I know that it isn't proper to say that I don't feel much sympathy for all of the car dealers going under, but I can't help it. The automotive retail industry has been bloated with hacks and idiots for eternity.
George Carlin said, "Dogs think everything is forever." He could have said the same about car dealers.
Let's take a look at why dealers are some of the least progressive business people in the world.
Let's start with the owner. Who owns dealerships? It is either a sales guy who worked hours on end and got a chance to buy in, or the dealership was handed down from daddy. Either way, chances are they have only a high school diploma. Some may have gone to a college nobody has ever heard of. But really the chances are they started on the sales floor at 18 and never needed to go any further with their education.
Which brings us to GMs. Why would an owner who got his education from the school of hard knocks ever hire someone smarter than they are? God forbid someone comes in and tells the owner that things can be done much better. The owner's ego couldn't take it. Their name is on the building for Christ's sake, they must know best. I think I can count the number of GMs I've met with an MBA on one hand, even if I cut off three of my fingers.
So what we have is an entire industry, with the extremely rare exception, that has a deep contempt for higher education (want proof, ask ANY factory rep). The result are dealership owners and managers with huge egos who think they know all there is to know about business when all they really know is the car business, which is far from the same thing. Just look at how long it takes to drag dealers kicking and screaming into new technology! Ask them about a histogram or a standard deviation from the mean and watch the glazed look on their faces.
Here's an interesting idea for a dealership too radical to ever be implemented...stock it with managers for whom an MBA is mandatory. Then, and only then, will dealers start to look at problems strategically and actually plan for downturns instead of reacting to something new every 30 days.
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3 comments:
I think many of the older dealers do remember the rise and fall of the times. My dealership has been owned by the same man for over 36 years. He has always had a 2 year fund to keep the store open in lean times. We have never been a big secondary finance store most of our buisness has always been prime credit people. I think this is what has really hurt most dealer. In big cities they go after that type of client big risk for high reward. Most of that type is I dont care what you do just get me done then when they have problems they let the vehicle go back. I worked in electronics and outdoor labor before coming to the dealership for sales. It is hard to set a type of person that would work well just because someone has an degree does not mean they can do anything. I will say this I have met a few reps from GM and I was not impressed with there attitude. They came to our store talking about how wonderfull this dealer near us was doing. They said we needed to go and observe the way they ran there store. Well 2 years later the store was closed and had taken GMAC for several million. Many of the dealer that have closed near us have changed hands to younger owners seeking the big money in the car buisness.
Sounds like "Little Sympathy" just couldn't make it in the automobile business. This business is RESULTS ORIENTED and your MBA doesn't mean anything if you don't have the talent to make things happen. Just because you flunked out of REAL WORLD 101, doesn't mean that the survivors are a bunch of under educated fools. How does it feel to be a loser with a MBA that just couldn't make it, while many of your so-called "Hacks and idiots" drone on through the worst financial recession in generations?
Get a life loser!
Thanks for writing. Anonymous' comment just highlights the very egocentric closed-mindedness so pervasive in the industry. In fact, it validates my point perfectly.
I've met hundreds and hundreds of dealers and humility (manifested in the form of "maybe I might learn something from someone else") is so uncommon it is shocking when you encounter it. Rare is the dealer who doesn't think they know everything about everything. Let's not forget these are guys are convinced that consumers actually give a crap that his name is on the building.
My point is not that any MBA is superior to any non-MBA, but that the auto retail industry is so dysfunctional that it actually treats higher education as a liability. In other words, dealers would be doing themselves a favor if they took the attitude that their factory rep MIGHT have some good information or suggestions, that J.D. Power has indeed helped the industry, that their Reynolds rep might know a thing or two, that a vendor who sees dozens of other dealers might have found a better way to do something.
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