Skip to main content

Auto|Motivated - Change management or change maintenance: a culture of change




Change management or change maintenance: a culture of change


Throughout my 25 years in the motor industry I have been heavily involved in managing change, whether that be system, process or culture, and I am constantly hit with the phrase change management.

For the majority of my career this has rung true and been a key part of delivering solutions to my team and customers, but, recently I have started to challenge it. The digital age has well and truly arrived in automotive yet i challenge that we are more disconnected than ever. As managers we spend more time looking at our phones than we do speaking to our teams. We are adept at communicating our expectations around KPI's but how well do we communicate our expectations on our values, other than strategically placed flyers around the dealership. And, of those cleverly thought our vision acronyms, how often do we cite change as part of our core value? As an organisation, do you live your beliefs or print them?

We seem to compartmentalize every aspect of our businesses in automotive; BDC, sales, finance, aftermarket, predelivery, all for a single transaction...selling a car. Additionally we compartmentalize our process and systems. Where is our agility, our willingness to pivot and try new things and challenge the status quo. It's time to stop dodging change and start chasing it....starting culturally.

Don't wait to be forced to do things differently,

  1. Live your values don't print them.
  2. Make change part of your core values.
  3. Recruit for change
  4. Be culture focussed not project focussed
  5. Be willing to test, learn and pivot

Live your values

Company values shouldn't be motherhood statements or clever acronyms that are easy to recite but rather core beliefs that are identifiable in your people, processes and outcomes every day.

Make change for the sake of change

No, not suggesting that we turn our back on process or structure but that we embrace change as part of our daily operations. I still hear dealers saying "we dont do things that way here." Instead we should be asking "why dont we do things that way here?" That's not to say we throw away everything we know, but that we change our focus from legacy to curiosity. Adding a question mark to our statements creates a culture of collaboration, discussion and development and that curiosity initiates the conversation that aligns strategy to needs, today and into the future.

Rather than grabbing your values and adding change to the list, as that is too generic and easily dismissed (motherhood), think about how we can demonstrate that core belief every day. How do we question ourselves daily or show curiosity around new ideas? It can be as simple as taking time to reflect on the lessons in losses equally as much as the celebration in successes.

Hire for change

I'm not suggesting that current staff skills aren't transferable but do we challenge sales experience over substance?

Culture deliverables not protect deliverables

Like good project management you need full management support, clearly defined goals, allocated (and shared) responsibilities with a clear goal in mind.

Test, Learn, Pivot, Repeat

Feedback stems beyond your team but should include partners. 360 degree feedback.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Auto|Motivated - BDC - thing of the past or way of the future?

With the rise of online and mobile enquiries, dealer groups have invested in Business Development Centres (BDC) to centralise their enquiries, aiming to create efficiency and consistency as well as taking much of the leg work away from the sales team on the floor. There have been some successful examples on how a BDC increases appointments and, in turn, sales but there are a number of challenges in managing large volumes of leads, and team members, in a consistent and efficient manner. Some large dealer groups in the US have moved from a BDC to Direct Sales Model and are seeing uplifts in conversion, gross and customer satisfaction. Equally, by scaling down BDC resource as well as rationalising the sales floor, has seen an expense reduction, and in turn increased returns. From a customer experience perspective, the biggest disconnections in the BDC process are: The customer is inevitably transferred to a sales team, meaning they have to establish rapport and trust all over again. The p...
Post a Comment
Read more

Auto|Motivated - How do you intend to lift finance share in your dealership?

How do you intend to lift finance share in your dealership? After conversations with numerous dealer groups since the inception of commission changes on 1 November, this topic still remains somewhat contraversial, yet the market is unanimous that industry Finance share needs to increase to over 60%...fast! Make no mistake, the 35-40% finance penetration industry standard ARE THE CAPTIVE CUSTOMERS. That is why it is the standard and achieved so universally across the industry. It is not because our sales teams and Finance Specialists are all equally adept at maximising the opportunities! The only way to reach 60%+ is to start the reeducation process of our customer...starting from the second they start their research online. Here are 6 reasons why the sales floor is a critical stakeholder in this education process: Early referrals are a fallacy! 92% of finance customers already know their funding intentions by the time they speak to the finance specialist. We are currently influencing t...
Post a Comment
Read more