IS THERE A CANCER IN YOUR DEALERSHIP?

Finding The Cure 

The cancer within is called “Lack of Accountability.”

Yet in virtually every dealership, I find maximum accountability for everyone’s performance in the Sales Departments.
But when I cross into the Service and Parts departments, I find a total lack of accountability with the exception of Technicians who are usually held accountable for their performance due to their flat rate compensation plan. Let’s look at some examples.

Is Your Dealership Infected?
Most Dealers would fire a Used Car Manager who had $50,000 in used inventory over 12 months old yet their parts Manager can have $50,000 in obsolete inventory over 12 months old and the Dealer says “He’s been a good employee and he will sell it someday.” Really?

Most Dealers would not tolerate Salespeople with a 10% closing ratio yet they continue to employ Service Advisors averaging 1.0 Customer Pay Hours per Repair Order and the Dealer says “I can’t find anyone who can do any better.”

Most Dealers would not tolerate a Finance Producer who averages $250 PRU but a Service Director averaging 60% one-item retail repair orders has a job for life because ‘The customers like him.”

Diagnosing With “Accountability Math”
If you have the misfortune of being a Dealers infected with this cancer, then I ask you to consider this mathematical formula.

3 X 5 X 500 = 20,000
Now, if you are using conventional mathematics you are most likely going to try to convince me the actual answer should be 7500 versus 20,000.

However, I’m not using conventional math, I’m using Accountability Math.

The 3 represents three of the most important controllables when profitably managing a Service and Parts department:
                           1.      Hours per repair order
                           2.      Labor Gross Profit margin
                           3.      Parts Gross Profit margin

The 5 represents the improvement factor in these three controllables that most of you can realize starting today if you decide you want to get cured:
                           1.      Add .5 hours per retail repair order
                           2.      Add 5 percentage points to your Labor Gross profit margin
                           3.      Add 5 percentage points to your Parts Gross profit margin

The 500 equals the number of Retail Repair Orders written in a given month which is probably very close to what many of you are currently producing.

The 20,000 is the total additional gross profit dollars produced by increasing the three controllables on 500 repair orders as outlined above. Do I have your attention yet? This requires no advertising, no more fixed or semi-fixed expenses, just accountability for one’s performance. Let’s look at each one individually.

Hours Per Repair Order
Hours per repair order nationally are going down for far too many dealers. I see most dealers averaging between 1.0 and 1.3 HPRO. I see more and more averaging .6 to .9. What’s up with that? The answer is quite simple: “There’s no selling going on.”

Why do you allow your Service Advisors, Writers, ASM’s or whatever you like to call them, become clerks? Most of you have the opportunity to raise your sales by .5 HPRO starting today if you’re ready to start your cancer treatments. It’s called process change with accountability for performance.

Do you expect your Finance Producers to make a Menu Presentation to 100% of your Sales customers? If so, then require your Service Advisors to make a Maintenance Menu Presentation to 100% of your Service customers.

Labor Gross Profit Margin
In reviewing thousands of financial statements in our workshops, I find that most dealers’ retail labor gross profit as a percentage of sales is averaging around 70% or less. Your benchmark needs to be 75% so there’s your additional 5 percentage points in labor gross.

It amazes me how many dealers have a higher margin on Internal & Warranty labor sales than they do on retail. Now think about that for a moment—your Used Car Manager and your Manufacturer are paying a higher price than your retail customer. Does this make any sense to you?

Please, get out there and get that extra 5 points in margin. All you need to do is hold your Service Director/Manager and Advisors accountable for “unauthorized discounts” and your margin will go up starting today. I bet your Used Car Manager is on my side with this one!

Parts Gross Profit Margin
Additionally, I see these same “unauthorized discounts” with parts sales and that’s why your retail parts gross profit as a percentage of sales is averaging around 35%. If you simply follow your factory pricing guides you will most likely average closer to 40%. With a good Parts Pricing Matrix you can take it up to 45% and now you have your additional 5 percentage points in parts gross. This of course would not apply to items like tires and accessories but chances are those two items do not account for the majority of your sales.

A Simple Cure
This is a very simple 3-step fix if you’re willing to hold everyone accountable for maintaining the 45% margin.
To summarize:
                           1.      An Effective Labor Rate of $75.00 @ 75% margin
                           2.      A Parts to Labor sales ratio of 80% @ 45% margin
                           3.      Add .5 HPRO to 500 repair orders

The actual gross profit improvement per controllable amounts to about $31.00 per repair order for every additional .5 HPRO, $5.60 per repair order for an additional 5 points in labor margin and $4.50 per repair order for an additional 5 percentage points in parts margin for a grand total profit improvement of $41.10 per repair order. For every 500 repair orders that equals over $20,000 PER MONTH in gross profit or about $240,000 per year.

Do you like that math? If so, then you are ready to start the cure.

Call me toll free at 1-888-553-0100
Or email dreed@dealerprotraining.com.

 

 

Don Reed
CEO-DealerPRO Training