Every January, dealerships start with strong energy. Goals are announced, meetings are energized, and the year feels full of potential and profits. But like a New Year’s resolution by March no one remembers the goal.
As Carroll Shelby once said, “I’ve failed more times than most people have tried.” The problem isn’t effort or the specific goal, it's the lack of planning and processes.
We must admit that motivation is emotional and fades quickly with time. Long term success requires a process which is structural and persists through challenging times. Those dealerships that win, year after year, do not trust enthusiasm to achieve success. They succeed by implementing processes to facilitate goals even when the motivation disappears.
Setting annual goals is more than a New Year’s resolution. A typical resolution says, “We’ll try harder or do more next year.” A real plan says, “Here’s the goal, here’s the process, and here’s how we execute it every day.”
Every dealership knows they have areas to improve, but fail to change because identified goals aren’t supported by leadership, structure, and execution discipline across all departments.
Here’s an effective way to layout and work toward dealership goals:
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- Identify and Make Public: The first step is identifying the goals and making them visible. A goal must be clear and seen daily or it doesn’t exist. Dealerships focused on achieving success don't hide their targets in spreadsheets or notebooks. Goals belong on the wall for the world to see. If you are timid with your goals then you don’t want it bad enough. Sales targets, F&I PVR goals, service hours per RO, effective labor rate or whatever matters most must be visible to everyone. Visibility creates alignment and provides a bold statement to remove all ambiguity. The goal must go public before we can establish any accountability.
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- Create a Timeline and Plan: Now that the goal is posted and clear to everyone, we need a plan. The dealer leadership must establish a timeline with defined milestones. Your goal is big so it must be pieced into quarterly priorities, monthly benchmarks, and weekly execution standards. The milestones and timeline turns ambition into actionable tasks and allows your team to see progress early, adjust to setbacks, and maintain momentum long after motivation fades. This becomes the culture in how we do business.
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- Identify Setbacks Before and As You Go: Your goal has a plan and the dealership is implementing processes for execution. During execution of a plan your leadership team must proactively identify and eliminate obstacles. Every dealership experiences friction and distractions to their goals. These can include inefficient processes, unclear roles, outdated systems, or habits that work against the goal. It is the department leader's job to see obstacles and implement solutions orientated on the goal. When your plan stalls, leaders must identify the process that is preventing success. Dealerships that review and continually update processes consistently outperform those that fail to adapt.
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- Top-Down Leadership Success: A dealer's leadership plays the most significant role in plan execution and goal success. The General Manager translates the vision into action with weekly reviews, consistent scorecards, and clear accountability. The F&I Manager must establish non-negotiable ethical processes that protect the dealer and maintain profitability regardless of sales volume or market conditions. The Service Department leader must drive structure, efficiency, and consistency that stabilizes the dealership through every market cycle.
Leadership goes beyond motivation and establishes the dealership systems that guide behavior and action regardless of motivation. The most overlooked element of a dealership's goals is that it must be understood at every level of the dealership. It’s not enough for the GM or department heads to know the target.
The sales consultant, the advisor, the technician, the porter, and the detailer must all understand how their role connects to the goal. Take the time to communicate how everyone's daily duties support the goals.
Everyone wants to be on a winning team, so tell your staff how their daily actions contribute and watch them take ownership. Alignment creates ownership and ownership drives your results.
A dealership that operates with clear goals and established processes, doesn’t need hype or seasonal energy. It operates with focus on goals that are visible, with established timelines, eliminates obstacles, and enforces known processes.
Everyone knows the goal and how their role is significant in achieving success. This is not a resolution, it is a focused operating system. In the auto industry, conditions will always change and the markets will shift.
Motivation is a limited factor for success, but a disciplined process, reinforced by committed leadership. It’s what turns goals into sustained success. It takes persistence not motivation and “Persistence is the most important thing in life.”— Carroll Shelby
Ryan Jennings,
ARC Sales Director
