Working at a dealership, Monday morning typically means nothing to you. Your schedule is set up so that a Friday could be your Monday. But the point is still the same. If you’re bringing that tired, lackluster energy to the floor… it’s going to kill sales.

Getting on Management’s Nerves Bright and Early

You walk into work at 8:07 sharp! Coffee in hand and only seven minutes late. Nobody will notice right? Wrong, being late and walking into a dealership with Dunkin Donuts is a sure fire way to get on management’s radar.

But why were you late? Come to think of it, you were late yesterday too… so what’s going on? Have you been hitting the snooze button hard lately? Maybe you have been going out for “just one drink” more often than usual?

Why so serious?

Let’s talk about this for a minute. Because being late isn’t the real problem. It’s a symptom of a much bigger problem. And when you think about it, you know what it is… you’re burning out.

You work bells twice a week, answer customer texts and emails from home, and try to have a social life too. This routine is very common for sales, as well as service and BDC.

Looking around the dealership, you start to notice some things:

• People look exhausted
• No one is talking
• Two people called in sick
• Management is cranky and it’s only 8:15am

Floor Fatigue is Real

It’s not you, it’s not the environment, it’s the culture. Dealership turnover rates are at 56%, with sales making up a whopping 80% of that! The reason there is such a high turnover and burn out rate is the grind. We all know the grind. It’s “just ten more minutes” or “just one more email and I’m done”.

These little things begin to add up. Couple that with long hours, lack of sleep, work/life imbalance and high performance and you’re bound to slow down. And it’s not just you, once one of us feels it, the rest start to feel it too. The energy in the dealership starts to shift.

What this Means for the Dealership

These burn out symptoms won’t just go away. In fact they’re likely to get worse the longer you ignore them. Keep on showing up and showing out when you’re running on a 1/4 tank of life blood… you’re going to max out eventually.

Once this issue hits the dealership, it spreads from sales, to BDC, to Service, even to management. They’re not immune to burn out. Actually they’re in a position to burn out quickly if they’re not careful.

Hey! Where’d Jeff Go?!

Soon, you start to notice that Sue in the BDC hasn’t shown up for work in a few days. Joe, the service advisor walked out last week, and more people are calling out sick. Now you’re exhausted, stretched to your limit and you’re short staffed.

This is when the real impact to the dealership begins. What you’re going to see next:

• More of the team vanishing and not answering your texts
• People talking about getting a new job or updating their resume
• You didn’t make your month
• Inventory is not moving

These are serious problems. They directly impact revenue and that affects the bottom line. When Covid first hit, I worked at a dealership where everyone started to fizzle out fast. After a few months, we started getting IOU’s instead of paychecks. Next thing we knew, we were all laid off.

The Dreaded “T” Word… Turn Over

It’s a word no manager wants to hear. Turn over is inevitable at this stage. The revolving door is open and only the “fittest” will survive. But is survival leaving or staying?

Turn over means training new people. Then potentially losing them soon after because they’ve come to work in a toxic environment where everyone is just trying to make it through the day.

How Could this have Been Avoided?

This isn’t the time for more resilience training. That’s just slapping a piece of tape over a leaking pipe. You need more than a training video about coping with more stress.

In a perfect world, this would have been prevented. But not every dealership has a plan intact for this kind of situation. So, everyone is unhappy and over worked because nobody recognizes the early signs.

So What Happens Now?

 

If your team feels overwhelmed, disconnected, burned out, or constantly reactive, there’s usually friction somewhere in the process.

The problem is most dealerships don’t notice it until performance starts slipping.

That’s why I created the Dealership Friction Diagnostic:
A free consultation designed to uncover operational pressure points and recommend quick, realistic fixes.

Let’s identify what’s slowing your dealership down before it becomes a bigger problem.

Schedule your free diagnostic call: HERE

Remember to sign up to get the latest content sent right to your inbox