Service manager needed. Last one quit over pay. Candidate must have proven record of poor CSI and lack leadership ability. Poor selling skills a must.

Did you ever get to the point while reviewing resumes and doing initial interviews, that an ad like the one above was the one you actually posted?

When I began the service drive part of my career at a dealership, the prevailing idea was that you can either sell or be good with customers. I started as one of 11 advisors at a large Automall and I would see other advisors be superstars one month and unemployed the next month. Then it happened.

All of a sudden people started appearing who could sell and have good CSI. Advisors who actually cared. Those of us who were managers 15 -20 years ago made crazy money blowing away sales budgets and being tops in CSI. All was right in the world.

Little by little, things changed. Advisors started to care less. Technicians would do just enough to get by. Every mid-size or larger store has at least on tech who is consistently a 35-40 hour a week guy. Advisors at the cusp of both CSI and sales.

The service manager/director position has always been a "teaching" position but more so now than ever. Upper management is concerned more now with the fixed numbers than ever before thanks to a less than stable new and used car sales environment.

Today stores burn through advisors and techs at a pace never before seen. Is it lack of training? Lack of patience on manager's or dealer's part?

There are still those stores around who will have no idea what I am saying. I did a short term stint at a MB store. One advisor had been there 30 years and the "new" guy has been there 14 years. Same was true with the techs. The store had great CSI and decent sales numbers. Customers came back time after time because that feeling of trust that has developed between the customer, advisor and technician.

The manufacturer's have teams of people trying to increase retention when it's simple. We, as managers and DP's, must be willing to be patient enough to develop advisors and technicians. Let them build a relationship with their customers and when they start to drift off course, manage them back on track. I had a DP who asked me every week at our departmental meetings, "Who do we need to get rid of". Too many of us have that itchy trigger finger who see or know someone that could replace someone and in their eyes, take the department to the next level.

Maybe it's not the advisors and technicians that need coaching, maybe it's the man in the mirror.