Changing of The Guards_How to Make a Smooth Transition in Your Dealership During Change

Changing leadership within your dealership will always create a great deal of questions and concerns from your staff. How do you handle the different levels of uncertainty from within? How do you keep your people focus? Most of all how do you maintain sales as well increase your sales and profits?

Not that you don’t know these things about leadership changes, here are a few areas of concern that you must pay close attention to during your changes. Change can bring about a huge attitude shift in your dealership’s work environment. You must remember that we become emotionally attached to the people we work for or emotionally detached. So we must get involved and prepare your people on How deal with their emotions to move forward. The following are things you must address to make a Smooth transition.

Shutdown The Rumors

No matter what changes you may have within your dealership, the rumor-mill will always run wild. Your sales staff will have an attitude of bitterness and resentment towards the changes that are about occur. This is where all the rumors are manufactured and begin to spread through your dealership’s staff, totally causing a disruption in your business. No matter what Industry we may work in, changes will occur and we must prepare our people for the as best we can in most cases for changes. I have and everyone has been through the changing of the guard before. However, in your dealership it is crucial that you get involved and be proactive in making your changes smooth as possible to keep business going. The worst thing you can do is ignore your staff’s issues and concerns. Here is how you shutdown the rumors: 1.) Get in front of it with a formal announcement or address it with staff as soon as it happens. 2.) Reassurance is always a must in these situations. People are always concerned about their future when changes occur. So reassuring them can prevent rumors and distractions.

Make An Announcement

No better way to keep your people in the know than by announcing changes to them as group.

When you put people in the know it eases the tension in your dealership and helps the flow of work and the process continues without major distractions. You can slow down the negative rumors and all the distractions of people looking to abandon ship due the changes ahead. It wound be great if you announced who will be replacing the General Manager or whatever positions of leadership are left vacant. Also, if you foresee any other changes coming you can the announce those too. Sometimes you just cannot predict changes but if you handled the process well then you can keep the nucleus of your staff together and focused on business. Nothing is more important than to have continuity throughout your staff and dealership during changes.

In some instances changes will occur unexpectedly and a lot of times it will leave your people in shock.

People as we all know do not deal with changes very well, especially if it is sudden. I can remember experiencing this with the first General Manager I ever worked for who died suddenly and it left our dealership in total shock. Our store at the time had 150 employees and we were a high volume store that was that the flagship of our automotive group. Our owner of the dealer group immediately showed up and had a meeting with as many of us as he could at one time without totally disrupting business. In that meeting it gave us all reassurance that we would have temporary leader in place and he would keep us informed of the selection process of the replacement General Manager. What a difference it made? Putting everyone at ease was good to know that it would be someone that was within our automotive group, which meant they would be able to adjust quickly due the familiarity own the policies and processes within the organization. Basically, you must get I’m front your people and show compassion for there concerns and you will have favor as well focus from your staff during shocking changes.

The Old Way Vs The New Way

* When the changing of the guard occurs in your dealership there will always be the old way of doing things versus the new way of doing things.

As human beings, we are all wired differently and we perform at different levels, different speeds of course with different philosophies. Which means that no matter who take the lead in your dealership during changes you can expect a different way of things being done. Even if they are from the same automotive group umbrella, there will always be a old way of doing things versus the new way of doing things. As the owner or director of operations of a dealer group it’s important that you monitor how well your entire staff and work environment is during the first 90 days of change. I really don’t have to tell you this, if your employees in that dealership are not responding to changes very well, then you had better be prepared to evaluate your replacements or possibly make another change. If you are constantly losing staff at an alarming rate more than expected, then you could have a problem with the new way of doing things. If your new leader is making changes and you aren’t in the loop to monitor things then you could be in for disaster striking within your business. We all seen it when a new leader has been chosen and they began to tweak some things and they aren’t going over well with your staff, then you must evaluate the new changes that have occurred. I believe it can be a easy thing to do when you evaluate the old way vs the new way. You should meet often with your new replacement leader and stay abreast as to what is going on in terms of changes or simply have them to gain clearance from you when making changes. The worst thing most dealerships do is wait until it far too late to address the old way vs the new way. Change can destroy the energy and attitude of your dealership. Which why I suggest ownership keep in themselves in the loop of what is going on in a dealership that has just installed a new leader. However, if you don’t keep an eye of watching the progress of your dealership during times transition, you are bound to fail and start the “Changing of The Guard” in your dealership all over again.

You have heard the horror stories that have occurred in dealerships across the country when changes occur in leadership.

How To Avoid Disaster From Striking During Change

We have to understand that if you want to have a smooth transition during time of changes then you must be prepared and proactive with a action plan for your new leader to succeed.

* Be Positive with everyone

* Allow No Negativity

* Set new goals and objectives

* Be a mentor or have mentoring team in place

* Assemble a great management team

* Encourage and Motivate your people

* Set up a meeting with zone representatives

*Review the financial statement with the new leader

* Most of show some compassion and gain the trust of your tribe.

Most of all put in Extra, Extra effort so that everyone will read all about your record breaking months when you and tribe increase the bottom line in profits. Besides, your leadership selection can be great if precautionary measures are taken and a great action plan is in place.

Roger Love is a Championship Attitude Expert who help struggling organizations to build Winning Cultures where everyone feels good about coming to work everyday. Roger has nearly two decades as a Sales Expert and over 26 years over leadership in building Winning Cultures in organizations.

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Three Types Of Employees That Keep Your Dealership From Growing.

What if…

You looked at your dealership as a whole from a performance perspective in terms of your employees? I mean really if you would take a deep look at the employees you have today with a open-minded approach, that would allow you to gather some facts about your staff. The kind of facts that would lead you to making some very tough decisions in terms of cutting ties with some people who have become far too comfortable with their day to day performance or their “seniority cry.”

Today far too many dealerships have to be accountable and say the phrase we use to say in sports when I played…”My Fault, My Bad.”You see, Dealer Principals, Operations Managers, General Managers all must know that I am about to tell you what you already know, but it’s just too hard of a pill to swallow. You have “Three Types Of Employees That Are Holding You Back!”

1.) Incompetent Employees

Yes I said and I am not backing down from my believes, far too many dealerships are putting lives, their brand, and the future of the business on the line with sales people and staff who refused to learn technology as adjust to the times. For example, we all have that three car guy who used to be the “stuff” back in the day but now they cannot sell their way out of a paper bag because the refused to learn the product they are selling. Man, this is a serious breech of protocol. I know saying that your employees are incompetent sounds demeaning but in the words of my wife, you gotta call at thing a thing; in other words you must put a name on it. However, when I looked up the word incompetent in the dictionary it describes the meaning of the word as “Lacking the skills, qualities or ability to do something correctly.”  Really it is not about a person being dummied-down or degraded, it is just an indicator that a person is incapable of functioning effectively in a job role. Besides this, complacency is sort of the same problem when you a have with most sales people who could sell more but do just enough to get by.  This simply means that management has allow this sales person’s sub-par performance to be the norm in the dealership and those same sales people chill out and become incompetent by default. In reality it is your management team’s fault for accepting the 3 car sales person who is really costing the dealership lots of money and could possibly get your as dealership in a heavy lawsuit if they give a customer the incorrect information about the functions and controls of their car. You see, I don’t understand why we are not taking training on product knowledge and performance seriously in our dealerships. Let’s look in other department for example if you have a DMV clerk or accounts payable clerk who continues to screw things up due to incompetency, it would destroy the whole department. Let’s look at it like this, grade your departments and employees on a scale from 1 to 10. Where would everyone rank and why? Why aren’t your sales managers being held accountable for the consistent 3 to 7 car per month guy who only bring less than $10,000 in gross profit to your store? Or service director who has oil change tech who constantly screws up a simple oil change? This is an area of concern all dealerships should look and make that your people are sharp and competent or find a replacement who can do the job effectively.

2.) The Fighters(Old Schoolers)

We have all witness the veterans on different jobs who feel entitled to fight for things to remain the same as they once were just because “it’s always been done this way.” These are same people whether in sales or any part your dealership that has become very comfortable with doing just enough to get by or feel entitled because of their seniority. They come to work each day month in, month out and of year in and year out they are they same person who refuses to change. They are the ones who really don’t embrace changes to well, they hate technology and despise all newcomers. In fact this person is as far I am concerned not a team player. In the sales capacity, they rarely make it to the sales desks with a deal. These people are “Lifers,” who are literally sucking the life out of your dealership. I have been in a General Manager role and I immediately cut my ties with these people because they are super negative and are feeling way over entitled to do whatever it is they choose to say or do. You cannot afford the “fighters” to run your dealership or career in the ground. In order to build a “Winning Cultures” in your dealership you must not tolerate foolishness at all. You must create a revolution within your sales force and in your office if you are ever going to grow into a Championship Caliber Dealership or remain a Championship Caliber Dealership. Basically, you must hold your General Managers, Sales Managers and any of your other lead positions in the store accountable for the store. Part of leader’s job is to recruit, hire, train and fire people; it’s just one of the necessaries that must take place in order to be successful.

3. Disruptive Employees

Tolerances of and foolishness, rudeness or disrespectful behaviors inside dealerships are killing your customers and costing you lots of money. I have witnessed dealerships where have spent some days inside their showrooms and witnessed flat out horror stories; people who really are rude, ignorant and just don’t give a crap about others. Many times the people are your “Drama Queens” or “Divas” within your organization. They constantly the center of controversy all the time. My questions to those of who you have people like this and you know that you do is Why …Why haven’t you done anything to correct this problem. Perhaps they sell a few cars for you and you feel they aren’t replaceable? Whatever it maybe it you must take action and began to get on a positive revolution within your dealership. You see, these are the same people who refuse to learn the latest technology or to take their very own certification to on their product. These are the people who maybe in good with you and they are totally against change. In reality we all are capable of learning and improving in different areas of our vocation. This disruptive employees are usually the best at pushing your rules right to the limit and fly just under the radar. They nod, smile and agree with you, while giving the the reply “Yes Boss.” Think you are too dumb and occupies to notice their subpar performance and fully are plotting to undermine you.

*If I were you, here are several things I would suggest.

I recommend that you immediately identify your underachievers and put together a plan to make them better.

I ‘d push my managers to do one on ones with the most resistant people to the point either they do their jobs or quit!

I’d fire the most destructive employees simply because they won’t change; cut your losses and send a message that the “Positive Revolution” has begun. Get on board or walk the plank, there has been too much money lost, far too many customers lost and there is plenty of money to be made.

Roger Love,

Championship Attitude Sales Expert

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How To Display A Championship Attitude

LeBron James, starred right into the face of a racial hate crime committed against him on the eve of the NBA finals last week showing why he is a true imitator of a person with a Championship Attitude. During a recent press conference, LeBron clearly displayed the essence of  Championship Attitude while answering questions from the press while being under pressure to make a quest to win another NBA championship. 

You have to commend LeBron James’s response to a distraction that occurred during one of the world’s biggest Professional sporting events. 

Despite making his seventh consecutive NBA Finals, superstar athlete LeBron James was faced with questions that seem to point to his property being vandalized with a racial slur being spray painted on the gate of his Los Angeles home. You would think that most athletes in the NBA Finals would usually be set be addressed the media with questions surrounding the Championship series opening game one. However, in LeBron’s case that was different in the way that he was faced with questions surrounding social injustice in the line of racism in America. 

Handled it like a Champion 

LeBron James fielded questions from the media with class and dignity although he was the victim of a hate crime on Wednesday May 31, 2017. When asked how he felt about the vandalism that was done his to home, he simply replied “it’s tough being black in America.” He also referred to the fact the we still have a long way to go with racial equality. Not to mention he referred back in history by referencing to the death of young Emmit Till, a young Chicago Black teen murdered in Mississippi many years ago that left a lasting stain on racism in America. He also mentioned how Emmit Till’s mother wanted the world to see the sickening things that racism did to her child by choosing to have an open casket at her son’s funeral. LeBron’s no historian but he showed “World Class Athelete Status” in keeping his composure under the circumstances surrounding his personal challenges. LeBron’s attitude also revealed the true character of a person with a true Championship Attitude. Attitude + Energy

Through it all LeBron James was cool confident and focused on becoming a NBA Champion for the fourth time. This is  so important for him and his legacy which has already been scrutinized by many as an athlete who many critics feel that he isn’t deserving of being mentioned in the likes of so many NBA greats before him. So no social injustice has seemed to have distracted him from locking in and performing the way his team and fans alike expect him to perform. Right now LeBron James is faced with many challenges both on and off the court. I only expect him to do what winners do and that’s to display a Championship Attitude no matter what win or lose, controversy or not, LeBron James will remain focused on attempting to win his fourth ring.

How does LeBron James continue to display himself as professional with a Championship Attitude during challenging circumstances?

1. Courage: All champions always display courage during trying situations or in LeBron’s case handling all the distractions that occur despite being in the NBA Finals. Showing up to a press conferences whether his team wins or not. 
2. Composure: Championship Attitude is totally about focusing on your feelings, thoughts, actions and emotions. Most of all learning to channel your attitude into one focused positive attitude. Basically, LeBron displayed that his composure was great as well under control during the recent press conference and he was not going to be affected by the actions of  others(negativity). Why? because he has learned how control his feelings, thoughts, action and emotions with a Championship Attitude. 
3. Positive Attitude: LeBron has for the most part of his career has always kept his feelings, thoughts, actions and emotions under control, especially during trying circumstances. This has to be tough for high profile athlete such as LeBron James, who has to deal with tough criticism from so many people. Through it all he has consistently displayed a positive attitude, one which we all can learn from him. 
4. Confidence: If you want see the tell-tell sign of someone who displays a Championship Attitude, just look no further than their self confidence. LeBron James has for most part shown a great display of confidence in himself despite facing so many challenges over his career. If you want to display a Championship Attitude start with self confidence. One must believe in themselves before they can ever move forward toward their success. Confidence is simply arrogance under control as was once told by my mentor Walter Bond, a top ten speaker in the motivational speaking world. So never be sorry for your confidence as long as it is not absurd and you still display humility just LeBron James does during his appearances in the public eye.

* You got to give respect to LeBron James for his continued display of how to have a Championship Attitude despite all the negative people and circumstances attempting to bring his attitude down.

We can learn a lot from others observing someone’s feelings, listening to their thoughts and viewing the actions during challenging times. 

LeBron James may not be liked by many but many we all can learn to do what he did this past week each time he has been challenged by negativity, is to rise above the noise!

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Be Strong and Courageous in 2017

There is no time for fear if you are planning on achieving the goals you have set  for yourself this year to become a reality. 

The Year 2016 has left a lasting impression of fear and doubt in the minds of many people throughout the world. We just completed a Presidential Election that left the United States of America in division and turmoil. People are living there lives in fear and worry, searching for answers to their concerns. I haven’t observed in years the the level rudeness people are dishing out to one another; verbally and physically abusing one another to the point where good deeds have gone almost unnoticed. Where’s the Love, where’s the respect and most of all where’s the courage? The courage for people to be free and live out their hopes, their dreams. People are so fearful to point of mental paralysis; their minds are stuck on all the reasons they cannot be successful in 2017. This of course is a time for taking action this Year and most people have set out reach new heights with new goals. The question is how will most people ever reach their new heights this year?  Start by being Strong and Courageous in all their efforts.

This past week was special in the United States of America for a couple of reasons. The first is we celebrated the birthday of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., which is observed as a National Holiday in the United States of America. The second was the inauguration of a new President of the United States of  America. What does the two events have to to do with one another? The answer is simple, they both involve people who were as well must be strong and courageous individuals to do the or have done the unthinkable jobs of leadership. 

Be Strong and Courageous 

In order to make your visions and dreams come true, you are going to need to be Strong and Courageous.

*Principles to consider if you desire success and progress in your life goals.

1. Place written action plans in effect. No longer can you afford to sit idle waiting for the right time or opportunity.
2. Become a “Risker Taker.” You cannot afford to live out  your goals and dreams living in fear of failure or facing rejection. “Risker Takers” are use hearing no but will not take no for a final answer to determine the fate of their goals and dreams. 
3. Assume responsibility for all your results. You gotta accept the good with the bad if you are strong and courageous enough to accept responsibility for your success and setbacks. This will empower you in ways you couldn’t imagine. You see, when can accept your action in both good and bad, your building strength as well courage into your aspirations(character).
4. “Massive Action,” will rule of all your despondencies. No longer will you be living or acting in fear if you have enough action required to reach your goals and dreams. For example, if you’re making twenty-five sales phone calls per day, sooner later you are destined to have to success. Even if it is just an opportunity to close a deal in the future. Your activity will grant growth and opportunity every time.
5. Use fear as a indicator of growth. Last week I stated “do something that scares the hell out of you!” You see, discomfort can and should become an indicator that you are on the brink of greatness. It’s essential that you develop a sense of being aware that you are about to have a breakthrough. 
6.   Be consistent, day in and day out work your plan. Don’t slack off on your early morning wake up. Don’t slack off on your daily activities. Show up everyday, even when you do feel like it; this will help you to develop strength and courage. 

Lastly, you cannot be successful in anything you do with having the will to sacrifice and the will to be relentless until you win! 

Be Strong and Courageous in 2017

Roger Love

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