My New Adventure - Al West Nissan

[BillVaughnAlWestNissan]

It seemed like we had some momentum going to start the month, but we've stalled out the last two days.

I made some pricing adjustments today and starting a new campaign for new cars. Hoping that can provide a spark.

It may have partly been because it was slow, but today felt like the first "normal" day that I've had since I've been here. Either getting settled in or I'm just not doing enough. Ha.

Putting the final touches on our new overlay. Hoping to have that done soon. I know that may sound small to some, but something every customer will be looking at I take pretty seriously.

Staff seems to be finding a groove and is understanding the change in expectations. They seem more comfortable with it now. It's possible that selling cars was helped fix that so it could only be temporary. We will see if the morale dips again if we continue to have a slow stretch.

I continue to work on no cost ways of attracting organic activity (i.e. blog posts, GBP posts, Facebook posts, etc.). Also still waiting for our Bing Places for Business profile to be approved and activated. Dealers, do not underestimate Bing. You can easily sync your Bing and GBP profiles.

Also still in the process of making some minor tweaks to our website.

Starting to get buy in from those involved in the used car department on getting cars through, service, body, and detail. They seem to finally be understanding the urgency.

 

[Tallcool1]

It seemed like we had some momentum going to start the month, but we've stalled out the last two days.

I made some pricing adjustments today and starting a new campaign for new cars. Hoping that can provide a spark.

It may have partly been because it was slow, but today felt like the first "normal" day that I've had since I've been here. Either getting settled in or I'm just not doing enough. Ha.

Putting the final touches on our new overlay. Hoping to have that done soon. I know that may sound small to some, but something every customer will be looking at I take pretty seriously.

Staff seems to be finding a groove and is understanding the change in expectations. They seem more comfortable with it now. It's possible that selling cars was helped fix that so it could only be temporary. We will see if the morale dips again if we continue to have a slow stretch.

I continue to work on no cost ways of attracting organic activity (i.e. blog posts, GBP posts, etc.). Also still waiting for our Bing Places for Business profile to be approved and activated. Dealers, do not underestimate Bing. You can easily sync your Bing and GBP profiles.

Also still in the process of making some minor tweaks to our website.

Gross Profit fixes all problems!! I am sure that getting busy and selling some cars helped as much as anything.

It is SO hard to teach and change processes when business is slow. When it is busy, there are teaching opportunities around every corner.

I am enjoying this thread Bill. I admire your willingness to just put it all out there.

 

[BillVaughnAlWestNissan]

Gross Profit fixes all problems!! I am sure that getting busy and selling some cars helped as much as anything.

It is SO hard to teach and change processes when business is slow. When it is busy, there are teaching opportunities around every corner.

I am enjoying this thread Bill. I admire your willingness to just put it all out there.

Thank you, sir!

 

[BillVaughnAlWestNissan]

I think we often think of the big things that bring a business down, but I believe it usually starts with the smallest cracks in the foundation. These are the things that ultimately led Al West Nissan to this point of critical danger.

Examples:

Communication: We can only currently swing one person in parts. Well, today two people showed up for small things (a key fob and a battery for a key fob) at the same time. They just happened to show up while the one parts person was on lunch... who didn't tell anyone he was leaving for lunch. When these things happen, it puts others in a stressful situation, leaves service waiting for parts, and, most importantly, customers are disappointed.

Standards: I found out today that someone has been told many times before that leggings weren't appropriate work attire. Several? Why are we waiting for "several" times to put a stop to something. If someone gets away with something, then someone else thinks it's ok, and then someone thinks "Well, if they can break that rule then I can break this rule." And so on and so on...

Critical Understanding: I keep hearing the word "approval" thrown around left and right. Then, the next thing I know a customer is gone without a deal. I have come to realize that they don't understand that a deal that is cut back $1,800 or has $1,200 worth of fees isn't an approval. Yet here we have a salesperson who was lead to believe that they had a car deal only to be disappointed thus affecting morale. Had to remind the sales manager and finance manager that they are held to the same TO standard as the salespeople as well.

The good news:

Our sales manager stepped up and quickly resolved the key situation and, for the most part, little to no damage was done (but don't think the customer didn't still see a problem).

One of our salespeople had a concern about something that happened with the sales manager. We sat down together, talked it through, and we were able to quickly move on. The salesperson was respectful and the manager was sincere in their response and didn't get defensive. That's the culture I am trying to create.

--

Overall, we continue to struggle. We had a good run to start the month and now things have dried back up. Two units in three days. The struggle is real. There is still a long way to go to dig out of this hole.

If it doesn't work out, it wasn't for the lack of trying. Here I was getting ready to leave for the day and two trucks show up from ACV dropping off a vehicle each. The cars were spotless and so if you know me at all, you know I went ahead and got those bastards on the lot with hang tags and buyer's guides ready to move!

 

[Carsten]

Most of the teams that I have been on have a retrospective for the end of a sprint. A sprint is an agile term for a set period that X amount of work needs to be completed by. The retrospective is run by a someone who takes a neutral role. I have been doing these retros for a year now for my team. We cover 4 items in 30 minutes meeting: doing good, do better, action items, and thanks.
We use a virtual white board since we're all remote but some post it notes and board to stick them on works too.

It's all no judgement and it took time to build trust, I'm leadership but I make the promise that all feedback is anonymous and will only relay issues that the C levels or people who can solve what we need will know. I only relay names when a team member should get recognition for a great idea.

The thanks - we call out the people who helped us or the whole team.
Action items - I use this corner for updates, information, and follow ups that my team has requested (lots of training is wanted).
Doing good - similar to the thanks but people call out areas that need improvement that are getting better and such.
Do Better - this is what is all bad really. Not enough X getting produced, dysfunctional communication issues, lack of training for target areas, and such.

I use the do better section to get input on all the things that my team wants. We also discuss that sometimes we need to pick up the slack for our side of the issue.

I love these because I believe that a leader is a coach. A coach on a sports team isn't the person on field but the person who steps up to take the blame when the team fails and the one who praises those who shine. A coach wins because his team wins.

I wonder ... if something like this can't be used about now. You can't carry the load yourself. You need the team to buy in and buying in means being invested and seeing that the team's voice is heard and is being acted upon.

Nobody on my team has ever thrown out an idea that was ridiculous like 3 day work weeks and such. We are all professionals, get paid as a professional, and we know that we should be giving our 40 hours fully to our jobs (actually 70% is realistic).

I hope this gives you some ideas!

 

[Tallcool1]

Most of the teams that I have been on have a retrospective for the end of a sprint. A sprint is an agile term for a set period that X amount of work needs to be completed by. The retrospective is run by a someone who takes a neutral role. I have been doing these retros for a year now for my team. We cover 4 items in 30 minutes meeting: doing good, do better, action items, and thanks.
We use a virtual white board since we're all remote but some post it notes and board to stick them on works too.

It's all no judgement and it took time to build trust, I'm leadership but I make the promise that all feedback is anonymous and will only relay issues that the C levels or people who can solve what we need will know. I only relay names when a team member should get recognition for a great idea.

The thanks - we call out the people who helped us or the whole team.
Action items - I use this corner for updates, information, and follow ups that my team has requested (lots of training is wanted).
Doing good - similar to the thanks but people call out areas that need improvement that are getting better and such.
Do Better - this is what is all bad really. Not enough X getting produced, dysfunctional communication issues, lack of training for target areas, and such.

I use the do better section to get input on all the things that my team wants. We also discuss that sometimes we need to pick up the slack for our side of the issue.

I love these because I believe that a leader is a coach. A coach on a sports team isn't the person on field but the person who steps up to take the blame when the team fails and the one who praises those who shine. A coach wins because his team wins.

I wonder ... if something like this can't be used about now. You can't carry the load yourself. You need the team to buy in and buying in means being invested and seeing that the team's voice is heard and is being acted upon.

Nobody on my team has ever thrown out an idea that was ridiculous like 3 day work weeks and such. We are all professionals, get paid as a professional, and we know that we should be giving our 40 hours fully to our jobs (actually 70% is realistic).

I hope this gives you some ideas!

4 Items in 30 minutes. I love this!

This is a good post @Carsten .

 

[BillVaughnAlWestNissan]

Most of the teams that I have been on have a retrospective for the end of a sprint. A sprint is an agile term for a set period that X amount of work needs to be completed by. The retrospective is run by a someone who takes a neutral role. I have been doing these retros for a year now for my team. We cover 4 items in 30 minutes meeting: doing good, do better, action items, and thanks.
We use a virtual white board since we're all remote but some post it notes and board to stick them on works too.

It's all no judgement and it took time to build trust, I'm leadership but I make the promise that all feedback is anonymous and will only relay issues that the C levels or people who can solve what we need will know. I only relay names when a team member should get recognition for a great idea.

The thanks - we call out the people who helped us or the whole team.
Action items - I use this corner for updates, information, and follow ups that my team has requested (lots of training is wanted).
Doing good - similar to the thanks but people call out areas that need improvement that are getting better and such.
Do Better - this is what is all bad really. Not enough X getting produced, dysfunctional communication issues, lack of training for target areas, and such.

I use the do better section to get input on all the things that my team wants. We also discuss that sometimes we need to pick up the slack for our side of the issue.

I love these because I believe that a leader is a coach. A coach on a sports team isn't the person on field but the person who steps up to take the blame when the team fails and the one who praises those who shine. A coach wins because his team wins.

I wonder ... if something like this can't be used about now. You can't carry the load yourself. You need the team to buy in and buying in means being invested and seeing that the team's voice is heard and is being acted upon.

Nobody on my team has ever thrown out an idea that was ridiculous like 3 day work weeks and such. We are all professionals, get paid as a professional, and we know that we should be giving our 40 hours fully to our jobs (actually 70% is realistic).

I hope this gives you some ideas!

This was probably the best post from this entire thread. Thank you for sharing, @Carsten!

 

[Carsten]

Thanks guys!

note: I'm a certified Scrum Master and Product Owner too. I'm not just a cog doing dev work.

We run these retros every 3 weeks which is our sprint time frame. I prefer 2 week sprints. Sprints can be 1-4 weeks long.
Agile is a lot of BS but it does have a few good things. I'm pretty sure dealers have a board of cars moving across the the wall. These our like our developer tickets. You move the car across the board for sales or for service.

So after the sprint, you run this 30 minute meeting. I keep a hard timer on it. I prefer 15 minutes but people need like 10 minutes to write up thoughts and thanks so the meeting is really 20 minutes of reading each note and getting clarification on the the do betters. You are NOT trying to solve anything in this meeting. Just getting things out in the open. The follow up can be a review of what is still outstanding or an update on that when that "training" is going to happen.

Out side of these retros, I am a strong believer in daily scrum meetings (stand ups). 15 minute max. I'm serious! Nobody wants it to be longer. We have 6-7 people in our meetings and we can get done in 6 minutes sometimes. If any extend conversation is needed, I make it voluntary for others to stay or bail.

Each person answers the question: My target today is ____________ .
It's to let others know what you are working on and I'm sure corporate uses this to shame the low producers into keeping active.

I can't remember the book ... maybe it was the Master Mind by Napolean Hill or something like that which had a an example of facotry workers who wrote in chalk their output for their shift. The second shift came in an beat the prior shifts achievement.

Leader boards are nice but saying and hearing it makes it more real.

My target today is to call 5 customers from the crm, send out 3 birthday cards, and sell 1 car today.
Or
My target today is to up sell 5 customers spark plugs.


The scrum master normally runs these meetings, but it can be anybody on the team. They keep an eye on the time, shut people up who love to talk, and ask people what their target / goal for the day. 15 minutes. Some teams have a flag or something to call out the people who blabber on and on. We also call these Stand ups because people used to stand up during them. Nobody is allowed to sit. It helps to finish the meeting on time.

Anyways, just more cross over ideas that might help.

it's all about communication.

 

[Richie K]

I think we often think of the big things that bring a business down, but I believe it usually starts with the smallest cracks in the foundation. These are the things that ultimately led Al West Nissan to this point of critical danger.

Examples:

Communication: We can only currently swing one person in parts. Well, today two people showed up for small things (a key fob and a battery for a key fob) at the same time. They just happened to show up while the one parts person was on lunch... who didn't tell anyone he was leaving for lunch. When these things happen, it puts others in a stressful situation, leaves service waiting for parts, and, most importantly, customers are disappointed.

Standards: I found out today that someone has been told many times before that leggings weren't appropriate work attire. Several? Why are we waiting for "several" times to put a stop to something. If someone gets away with something, then someone else thinks it's ok, and then someone thinks "Well, if they can break that rule then I can break this rule." And so on and so on...

Critical Understanding: I keep hearing the word "approval" thrown around left and right. Then, the next thing I know a customer is gone without a deal. I have come to realize that they don't understand that a deal that is cut back $1,800 or has $1,200 worth of fees isn't an approval. Yet here we have a salesperson who was lead to believe that they had a car deal only to be disappointed thus affecting morale. Had to remind the sales manager and finance manager that they are held to the same TO standard as the salespeople as well.

The good news:

Our sales manager stepped up and quickly resolved the key situation and, for the most part, little to no damage was done (but don't think the customer didn't still see a problem).

One of our salespeople had a concern about something that happened with the sales manager. We sat down together, talked it through, and we were able to quickly move on. The salesperson was respectful and the manager was sincere in their response and didn't get defensive. That's the culture I am trying to create.

--

Overall, we continue to struggle. We had a good run to start the month and now things have dried back up. Two units in three days. The struggle is real. There is still a long way to go to dig out of this hole.

If it doesn't work out, it wasn't for the lack of trying. Here I was getting ready to leave for the day and two trucks show up from ACV dropping off a vehicle each. The cars were spotless and so if you know me at all, you know I went ahead and got those bastards on the lot with hang tags and buyer's guides ready to move!

I see you are having the same woes we have, and I suspect there are quite a few other dealerships who share these woes as well.
We are a small dealership and a couple of us wear many hats, but when people are out, especially without warning, it ultimately hurts the customers. Negative customer experiences are sometimes challenging to overcome, but I find that most of them understand. Except that 1% who love giving bad reviews!
Sales: I cover for our F&I Manager when she is off, and there is nothing that sticks in my crawl like sales (one particular salesman here) leads the customer to believe they are approved when they are not due to circumstances like you mentioned. Worse, when sales quotes a rate that is nowhere close to what we can offer. Then, guess who gets fussed at by the customer? Not sales!

All in all, I think you are doing a hell of a great job on an uphill battle! Thank you for sharing your progress with the rest of us!

 

[BillVaughnAlWestNissan]

Another week down. Moving too fast without seeing an immediate impact. Just have to stay the course, though.

Feel like I'm going to have to figure out some outbound activities, but I'm not a big believer in it for many reasons we can get into (and I know many will argue with me on this), but because of that, I'm also not very good at it. I'm just going to have to get passed it and get creative. I have someone I plan on reaching out to for some guidance.

I'm also going to have to break my rule on trying to go with minimal to no advertising. I feel like I'm going to HAVE to do VLA to increase our presence on search. VLA seems to be the lowest cost option for this outside of maximizing our BGP.

Speaking of my cost strategy, Cars and AutoTrader let me pause our contracts so that I can do this, but (to no one's surprise I'm sure) CarGurus is refusing to help us. Shocking, I know.

I learned this week that they don't clean used cars for deliveries. Just new cars. Wow.

I also realized the depth of our finance manager's lack of experience this week. As I've mentioned, his background in finance has mostly been as a backup and the being the guy that handled more of the subprime deals. I'm going to have to work with him on how to structure deals, how to choose the right lenders, etc.

Communication continues to be a problem. It seems to me that people only listen enough to have a general read of what is going on and that their main focus isn't the thing we are working on, but the thing that they are planning on doing next. I'm going to have to work on everyone's focus on the task at hand and help them understand that everything is important and not just their current projects.

While Al West Nissan seems to have a good relationship with the community and there is a favorable view from the customer perspective on how well they take care of their customer's, I believe that the troubles the dealership has had over the years has lead people to ignore the dealership in their shopping. We're priced aggressively online yet we continue to struggle to get enough activity and leads. I may be asking for too much too soon, but you can't do much with as few opportunities as we are getting.

That being said, I've been very purposeful to do everything I can to try to raise the perception of us as a dealer and avoid any negative reactions or reviews from guests. While I always default to take care of the customer when it's even slightly reasonable to do so essentially, any guest complaint we take immediate care of whatever the problem is. No, "well they bought it as is," "the car is 15 years old," "it has 150,000 miles," etc. Just fix it. We need happy customers and can't afford unhappy ones. Agree or disagree with this?

To top it all off, Rolla was hit by a Tornado yesterday. The north side of town which the dealership is at did not sustain any damage. Unfortunately, the very south of town has seen some critical issues. Sadly, the CDJR store here received extension damage. No casualties or serious injuries in Rolla, but there were some in the area. Just terrible.

This tornado created an interesting scenario. There is a big St. Patrick's Day parade here every year (there is an engineering school here and, fun fact, St. Patrick is the Patron Saint of Engineers) and we were all getting ready for it today. After the tornado, many people were extremely disappointed (ok, they were mad) that the parade was going to go on. We decided to cancel our participation in the parade, but I wanted to do so in a way that wasn't critical of the folks who decided to continue to move forward with the parade. Here is my post. Tell me how you think I did.

"While we can understand the desire for some level of normalcy and trying to find joy in times of struggle, we have made the difficult and personal decision NOT to participate in the parade this year. We're disappointed as it is one of our favorite times of the year to join our neighbors in celebration, but we are going to leave ourselves available to help in the community today. If you hear of anything we can assist with, please let us know. Thank you to all the efforts by the community to prepare for the parade including our team members who helped get us ready to participate. We hope everyone understands our decision. While it is not our main priority, the dealership will be open today for anyone in emergency need. We will likely have limited staff as we will allow our team members to provide support in the area. We are having some internet difficulty, so we may be slower to respond than our normal standards. We are currently having some issues answering the phones even though they are ringing in."

Drone footage of damage:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDZ3KMUq8fU