Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/148632
m ns o eo 3. e , w e g to s g n- ro, hed www.PowersportsBusiness.com solutions Powersports Business • August 12, 2013 • 39 Headroom Never underestimate the power of fresh blood Most of you are deep into your season. ing in people who perhaps had not considThe staff you brought on this spring ered working in our industry for snacks has had a full-dose of what motorand a "Day in the Life of a Powersports cycle retailing is all about, and they Employee" discussion. Anyone intereither love it, or have departed. ested is then welcome to come back Unfortunately, the excitement for a free training session over the next and passion that culminated in day or two. The format for that trainanxious anticipation of the riding session is relative to your store/ ing season has now taken a location/style, but the idea is to put back seat to the exhaustion of them into environments where 50- and 60-hour work weeks. they can role-play and express The bike that was "new and themselves, giving you a good Sam Dantzler hot" has now become "… just look at who you're going to hire another piece of metal." What you need is a prior to actually pulling the trigger. new face on the floor (or several). Adding fresh Benefits of this model include: You instantly begin a sort of team camafaces to your team can rejuvenate the entire raderie between new employees trained and staff, as well as make stale product move with a hired together. They help each other and new perspective. It amazes me how many dealers go through watch out for each other and that works in your favor. a search looking for "experienced" salesUse your current employees to help people, never considering what exactly they with the role plays and ask them what they are experienced at. Often we end up having think are the candidates' strengths and weakto un-train them so we can retrain them in nesses. That edifies and engages your existing how we want it done. That continually puts employees as well as elevates them in the eyes management in a position of fighting the of the potential new hires. Who is excited to way the employee "used to do it." Add to participate? Who is complaining about more that the notion the employee typically wants work? Maybe you should be replacing that his paycheck to be commensurate with his slacker while you're at it and no better venue "experience" and you often end up with a very expensive baby-sitting project. This old-school than a Train-n-Hire event! You often find (through the role-plays) model of looking for an experienced candidate candidates better suited for other positions in is one where we search, hire, then train. the dealerships than the one you are hiring for. Certainly this decade dictates a different Maybe there is a role for that cute blonde girl strategy: train, search, then hire. The format that isn't behind the MotorClothes counter here allows for an evening Open House, bring- P38x39-PSB10-Solutions.indd 39 because she knows how to ignite a relationship-building conversation, is awesomely competitive and used to work on commission sales at Nordstrom. The fact that you are openly recruiting and hiring for any position keeps all your current employees from becoming complacent and lazy. What drives employee loyalty? With so many OEMs pushing the notion of a "Premium Customer Experience," I wonder why so few dealers focus on a "Premium Employment Experience?" Turnover is a chronic problem in our industry, yet few choose to focus on what drives an employee's loyalty. More often than not, an employee's desire to leave stems from the following: Poor management. People don't leave their jobs as much as they leave their managers. Managers are there to manage and lead their people, not just their departments. Growing your employees is a trait rarely found in our retail space. Require managers to do daily huddles and weekly one-on-ones with the team. Coaching is imperative. Ability to progress. Do you have a career path for your employee, or did you just hire him to sit behind the parts counter? Often employees leave to better their careers if they see a dead-end in front of them. Give them a 5-10 year plan with your company. No positive feedback. Managers are quick to let employees know what they didn't do, which comes across as constant criticism. At some point, the employee simply tunes out. Good employees are worth their weight in gold. Appreciate them and recognize them. Atta boys should flow like wine … show a little love. Lack of connection. Find out what's important to your employees. If your staff won a contest, how many would take $500 cash vs. $500 in lottery tickets vs. $500 worth of vacation time? Don't know? Find out. What's valuable to the individual and valuable to you may be very different. Training, training, training. I'm con stantly blown away at how few dealers train their people. Employees are set loose on the showroom floor with little more than an hour of "This is where you do this, and that is where you do that; any questions?" I know what you're thinking, "What if I spend the time and money to train them, and they leave?" What if you don't, and they stay? They will be better employees yielding better results for you if they are trained. The first line of a manager's job description is, "Recruit." It's necessary to keep the pipeline full, knowing that retail in general is an industry with high turnover. Never underestimate the benefits of what that new blood can do for the energy, competitiveness and morale of the store. PSB Sam Dantzler is the founder of Sam's Powersports Garage, a membership website dedicated to best practices and all-staff training. He can be reached at sam@samspowersportsgarage.com. 7/31/13 2:59 PM