For any customer relationship management (CRM) processes to succeed, one factor has to be present and that’s the store’s “top down CRM leadership strategy.” Without this, the odds of a successful implementation dim quite a bit.
A change in the way we do business is where it begins and ends. Our business is so accustomed to performing tasks one way and one way only that we are often locked in a sales process paradigm, which prevents us from seeing the magnificent multitude of new ways to do business.
“If you begin to look at things differently, then things will begin to look different.” ~ Albert Einstein
Put On A New Pair Of Glasses
To ensure successful design, implementation and effective production from CRM and BDCs, changing the way you and your employees do business has to be in your foundation. I particularly like the quote from Herbert Kaufman: “Failure is only postponed success as long as courage ‘coaches’ ambition. The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.” Persistence is what you as a leader will have to have to ensure total success. You will be leading your team where no one has gone before in your store and you will most likely encounter sizable resistance. Do not compromise your position, be persistent and charge forward with leadership. Leaders know the way, go the way and show the way. It is your job to take the vision and make it reality.
Our business is quite unique. It has a history of being riddled with doing things the wrong way, usually attributable to paradigms, laziness or, in a lot of cases, just ignorance. You don’t know what you don’t know. What you need to embrace is that managers have to become leaders by selling and adhering to your store’s new CRM culture through thick and thin. Your managers must be a part of the decision-making processes, because they will be the ones who ensure everyone adheres to new processes consistently.
A study of unsuccessful managers by the Laboratory of Psychological Studies of the Stevens Institute of Technology put it this way: “The inability to make decisions is one of the principle reasons for failure. It is a much more common reason than lack of knowledge or technical know-how.” Therefore, the top down management team has to adopt a strong acceptance of enhanced leadership decision-making to enhance the business. You will encounter very tough decisions that will differ and cross the “business as usual” boundaries you have exhibited in the past, but you have to press on with the changes.
The single-most critical change will be top down accountability with consistency. How many times have we implemented a new training program or procedure only to have it go away after two weeks? Perhaps it was your policy of ‘mandatory 100 percent managerial turn over’ for every customer a salesperson touches. It probably lasted maybe a month because the business revitalized by itself, and everyone forgot all about the policy.
Remember the times you paid significant money to send a salesperson or manager to one of those two-day training classes in another city? Airfare, hotel, meals and class fees really added up. The employee returns from this class so pumped up he or she can’t contain it. Then, a strange thing occurs. After a week or two, everything the employee learned goes away and they default to doing business the same old way. Why? Because we have no consistent, accountable process to reflect and support the new ideas and approaches learned in the class. The locker room atmosphere of the training got the employee pumped up. No one else shared the excitement and using these new techniques left the employee alone and unsupported by management.
Take a look at your bookshelves. Are they cluttered with various tapes and workbooks, which were the ‘fix-all, cure-all training program of the month?’ Do they all now have at least 1/16” of dust on them?
Good top down decisions help us begin the CRM journey, and having top down accountability for consistency to our new processes encourages and allows us to finish the journey. The pain of disciplined accountability is momentary but the payoff is monetary.
Many dealers, who have or intend to install CRM software or a BDC and expect it to be the instant magic wand to improve their business, are usually disappointed. Much like dealers who scrambled early to the Internet, built a web site and waited for things to change for the better. But they didn’t. Why? Well, much like the magic wand software, we did not and most still do not have a solid team process in place to ensure success.
It was like building a house and starting with the roof. Without a rock solid top down foundation, the roof has nothing to support it and it collapses. Remember that technology represents 10 percent of the CRM equation and good processes and management makes up the remaining 90 percent.
A store must have top down managers growing in process leadership skills before they can grow their people, sales or customer satisfaction. And, this applies not only to sales but service, parts and administration. You see, CRM needs to be an all-inclusive dealership campaign. The tone of the store’s culture starts at the top. Conversely, without effective top down leadership it becomes like a rudderless ship going any way the wind blows it.
Building Top Down Leadership
OK, so where do we go now? We start again at the top, of course. Top down strategy simply means that everyone in management has to be committed to the business strategy, design elements, planning, implementation, managing and leadership of a CRM process. This includes the dealer principal. An important key to success rests in the relationships among the management team. They have to work together by looking in the same direction toward the same dealership goals and how to attain them.
Getting them involved in the process and letting each member know that they are playing a very important part in the building project is a good start. Keep the management team in the loop and you are more likely to keep them committed toward your process changes for the long term. Constantly remind them that they are valuable and essential to the project’s success—because, quite frankly, they are. When the rest of your store sees this team working together as one team, it sends a signal that there is buy-in at this level and therefore it must be something good.
The next part of the new business process does not involve the transactions. It involves the relationship between your people and the management team. If both can share the same enthusiasm and belief in your CRM process, you will be accomplishing something that most dealerships never attain.
Ask yourself: What is the stronghold limiting your motion in the direction of good CRM and processes? What’s got a grip on us? You will never conquer what you won’t confess to—and then do something about. It may be people, lack of direction, lack of knowing or simply lack of caring.
Whatever it is, get it nailed down so it can be corrected.
Making A Change In Attitude And Outlook
The quality of your business life will be enhanced when you decide to soar with confidence while making good solid changes toward improvement. You will produce what you envision. Keep those new glasses on.
But remember this: If it is different on the inside than the outside then you will have a problem. A house divided against itself cannot stand. You must believe change can be done and seek help if you need it.
You should also begin seeing yourself, the store, people and processes traveling to a higher level, getting better, making stronger relationships, getting healthier and letting the image of ‘victory’ take hold. That will require that you do things that build up yourself and others around you. Let that seed grow inside first and nurture it. Paint a new picture of yourself and the store using all the colors. Focus on your possibilities because when you do there are great possibilities. Without them there are none.
Some Ideas To Help You Make This Transformation
Make some ‘think time’ and develop a new vision of things that could be and will be with you and others leading the way.
- Develop an unshakable sense of confidence and eliminate all negative thoughts. You must control and get your mind going in the right positive direction because you cannot have two drivers of this bus.
- Envision your dreams and let the seed take root on the inside. Then watch yourself grow on the outside.
- Put yourself and the store in larger places of opportunity. If the tank is too small, the guppy will not grow. Stretch your world. If you stay there, that’s where you will stay. Only you can change things.
- Don’t wait. You will be surprised how old you get waiting. The time to refocus is now.
In closing, remember there is a vast difference between “knowledge” (having the facts) and “wisdom” (applying those facts to life). We may amass knowledge, but without wisdom, our knowledge is useless. Live out what we know is best because everything we do today creates tomorrow. Today needs to be organized advancement. It’s the actions we chose today that enhance the opportunities for tomorrow. How do we do it? Begin your day with something positive, new and goal-oriented.
Get everyone on the same team by letting them understand top down leadership is in town and with it comes new and improved processes. There will be some redesigning of functional processes to make it successful. If anyone is not on board, then get someone who shares the new vision. The rewards for everyone will be awesome.
Chuck Barker is CEO of his two companies Impact Marketing & Consulting Group, LLC and Impact Summit, LLC both located in Virginia. His experience ranges from an executive with a Fortune 200 corporation, Harris Corp., to the automobile business where he has performed all management positions. His firms specialize in growing people and dealerships. He delivers Leading Edge Sales Training Programs, Customer Relationship Strategies, Management Leadership Workshop Programs and Dealer/Principal consulting assistance for the automobile industry. Chuck has recently published the first comprehensive ‘in-house’ sales training solution program for dealers entitled Dealership Success Guide at www.impactgroupcrm.com/impact-summit/ .