Often times I’m asked my opinion on certain store personnel outside of their CRM utilization (and off the record) by owners. This is undoubtedly due to the number of stores I visit as I travel across the country. What’s always impressive to me is when I find a manager actually willing to work. What I hate to admit is that there are far too few. I coined the terms Airborne Manager and Chairborne Manager to differentiate between the excellent and the terrible.
In my years at the dealership I can remember all the Airborne Managers I’ve worked with and I also remember all the Chairborne Managers I’ve despised. Below are some (definitely not all) personality traits you may attribute to each:
Airborne Manager
- Takes T.O.’s – isn’t scared to death of talking to a customer
- Meets and Greets – engages clients and doesn’t just page a sales associate
- Presents Pencils – isn’t worried about the pencil that they’re asking you to present, they’re actually confident
- Jumps on heat cases in the Service Drive – doesn’t look the other way just because the sales to service handoff happened
- Plows the lot and will snow broom the front line in the winter
- Is at work early and stays late
- Is both a proponent and a practitioner of Early Manager Intros and Customer Exit Interviews
- Handles dealer trades quickly and efficiently
- Walks quickly
- Doesn’t just tell you what to do but allows you to watch while he/she does it
Chairborne Manager
- NEVER takes a T.O.
- When a customer approaches they usually hide or pretend to be on the phone
- When a customer walks through the front door they immediately page “available sales” rather than engaging the customer
- Writes totally unrealistic and insulting pencils and never has the guts to present them himself/herself
- Gets in late and leaves early
- Avoids Service customers like the plague
- Never talks to a customer unless it’s absolutely necessary (owner is watching)
- “Loads your lips” because that really helps
- Never leaves the building in the cold because “that’s why they got into management”
- Their response to dealer trade calls is always “we’re working somebody on that”
- There is rarely a separation between their chair and their arse
- Offers a ton of advice after the fact… Never in real time and not once in advance
I can’t believe anybody accepts Chairborne Managers in today’s hypercompetitive environment. I wouldn’t work for them as a sales associate, next to them as a counterpart and would never allow them to work for me as a GSM/GM. There’s just too much at stake. How many of us learned bad habits because of a terrible Chairborne manager? Sure, a fellow sales associate probably introduced us to the bad habit but it was repeatedly reinforced and accepted by the manager!
Comments
Wow, you just described a large percentage of the "desk" managers working in the retail world. But I don't know that it's their fault. After all, if one is promoted to "desk manager" might the title be misconstrued as meaning, "manage the desk". And if one is managing the desk, shouldn't they stay right there at the desk? Just wondering if the title isn't the problem...
Chris another great post. I call these types "YaButs"...
Every time they are needed to work they say, "Ya But, I am to..... to help".
At my stores the Dealer Principal will get out and broom cars and trucks and this helps get everyone even F&I on the lot in a hurry. As a manager my job is to do what needs to get done, if that is CRM Managment, great...if it is working in Detail because we are short, fine we are paid to work so work! I would love to sit in my office all day but that just isn't this business.
We are all on the same team at a store and we need to behave that way and that always starts with Management.
Love it
This kinda remind me of a dog named Salesman!
DOG NAMED SALESMAN
Two guys used to go duck hunting with each other. They didn't have a dog of their own so they used to go to the same blind and same location all the time and rented a dog, a retriever from a man who owned the blind. After a while they found a dog that gave them the best results they have ever seen! So they requested him all the time. The dog's name was Salesman and they used him for a few years. Once they went back on a trip and he wasn't available. Salesman was promoted to a Sales Manager the owner told them: "You don't want to use him. All he does now is set on the porch and bark at everyone!"
Point: Motivation needs to come from within. Over the long haul a true spirited sense of motivation cannot come from a barking Sales Manager sitting on the porch.
Source:1999 sales meeting by a salesman before it started!
Manager's showed up late:(