Solve Dealership Turnover (PART 5)

How To Solve Dealership Turnover & Staffing Issues Forever (PART 5)

TRANSCRIPT: All right, let’s do another rule. “Thou shalt use the CRM.” Some of you have salespeople who are paying through the DMS, right? That’s how we pay them. They sold 12 in the DMS, but if I was to go into CRM and look at what they have listed, they probably sold two because they’re not using the CRM. “Steve, what’s it matter? They sold eight, let’s pay them for eight, or they sell 12, whatever, let’s pay them for 12.” It matters because the CRM should be your bible and how can we do a post-sale follow up with a customer if we don’t log their sale in the CRM? Sales must be recorded properly in the DMS and the CRM in order to trigger payroll. That’s our rule, “Thou shalt use the CRM.”

To be considered sold for payroll purposes, your sales must show in the DMS and the CRM. Let’s say that you did have 12 last month and I only show two in the CRM. I’m paying you for two on this payroll period. The deals I missed when you come running to me and go, “Boss, I had 12, not two,” no problem. We’re going to pay those on the next check, so in two weeks you’ll get the rest of that money. This works, like all of the rules will work, if your managers support it. It doesn’t do any good if your managers turn around and cut a provisional check for this person who you gave a months’ notice to about getting your sales in the CRM, getting your sales in the CRM, getting your sales in the CRM, and then the first time that they screwed up and didn’t get their sales in the CRM, you turn around and pay them anyway for those DMS sales. They just won’t work.

How about this one? “Thou shalt record all ups.” Why is this so hard? Every store I work with has a rule, that we will 100% of the ups in the CRM. Oh, by the way, this is the same rule we had in 1985, only we didn’t have a CRM. We had a paper desk log, but we were better at this in 1985 than we are today. All of you have a rule that says we will get a 100% of ups in the CRM. Most of you, probably 95% of you, have a rule that says nobody leaves unless we get a management T.O., so you have a 100% T.O. rule as well. 100% ups in the CRM, 100% management T.O. rule. How are we doing with that? How are we doing really?

I’m telling you right now of the non-buyers, you’re probably getting about 30% in your CRM and almost none of them are being T.O.-ed in most stores. Why were we better at this in 1985? Let me tell you. My sales manager stood at the tower. Had his paper desk log. He saw a guy on the lot in a blue shirt. He wrote, “Blue shirt” on the desk log. Then he yelled, “Hey, Stauning. The guy in a blue shirt, go get him.” He’d write my name next to “blue shirt” so it say, “Blue shirt and Stauning.” Let’s say a couple of hours go by and the sales manager sees me walking past the desk by myself. No guy in a blue shirt.

He’d ask me, “Stauning, where’s the guy in the blue shirt?” “I’m sorry. He was just a tire kicker and we blew him out.” If I failed to T.O. someone, if I failed to get them on the desk log properly, I lost my next two ups. I was out of the rotation twice. We enforced that in 1985. See, it only had to happen once to me to watch two upturn rotations go away and I didn’t get it, and I didn’t get to take an up before I solved it. I was given the phone book back then or told to call my be-backs. I was not allowed to take ups. Listen, that’s what we’re talking about.

We’re going to do 100% T.O. and 100% of ups in the CRM. The way to do that, by the way, is to just keep your showroom log accurate to within about 15 minutes. This means that if your owner, and if you’re the owner, you were at a 20 group somewhere, you should be able to log in your CRM, look at the showroom log in your CRM and know that that’s at worst 15 minutes ago, that it’s a 15 minutes ago snapshot of what’s going on in your dealership right now. If you’ll do that just like we kept that paper desk log accurate till within minutes back in 1985, you want to keep your showroom log and your CRM accurate to within 15 minutes. If somebody doesn’t T.O. or they don’t put somebody in the CRM, they lose two upturns. It’s very easy.

These are five basic rules I gave you. I told you these are like your 10 commandments, but you get the idea. I don’t need to write all the rules for you. Message me, okay? If you want help with these. Go to stevestauning.com, go to contact. I’ll help you. As long as you don’t chew up too much of my time, I’ll help you for free, but wait, I want to make sure you understand this. Don’t destroy your existing team by dropping these rules out of thin air. You need to go back and collaborate with your managers as you write these and pre-identify all the roadblocks you’re going to get, and address them.

By roadblocks I mean things like prima donnas. You know who I’m talking about, that 13, 14 car a month guy who thinks he hung the sun and the moon, every single month in, month out he blows out most of your ups. This guy is going to be trouble, and so you don’t want him poisoning the whole crew, so identify him in advance before the rule comes out. Maybe have a separate meeting with him. Have your GM have a separate meeting with him. Make sure he understands these are the rules that are coming out. “If you can’t do these rules, it’s okay. It doesn’t make you a bad person. You just can’t work here. You’re just not a fit.”

Then announce the rules at least a month in advance to allow everybody to adjust before you start enforcing them. Today is November 22. Let’s say you get these rules written before the end of the year, so you announce the rules on January 1 and they go into effect February 1. That gives everybody a month to learn about how we’re going to enforce these things, to know that we’re serious about them. Beginning February 1, we begin enforcing right away. When you announce the new rules or when you share them with new hires, you need to articulate them to everyone and live by them yourself.

See, these rules apply to everybody. They apply to your top people, they apply to your green peas, they apply to people who are doing six cars a month for the last two years, and they apply to you. It’s a two-way street. Plus, I want you to say to your team this. I want you to say these three things to your team when you introduce these rules, any time you do, to a new hire or to a group of people, whatever. I want you to say this. “Listen, I will never lie to you. These are the rules. I need you to follow them, but I want you to understand I will never lie to you. I’m going to respect you and I’m going to respect that you have a life outside of this dealership, but while you’re in this dealership, these are the rules that we’re going to live by.” Then stand back.

You’ve got to allow your team to operate within these rules, you absolutely must. You cannot change the rules mid-game and you can’t micromanage from the top. Just manage the results. So long as they achieve great results within the rules, you don’t care how exactly. You’ve written great rules. We’re going to enforce those rules, but we’re not going to micromanage. We’re only going to worry when they step outside those rules because the results are going to come after that.