Sure, you know you need to have meetings with your team, but how in the world are you supposed to do that in the crazy world of a dealership? As we work with dealers, we find there are a few different meetings that need to happen.

1. Management Meetings

You may be the only manager in your dealership, or you may be an owner with multiple managers. Whatever the case, it is important that you set time aside once a month for a management meeting.  If you are the only manager, make time once a month to meet with other people like yourself. You will want to review the numbers for your dealership as compared to the previous month and the previous year. Talk about any employee issues that you are having and any parts of your processes that need to be tweaked. This meeting could take place 30 minutes before the dealership opens, once a month, or even over lunch off-site.

2. Departmental Meetings

Much like a coach before a big game, we encourage each of our department managers to have a short 5-10-minute departmental meeting at the beginning of every day. This is a time to share the numbers from the previous day, ways that you can help others in the department and any other things that need to be shared to increase productivity, efficiency, or communication. Many dealers we work with start departmental meetings about 10 minutes before the dealership opens. It allows your employees to have accountability to be in the dealership on schedule and also keeps the meeting short and sweet as the dealership has to open on time.

3. Full Dealership or Company Meetings

We encourage our dealers to do a full dealership or company meeting once a year. This is a time to bring everyone in your dealership together and establish goals, and recast the dealership vision on a bigger scale. It’s also a time for ideas to be shared, fun to be had, and people to be celebrated.

As you engage in any of these meetings, it’s important to keep in mind the goal of every meeting is to do three things: Unite your team, Create Clarity and Create Accountability. When you are able to keep your people moving in the same direction, you will be able to grow your organization.