The topic of working together as a single dealership is often beaten to death, covered more often than the blundering Trump administration. It’s great and all to act as a cohesive unit; a well-oiled machine, if you will. But in any complex machine, as in a dealership, there are different parts that perform very different roles. It’s important to recognize and value each part on its own while appreciating the function of the whole machine together.

Let me go out on a limb here, and feel free to disagree with me. Your service department and sales department should operate uniquely.

That’s NOT saying that they should be run independently. Not at all. It’s a recognition that what works for one department doesn’t necessarily work for the other. Here’s what I mean.

1. The team should look different

Walking through the dealership, there should be no question if an employee is working the sales floor or the service drive. A salesperson or product advisor is able to dress more formally without affecting their job performance. A shirt and tie is still functional work attire, although sometimes dressier than the brand requires. A service advisor should be recognizable by their appearance. Khakis and a logo’d golf shirt or even sharp-looking jeans gives the right impression for a service employee.

Allow service and sales staff to wear different colors for distinction. I’ve been a part of a team where service employees wore ties, and I believe it gives the customer a conflicting impression.

2. Advertise separately

I’m a proponent for the service department getting more ad spend, and it should be used on its own – not tied in with a sales ad. It’s both a focused approach and more authoritative. When the service department is simply an afterthought of a quick mention in an advertisement or commercial, it implies the company values the service department very little. It also devalues the original message, whether you’re building your sales brand or promoting a new product.

3. Set Custom-Tailored Goals

‘Ebb and flow’ is a great way to approach financial goals, but it’s critical to view the sales and service departments as separate entities. You can expect consistent and steady growth from the service department – it’s much mess affected by financial pressures than the sales floor.

On the sales floor, though, there’s higher peaks and deeper valleys. Have you ever projected a decline in sales? I mean, realistically, there’s a reason to do so when the economy is tanking.  Your team knows it, and it’s a good thing to show you’re aware of outside influences.

Dealer principals, you might have a habit of expecting growth from your store that isn’t in line with the economy. Keep that in check and allow your management to be optimistic yet realistic with the targets they set before you.

The machine needs to function precisely as the different parts perform their duties. If all the parts look the same, it’s easy to confuse what each one is supposed to be doing. If one part is given more attention than the other – well-oiled versus run dry – you’ll see breakdowns that could be avoided. And being realistic about what each part of the machine is able to produce is going to reduce frustration and anxiety for both you and the parts of the machine that aren’t meeting their goals.

You might think of your role in the dealership as just a job or a career. It’s a vehicle that you use to pay the bills, live a comfortable life, and spend your days until retirement age.

You might take it more seriously. You might be using your current position as a rung on the ladder to success, or you might strive to make the absolute most out of your position.

In either case, you are establishing a personal brand.

Wait… a PERSONAL Brand?

You don’t have a choice in the matter. No matter what you do, you’re developing your own brand image. It’s not a brand with a slogan (at least, not commonly), and it’s not a brand with a logo. It’s an unspoken image that you portray. It’s the reason customers submit their surveys after visiting you.

And while personality factors into the message you convey to each of your customers, it’s only a very small part of the equation. Your brand – the things you stand for – is about your choices.

You choose to get dressed in the morning and take good care of your personal hygiene and physique. You hit the gym regularly and get your mane of hair perfectly coifed. You’re could be the pretty one at the service desk or on the sales floor.

You choose to be on time in the morning, make all of your calls before you take your break, and you never over-promise and under-deliver. You take your professional role very seriously and follow the employee manual to a tee. You might be the reliable one that customers always come to.

You choose to learn about the product, even owning the latest model from the showroom floor. When someone wants technical information, you’re always ready to lend a hand without showing off. You’re the expert in the department, and everyone knows it.

You choose to serve, whether it’s the customers or your fellow employees. Whenever there’s a question or a need, when someone needs a hand, they turn to you for assistance. You do it with a smile on your face and a willing attitude. You’re the friendly one.

Your choices dictate your personal brand.

You Can Establish Your Brand or Let It Make You

If it’s more than just a job to you, then you care about what others think about you. You can establish your brand by making those conscious choices every day. But it’s not just one that you need to work on. It’s all of them.

Choose one thing that sets you apart – something that you can make a steadfast rule in your life – and stick to it. But don’t neglect all the other aspects of your role. If you are the technical expert, dedicate yourself to staying on the cutting edge, but don’t neglect your customer service skills. If you’re the reliable staff member, continue to learn about products and keep a clean-cut appearance.

When you’re aware of your personal brand, you can use it to empower your future. It can be your stepping stone to a promotion or a raise. It can be the reason your CSI scores are always on top.

Your Personal Brand Can Suck

You may not be the best employee, and your personal brand might be awful right now. You may have established yourself as the late one, the slob, or the frigid jerk who no one likes. If you’re realizing that you can’t go further in your career because you screwed up your brand, there’s a solution.

Start again. Right now.

I’ve been there and done that. I’ve tanked my career on more than one occasion because I didn’t realize I was creating a brand. But you can begin to recreate yourself – and your brand – starting right now. Commit to doing one thing better than the rest, and doing everything else exceptionally well. It’s a tough road to overcome your crappy brand, but it can be done.

We’re bombarded by advertisements all day, every day. Whether it’s Pepsi or Coca-Cola, McDonalds or Burger King, Geico or Progressive, or any other major player in any industry, they all have something in common. The mention of their name invokes a specific image. It’s their brand.

Branding your individual dealership is something that hasn’t been a priority until recently. As a cog in a franchised machine, it has been typically left up to the manufacturer to do the branding. But business models have changed, and now more than ever, it’s critical to differentiate your store.

You need to answer a question BEFORE your customer asks it: why should they choose your dealership?

Can You Answer Why Customers Should Choose Your Brand?

We aren’t talking about the car brand you sell. What is it about your store that sets you apart from the rest? If you’re a Chevy dealer, why should your customers choose you over the Chevy store ten minutes away?

YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE DIFFERENT

It’s an even playing field in so many ways, and most dealerships do the whole process extremely well. How do you set yourself apart by doing things better than the competition? You’ve been told for so long that the customers will come your way if you’re the best at what you do.

You don’t really have to be different - your message has to be.  That’s what branding is all about.

Think about the basis behind branding on a ranch. You look out over a field full of cows. They all look the same at first glance, don’t they? But even though they all have the same basic structure – a hide, hooves, udder, maybe horns – they’ve been physically branded differently to set them apart.

The same goes for your store’s brand. Without being recognizably different in composition, your customers need to know who you are immediately.

AN EXAMPLE FOR YOU…

Is Coca-Cola or Pepsi the best cola on the market? You have your reasons for your answer, but are either of them better than the rest of the competition? Is there a store-brand cola that tastes the same or even better? Is there a ‘boutique’ cola that outshines them all?

What we know is that Coca-Cola and Pepsi both have established their brand in the marketplace. And that’s the point of a brand – to be KNOWN above all the others, even if you aren’t necessarily better.

The Two Major Factors of YOUR Brand

It applies if you’re analyzing your brand or if you are establishing a brand for your dealership. Two important items absolutely must be addressed and checked off if you plan to have an efficient and established brand.

THE MESSAGE MUST BE CONSISTENT

Whatever you choose as your brand, it must permeate every facet of your business. It must be consistent throughout the sales department, the service department, the collision repair shop, and even your detail department.

Choose a message that is simple and effective:

• “Where customers come first”
• “The home of ...”
• “Ordinary people serving you extraordinarily well”

Okay, so those are pretty mundane and horrible. Whatever the message is, make it catchy and memorable. Use your slogan on every ad space you buy and integrate it into your dealership’s culture. It’s your long-term mission, and it’s summed up in a single phrase.  

THE MESSAGE MUST BE TRUE

Your message can’t contradict the customer’s experience. You can’t say you’re the only factory-authorized dealer in your city if it’s not true. You shouldn’t brand yourself as the ‘best’ of anything that can be statistically proven otherwise. And if you claim to excel in a specific area or offer a service that’s unique to your store, you better work hard to make your branding honest.

Your brand needs to be relatable, like “the only purple dealership on the strip” or “home of the free air filter”. And if you can establish your branding as timeless and evergreen, consistently and honestly, it will serve you well and pay you back with interest.

Rows upon rows of parts line your department, some are pristine and clean while others gather dust. Every month, quarter, semi-annually, or annually, you gather your group and count each part in your inventory. Some of those boxes are getting pretty worn out and the numbers are hard to read. When you have to blow dust bunnies off to read the part number, you know it’s been around too long.

And then there’s the dark back corner. It holds the parts to rebuild a 1985 K-Car or the like. You count them and you know deep down, you’ll never ever retail them. It’s the shelf of shame.

How do YOU Define Idle Parts?

Around the turn of the century, a normal life cycle for parts would be up to 12 or even 18 months. That’s been trimmed down significantly.

• In today’s market, you can consider a part idle at just six months. In fact, if it hasn’t sold after six months, the chance it will eventually be sold is just 49%.
• A part on your shelf that hasn’t been sold after nine months has a 72% chance of never being sold at all.
• When a part reaches its first birthday in your inventory, it can effectively be labelled obsolete. There’s only a 2% - yes, 2% chance that it will leave your shelf through the shop or in a customer’s hands.

Every Parts Department Deals with Idle Parts

No matter how well you deal with your obsolescence, you’re carrying parts in your inventory that shouldn’t be there. Old statistics indicate that, on average, a dealership’s parts department is holding onto $88,000 of parts that could be considered idle or obsolete. No matter how large your return allowance may be, there’s virtually no chance of unlocking all of that money anytime soon.

In most cases, that old inventory is inherited from a previous manager who had no right being in that role. But it’s your problem now – you don’t get to start with a blank slate.

How Can You Deal with Idle and Obsolete Parts?

Work the Return Allowance

Your options are limited. You essentially ‘buy’ your return allowance from the manufacturer, meaning you are allotted a dollar amount for obsolescence returns depending on how much inventory you purchase, right? So why not buy more so you can return those useless components on the back shelf?

That may work for the very short term but you’re going to be very heavy on current inventory. Even for parts with a short life cycle, you’re talking a half-million or more in extra purchasing to empty your obsolescence. That leads to two problems: more inventory than you can effectively carry and an extremely high chance that many of those parts you just ordered will end up on that same shelf in the back corner.

Sell the Parts at a Loss

You might have limited success in reducing your obsolete and idle parts piles by listing each one online, either on Craigslist, eBay, or an Amazon store. It opens up the market to the rest of the nation, not just your city. Two problems stand out: you’re selling at a loss with prices often slashed to half of list price or even less, and it takes an obscene amount of time to deal with online sales. The online fees and staffing costs are simply not worth it.

A Relatively New Option

Have you heard of a dealer parts exchange? It’s a method where dealers can list their idle and obsolete inventory in a forum that other dealers can access. There are only a few options for dealer parts exchanges currently available with the most comprehensive – by far – being North American Dealer Parts Exchange.

It’s a North American-wide system for dealing with that idle inventory. Upload your list of parts, then use NADPE to find the parts you might need for those special-order situations. It’s dealer-to-dealer trading with only a small fee per transaction.

Whatever method you choose, unlocking that massive $88,000-dollar albatross in your parts department can relieve some pressure. It gives you flexibility to order more inventory you’ll turn quickly and opens much-needed shelf space. Keep a close eye on the parts approaching 6 months in stock and deal with them before you lose your shirt on them.

More than half of all sales customers will abandon your dealership’s service department in the first year. It’s a widely varying statistic – some say 50 percent, others say 70 percent. It doesn’t really matter the exact number, because never seeing half of your customers come back for service after the first year is abysmal.

Manufacturers know it too. That’s one of the reasons you see so many brands offering ‘two years of complimentary maintenance’ or business offices selling maintenance packages. It’s one way to draw at least a portion of your customer base back through your service doors. But why is it your customers don’t come back without an incentive?

It Isn’t Because of Expertise

Manufacturers have done an excellent job of emphasizing dealerships as the best place to service a vehicle, new or used. Terms like ‘factory-trained technicians’ and ‘service experts’ have been engrained into consumers’ brains. I encourage you to randomly ask someone who has the best technicians to service your car – it’s going to be the dealership almost every time.

And it’s true. Technicians at franchised dealerships are highly-trained, highly-qualified people who have access to diagnostic, service, and repair information that no independent has. Your technicians are the best people for the job, yet customers stop coming to your store.

It Isn’t Price

Sure, you get the occasional objection to service pricing, whether or not you’re higher than the shop down the street. For one service, you might be a little higher, and another might be a little lower. The typical customer won’t drive an extra ten minutes to save five dollars at a separate appointment on a different day – they’ll chock it up to the cost of doing business.

It's a Convenience Thing

Take your car and a small slice of your advertising budget and visit a local quick service shop. Pep Boys, Jiffy Lube, Midas – it doesn’t matter much which one. You’re there to do some research. After all, this is where your customers are defecting to.

An oil change is extremely quick, like ten to fifteen minutes usually. The fluids are checked, a Check Engine light can be scanned (for free), and tire services are completed while the oil is still draining. The typical maintenance visit takes mere minutes and doesn’t require an appointment, a long wait, or a shuttle ride.

Most of all, it’s available when at convenient hours, usually stretching well into the evening.

Be Extraordinary

If you’re honest about it, you know your service department – even your “quick lube” bay is less convenient than those other guys. If you want to keep your customers and possibly bring back a few defectors, there are lessons we can learn.

• Be available when customers want you. Shift outside of the norm with your service hours. Keep your quick lube bay open into the evenings – at least on the nights when the sales department is open late.
• Offer service above and beyond the usual. We all love to earn a paycheck, but nickel-and-diming customers will drive them away. Offer an express Check Engine light scan at no cost with any oil change. It’s an opportunity to set a valuable service appointment at a future date if there’s a problem.
• Make your service special. Pick one thing – anything – and do it better than anyone else. Offer free car washes for express oil changes, provide a loyalty oil change program, or let customers watch the work using a camera and a tablet. Whatever it is, be the only one who does it so well. Make it your brand.

You are losing your customers to quick lube shops at an alarming rate. Show your customers what they stand to gain by being loyal instead of just expecting that they should.

In all of manager-dom, there’s nothing as frustrating as someone discounting needlessly. It happens in several forms: making up for a mistake in the shop and missing a promised time for completion to name just a couple. By far, the worst is discounting a product or service because the customer thinks it’s not worth the money.

A Restaurant Example

Think about your favorite steakhouse for a second. You adore their bacon-wrapped sirloin and gladly pay the $39 a la carte whenever you go. A twice-baked potato and haricots verts pair nicely with it, as does a Chardonnay .

One day, you visit Chez Steakhouse and see a sign out front for half off the bacon-wrapped sirloin, and a free side to go with it. Your steakhouse is offering discounted pricing AND combo pricing. Suddenly, it’s almost the same as a supersized Double Whopper meal at Burger King. You almost order two, then settle on just one.

Eventually, Chez Steakhouse no longer offers their combo pricing. But do you go back for your favorite steak dinner? You might, but you no longer perceive the same value. What was once worth $39 in your eyes is now just a $20 steak. A discount has marred your perception.

Why It Matters

How is it that an item can be worth $20 one day and $39 the next? Its purpose was likely to increase sales, be a loss leader, and drive traffic from new customers. Unfortunately, it came at a great cost as value – the benefit of the product compared to its price – has been cut in half.

The same goes for discounts in your service department, parts department, and even on the sales floor. Granted, someone would be fired if a car was sold at half the MSRP, but discounting is a flawed method of making valuable sales. When a discount is applied, your customer no longer sees the product for what its original selling price is; its perceived value will never be more than the discounted price you once offered.

How Do You Deal with Discounts Then?

The approach to eliminate discounts and sales depends on the reason for the discount. These are not gospel, but rather solid ideas for keeping the perceived value in your product.

• Discounts due to your staff’s shortcomings can instead be offered loyalty dollars. We’ve all been there when mistakes are made and there’s no way around it except compensation. Instead of doing line discounts on the invoice itself, give the customer a loyalty card or points card that can be applied to the bottom line on immediate bill. In that way, the invoice lines never reflect a cost lower than your original price.
• Discounts due to poor selling should be eliminated altogether. A salesperson or advisor who is unable to communicate the value in a product needs additional training. Properly sold to the customer, there should be no question of its benefit or value. If the customer still refuses, let the sale pass by instead of dropping your pants on the price.
• Discounts as advertising techniques should be avoided completely. Leave the low prices to the corner stores and quick-lube shops. If you’re trying to undercut the low-ballers, you’ll bring in the gritty, hard-to-sell customers that frustrate your staff and only buy your loss leader. Instead, advertise your expertise, your professional service, your factory-trained staff. What you offer is worth more than the other guys.

The benefits are clear: higher gross profit, more total sales, satisfied staff and increased customer satisfaction in the long term.

Whenever you discount a service or product, you’re telling the customer it’s not worth its original price. And when you can sell at full price, you’ll enjoy the taste of your Chez Steakhouse bacon-wrapped sirloin even more.

You hear about labor rates, rising costs, and a ceiling for how high labor rates will reach. It’s all fine and dandy…unless you’re the front-line person, the service advisor, who has to sell it. And that’s the position I’m coming from.

I spent more than a decade at the service desk, selling maintenance and repairs to customers. I get the challenges – I faced them every day. And one of those challenges was dealing with pricing that I had a hard time justifying to myself, let alone the customer.

How It Started

When I started in the automotive industry in 1999, we sold oil changes for $29.99. That’s Canadian dollars, so approximately 25-30 percent higher than American pricing would be. Pricing steadily crept up, two or three dollars at a time, until it reached $40 for an oil and filter change in just a couple years. And that’s probably fine, but it’s not the only price increase that happened.

The labor rate jumped in the same period from $68 to $80, and that felt like it was overnight.

But time passed, and rates continued to climb. More than a decade later, working the service desk at a domestic store, the rate increased to $130, then higher yet. The same customers were paying nearly double the labor amount in just over 10 years, and it was nibbling away at my conscience.

That’s when I began to prequalify the estimates I’d get from technicians, and prequalify the customers before selling their maintenance at check-in.

• An older, assumedly fixed-income senior might not get a wholehearted effort to sell an oil pan leak.
• A fleet customer might not be recommended everything from the maintenance menu.
• A young mom with two kids in tow may not get the full effort to sell a brake fluid flush along with the brake job, or the leaking shocks might be soft-sold for the next visit instead of right now.

At times, I couldn’t justify the cost of the repairs and service. It’s not that I didn’t believe in the products, just the price tags associated with them. I couldn’t perceive their value. If you ask your staff, you’ll probably find at least one in the same position.

But It’s Not Up to You

It’s one thing that helped me get back my ability to sell. My perception doesn’t matter. It’s the customer’s perception that counts. And on that point, you don’t need to justify your labor rate to yourself. And not even to the customers.

Whatever your labor rate is, that’s what it is. It’s bound to climb higher yet. So here are three points that can help your front-line staff with their sales approach when labor rates and service pricing feel too high.

The Customer Won’t Do It If YOU Don’t Sell It

98 percent of your customers don’t know what they need to keep their vehicles properly maintained and in good repair. It’s your job to tell them. It’s an informative position as much as it is sales. You must ask for the sale because a customer won’t wave cash in your face and demand you spend it for them.

Whether it’s maintenance or repairs, dutifully explain a customer’s needs in full, not stopping short of asking for the sale. Give them the opportunity to say yes, even if you think the answer will be no.

Understand and Explain the Value in Your Service

Another shop might be a little cheaper but the customer is at your store. Part of the value is a time savings – is it worth it to your customer to drive home, make another appointment elsewhere and be without a vehicle again?

You can also explain that your warranty is better, the staff are reliable, the manufacturer stands behind their product… these are of perceived value with the customer sees them.

You Can Pay for the Best Staff to Stick Around

Anyone in the industry has seen the high rate of turnover. Good advisors and technicians are like nomads, going wherever the work happens to be. But when they’re paid well, they don’t look around; they stay put. And the gross profit from labor rates allows for employee retention.

Whether you use it to personally justify the rates or you explain it to customers, slightly higher labor rates mean the best possible staff and repairs can be hired and kept. And that means your own position. When you sell the labor rate, you’re selling your own value.

Notice one thing: there’s no contingency for discounting based on labor rates or high pricing in general. It shouldn’t be the reason for discounts – ever! We’ll get into discounting next time…

The automotive industry fell a little flat in certain areas throughout the first and second quarters, but that rarely applies to the service department stats. Unless there’s something seriously wrong with your shop, it’s a monster that keeps on moving no matter the challenges you throw its way. Ups and downs, sure. But it takes nuclear activity to derail the service department.

But as we all know, you can’t stay put. The only acceptable way to move is up, and that takes work. So, despite a good, solid first half amid challenging times around the industry, you’ll have to dig deep and make the second half even better.

Let’s make it real – actionable tips that you can use. These are ideas and tips that serve a direct purpose and push you toward your goals. Time to get busy.

Set a Six-Month Target, then Hit It

By now, you should know how your first two quarters look on the Doc. As well, you should know the areas that are good, just alright, and alarmingly low. Pick the one KPI that’s hurting the most – you’re going to develop a game plan to fix it. Then you’re going to accomplish it by the end of the year.

As an example, your shop supplies might be through the roof. It’s a direct impact on the net, so every dollar counts. Starting in July, require each technician to be accountable for their individual shop supplies. Or, for expenses over a cap number, require a manager’s signature (service or parts manager), so techs think twice about wasting. You may also want to consider sitting down with the parts manager and hashing out a lower price level for your shop supplies.

At the end of six months – even just the first month – you’ll see the changes you implement so long as you enforce the plan you’ve set.

Feed the Team

A morale boost has never hurt your team. Give your staff a few days’ notice, then feed them lunch or take them out for dinner. It’s a ‘just because’ meal and should be totally separate from any rewards they’ve earned.

A meal like this where there are no strings attached has the power to bond your team members together. The takeaway message is that they are valued. A close-knit team is one that is more productive in general, leads to a happier work environment, and benefits the staff, you, and the customer.

Resist the urge to make it a ‘business meeting’ or you’ll taint the atmosphere. Save business for another time. And make just-because activities part of your monthly or quarterly routine.

Clean Up the Shop

If one of your biggest challenges is housekeeping, then take this point literally. But mostly, remove the negatives from your service department.

It could be a process nobody likes. Although it’s one you support, it’s not a hill you want to die on. Maybe it’s extra time authorization by a manager – you can’t do away with it but you can enable others to authorize it, so tracking down someone for approval is faster.

It could be a bottleneck between customer check-ins and hitting the shop. It could require changing your appointment process, adding a technician or two, or implementing an express lube bay (or another one). Just because something has always been done one way doesn’t mean it’s the only way it can be done. Make a change for the better now, because we all know big changes are coming in the next few years.  

It may be an unproductive and poisonous person. It could be time to let go of that one person – your project, the disruptor, or the one person who absolutely never hits their goals or even tries to. As much as you may like someone personally, and as much as you see their potential, you need results. Consider cutting off their second chances – instead, cut them out. Encourage them to find a better fit elsewhere, or even help them make the change.

 Each of these three tips can be started right now. And all of them can make a positive impact within the following six months. It’s all about moving forward; steering your department’s course. And with that, you’re DrivingSales.

The first quarter of 2017 is in the books and the second quarter is almost wrapping up. As service departments go, it’s always a steady flow of gross sales, even when the market is in a slump. But neither you nor the higher-ups are happy with steady. You want to see growth; an ever-increasing influx of cash into your department. Before the second quarter is up, take a look at where you stand and what you can do to improve in Q3.

Evaluate Your Current State

There are a couple KPIs to monitor, telling you how your service department is doing overall.

Gross Sales

Obviously, the amount of service labor and parts you sell is a key indicator of your department’s health. Compare it to the same period of the previous year; look at both the quarter and YTD. Month-to-month differences are normal, although increases over the same month in the previous year may be notable.

Are your gross sales up in your service department from the previous year, in the same time frame? If they aren’t, is there a clear indicator as to why? Steady growth of 3-5% is enough to prove your department is on the right track. If you’re behind last year’s numbers, look for a reason why, and find a solution.

Net Income

Did you record profits every month after expenses? That’s the most obvious window into your service department’s health. If you’ve been the same or better in gross sales, your net income should be trending the same way. If not, there’s a problem with expenses or discounting somewhere along the line.

Hours per RO

The acceptable hours per RO varies by store, but you should see a trend upwards. Are the hours falling? It could be due to a new service advisor or another explainable factor. As experience increases in the service drive, your hours per RO should follow suit.

Number of ROs Written

This is where your volume is evident. If the number or Ros written has increased over the same time last year, you’re on the right track. That often means the sales department is healthy and your CSI scores are doing well also, resulting in repeat business. If RO counts are dropping, look to your customer satisfaction scores. If there’s a trend of displeased customers, it’s an issue that needs to be addressed NOW!

Break It Down by Service Advisor

You can rank your team members at the service desk offhand, but do so by the numbers. Look at the gross sales, hours per RO, number of ROs written, and gross percentage, and see if there are anomalies that need to be fixed.

• Discounting can cause an advisor’s numbers to be skewed. It will show up in GP.
• An advisor with low hours per RO may need incentives to kick it up a notch, or training in selling techniques.
• Low numbers or ROs written indicates a weak advisor or someone in a slump. Be sure to consider time off when looking at RO counts.

Because your service advisors are responsible for the majority of the sales, keep them accountable. Let them know you’re aware of the differences in their performance. However, instead of discipline, offer assistance to correct the problems.

Make Adjustments for the Second Half

A new month, quarter, and half is around the corner. It’s the right time to make changes, allowing you to kick off the second half strong. Learning from your first half statistics, coach your team towards even more success.

• If discounting has been an issue, require your service advisors to get you to sign off before a discount is applied.
• If RO counts have been down, put together a service department advertising campaign with your GM, driving traffic.  
• If service advisors are suffering in hours per RO, get strict about walkarounds, upsells, and product promotions.

One thing you can always count on: the guy in the big office isn’t satisfied with status quo. Stretch your service team towards improvements – for everyone’s sakes, not just the big guy upstairs.

I’ve been there, you’ve been there, we’ve all been there. The career you’re in has turned into a mundane task. Going to the office in the morning is a fact of life, not a drudgery or a pleasure. It simply IS.

Losing your enthusiasm is bound to happen at one time or another, otherwise you’re not human. The fact is, outside influences affect the way you perform at work. A fight with your partner the night before, a concern over paying off your recent trip to Bali, a bad report card from one of your children, an interest rate hike that makes your mortgage renewal all the more difficult – you’re thinking about it when you get to the dealership in the morning.

And sometimes, these dour moods continue for a while. When they do, and your enthusiasm wanes for your work position, it’s tough to kick.

You identify with this in one way or another, I’ll almost guarantee. And if it’s affected you, it’s affected the others around you and the people who work on your team. They have their own issues, and they empathize with yours. And while people in the workplace can be a great source of comfort, those issues can have a detrimental effect on business if you can’t leave them at home.

What Do You Do When Someone Is In a Funk?

So, it’s been some time, and someone on your team is struggling to meet their goals. How can you help? When that team member is in a bad state, you have a few choices: let it go on, give them time off to deal with their situation, or help pull them out if it professionally.

Naturally, if the situation requires it, they need some time and space away from work to get it handled. In many cases, though, you can kickstart their work demeanor by focusing on another goal. Throw some money at them.

Financial Motivators Have Healing Ability

When that funk interrupts daily function at work, you can help your team member push past it professionally. And at the same time, you can change the environment around them to add a welcome distraction, as well as put a little extra coin in some pockets.

Create a challenge for your team – the whole team, not just the individual - and attach a reward to it. To eliminate the possibility of a negative outcome, make sure it’s a winning proposition. Set a goal that’s achievable, has a clear end result, and a target date that’s within sight.

Here’s what this does:

• It takes the focus off of woes and onto another important aspect – income.
• It creates an air of competition, which can break through the funk.
• The short-term focus allows for a positive outcome during a challenging time.

Keep It Secret

Your team shouldn’t know that the challenge is occurring because of any one particular thing. You could say it’s to drum up business in a slow season or your District Manager has put money on the table for a specific goal (let them know you said this). Whatever you do, don’t let your team know it’s because of a co-worker’s struggle.

You may want to do a week of daily challenges, all with a dollar figure attached. If you have the option, pay it out in cash daily or at the end of the week for an immediate gratification.

The ideas for motivating someone out of a funk are endless. Here are just a couple off the top:

• Offer service advisors an incentive for every fluid maintenance package sold for a week.
• If it’s the cashier’s office, give a small bonus for every points program enrolment or email address obtained.
• For technicians, offer cash for a specific service (one that’s slacking), or change it up over the course of a week.

At the end of your challenge period, evaluate the situation. You’ll have paid out some money, yes. But is your team member more involved or more engaged? Has business increased thanks to the incentive you’ve offered? Will it continue after the challenge is done? A small perk like this at a down time can kickstart a bit of motivation in the whole team.

At least, that’s been my personal experience…