you might wish to scorekeep and scoreboard one critical set of activities.

• The end result we wish to achieve is to maximize the used vehicle deliveries that result from “blind” inbound phone inquiries to the sales staff (or to the BDC).

• The set of activities that we need to scorekeep and scoreboard, together with the objectives per salesperson, are as follows:

• • The number of blind inbound used vehicle phone inquiries handled per salesperson per month. Assume that our objective for each salesperson is 25 inbound phone inquiries per month.

  • The percentage of blind inbound used vehicle phone inquiries that are logged into the dealership CRM (completely, accurately, and timely). Assume that our objective is 100%.

  • The percentage of blind inbound used vehicle phone inquiries that result in an appointment being set by the salesperson. Assume that our objective is 60%.

  • The percentage of telephone appointments set and confirmed by a manager or other 3^rd party. Assume that our objective is 85%.

  • The percentage of used vehicle telephone appointments that actually show up at the dealership. Assume that our objective is 55%.

  • The percentage of no-shows who are recontacted and re-appointed. Assume that our objective is 75%.

  • The percentage of appointments that show and that are closed (verified by sales management). Assume that our objective is 50%.

  • The percentage of closed appointments that is actually delivered. Assume that our objective is 90%.

Important question: Is there anyone reading this that does not believe they would sell more used vehicles if this set of activities was accurately scorekept each day on a month-to-date basis and scoreboarded on the ‘big screen” for all to see?

What other sets of activities should be regularly scorekept and scoreboarded in the vehicle sales department? How about the service department? Or the collision center?  Or the parts department? Or the accounting department? Does every reader now understand the impact of an effective scorekeeping and scoreboarding process?

The NCM 20 Group moderators, Retail Operations consultants, and NCM Institute faculty members are all former dealers or senior dealership managers, with extensive experience in scorekeeping and scoreboarding. If you feel you might need outside assistance in developing and implementing these critical practices, give us a call at 866.756.2620 or email ncmi@ncm20.com.