Somebody once asked Vince Lombardi how he gets his team motivated. He answered, “I draft motivated people.” Your success in your dealership will come down to your people. If you grow your people, you will grow you dealership. It’s that simple; there isn’t a magic pill or magic dust that you can use to improve people. The secret to building your team of superstars is to hire the right people first. This will save you time and money, reduce turnover and advertising, and will help your dealership improve sales over time. If you want to increase or spike your sales, just advertise more. However what happens to attitudes and sales when the ads and gimmicks dry up? I would like to share with you the recipe to finding the right person. The most common sense approach first off is to hire people who have been successful in their previous career or job. You can predict an outcome if you know their past circumstances. From there, you will need to train them on your policies, procedures and processes. This is the foundation of building a winning team. Here are four strategies that will help you build your team.

1. Hire the right person in the beginning- Find out their track record. Ask for proof of income and other means of them being successful. Your dealership needs someone who can sell, not someone who says they can sell. Talk is cheap. If they can’t convince you in your first meeting, you know what the obvious answer is. Interview them at least 3 to 4 times and have at least 2 or 3 managers in the interview process. If it’s not unanimous, don’t hire them.

3. The Right Management – Doesn’t success start at the top and filter down? The right management is vital to a dealerships long term success. There are three modes to building a team of champions. The first mode is called the start process, and that’s when you bring a team of people together. The second mode is when your teams stays together over time. That’s called progress. The third mode is the most important of the three, and it’s when your team works together. That’s called success! If you have constant turnover with your management team, you will always be in the start mode. Salespeople don’t like that. There isn’t any continuity, and momentum comes to a halt. Management needs to be trained, just like your salespeople. We often forget that most sales managers were good at selling, and then we bumped them up into management without realizing that they need to be trained on how to manage people. If your managers don’t have the skills to lead, coach and direct your team, too often they will make up excuses why sales and gross are down. It’s because they quit on their people. So then your sales people quit on their managers. People don’t quit dealerships, people quit people. Leadership starts at the top. Why do you think they put the word lead in front of leadership? Great management skills start with building a team of champions. It’s hiring the right people and then training them on your policies, procedures and processes. The benefit of this will be a positive attitude amongst the team, along with managers being able to do what they do best: coach and manage. The only two things you can do to help your team succeed are manage their attitude and activities. Hire the right people, then train, track and set goals for them based on realistic objectives.