Who Failed who?

Who failed who?

Well it is the first of the year again and there is the normal flood of help wanted ads for GM’s and GSM’s and recruiters looking the next big thing for the same for dealers year after year across the country. The sad thing is that is normally it is the same dealers or dealer groups that are always looking for that certain man or woman that can provide that instant growth and spark that they ( the dealer) has been looking for all of their life. The first question that a dealer or CEO of a dealer group should ask themselves is this. Who failed who? Did the people you have hired year and after year and you fired them all, did they fail you or did you fail them?

Now I am sure a dealer or CEO is asking, How could I have failed them? Well there are a few answers to that question. You could be looking for an unusually high market share growth that is just not there in your market? You could be demanding that someone take your ideas and methods and processes and use them no matter what and you refuse to evaluate if your processes and methods are the problem.

I use the example of a dealer that has hired and fired three or four GSM’s or GM’s in a three year period. Well you have to ask yourself, is my hiring process flawed?, am I hiring because they are willing to work cheaper than a person that can produce results? Or am I am not working enough with them to help them grown into my business plan? I believe that it is impossible to hire three or four bad employees in a row for the same position unless your hiring process is flawed.

Over the years I have went into these type dealerships and the story is always the same. The dealer listens to a group of sales people that have been there for years, yet the dealer would never promote them as a manager, yet he takes their advice to fire a good manager. Now you have to admit that is not the best business plan at all.

My advice to dealers is simple, before you make a drastic move to fire a GM or GSM because sales person of the month Billy Bob thinks the GM is mean and doesn’t understand that Billy Bob is the main man around town, you might want to let Billy Bob go sell somewhere else for a while and see how fast he comes back looking for his job back.

When you hire a GM or GSM it takes at least a year for him or her to feel at home and feel like a part of the future of the dealership. So before you make that change again for the 5^th or 6^th time, sit down and ask yourself, who failed who?

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Comment by Brian Bennington on January 14, 2015 at 10:05pm: Dear Mr. Michael Baker, You are one far out dude! Every time I read a comment by you, I feel my feet gradually leaving the ground. Believe me, it's an occurrence that, for me, doesn't happen nearly enough.

Good health, good luck, and good damned near everything for all of us in DE...and to hell with the rest of 'em!

Comment by Michael Baker on January 14, 2015 at 9:04pm: Discovered early in the GM placement, that went quite well, the DEALER really should stay close in interface with this new Sr investiture for 'improvements'. There is always the 90 probationary period. Dealers, you know it's not a knowing challenge, it's a doing one, and at a respectful frequency of interfaces. There are Just a few Valid and Reliable Behaviorial Measures that are NON-proprietary personal character profiles for an additional measure of confidence entering the Dealer's kingdom's platform position(s).$200.00+ for a 24 hour measure provided me, personally Tremendous personal character insights of his/her Strengths&Weaknesses before injecting him/her into the platform as a GSM or GM. NON-proprietary behavior measures are Not approved by the American Pschological Association, nor can/will be defended in a court of law easily.

Comment by Brian Bennington on January 14, 2015 at 7:57pm: Excellent Ron! What a timely interesting idea for a DE post. As is my rule, I always review the DE bio and website of any fellow member's blog before commenting, but while your bio is here, I couldn't get to your website. Is "Thee Process Doctor" correct? Pardon my confusion, but I am interested to see what you're about. I'd also like to question your post's construction, but I won't do it here. If interested, you can reach me at (714) 457-8287 or brian@archer-profit.com. (Of note, I'm not selling anything. While I hold my fellow DE and ADM members in high esteem, I've gradually become convinced over the time I've been a member of both organizations that I'd never actually want to be involved in any business dealings with them. I know that sounds contrary, but I'm a contrary type of guy.... Please don't misunderstand this, as I will-at any opportunity, help any member anyway I can.)

Comment by David T. Gould on January 14, 2015 at 6:58pm: Ron,

My thoughts... not so fast on blowing out Billy Bob "the main man around town"... why not communicate and keep both?

Billy Bob, and volume producers like him, are essential to that owner's dealership's bottom line and hold value enough that the owner has made multiple decisions (maybe bad ones) based on his input.

Sounds like a reasonable sales process with sales management & salesperson buy in might be a better place to start.

Good people are hard to find... When you have them, show them that you value them. (even if you don't)

Great topic,

David T. Gould (DTG)