The original article I had scheduled for today is titled, Tactics for Improving Employee Productivity. But as I was putting the finishing touches on the content, I said to myself, “Self, you’ve skipped an important step! You shouldn’t be presenting tactics until you’re sure that your readers understand the differences between strategies and tactics.”
It’s my understanding that “strategy” is derived from the ancient Greek word,…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on October 11, 2012 at 11:30am — 3 Comments
In my 25+ years in the automotive dealership training and consulting arena, I have been exposed to numerous dealership executives, department managers, and sales and service personnel who felt the need to be “on the job” 60, 70, and, yes, even 80 hours per week. And no matter how much you love the retail business and its diversity, excitement and challenges, that level of time investment in your business career will never allow you to achieve any type of reasonable balance between your…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on October 4, 2012 at 2:37pm — 1 Comment
A sound Internet/BDC operation is a key component of every successful automotive dealership. The question is, what makes a sound Internet/BDC operation? When the NCM Institute decided to sponsor a dealership Internet/BDC training program earlier this year, we decided upon one of the recognized e-Commerce experts in the retail automotive industry,…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on October 2, 2012 at 1:45pm — No Comments
I’m sure you’ve heard this theme over and over: the automotive retail world we work in today is in continual flux, requiring continual adaptation and an unprecedented acceptance of change. At the beginning of each of our NCM Instituteclasses, we ask the attending dealership executives and department managers, “What is your biggest single challenge?” Although it may not quite come out of their mouths this way, the answer we…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on September 20, 2012 at 1:03pm — 3 Comments
Whenever I ask this question, I’m usually very disappointed with the answers that I receive. This past week, when I queried a group enrolled in the NCM Institute's regional Service Management training class in Charlotte, NC, only 20% responded with a “Yes.” My disappointment continues, and…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on September 18, 2012 at 12:48pm — No Comments
Normally I don’t receive my copy of Automotive News in south Florida from the U.S. Postal Service until Thursday or Friday. This week I was pleasantly surprised to find it in my mailbox on Tuesday. A couple of articles in the current issue (authored by Lindsay Chappell and Christina Rogers) inspired me to revisit the vehicle personalization… |
Added by Garry House on September 4, 2012 at 12:42pm — No Comments
In an NCMi Leading Your Dealership to Success course that I taught in April, I made three “punch-in-the-nose” statements in my introductory comments that were related specifically to the retail automotive industry:
Most (a lot more than 50%) auto dealership employees give…
Added by Garry House on August 21, 2012 at 2:55pm — 2 Comments
That probably sounds like a funny question, but it’s a very important one to those of us on the NCMi faculty. Many times our instructors have had managers show up for a class, some unwilling, who think they have been around the block enough times to be able to teach it themselves. However, low and behold, those same managers will leave the class with knowledge and understanding they didn’t realize they needed. The concept behind the question is that we all learn to master skills in…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on August 17, 2012 at 9:30am — 1 Comment
It’s probably because of my college training in industrial engineering, but I’ve always been fascinated and challenged by trying to define any meaningful relationships between “opportunities to do business” (OTDBs) and sales results. After a half-century of experience in the retail automotive business, I’ve concluded that there truly are consequential metrics associated with selling both vehicles and service at an auto dealership.
For instance, do you know how many good vehicle sales…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on August 14, 2012 at 6:15pm — No Comments
At last week’s semi-annual meeting of NCM’s divisional directors, 20 Group moderators, Retail Operations consultants, and NCM Institute faculty members a good discussion developed around the topic of Service Advisor Compensation. The common questions that several on our staff were seeking answers for were as follows:
Has there been any significant change in advisor compensation…
Added by Garry House on August 7, 2012 at 2:44pm — 2 Comments
NCM “Benchmarking for Success” Workshop Added To AutoCon 2012
AutoCon 2012, the automotive industry’s newest and most exciting fall conference, is pleased to announce that Robin Cunningham, NCM® Institute faculty member, will be…
ContinueAdded by DealerELITE on July 20, 2012 at 1:18pm — No Comments
At the conclusion of the NCMi webinar on “Finding the Missing Pieces to Improve Service and Parts Gross Profit,” one of the attendees questioned our recommendation as to the necessity for sub-accounting for automotive dealerships. Robin Cunningham, the NCM Institute faculty member who presented the webinar, suggested that our next Up To Speedarticle attempt to clarify this recommendation. So, here we go!
A meaningful sub-accounting process is a primary ingredient of…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on July 18, 2012 at 10:00am — No Comments
I recently had the privilege of teaching our first NCMi class that is totally focused on leadership in automotive dealerships. We began this 1½-day class talking about “employee engagement,” and the general managers attending this session began positively nodding their heads, when I started this discussion with, “Surveys show that…
1. Less than one in four American workers say they work at their full potential.
2. One-half say…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on July 12, 2012 at 12:30pm — 9 Comments
I am again continuing the mini case study focused on the objectives established, and challenges faced, in building processes to measure and manage OTDBs in the operating departments of an NCM client dealership group. Today, my focus is on one of the greatest vehicle sales opportunities that most dealers enjoy, but fail to capitalize on.
At one point during this engagement, I had asked the dealer principal if he was satisfied with the strategies being employed to develop vehicle sales…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on July 3, 2012 at 12:40pm — No Comments
When I was teaching the Sonic Dealer Academy from 2001 through 2008, my co-instructor, Steve Hallock, became famous for asking each class why they thought we spend so much time talking about the service department. He would explain that it’s because, at a 75% gross profit margin on labor sales, the service department offers, by far, the greatest incentive to increase sales. "So why bother?" Steve would ask. "Because it’s only75…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on June 28, 2012 at 5:30pm — 4 Comments
We recently completed a regional NCMi® training workshop in Washington, D.C. titled, “How to Make the Phone Ring and the Door Swing in YOUR Used Vehicle Department.” One of the class exercises was for the attendees to complete a checklist to determine if they operated a “World Class” used vehicle department. Following are the questions that resulted in the most productive discussions:
Is the Daily Trade-Walk discipline being diligently followed?
Is the…
Added by Garry House on June 27, 2012 at 8:45am — No Comments
The NCMi faculty members and the NCM Retail Operations field consultants have learned that managers who effectively manage the elements of “controllable profitability” within their respective operating departments normally produce a significant departmental net profit. This, of course, assumes that the majority of dealership expenses (limited-control and fixed) are fairly distributed to each operating department.
Many managers, however, lack the proper focus on controllable…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on June 27, 2012 at 8:30am — No Comments
In the February 28, 2012, issue of Up to Speed, I discussed the changing role of used vehicle managementand the overwhelming number of responsibilities that have become part of that function today. Although dealership managers must be accountable for all of the 30 regular responsibilities mentioned in that…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on May 22, 2012 at 4:44pm — No Comments
This is the continuation of the mini case study focused on the objectives and challenges of building a process to measure and manage OTDBs in the operating departments of an NCM client dealership group. Today I’ll be focusing on the vehicle sales departments in general.
The sales management staff had decided that OTDBs needed to be first divided into five major categories: (1) first-time walk-ins; (2) Internet leads; (3) blind phone inquiries; (4) proactive salesperson appointments;…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on May 15, 2012 at 4:46pm — No Comments
Over the last 15 years, NCM Associates has provided hundreds of educational programs that delivered unparalleled training to thousands of dealers, general managers and department managers. However, there is one area in which we have admittedly fallen short…focused leadership training. Up until now, our primary focus has been on the “nuts and bolts” of dealership management. However, the NCM Institute faculty members, as well as many of the dealership personnel that…
ContinueAdded by Garry House on May 15, 2012 at 4:30pm — 2 Comments
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