A transcript excerpt from a Service Driving Revolution video (featuring Chris Collins) discussing how pay plans, leadership, and written rules shape workplace culture and performance. Speakers debate whether commission structures or poor leadership cause dishonest behavior, and Collins argues for clear written policies, careful selection of employees, and firm leadership to sustain a culture of performance.
It's not the communal or the, I guess the communist pay plan is what you call it. I think that was just like a one off situation. But even if it was base plus commission just for that individual too.
Just from my experience, and maybe it's just because I'm a very optimistic person and I'm very.
What's the word? I care about everybody even if I shouldn't, you know, even my teammates and stuff like that. There's such a, like when I was talking about, you know, where's the line like morality wise with that. I mean you can be the bulldog, you can be aggressive and you know, just go to work and do your thing and you know, run over all the other advisors. That's fine as long as you're being honest. And that was always my biggest issue is that all the problems that I had at dealerships where the commission was so cutthroat and you had those advisors that were, you know, they were very aggressive and strong personalities, which is totally fine, but they were using dishonesty in order to be that way. And that's where I.
Well, that's on leadership because it's really important that that stuff be in writing, right? Because a lot of times what happens is. So let's say that the rule is that if you offer something to a customer and they come back within the next 90 days and get it, get the work done, it goes back to the same tech or advisor. All that stuff needs to be in writing and there needs to be a leader there that enforces that. But most of the time that stuff is not in writing. It's a who feels what, when and it's an emotional decision. And I hate emotional decisions. Whenever I'm dealing with salespeople or anything like that, I put that stuff in writing and I let the paper make the decision because like, you know, we'll have scenarios with salespeople where like, you know, we, we six months ago, somebody we talked to and then they, today they buy, but it's a different salesperson and all that, it's in writing. And so if you haven't followed up with that customer in a certain amount of time, it's open and you can, you know, you can say that it's not fair, whatever, but we all agreed to it. We all sat down and we agreed at one time that that's how it was. And so I think that that fixes that issue is if it's in writing and you have a leader that is very black and white that these are the rules we Stand by then. I think, I think that's easier to navigate if it's vague and emotional. I don't. I don't know that I could work in a place like that too long just because I would get. I would.
That. That was the issue.
And, you know, hard to overlook day in and day out.
Yeah.
Buffoonery. It's. I've been in places where advisors change the RO to their number.
I've seen that before too. It's horrible.
I've talked about this so many times and I don't share that.
That's on the leader.
And, and honestly, after, like, talking about this with you, I think you have changed my mind a little bit because it. You have helped me realize that maybe a lot of this just boils down to. To bad leadership. And it.
Yeah.
And.
Well, just having a different pay plan for females versus male is weird.
Yeah. And that's a whole other conversation.
I wouldn't expect that leader to also run a fair.
No, it's not fair to begin with.
And. Yeah, anyways. Yeah, you're right. I think it just boils down to leadership because when I think about it, the independent shop that I worked at where we had a lot of success as a team and all that, the shop manager was probably the best shop manager I'd ever had. So that probably did have. That did have a lot of people.
Probably more to do with it than the pay plan itself. I think that that's the thing is that the pay plan sometimes becomes the scapegoat for the horrible environment that we're in. And we were like, oh, it's because the pay plan, but it's not. It's because of all the people that are. It's the rules, the system, and the culture. Right.
Yeah, I guess that is. That is a very good point. I think there's a lot that needs to be worked on in order to truly make that full commission base or the full commission pay plan, like really, truly work. But once again, that just boils down to the fact that my experience has always been terrible on that front and then great with the base plus commission. So experience can change your outlook too.
Yeah. And also I think you do have to understand that, you know.
The man with a hammer. To the man with a hammer, the world is a nail. I come at this from a perspective of an advisor that knows how to perform and knows how to create numbers and create customer enthusiasm and loyalty. And so I'm going to have a different mindset and approach because I'm not trying to placate to the lowest common denominator. And so I go back to what I was saying earlier is it is about selection because, you know, a lot of these guys, they read these leadership books and it's like, oh, you know, happy employees equal happy customers. And it's like there has to be a conversation about who are the employees because there are a lot of employees that are entitled.
Yeah. And I don't disagree with that.
When you have a culture of entitlement, you can't give them enough. I've, I've dealt with it many times. No, you give. I've, I've had shops where like, you, you gamify and you give somebody $100 bill and I've literally had them say, well, I can't. Nobody takes $100 bill. I need 20. And it's like, it's never enough.
Wow.
No, that's happened on several occasions. Like, it's never good enough no matter what, what you do. So in that situation, you have to consider.
The, the group that you're dealing with because it isn't a one size fits all. It's a little more complicated. That's in this leadership book that I'm writing. I kind of, in the beginning do this, this flip where I give myself permission in the book to tell the truth about this stuff because I feel like a lot of this, you know, John Maxwell leadership is half the story. It's not really the truth about what's going on. If you want a culture of performance.
You have to look at it from all sides and understand that there's a lot of moving parts that affect the outcome. And it isn't just a one size fits all or a, you know, dog whistle that the rule of leadership is this. You know, it's a little different.
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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.
