Transcript of a Chris Collins YouTube clip listing five indicators of a successful service manager: (1) a ‘people collector’ who attracts and retains talented employees and customers, (2) a consistent profit machine contributing real profitability, (3) being ‘the hunted’ (high market demand for the manager), (4) developing a coaching tree of future leaders, and (5) having a seat at the table—being involved in dealership-wide decisions. The clip closes with a subscription CTA and contact/offers information.
Chapters
You are a people collector. People collector. A is employees. Talented people want to work for you. You have the most talent in your market working for you. Techs, advisors, etc. You have the most talented car washers.
Yeah. Top to bottom, whatever. Right.
Then the same thing. People collectors. You have high retention. Your systems in your department make customers feel comfortable, trust you, and they want to come back. That's the outcome of the systems that you put in place. So people want to work for you, you collect talent. Number two is customers want to come back.
Yeah. And I think that that's important that they want to come back as opposed to the. I know that I've seen some stores out there that have really good retention, but it's because they're the lesser of two evils or something like that. Not because they're going above and beyond and creating this experience, but that raving fan customer. Those are the ones that I love. Like, you have to go see, I would say, like, when you're out in a social setting and you'll hear people start talking about cars and they'll be like, you have to go see. Blah. That's when you know that you've got the raving fan.
That's great. Number two is your department is a money tree profit machine. You are printing money.
So you understand the financials. You. You're not just putting gross up. You're actually putting profit to the bottom line. You're putting profit down. So a lot of managers that end up getting fired or bounce around might be good at profit or at gross profit, but they're not good at actual profitability. So you have to understand the financials. You have to understand how to hit the sales button. You have to understand how to do it at a high margin, all of that stuff.
Yeah. Well, another thing I would add. I would add to that is that it's consistent, too. Like, you're not up, down, up, down, up, down. It's just consistent and really has a little bit of an upward trajectory where you don't stop growing.
Number three is you are the hunted, not the hunter.
So what we mean by that is your value in the marketplace is people are trying to hire you, they're coming after you. You're not looking for a better gig, right?
Yep.
You can kind of name the gig that you want, and you're not getting fired. Once somebody gets you, they're trying to keep you. You're. You're the hunted, not the hunter.
That's great.
And then number four is you have a coaching tree.
Oh, I Think I know what you mean by that.
Who's Pete Carroll? A part of what? Coaching tree?
Is he part of the Belichick coaching tree? No, no, no, no, no. Don't tell me. Is he part of the Bill Walsh coaching tree?
Yeah, he was the defensive coordinator for the Niners when they.
That's right.
Won the Super Bowls.
Belichick has a tree, but Pete's on a little bit of the older one.
Yeah, but think about Bill Walsh in the library. You know, I have that Bill Walsh.
Book on how to run the west coast offense one.
Yeah. Which is a very hard book to find. And it literally tells you how to run a football team, the travel, everything.
But you have a coaching tree in the sense that you're creating other leaders.
Yeah.
Right.
And then because you're the magnet, which was your number three or whatever, the second that one of your people gets promoted and moves on and moves upwards, someone else just kind of naturally hops into the spot where it's not like you're starving. And you almost expect that you know that people are going to go and you just wish them the best. I think.
And then number five is that you have a seat at the table. And what we mean by that is when decisions are being made, you're in on those decisions. You're a part of the business plan. You're curating the outcome for the overall business. You're not just on the receiving end of the information or reactionary. You're actually proactive in the plan, in the bigger picture, not just reacting to the news that's been sent down. Dealer comes back from a 20 group, lay off five people, you're actually respected and you have a seat at the table when decisions are made.
Yeah. If your dealer or GM is coming to you and asking your advice on the situation outside of the service department, it's a good sign that you're a good manager.
I would say so. Five ways to tell that you're good service manager. Number one, you're a people collector. Employees, you have the best techs, best advisors. People want to work for you. The other half of that is customers want to come back. You have high customer retention. Number two is you're a profit machine. Your department is printing money. Number three is you are the hunted, not the hunter. Number four is you have a coaching tree. You're mentoring others. You're building the future of our industry. And number five is you have a seat at the table. Your opinion is relevant to the overall business plan.
Thanks so much for watching this clip of service driving revolution. 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 SDR 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.
