Architects and builders everywhere when asked, “What is the most important step in building a quality long-lasting structure, whether it be a home or skyscraper,” reply with the same answer. It is the foundation. Foundations matter! Yet, this unsung hero of quality construction remains below our sight and is not especially appreciated at all when compared to the bigger picture of the structure it supports.

It would be terribly unwise to rush the foundation stage of constructing anything because you will eventually experience tough seasons when problems arise, and you begin to see cracks, crumbling, and shifting in the structure. Sure, we can patch, sand, and paint the problems but these efforts remain temporary because those same problems will recur again and again. Although used as a metaphor for living, even the Bible tells us to build our homes on rock not sand and when we do, it stands firm because it is well built. If no foundation is properly laid, then it will crumble into a heap of ruins when the floods come.

Within the car business, we similarly experience storms and seasons of our own. They come in a variety of notable forms; attrition, economy, inventory, bad weather, complacency, lack of solid processes, ageing properties, un-engaged employees, poor morale, lack of well-trained employees, stinking thinking, lack of leadership, lawsuits, not adjusting to the new way of selling and retreating profitability just to mention a few. Some dealerships are finding themselves staring smack dab into chaos and are at wit’s end attempting to turn things around and usually end up putting band-aids on problems instead of pouring a new lasting remedy foundation.

Most of us in the industry can identify many stores that are filled with information gatherers but not risk takers. There remains a vast difference between knowledge and wisdom. Managers who talk but don’t do. Managers who live and manage in what I call the ‘afraid zone’ where they remain safer from sinking to new lows and rally themselves behind deceptive highs. They retreat from the essential components of building a solid foundation for others most likely because no one has ever really shown them what it looks like or perhaps, they simply don’t care. So, they continue this senseless work environment unreservedly, protecting themselves from exposure to risk. They love to quarrel about futile issues and avoid the important things that really matter to their employees. These are the saboteurs destroying people and the business. These managers are however, becoming like creatures in the wild whose natural habitat is shrinking.

It is time for us to suspend our disbelief that these managers are growing their people in a direction that actually develop people towards what successful careers are patterned upon. Eventually, these managers will be replaced with a new species that hopefully has the full complement of leadership talents required to lay out a rock-solid people-growing foundation for the dealership. If managers continue to focus on mindless tasks and duties and neglect their primary responsibility, which should be growing individuals and taking those people to new heights of achievement then, everything will suffer. Count on it.

Ok, time to build a rock-solid foundation. Let’s focus upon some of the following foundation concepts:

First, nothing limits achievement like small thinking, so begin thinking large and don’t limit growth. Don’t be impatient. Growth takes time. Think big yet start small. When an author begins to write a book, he/she writes one word at a time.

It all starts with your employees becoming engaged and wanting to come to work for the rewards they gain financially and relationally. The Kevlar-like sustainable fabric for increased business is having fully engaged employees on your team. When they become engaged, they come to work with their hearts instead of just their hands while awaiting their next job somewhere else.

The greatest gap in this business is between knowing and doing. Just get newness going in your store and disturb routine. Don’t settle for average. You wouldn’t take your wife/husband/date to an ‘average’ restaurant, ask for their ‘average’ waiter, then ask for something ‘average’ to eat, so don’t accept anything less for your business and your people but the best!

The job never started takes the longest to finish. Starting is the great separator between being an average or great dealership. Start something new. When was the last time you did something for the first time for your people? It’s usually too late when an opportunity appears. Start building and improving now. A year from now you will be glad you did. Today matters.

It is a simple truth that what gets measured is what gets done. Not how it is done. Pay attention to the details and processes for the very best long-term results.

Anyone can replicate physical capital like advertising dollars, but no one can replicate the skill sets of your employees. Invest in them and watch your ROI increase exponentially. Take a measly five to eight percent of ad budget and re-invest that in your employee’s abilities to become great employees. Your employees will still be coming to work when a newspaper ad ends up in the garbage or when a radio commercial was switched to XM.

You vehemently preach to your customers the importance of maintaining their vehicle with regularity as not to break down in some inconvenient remote area. Yet, most dealerships never put their people in the shop for regular maintenance, training, and checkups. They would rather let the oil run dry in their people and when they break down, replace them. This is such a nonsensical and expensive way to run a business.

“You can make more friends in two months by becoming genuinely interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.” – Dale Carnegie

The greatest challenge in becoming genuinely interested in other people and their growth is to become less interested in yourself but continue to grow yourself making sure you pass on what you learned. Research continues to scream at us that the #1 contributor to a motivated employee is a good, personal relationship with his/her immediate supervisor. The best way to get the most out of someone is to care about what they are interested in and what hopes they have then, helping them get there with a solid foundation of wisdom, guidance, support, and direction.

When you adopt a no-limitations belief in the potential and worth of every individual, you begin coaching each team member with an enthusiasm that says, “You can do it!” Your confidence in them gives them the maximum opportunity to grow, to meet their own needs, and to contribute to the success of your department or workgroup. When you believe in the ability of people to perform productively, your expectations become a self-fulfilling prophecy. People tend to live up to what’s expected of them by others, especially by those they consider authority figures. When you demonstrate that you believe your team members can succeed, they’re willing to take more growth risks.

A no-limitations belief in people also makes it easier for you to delegate various responsibilities and to trust your team members to get the help, resources, and training they may need to successfully complete the tasks you assign. When you demonstrate your confidence in their ability to perform successfully, they will accept the challenge and work harder to meet your expectations.

“The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.” – Ronald Reagan

It has become crazy how dealerships are voraciously consuming every new widget or tool that comes along as if these will become the magic wand to instantly turn on the revenue facet. One of the big problems with this is not developing a solid process foundation to make certain the success of these tools. For example, ensure social media does not end up backfiring at us and spin out of control. Ready, shoot, aim will not get you good results any more in this market. Laying a solid foundation for unprecedented growth will.

There are many areas within your dealership which require a solidly built foundation. As a simple foundation example, let’s look at your front-end revenue generators in a typical dealership where we essentially have eight income producing/sales areas: Fresh-up Traffic, Be-Backs, Incoming Telephone Inquiries, Unsold Follow-up, Owner Base Resale/Referral, Orphan Owner Resale/ Referral, Prospecting and Internet Inquiries.

Ok, here’s a little self-check on these income areas. Ask yourself if your store has the following in place;

•  A well-defined, disciplined process and foundation for each of these profit centers
•  Processes clearly written down so everyone knows how and what to do
•  Frequent training for the entire team on these proper foundational processes and procedures
•  Measures in place to monitor and reconcile the success and failure of the efforts for each area whether CRM-driven or manual system on a daily basis

Given the fact that of the aforementioned eight ‘opportunities to do business,’ six of them now require enhanced professional phone skills to beat your competitors (including Internet where email has become too slow for many folks so they pick up the phone) ask yourself; when was the last time we conducted a foundation for appointment-driven phone skills training for each of these areas?

If you have answered yes to these questions, then your foundation is on solid rock. If you did not, you have some work to do in restructuring, re-pouring, and perhaps adding some re-bar to your foundation for success. Don’t allow things to crumble around you before you drive yourself and your team to re-evaluate strategic and tactical foundations. Remember, this is only one corner of your business and as you know there are others which most likely need inspecting as well.