It's 2012, your a General Manager of a car dealership.  What are some things you need to be doing daily?  Here are a few easy practices that will help you build value in your dealership, increase profits and maintain high levels of customer satisfaction.  Rest easy though, these idea will literally cost you nothing but a little time and creativity.

Granted time and creativity are of immense value and that is exactly why these actions NEED your attention and participation.  Take a look at and consider these...

Be Transparent -

Transparency is key in this cyber shopping and research age.  Transparency has also become kind of a buzz word which risks no real tangible meaning anymore.  With that in mind, allow me to use a word every sales professional will understand and be able to grasp.  When you hear an internet marketing guru talk about "transparency" I want you to hear the word "credibility." 

What can you do, starting today, to make sure that you and your dealership have cyber credibility or transparency as they say?

As the GM, you need your own page on your store's website.  On this page should be a couple things.  Your picture will be a great start.  Let your customers know what you look like.  Also, write a welcome letter.  In that letter, talk about who you are, your hobbies, family, etc.  Plus, talk about what the company's mission is, and why you're the right dealership to come to for sales and service.  You can add to this by putting up a video of you talking about these very things.  The other thing you have to have is your contact information.  How can your clients reach you?  A direct phone number and email address is a good start. 

If these things are not present when a customer comes to your website, it will look as if you are hiding from your clients.  Even if you're not, the appearance will be that you don't want to bothered.  It also implies that you get so many complaints already that you need to stay hidden.  So yes, you may get a few more sales calls, but the people that matter (your clients) will see you as approachable and available.

On a side note:  If you do not have a staff page, you need to.  If you don't have one you're telling your clients your turnover is high and that you are a "typical dealership."  If a customer can't see who works there then you leave it up to their imagination and their past experiences to decide what kind of people work at your dealership.  Also, if you're not going to have a staff page, for God sake don't have an empty one that says "No staff members have been added for this company."  That's just painful!

Be Present -

There are websites out there that can be your best friend or your worst enemy.  You must have and maintain an active presence on Dealer Rater and Yelp.  Respond appropriately to every review; good or bad.  Complaints are always opportunities to show how willing you are to keep all your customers happy and coming back.  Consider the guy shopping for a car and he hits Dealer Rater.  He's looking at 4 dealerships in his area, each has good and bad reviews alike, but yours is the farthest.  However, because you're the only active GM on Dealer Rater, who actually responds to praise and handles complaints personally, guess who's going to get the shot?  You are.  Just participating show's you're the place to go. 

You also will want to take a look at how you can get involved with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.  Make sure you tinker in those areas and make your name, position and presence known.  Any time you can engage clients with social media, do it.  It doesn't take a lot of time, you can have fun with it and again, shows you're transparent (credible).

A few ideas for you:  Facebook:  Weekly Positivity Quote from the GM.  Twitter:  Daily giggle from the GM.  YouTube:  Monthly State of the Dealership Address where you announce Employee of the month, customer of the month, etc. What ever you decide to do, do something.  In the words of Dan Millman, "A little bit of something is better than a whole lot of nothing."

Train your people like a baseball team -

Biased?  Yes, especially when you know where I work.  That being said, how does a baseball team function?  More importantly, how does a baseball team's manager function?  The team will train in the days leading up to the game, the day of the game, during the game, and after the game.  The manager also makes sure that the team has good equipment to train and play with.  Training isn't just a requirement, it's part of the teams culture, it's a necessary piece of success.  Is your team strong enough, fast enough and can they run plays together?

My boss, Grant Cardone said at NADA2012, "if you're going to have a guy blow out on you, have him blow out because you pushed him towards greatness, not because you never pushed him at all."

Hold your people to higher standard, demand excellence and make sure you and your managers give them the tools they need to be great.  This will ultimately reduce turnover, make you a desirable dealership to work for and allow you to finally have that staff page I mentioned earlier.  A sink or swim attitude towards your people will create a sales force that...  well, sinks.

Finally, while a post like this on this site truly feels like preaching to the choir, I'd be curious to know how many GM's out there are already doing this and if you're not; why not?  This is how you separate yourself in this market place and dominate your sector.  Feel free to reach out if there's anything I can help you with.