General Manager Coaching
You've got a save at nine, a factory call at eleven, two techs gave notice Friday, and your GSM wants to talk about his pay plan again. Coaching your managers goes on the list every Monday and comes off it by Wednesday.
If any of this sounds familiar.
- 01
Your Monday meeting is a read-out. Last month's units, this month's forecast, who's behind. Everybody in that room knew all of it before they sat down, and nothing anyone does on Tuesday changes because the meeting happened.
- 02
You're personally closing deals your desk should have handled. It feels like leadership. It's the most expensive habit in the building, because every one you save is one your GSM didn't learn to.
- 03
Sales turnover in this business runs near 60% a year. You're not replacing people because they couldn't sell. You're replacing them because month four came and nobody had sat down with them since week two.
What actually happens in the first month.
- 01 / 04
Week one I change nothing. I sit in your Monday meeting, watch a save at the desk, and ride along on a manager one-on-one if one exists. Usually one doesn't.
- 02 / 04
Week two we name the gap out loud. It's rarely the one the meeting says it is.
- 03 / 04
Week three, one thing goes in — usually a standing fifteen minutes with each manager, same day, same time, that you don't move for a customer.
- 04 / 04
Week four we look at it straight. Keep it, change it, or kill it. I'd rather kill something at thirty days than defend it for six months.
What it's worth, in your numbers
Run this yourself. Take last quarter — traffic in, closing ratio, average combined gross. Now move closing ratio two points on the same traffic and the same inventory, and look at what falls out. At 100 units a month it's usually north of $250,000 a year.
I'm not promising you two points. I'm telling you that's the size of the thing we're working on, which is why fifteen minutes a week with a manager isn't a soft expense.
What does coaching a dealership general manager actually involve?
Coaching a dealership GM means working on how they develop the managers under them, not on their own ability to close a deal. In practice that's a standing weekly one-on-one with each manager, a rebuilt management meeting that produces decisions instead of a read-out, and a hard line between the calls the GM should own and the ones department heads keep handing back up.
The things you're actually wondering.
Bring me one thingthat's stuck.
Thirty minutes. No deck, no pitch, no follow-up sequence you have to unsubscribe from. If it's useful we'll keep going. If it isn't, you'll know inside thirty minutes and so will I.