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October 2009
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5. leadershipsolution StephenR.Covey
THE POWER OF
COMPLETED STAFF WORK
Over the years I When given a recommendation from his 2. Ask Questions
have talked to tens staff, Kissinger routinely asked: “Is this the As a manager or co-worker, ask staff
of thousands of executives, secretaries, very best you can do?” members, “What is your recommendation?
managers and professionals who say that How would you solve this problem or how
their greatest challenge is not being able Often his staff replied, “Well, no. We could would you implement this policy?” Get in
to get everything done with the time and strengthen our recommendation with more the habit of soliciting ideas and buy-in —
resources they have. analysis and detail.” psychological investment in the successful
outcome of your project — from others.
Given the average person’s struggle, can After they’d reworked it and resubmitted it,
you imagine what it must be like for a Kissinger would again challenge his team: Be careful, however, to give credit and
secretary of state or a minister of foreign “Is this your very best recommendation? Is recognition to others for their contributions.
affairs? The demands are unbelievable — there any room for improvement?” Otherwise you will seem to be exploiting
working at all hours of the night, attending others and their best thinking for your own
meetings across the world, seeking Of course, the team always found ways to recognition or benefit.
understanding, negotiating and making correct and improve their recommendation.
decisions that impact entire nations. How on With added responsibility for their best 3. Clarify Assumptions
earth do they manage? thinking and judgment, they would deliver When working with others in the dealership
their final recommendation and be able to as a supervisor, supervisee or co-worker,
Years ago I learned something very say, “We have been absolutely thorough remember to clarify all parties’ assumptions
important from the example of Henry with our thinking, clearly identifying the as to the premise of the work, the required
Kissinger, a lesson that I believe can be alternatives, an action plan and the end format, the criteria, the timelines and so
applied by anyone in any position. When results.” Kissinger then replied, “Good, now forth. Often different assumptions can
serving as secretary of state in the Nixon I’ll read it.” lead people to go off on different tracks,
and Ford administrations, Kissinger instilled resulting in frustration and loss of buy-in.
Clearly he understood that, if he wisely
a principle known as “completed staff
delegated important responsibilities to his
work,” a concept which I think is the key 4. Give People The Tools They Need
staff and empowered them to perform their
to managing high demands, developing Provide necessary resources, time and
completed staff work, they would fulfill
effectiveness in yourself and in others, and access to information. Nothing is more
their highest potential and make a greater
getting it right. frustrating to people than to be expected
contribution.
to do completed staff work without the
Simply, completed staff work requires Unfortunately many in the workplace necessary information and resources.
individuals to give their best thinking, their have not learned to trust the principles of Be accessible when necessary to give
best recommendations and ultimately their delegation and empowerment. They take it information and feedback.
best work. all on themselves, convinced that only they
themselves can do it right. Ultimately they 5. Provide A Setting For Success
burn out and, meanwhile, the organization Schedule a time for presentation and review
reaps only marginal thinking and marginal of the completed staff work. Give people a
results. chance to make an effective presentation of
their work. Respectfully ask questions with
Consider your situation at your dealership positive feedback before recommending
and all its demands and pressures to improvements and identifying next steps.
get things done right. Ask yourself
how you can begin to delegate and The principle of completed staff work is not
empower others through the principle a panacea. It’s simply an effective means
of completed staff work, and apply of teaching people to do their own thinking
the following concepts for greater and put their best work forward. My
effectiveness and efficiency: experience is that most people welcome the
chance to study things out and to show what
1. Know What You Want, they are capable of.
And Say So
Establish a definite understanding If executed well, completed staff work
of desired results, a psychological saves everybody’s time in the long run and
contract stating clear expectations produces higher-quality results by tapping
between yourself and those you lead into people’s talents and potential.
and supervise. Help employees to
understand that they will be called
Stephen R. Covey, Ph.D., is co-founder of
upon to give their best thinking in FranklinCovey, and is the author of The 7
solving problems, making decisions and Habits of Highly Effective People. He can
formulating recommendations. Identify be contacted at 866.892.6363, or by e-mail
0 criteria to be included in recommendations. at scovey@autosuccessonline.com.
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www.autosuccessonline.com
6. leadershipsolution PaulCummings
TRAINING IS TOO
EXPENSIVE...OR IS IT?
Over the last 12 true measurement and real accountability delivered. With e-Learning, you can deliver
months, we have at the tip of their fingers. They can the content whether your organization
provided education content to hundreds of communicate directly with all team is in need of motivation, sales training,
businesses and thousands of individual users members and know that their message is leadership development, human resources
worldwide. Our students have watched consistent and accurate. They can reduce the training, new-hire orientation or service
hundreds of thousands of content specific current man-hours needed to deliver training training. Unlike traditional methods,
episodes and passed exams that verify to key members of their organization. that would require you to go to multiple
material comprehension, all without leaving locations and use multiple providers,
their place of business. The great news: Let’s examine why e-Learning has emerged e-Learning allows the ease of having all
Business owners have been able to provide as the No. 1 method of training and of your education content in one location
world-class education for pennies on the educating employees. We live in a fast- 24/7/365. More importantly, you can take
dollar compared to traditional methods of paced world where time is at a premium; that location with you to every location you
training delivery. online learning is simply more efficient. The go. If you can get online you can get on
convenience and flexibility of e-Learning with the process of educating yourself. It
We live in an age where education is affords the user the ability to educate herself doesn’t get any easier than that.
truly just a click away. The explosion of during the time that is best for her. Online
Web-based learning systems have made it learning removes the stress of trying to In my travels, managers and leaders
possible for businesses and individuals to accommodate an entire organization around consistently ask me about accountability
receive world class, role-based content in a one schedule. and measurement. E-Learning provides a
non-threatening, positive and cost-efficient simple but powerful solution to this pressing
manner. The second most important reason for problem. Watch a video, take a test, create
online learning is cost. The incremental cost a report. With e-Learning you know who
Imagine the ability to educate 100 percent of Web-based training quickly trends to watched the training, when they watched it,
of your people on a monthly basis for less zero. The incremental cost of live training and more importantly how they performed,
than the cost associated with one person always results in a cost increase. Here’s a all in real time. As a leader you can actually
attending one three-day workshop. Imagine great example: If you send 10 people to a measure the progress of multiple locations,
the ability to provide content that is specific live event that costs $795 per person, your multiple departments, and an unlimited
to the individual needs of every one of your cost would be $7950, plus travel, time away number of users through a quantitative and
valued team members. Imagine knowing from work, and the loss of productivity. If qualitative dashboard reporting system. It
that the training your people receive is you have an e-Learning system that is $795 doesn’t get any easier than that.
perfect every time. Imagine granting them per month with 10 users, your cost per user
access to the information 24 hours a day, is $79.50 per month. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google,
seven days a week, 365 days a year. Sound LinkedIn, and now e-Learning have proven
too good to be true? Welcome to the world In addition, you are able to customize one thing: Web-based is the way to go. Get
of e-Learning. training to individual needs at a much lower on the e-Learning train. It doesn’t get any
cost. We are able to verify that learning easier than that.
Online learning is more affordable, takes place through testing, which is not
more convenient, more efficient, and possible in a live event format. Another
more effective for the dollars invested, valid point is that you — as an organization,
and provides any business owner the business owner or individual — have
Paul Cummings is president and CEO of
opportunity to do something they could not the ability to repeat learning with no Paul Cummings Enterprises. He can be
possibly do in any other training format. incremental cost whatsoever. contacted at 866.865.3171, or by e-mail at
They can educate 100 percent of their pcummings@autosuccessonline.com.
people with content targeted to meet an Now let’s look at the simplicity and ease of
individual’s specific needs. They can have e-Learning: If it can be recorded it can be
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7. specials, consumer reviews, video presentations, vehicle test drive videos, text marketing, mobile
Web site displays, window stickers, online credit applications, CRM-driven follow-up and life cycle
marketing campaigns and so on. Ideally, if you do the work one time, and do it correctly, you can let
the technology do the rest for the best results.
“Having one message across your media just makes sense,” Metter said. “It makes it easier for the
consumer to remember your brand name or whatever you’re pushing. It’s somewhat subliminal.
They walk past the TV and they see your message. They go online and they see the same message.
They’re listening to their radio and hear the same message. You can’t help but to be in their
consideration when you do that and you do it well.”
Emotion Sells
It’s too easy to forget how emotional the auto purchase process is for the consumer. We sell
hundreds of cars a month, but the average consumer will only purchase a handful of cars in
their entire lifetime. It is equally easy to get caught up in “information overload” by repeating
vehicle features over and over, and not create unique emotional content to sell the consumer.
To the consumer, every car is different. We must create ads that highlight (with photos and
By TimJames dealer comments) all that is unique and different about every car, thus increasing our
ability to justify the value, create trust and urgency, and inspire mental ownership.
Over the last couple of years, we have seen individuals — both Online advertising really is more efficient. It’s certainly more on-
“Dealers have one of two choices,” Metter said. “Either we can treat our inventory
those new to the auto industry and industry veterans alike — defy demand than anything else. With other media, you hope and pray that
as commodities, or we can really try to build emotion around the car. Customers,
the conventional wisdom that “the best you can do is survive in this people see what you’re doing. Online is great because, whether it’s
as a rule, are emotional about their car purchase. The car is an extension of a
economy” and skyrocket their dealerships into top performers. So we’ve 2 a.m. or 6 p.m., you have the ability to be in front of the consumer
someone’s personality. If we really build the story around the car, and how that
sat down with a few of these superstars and searched out some of the when they want it.”
car might make someone’s life better — whether it’s work or family or whatever
fundamentals that seemed to be common to each.
— I think certainly helps.”
Joe Healy, the Internet director of Houston-based Lone Star Chevrolet,
Start With the End in Mind knows how important using effective online advertising can be.
Healy has seen what emotion can do to move specific vehicles. “I have a
There are a lot of places and ways to list your cars online these days. “We’ve moved up to be the No. 3 Chevy dealer in the nation, and
brilliant marketing guy, Stuart Russell, who uses a lot of emotional words in
There are so many cool gadgets out there to plug into your Web site part of it is we’ve changed our media mix,” he said. “We still do
our advertising,” he said. “That’s what differentiates us from a lot of dealers. I
for this, that or the other. The fact is that it is easy to lose track of what some branding with newspaper ads and television and a little bit of
look at dealers’ ads throughout the country, and a lot of people just use the basic
we are really trying to accomplish. The Internet, like television or radio, but we’ve placed probably 300 percent more emphasis on the
descriptions. Stuart examines every car and personalizes each and every ad. He
radio, is simply another means of communication. People connect to Internet. There’s no billboard department here. There’s no newspaper
incorporates a lot of great words and phrases, like ‘exhilarating performance,’
the Internet looking for information or entertainment, just like they do department here. But there is an Internet department. We’re able to
or ‘ice-cold air conditioning,’ and that emotion gets a lot of people to read and
when they turn on the TV or radio. This has created new media sources measure those results very quickly. It’s grown for us rapidly; about 37
look at all the details of that particular vehicle.”
that provide consumers with the information or entertainment that percent of our overall business is done through the Internet with only
they desire (some being more popular than others), and thus create the nine salespeople. I have about 18 percent of the sales force, and we’re
Video can greatly increase the emotional response from the consumer by
opportunity for you to advertise your inventory. doing 37 percent of the business.”
turning your static, site-based ad into a dynamic, visual ad, provided the
video contains the same rich content and emotion needed to “sell” the car
So where does that leave you? The same place you’ve always been. The ability to use a number of photos also is a huge selling tool, Healy
vs. “tell” about it. “Trying to ‘three dimensionalize’ the car for the customer
Your goal is to create ads for your inventory that get people to your said, and one that many dealerships don’t take advantage of. “Most
makes it easier to make a decision on a certain vehicle,” Metter said. “Again,
lot. The great thing about it is that your own Web site and inventory of our competitors show nine or 10 photographs. We have a bare
if that differentiates that car over a competitor’s car, that certainly gives us an
display pages, if used properly, are also “media sources,” and can now minimum of 36 photographs,” he said. “ On eBay, we’ll do up to 70
advantage.”
be included in the “channel guide” (a.k.a. search engines) to drive even photographs. The customer likes full disclosure, especially because
more people directly to them. we may ship the car out of the country, so we’ll identify even a minor
scratch. We’re proud of the product we put out there, so we’ll take
Time Is Money
The world moves at supersonic speed today. You can create an ad for a vehicle
We know that the more information and emotion we have in our ads, the the pictures. Basically, we’re selling the emotion. We want to put that
and have that ad live on multiple Web sites (and in front of thousands of potential
more likely it is they will rank high on the search engines, and the more customer in the car.”
buyers) within minutes. More importantly, the data contained in that ad can be used
likely it is that they will satisfy the consumer’s search for information.
to drive even more traffic to your Web site or any destination that you desire. You
If this is the case, they will generate more emotional response from Measure Twice, Cut Once spend $5,000, $10,000, maybe even $100,000 per month to advertise on the
the consumer, and this will make your Web site a trusted source of Starting with the end in mind, you now know that your goal is to create
Internet. Why would you let a car sit on the lot for even one day without
information. The consumer will more likely come back to your Web site ads for the Internet that drive more traffic to your Web site and more
being online, let alone a week to 10 days? Think of all the potential
later in the buying cycle. consumers to your lot. Once you invest your time in creating the best ad
buyers who are searching the Web in your market every day, and how
that you can create for each and every car, you can focus the majority of
many you miss out on when you don’t have your ads online.
So before adding any new products or services, you need to ask yourself your time properly following up on leads and selling cars. This means
the following questions: the more you can automate the process for creating the information and
Healy said that his dealership makes sure a vehicle is put online as
• Does this add (or make it easier to add) more information to emotion of your ads, the more time you have to sell.
soon as it has been detailed and ready for sale. “Obviously, the quicker
my ads?
we can get it online, the quicker we can sell the vehicle through
• Does this add (or make it easier to add) more emotion to my ads? Your goal should be to create business rules — the same business
AutoTrader, Cars.com, our Web site, etc.,” he said. “It cuts down the
• Can I accomplish the same results with the resources and tools I rules that are already in use at your dealership — into your inventory
number of days the car sits in inventory, plus obviously, the car is
already have? management system to automatically create information and emotion in
never going to look as good as it does right after it’s been detailed.”
your ads. The data for those ads can then be integrated throughout your
“A couple of years ago, online advertising was a luxury; now it’s a online media and marketing partners’ platforms to create content-rich Tim James is the director of sales with HomeNet, Inc.
necessity,” said David Metter, chief marketing officer of MileOne. and highly emotional ads that you can incorporate into your vehicle He can be contacted at 866.924.6573, or by e-mail at
“I think that everyone talks about online advertising being cheaper. display ads, manufacturer incentives, vehicle specials, parts and service tjames@autosuccessonline.com.
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