How To Get Promoted To Manager As A Technician

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To this Friday's edition of a Drive by on Service Drive Revolution. I'm Chris Collins and this is Christian.

Hello, everyone.

Today we have two questions that are very similar. So we're going to play them back to back and then we're going to answer them. Christian is going to explain.

The difference between being a technician in the US and Canada to give context to the 1. Remember, get yourself a pen or a pencil if you're old school like me, and a piece of paper and write down this number. Give everybody a second to do this. Pen, pencil, or open up notes on your phone. Write down this number. 8, 3, 3, 3, ask SDR. S for service, D for drive. R for revolution. 8,000, 333 ask SDR. That's the hotline. If we play your question on the big show, we will send you some swag. I have some ideas for some new swag that I'm excited about.

I do, too.

It's gonna be good, right?

Yes.

So you might get the new swag if we get it done in time. But please call in and keep in mind your question might help others. There might be other people out there that are wondering the same thing that you're struggling with. So give us a call. But let's go to the first before we do that.

So there's this law, I guess. I don't know if you've heard about this or not, but you have to turn your headlights on when it's raining in Sweden, which I guess that makes sense. But how. How am I supposed to know when it's raining in Sweden?

Continue on with the questions.

Okay, so two technicians asking.

A slightly different variation on the same question. Let's hear the first one, then we'll play the second one, then we'll answer.

Hello. Hi there. Chris Collins. I'm a huge fan of yours and I watch your shows every day and I learn from them and I gather the business knowledge every. Every day. Saying every day is not an understatement. So what can I do in order to increase my revenue as well as my service manager's revenue and to grow in the field or to go to a managerial level?

Call number two.

Hi, Chris. How you doing? I'm a tech. I've been in the industry for over 10 years and I'm looking to advance into management. I recently applied to Midas. They have a new shop that they need a service manager for. The base pay is less than what I was asking for. I would be taking a pay cut if I were to accept this position.

The company that I work for now offers medical and 401k. I get four weeks paid off, but there's not much room for advancement and I want to go into management. So the position at Midas is pretty much mine if I want it, but I would be losing on medical. Though the company does not offer medical, no 401k. And the owner said that I could be making upwards of six figures.

But with time, as long as the shop flourishes. I just want to know if this is a good choice or if I should hold off. It would be my first time in a management position. I could gain experience. But I would like to hear from you or in your team to see what choice I should make or which route I should take.

So let's start with. The first caller is in Canada. And I want to just kind of explain for our non Canadian viewers and listeners how it works up there is that there's kind of two segments of technician. There is what's called the license tech, which I would kind of equate that to master tech in the United States. And then everyone else is kind of considered an apprentice tech. And the licensing classes that they have to take are. It's pretty extensive. And there's sometimes probably the thing that I see happen the most is that dealerships will sponsor a technician going from an apprentice to a licensed tech. And in those cases that technician then will sign like a two year contract that they'll work at that dealership for two years after the licensing. Which to me as a dealership, that's well worth it. So the next step for our friend that's the apprentice tech would be to go and get his license and everything like that. I like the idea that he's going towards wanting to get to management, but the thing that kind of popped out in my head is like, what can he do now to get more hours and the easy stuff. So he said he's basically working at a tire and lube center. And the stuff that pops out at me right away is anything around the wheel. So if you're doing tires and oil changes. So I'd get really good at doing brake jobs, I'd really get good at fluid services and then suspension work. Those are kind of the things that popped into my head as far as ways to like immediately catch it and get really, really good in inspecting cars. You don't have to be work doing heavy line work to make a bunch of hours. Matter of fact, I've seen a lot of technicians make great hours and they don't do A lot of heavy work. So the, the gravy work I would say is kind of in that, in between stuff where you're doing things above and beyond the oil change. So that's kind of my, my thing and just kind of explaining what that gentleman was working towards when he said he's trying to get his license. That's a, that's a big deal in Canada as a technician.

Different, different path. So I think, gentlemen, the first thing that I would say is becoming a manager.

Is pretty easy.

Being a successful manager that has a long career and doesn't get let go all the time, right? Like we've, We've dealt with 50% turnover in service managers in different environments that we work in or train in. So the turnover for service managers can be very high. The reason why I wrote the book the Irreplaceable Service Manager is because I wanted people to think about being irreplaceable in the sense of being so good at your job as a manager that you were in charge of your own destiny and you weren't, you know, a victim to, to getting fired and kind of giving an insight into what you need to understand and what you, what you need to be good at. So just becoming a manager is pretty easy. What I would hope for you both is that you would become successful managers that ran healthy businesses, created a lot of jobs and created a culture and an environment where people were thriving, wanted to work there. You know, it was healthy and long term. Like it wasn't a, you weren't bouncing around and always kind of trying to find your footing, which happens to a lot of managers in our industry. There's a lot of, lot of guys out there that are.

Well, they've occupied the title of manager, but at best, at best they're, you know, a low end middle manager. You want to be a leader, you want to be good at this. So if I was to devise a career path for you to be a successful manager.

I've done this a few times and technicians end up making really, really good service managers. This one thing in the path will set you apart from everybody else is I would go write service for a year.

And I don't know if you have an opinion on this. My belief is that I would go write service at a place you're not gonna manage.

I get it.

Not a requirement, but I think it's ideal.

I know that what happens is you've done, you've invested a lot in becoming a technician. Your identity is probably tied to being a technician. You have an investment in tools. I get that. But if you're serious about getting into, to leadership and management, I would go right service and learn that. That part of it, because it is different. And you're gonna be ineffective if you don't understand that side of it's just completely different. Like. So that would be my advice to both of you, is before you jump into a management role, go write service somewhere and get really good at it. Take you a year to get good at it. You're going to have to learn how to not diagnose, you know, how to write a ticket, how to interact with customers. You're going to, you're going to have to be, you know, more extroverted, which all might be uncomfortable things. I think the first caller, actually, he seems very. The guy from Canada seems very outgoing and personable.

Oh, yeah.

But for the most part, you know, let's face it, in our industry, we're more introverted and a little more shy and humble. So you're gonna have to, you know, you're gonna have to navigate all that. But that will serve you later on when you're, when you're leading and managing. So that would be my advice. Think about it. But it's the best way to navigate that is to go. Go do the other thing. So you have a deep understanding of both sides then.

The second part of that whole thing, I think is caller number two brought it up, which I think that you and I have had similar paths on. That is I never get caught up in moving up and then that the pay doesn't move up because that's rarely how it happens in a lot of cases. I think that the value in taking the promotion is the learning. But don't expect that you're always going to make more money. As a matter of fact, I can tell you that some of my best career decisions, I went backwards in pay. But the knowledge and the experience and like the, the tools that I learned were far greater than any money I could have made. I would have been worse off keeping a job that paid more money. And I would say that there's probably been once in my career for sure, maybe twice that I've chased the money. It was the wrong thing to do.

So don't get hung up on the money part.

Yeah, I totally agree with that. I think if you set yourself up for success in the right environment, the money will follow. You want to be a good steward of the money, but you also need to be in a, in a scenario where you can perform and thrive, you know, Yeah. A lot of times the money.

Appears better on the front because the scenarios worse.

Yeah.

If you're really good at what you do, they're gonna pay you the money.

Oh, they, because they couldn't.

I've done, I've done it before where I just go in and do it and then I say, this is what I want.

So you just want to focus on the skill and don't keep score when it comes to the money in the beginning. But you will dramatically improve your chances of success by, by understanding both ends of the business. And it'll be hard. The reason why people don't do it is because it's hard. But if you do it, it makes you unique, makes you special in the marketplace. So thanks, gentlemen, for the questions. I wish you guys the best. If you have a follow up, call in and you know, and we'll, we'll answer it. But it's great, you know, it's in the air. Two questions that are kind of the same at the same time. So thank you for that. Remember the numbers 8333-ASK SDR. 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 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 you in the next video sa.