Chris Collins and colleagues answer how to move into a service manager role. They recommend finding a mentor at your dealership, learning dealership financials through coaching or self-study, and reading automotive financial statements to impress hiring managers. If internal promotion stalls due to dealership politics, look elsewhere.
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This is your drive by a little something going into the weekend where Chris, Joan and I answer your questions. No jokes, no playing around. This is serious business. We're going to answer questions, maybe some jokes. The number, should you have a question is 8333, ask SDR. Except 8333 ask SDR. And if we play your call, there's a swag bag coming your way that also could include parts hold swag, which is pretty exciting. Those parts hold trucker caps look pretty good.
Yep. And the T shirts are very flattering.
You did a good job with that. Flattering. Maybe if we gave those out more females that want to be technicians. Okay, let's get to the calls.
I have read all your. I have all three of your books. I listened to all your podcasts and videos. I am not on On Demand because I'm not a service manager yet. Which brings me to my question.
How do I get to the next to that level? I want to become a service manager. I think I am worthy of it. I think I'm on. I can do a really good job at it. Do I just go to dealerships and say, hey, these are my numbers. I can help you improve your service department. Give me a shot. What is your advice? Thank you very much.
I mean, I. I always like staying with the place you're at and asking them like, hey, can you help me learn? And, you know, either moving up in the company you're in or.
You know, oftentimes dealers are buying more dealerships or there's a chance to expand.
Opportunities abound.
Yeah, but I would probably try with whoever you are working for now to get some mentorship. I, you know, I'm not biased whatsoever, but I do think you set yourself up for success going through our.
Coaching.
Coming to a master class and that sort of thing, because it'll save you a lot of errors. If you have a degree in business, it'll make a lot of sense to you.
Yeah, it's definitely. It's definitely college level. I also. The other reason I would say to stay where you're at and talk to them about mentorship is that you attributed your success to your leadership team, which means they probably must be doing something right. So that's the kind of person I'd want to learn from. Uh, they wouldn't be offended by wanting you to mentor them.
So I think that's the right thing to do there.
There are a lot of differences in the automotive financial statement than other businesses.
It's just.
It's kind of Odd, right?
Way more complex. It's funny.
Yeah. And there, there's also like, it's complex.
Almost like to keep people out. It's funny.
Yeah.
How many times am I gonna say it's funny? 64 funny. Not as funny as you, but it's funny.
It's getting close.
Yeah.
So it is different. I, you know, when I talk to people in other industries or CPAs, there's always a learning curve in the way that we do our accounting.
But beyond that it's people helping people.
Here's a question for you. So if you're.
If you're in this situation, would you go to the GM or the service manager to ask for guidance?
Gm?
Yeah. I originally was thinking service manager, but I might hop over the service manager and ask for guidance from the GM first. Yeah. Kind of. Because the GM has the inside track on the growth of the company.
Yeah. Without knowing what company you're working for and how many dealerships they have, our advice could be off base in the sense of it's a one off and it's one. One dealership and the service manager is the son in law.
Yeah.
And if that is the case, you might want to explore other options. But.
Plant, plant and grow where you are is usually the best.
Well, I think learning something before you go also is important because I think that's kind of the thing is that when I help other dealerships hire service managers, I get tons of people that don't have management experience but they've been really, really good advisors and they apply thinking that that's the thing that's going to get them the job.
Understanding coachability and believe it or not, what got you to be a great advisor is not exactly what will get you to be a great manager. So maybe learning a little bit before you go so you can stand out. Like if I wasn't, if I had an advisor in front of me that said that they'd actually been practicing on the financial statements but never had any manager experience, I'd be all in on that because it showed the self study part.
So maybe that's before you go looking if you have to go to the grass green or somewhere else.
Thanks for the question though. I would do, do it where you're at first and keep us posted how that works out. We also are going to send you a swag bag.
Beautiful swag.
Swag bag. There's little parts hold stuff in there.
Yeah, it's good stuff.
It's great stuff. 8333 Ask STR if you have a question. Thank you so much. 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 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.
