Chris Hunsicker breaks down the margin map, a four-part framework to find hidden profit in dealerships. Rate your processes and staff on a 1-10 scale, investigate anything under an 8, and focus on high-margin products. Pick one thing in each quadrant to tighten and execute immediately.
Chapters
Foreign. Costs aren't the enemy. It's your thinking you don't lose margin because of markets. You lose margin because you stopped looking for it. And today we're going to build it back on purpose with tools. I'm Chris Hunsicker and this is the dealership war room, where we build leadership under pressure one day at a time. Here's the truth no one wants to talk about. Margin isn't disappearing, it's hiding. And the question is, do you have the process, perspective and precision to find it? Let's talk about a four part tool I use every week in top performing dealerships. I call it the margin map. And let's look at where specifically your margins are being eroded, not by the market, but by your leadership blind spots. Let's take a look at the four elements of the margin map. Number one is process. Where are you getting a little sloppy and getting a little loose? Is it your recon cycle? Is it dispatch delay? Is it warranty penetration? What I want you to do is sit down and make a list right now of the top 20 processes that you have that you know, drive revenue and rate them on a scale of 1 to 10 and anything that's under an 8, let's start looking at what. Where do you need to tighten that up? Where can we find a little bit more margin? Number two, presentation. Where is your team discounting because they're either under trained or under managed. In other words, they're not really accountable. Think about it. Are your salespeople quoting a price with conviction? Are they carrying a pencil with passion? Are your advisors really selling with conviction and selling value or are they just quoting a price? You see, again, I want you to go through. List your advisors, list your salespeople, list your body shop advisors, list your managers. Rate them on a scale of 1 to 10. How are they doing? Are they loose? Are they discounting? Are they getting a little bit weak and then dive in and let's do a little bit of margin surgery and let's capture some of that margin that we're missing because it's just something that we forgot to focus on and it left our frame of consciousness. Number three in the margin map. Another P is people who is underperforming because we simply stop developing them. Do you have a salesperson that's just coasting by in charisma? Do you have a new hire that we just abandoned and set out there again? I need you to be intentional and specific. This is a financial statement. We are finding margin. Make a list of each of Your salespeople, what is the next developmental item on their list? What are you currently specifically focused and working on in Getting them from 2 to 3, 3 to 4, 5 to 6? Make a list of each of your advisors. What are you doing to move them from 3 to 4, 4 to 5, or 5 to 6? Do you understand what we're margin hunting? This is why I call it the margin map. It literally maps out how to share the limited time, energy, and focus that you have to start driving margin in your store independent of the market. Number four is product mix in every department. In your parts department, front end and back end. On your service drive, in your F and I office, on, on the sales team, what products are you selling? Where's your biggest margin? What do you need to sell more of? What's worth the effort? Like so many things, you could sell anything. But you got to ask yourself, is the juice worth the squeeze? If I have something that makes me $10 and something that makes me $100, I would have to sell 10 of the $10 things to equal one of the $100 things. Start going through your product mix and look where is the biggest margin and how do I focus the time, energy, intention of our team on those things that make us the most money? Now, when you start walking through your dealership with this mindset, when you're using this filter, these four P's, as you walk through your store, through each department, you're going to start seeing cash everywhere. And that is how you use the margin map. I want you to open up your notebook or get your whiteboard and draw the quadrant, the four elements of the margin map, put in process, put in presentation, put in people, and put in product mix. And then I want you to identify one area in each of those quadrants where you need to tighten up, where you need to get better. And then I want you to pick one and do something about it today. Remember, our job as leaders is not to react to the environment. It's to engineer our response. You are not the victim of margin loss. You are the architect of margin recovery. So let's go create some leadership fire. Let's go build some margin, and I'll see you tomorrow in the dealership war room.
