Dealer Corner: Core Values and Change › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › › ›

Dealer Corner

Core Values and Change

By Bob Clements & Sara Hey, Bob Clements International | An excerpt from You’re the Problem (and the Solution) by Bob Clements and Sara Hey

It’s no surprise to you, as an owner or manager of a dealership, that rapid change is part of today’s business culture. Maybe rapid change scares you to death. Maybe you thrive on change. Wherever you might be on the continuum, you will have people in your dealership who are on the complete other end. Like black and white, paper or plastic, or kale or potato chips—the opposite end of the spectrum.

I love change. The idea of doing the same thing day in and day out sounds like my nightmare. However, there are other people in our organization who get chills up and down their spines when I walk into a room, and it’s not because they are terrified of me, thank you very much. It’s because they know that for me to thrive, I need things to be fast-paced and new. All they want is to maintain a consistent routine.

Here is the thing I have come to realize. Both sides are, in fact, essential. You, on the high capacity for change side, we need you! We need you to push the envelope. We need you to think about how we can do things better, more efficiently, and more profitably. We need you to keep pushing us in a way where good enough is never good enough. On the flip side, those of you who when you hear the word change you get goosebumps up and down your spine, we need you too! We need you to hold our processes together like glue and push us to be consistent in what we are doing. We need you to help us pursue excellence and continued reliability. The moment we have one side without the other, balls begin to drop, and forward progress comes to a halt.

Do you know how both the need to change and the need for stability coexist? It happens by having a common mission, a common set of core values, and a common vision. They let you and your employees make quick decisions because everyone is using the same manual to make their decisions.

When my dad was young (right after dinosaurs went extinct), he worked at his granddad’s gas station. This was not just a gas station, but a service station, where you stayed in your car and not only had your car filled with gas by an attendant but also had your windows cleaned, oil and tire pressures checked, and the driver’s side of the car vacuumed out. That sounds almost identical to my experience at our local gas station—not! Bob’s granddad, Dale McGinness, operated his gas station successfully because he communicated his core values to his employees, which included Bob.

“The customer comes first.” Bob will tell you that regardless of what you were doing when a customer pulled in the drive for fuel, everyone in the gas station stopped what they were doing to take care of the customer.

“Do more for the customer than they expect.” New customers to Dale’s gas station were stunned that the front of their car was vacuumed as they were getting fuel.

“Always be honest in what you say and do.” Again, Bob would tell you that his grandfather, Dale, was all about honesty. Whether the customer wanted to hear it or not, Dale always shot straight with them.

His vision was focused, to be better than the competition, which in his case just happened to be right across the street selling gas for the exact same price that Dale was selling his for. Bob’s granddad knew the only thing he had to set his station apart from his competitors were the people who worked for him. And according to Bob, he worked tirelessly to keep all his people focused on those three key elements. Whether Dale was at the station or at home putting up hay while his people ran the station, he knew he had given his team the ability to make like-minded decisions without him being there.

This set of decision-making references is also helpful when a “once in a lifetime” opportunity comes up. You know the ones I’m talking about. “Should I add a partner?” (No. No. No. No.) “I have an opportunity to open another location, does this make sense?” (Probably not, this is your ego talking.) “My kids just graduated, should they join the business?” (Only if they have a skill you need, and you have an opening.) You simply need to ask the question, “Does it match our mission, vision, and core values?” If yes, do it. Go all in. If no, respect the boundaries you have put in place to help you succeed.

For more information about Bob Clements International and how they can assist your dealership’s success, visit www.bobclements.com or contact Sara Hey at info@bobclements.com. ■