Dealing With Disgruntled General Managers

Foreign.

Everybody, and welcome to your drive by. This is where we answer your questions. What is pressing in your life or business that you need help with? The number is 8333. Ask SDR. Call that number. Leave your. Leave as much detail as you can, but ask your question, and Christian and I will answer it. 8333 Ask SDR. SDR. So this question this week you're going to read? Because I think it's a pretty relevant question.

Yeah. So it's good. I would say it actually is one of those ones that wasn't a question, but there's a question in there at the end of the day that we're going to talk about. It's pretty good. So before that.

So I don't know if I told you about this or not, but.

I'm going to this group, like once a week where I go in there and it's a meeting, kind of like aa. And last night I go in and I sit down, and the guy that runs the meeting comes out. He's like, hmm, welcome to the plastic surgery addicts group. I see a lot of new faces here. I'm really disappointed.

You like that one?

Yeah.

That's from my Instagram buddy Keith. He sends me great jokes. Thanks, Keith. So here's the question. Joke.

So if that joke didn't work, we would blame Keith or we would blame you.

Me.

I take full responsibility for it being funny or not funny. I'm totally okay with it either way. All right, so this is from one of our LinkedIn posts. And this is Adam says, my biggest problem I have now is a GM that knows nothing about service, but feels his decisions should be followed even though it hurts our bottom line. Drives me nuts. So Adam has someone coming down off the mountain saying to do certain things, even though maybe the GM doesn't know exactly what should be done or how service works and how would we handle that is the question, even though we didn't ask it.

So I'm going to pretend like it's me in that situation, which I know probably is in easy because I think a little different. Right. So. But trying to think more like me, maybe what I would do. What's the general manager's name, do you think?

Steve.

I am not working for a general manager named Steve. Something better.

Bart.

Joe Montana.

Joe. I like Joe.

Joe Montana.

I could have gone.

So Joe Montana is my general manager, and he doesn't know anything about service. So the first thing I would do is go to Joe and I'd say, hey, Joe, And I know it's a little late now, but I would still use it, as you said, be like, hey, I really want to get on the same page for 2023, because I have some big goals. Would you.

Mind meeting me for lunch or for like, a little dinner after work? And I want to kind of talk about my goals.

And your goals for my department also. And I might even throw in, because it's me. I'll throw in. And also, like, how can I help sell more cars? I know that the economy might drop and new cars is gonna be in a different situation. People have negative equity. How can I help sell more cars and service? I wanna talk about that because he'll wanna talk about that. Yeah, right.

Oh, yeah, Chris, it's gonna be a real big problem. It's not gonna be like throwing touchdowns.

Joe Montana talks. He talks like he's been hit in the head a couple times, maybe. So could you talk slower? Could we be in character?

Yeah. So, Chris, I'm the greatest quarterback of all time.

Just being the of all time does not.

By the way, Joe, Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback of all time. Not a fan, but Stats would say.

Chris, you're on thin ice right now. I don't know if. If you want to continue that line of conversation, but yeah, selling cars isn't going to be like throwing a pass to Jerry Rice.

Now, here's the thing I would do to good old Joe. Good old Joe is if you didn't, he probably is going to take me up on the lunch. I might have to chase him a little bit.

Yeah. But he.

Eventually, the first time we have a date for lunch, he might be busy.

So lesson there is, do not get discouraged by the first blow off.

Yeah, that's just good.

Just assume it.

Just plan on that happening. But when we finally do sit down.

And I mean, maybe. Maybe because Joe is so. Been hitting the head so many times I need to order takeout. I don't know, but whatever. Whenever we have our lunch.

And my goal with that lunch is to get him to tell me what his goals are for my department and then get on the same page, but.

Use his goals to then create a narrative that supports the thing that makes us money.

Yes.

I have a saying, Christian. Maybe you've heard the saying, maybe you haven't. But it's said a lot. Around my house.

You can't read the label the dry you're in.

No, around my house.

Okay.

Let'S see.

I didn't mean for you to guess. Oh, I was just going to Tell you, you got to be smarter than the bulldog.

It's pretty funny.

What happens a lot of times is we get somebody that's going to watch the dogs. Right. So I have four bulldogs. If you guys don't know bulldogs, historically.

Not the smartest. Right. You got border collies, you got poodles. I don't know, 50 other dogs. And then you got bulldogs. So they're not winning the IQ test. And then they also are just. I don't know if it's because they're not smart, but they're very stubborn.

It's funny, isn't it?

So even though they might not have gone to the bathroom for.

Eight hours and their ears are popping and they're pinching one off, they don't want to go. Like you're. Like you want to go for a walk, and they're not like.

So people will get in these situations where they're dragging the dog and the dog won't go.

And.

And I always say, you got to be smarter than the bulldog. Like, you're the adult here. They're a dog and not that smart. Nothing like a little piece of cheese in your pocket to get them moving or whatever it is. But you got to be smarter than the dog. You can't negotiate with the bulldog because they're, one, they're not that smart, and two, they're kind of stubborn. Now, I'm not saying Joe Montana in this scenario isn't that smart, but most general managers that don't understand service, they.

Stay away from it.

And they would rather be ignorant than complacent. They would rather not worry about it than get it on them. Yeah, for sure, in a sense. So you got to. You got to be smarter than the bulldog as far as you got to make your boss feel good about what you're doing, and you got to understand and have a line of communication where you're on the same page. Even if the same page is perceived, not real.

Yep.

Let me say that again. Even if the same page is perceived and not real.

Like, what's. What's the. What's the saying I say around here all the time about stories?

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

Same. This applies, I think, to this. In a sense, like, they have their wants and needs, and you think. You think your job as a service manager is to run a profitable service department, but most general managers don't know how to run a profitable service department, and they just want to sell cars. Yeah. So you got to understand that that's really, what's happening and the story you're telling yourself might be true, but it's not going to get you where you want to go.

And you're speaking their language when you say, and what can we do to help service do to help you sell more cars? It's great. I think that that's the whole thing with this question is that recognizing as a leader in a service department, there's two things that you have to do. One is leading your people and managing down. But equally important is the ability to manage up. Like, if you're not controlling. I think we had said this a couple episodes about a seat at the table. We. When the big decisions are being made for the dealership, as a service manager, you want to be on those decisions, but you control the relationship with your general manager. It doesn't have to be the other way around. That hierarchy is, in a lot of cases, it's fictional.

I had a boss once, and I haven't had that many bosses in my life, but this boss was a great mentor to me. Incredible, incredible car guy. And I won't say his name because of what I'm about to say, but he was great. And one time. Well, maybe just understand what it's like to manage me. Like, if you're my boss and I work for you, it's probably hard. I've probably got so many things going on that even as my boss, you can't really tell.

Yeah. There's a good reason you own the company.

Right. Not the best employee. Because I always.

I'm always thinking different or whatever. Right. So he said to me once, and it caught me off guard, but it really is a great lesson and applies to this. He said, you know, every once in a while, I wouldn't mind a compliment on my tie.

Wow.

Because you have this relationship where he's your boss, you're trying to, you know, there's a bunch of things. In that position I was in, I'm managing construction money, loans, employees, sales, liability lawsuits. Like, all of these different things, and it becomes very businesslike and very short. Right. Like a lot of conversations. He also was the type of boss where. And like I said, I learned a lot from him. You, if you handed him anything that didn't fit on a piece of paper, he wasn't talking about it.

So I really like that, too.

Yeah.

But.

In that dynamic, you make it all about business. And what he was trying to say was, hey, it would be nice every once in a while if you just were human.

Yeah.

Right. Kind of does that make sense.

It's a great lesson.

And so you get in this mode like, oh, the general manager doesn't know service and they've made a couple moves or made you lay people off or done things that cost you money or they're doing free oil changes for life. And now you perceive you're losing money on every oil change, which is one we hear a lot. Right. And my take on that is always like, hey, you got people coming in. Why don't you just get better at converting like you're going to have?

There's a way to make the model work.

Free oil changes for life. Your RO count ain't going down.

Yep, that's right.

And so you're, what you're saying is, oh, we changed our business model. Not the GM is torturing me. But it's all perspective. And so, you know, everybody likes to compliment on their tie every once in a while.

Oh, my gosh, I love that good stuff. Nice way to end it.

You don't have a joke for the end. You've ended with a joke for a while. Okay, thanks. Remember the numbers 8000, 333 Ask STR and we'll see you next time on Service Drive Revolution. Thanks for watching this week's Drive By. I hope we gave you something to think about over the weekend. We're uploading new stuff every day, so make sure you subscribe and click the bell icon so you don't miss out. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, call 8333 ask S and we'll answer your question on the show. That's 8333 ask SDR. For special deals on our books and training, head over to offers.chriscollinsinc.com now that's offers.chriscollinsInc.com I'm Chris Collins and I'll see you in the next video.