Your dealership needs a minor league system

Here's a question for dealers and operators: If your three best managers retired tomorrow, who would take their places?

Over more than 40 years, I've worked with dealership teams across Virginia and seen some extraordinarily successful operations. I've also seen dealerships with a serious weakness that doesn't show up on a financial statement: They haven't developed the people who will lead the business tomorrow.

That's one of the biggest differences between a good dealership and a great one. Both may have strong managers, satisfied customers, and healthy profits. But a great dealership also has people being trained to take on greater responsibility.

I don't follow baseball, but I know it's World Series season. Winning teams need talented players and experienced veterans, but they also need a minor league system to develop young talent and prepare players for the big leagues.

Great dealerships should have their own minor league system. You know your major leaguers in every department. But who's coming up behind them? Are you giving promising employees opportunities to learn the business and prepare for leadership?

Consider two equally profitable dealerships. Both have experienced managers and loyal employees. But one makes developing future leaders a priority, investing in training, mentoring younger employees, and giving them greater responsibility. At the other, everybody is so focused on “30 days out” that developing the next generation falls by the wayside.

Today, those dealerships may look identical on paper. Five years from now, one has people ready to step up when experienced leaders retire or move on. The other is scrambling to recruit replacements, paying a premium for outside talent, and hoping those new hires work out.

That's an expensive way to discover you should have been preparing all along.

Building that pipeline takes a deliberate investment. Send promising employees to
NADA Academy. Encourage them to attend VADA events, seminars, and industry conventions. Give them opportunities to learn different parts of the business, not just the jobs they hold today.

Your managers have a responsibility here, too. They should be teaching others how to make decisions, solve problems, and take on greater responsibility. If a department struggles whenever its manager is away, that's a problem no matter how impressive the numbers may be. A great manager builds a team that can succeed without depending on one person.

Developing leaders from within also preserves your dealership's culture. The people who've learned your values and way of doing business are often best positioned to carry them forward.

At VADA, we emphasize education and professional development, but the commitment starts with the dealer. You have to identify and invest in talent, and give people a reason to build their careers with you.

So as you look at your dealership's performance this year, look beyond the numbers. Think about who's delivering results today, but also who's on the team that will keep winning for years to come.