Train Me!
Shop and small-business owners, in general, fill positions by hiring people who come with credentials. The assumption – and it’s the wrong one most of the time – is that they’ve already been trained and know their jobs well. One problem is that they had never worked for you. The way you do things in your shop may be far removed from the way they were done in the last shop at which this employee worked. If nothing else you have to train people to do things according to your credo and mission statement. Another problem is that employees sometimes lie about their accomplishments and skill level to get a job, hoping to fake their way in until they actually learn to do it right.
Smile, Wave, and Make the Sale
I’m a pretty good salesman. One of my strengths is in knowing how to tip the odds in my favor. In other words, I will use every advantage to ensure that a prospect sees the value in doing business with us.
I’m also realistic. As good as I am, I’m not the best salesperson in the company. Our factory (and our people) are. When I can persuade a prospect to come visit us in Milwaukee, my job is very easy.
The Bus to Profitville
The Bus to Profitville
A Little Help
Author: Art Little
Subject Matter: Management
Issue: Minimizing employee turnover
Good Production Strategy Keeps Cash Coming In
In this article, we take a look at cash flow, discussing what it takes to develop a good production strategy so that cash will steadily flow into the bank without delays caused by poor planning. There are two parts of the game. Lead flow deals with getting the vehicle into the shop. Work flow has to do with getting the vehicle out.
Why I Didn’t Hire You
I’m an easy interview, but a tough judge. I don’t use personality or behavioral tests – I’ve tried them all, and I do see some value there, but I’ve also relied on them for hiring decisions, which I later came to regret.
I don’t call your references. It’s a waste of my time and theirs. You’d never give me a reference that would say anything other than the most amazing and wonderful things about you anyway.
Tell Me What You Didn’t Like!
One of the worst things that can happen to any business is to lose customers without knowing why. How do you fix a problem when you don’t know what it is? Often when customers stop using our services they are upset about something. It might be about price, quality or service, but these are all broad areas. What is it specifically? Since we all base our decision as to whether to go back to a certain establishment on our last experience with it, what went wrong? What happened that last time?
What Kind of Boss Are You?
Your behavior in front of your employees is a big determining factor in the way they will behave toward each other, your customers, your suppliers and you. Here are some prevalent and damaging behaviors that some bosses exhibit. If they expect the best from their employees they’ll need to clean up their own act first.
The Squeaky Sales Team Gets the Grease
This month’s article is a bit of fun, a bit of made-for-your-entertainment videography and a bit of a business lesson. My team of transmission sales reps destroyed our $2,000 Dell color laser multi-function printer with sledgehammers. Yep. I let them do it. In fact, I watched from my office window and smiled.
Are You Easily Understood?
People are focused on what’s important to them at the moment. If what you’re saying either doesn’t have enough significance for them or they don’t fully understand it, you lose them. They can look you right in the eye and go “Uh-huh, uh-huh” and not be getting a word of it. When you use words that people can’t understand either because they are technical terms or they’re just above the grade level of education that the average person has, again you can lose them. If you try to use acronyms or abbreviations to shorten up your questions or statements, you need to know for sure that the other person knows what they mean or again you will lose them. In other words, it’s so easy to lose their attention and so hard to keep it. You can keep it, however, by simplifying your terminology and by showing them how what you’re saying benefits them. People always listen when they think they are going to derive a benefit from it.
Work Status
When I was a young manager, I went to work for a shop that required me to manage work flow. At that time in my career that was unusual, because everywhere else I had worked they did not want me to even entertain the idea of managing work flow.
Compliance or Commitment: Which Do You Want on Your Team?
You are completely in control of your attitude. And, as a leader, you can influence the attitude of your people (and, therefore, their performance) by creating an environment in which positive attitude is revered and people with negative or toxic attitudes are voted off the island.
Lead Status
A transmission-shop manager will make a minimum of 100 important decisions a week. Let that settle in for a moment. Now, understand that these decisions will determine the shop’s financial success. Every wrong decision he makes has a consequence. Nowadays each mistake can cost upward of $2,000 – makes it hard for a shop owner to sleep at night if you are the worrying type. However, the good news is, there are time-tested policies and procedures that help keep production mistakes to a minimum.
