If you're a decision-maker looking to promote, or if you're a salesperson looking to become a manager, or maybe you’ve already been fortunate enough to become a manager, then you should pay attention, because what I’m about to tell you are the three rules for who not to promote.
I've made a ton of mistakes when promoting from within. These are tough lessons I seem to have to learn over and over, but at the very least I have come up with three basic rules for choosing who not to promote. Let's face it, when you're looking to promote someone to management, you're looking for a few simple things. You want your life to be a little bit easier, and you want to sell more cars. You want a manager. A leader. A person who is driven, but who also possesses good judgment. If you're not careful, if you make the wrong call, it can be a real disaster.
I remember having the experience of promoting a salesperson to management after a couple years on the floor. Well-spoken. Great closer. The occasional customer issue but overall a top performer. He was so excited. Eager to get going. But the reality landed on my desk pretty quickly. The first inclination I had that there may be a problem was when I gave him his pay plan and he had to take it home to his wife to have her explain it to him. The next day he came to my office with a list of questions. Well, at one point during my explanation, I asked him, "What is ten percent of one thousand?"
Rule number one, don't promote an idiot.
His response, "Don't ask me to do math early in the morning." That moment I knew. Big mistake. A sales manager that can't do math, can't make decisions on deals. Can't understand bank programs. Can't do much but talk. Good closer, but that's it. Big mistake. As they say, you rise to the level of your incompetence, so rule number one, don't promote an idiot.
Ok. A few years back, I had the pleasure of promoting a real quality guy. Smart. Top performer. Could even do math. He was promoted to finance manager. But I missed it, the giant red flag. Baggage, lots of baggage. Train loads of baggage. I get it, everyone's life gets more demanding as they get older, have kids, buy a home whatever, but being a manager in the car dealership is a demanding job. Deals get done on evenings and weekends. Sometimes you need to stay late. All of the time you need to arrive early. Someone who has tons of demands on their life outside of work is not a suitable candidate for management. The demands on this person's life outside of work got to be so great that they literally didn't have the time, or the attention span left to do the job, never mind the work ethic.
"I need every other weekend off with my family. I need to start late because I drop my kids off. I need to take tomorrow off because I have an appointment, 'that I couldn't make on my regular day off.' We don't need two manager there on a Friday afternoon. I need a seven passenger demo, and it would be nice if it was loaded."
Don't promote people with tons of baggage.
Pretty soon it's "sales are slow and I'm not making enough money!" Well it's because you're not doing anything! You're too busy managing everything in your personal life to actually be a manager! Rule number two. Don't promote people with tons of baggage who have so many demands in their life outside of work that they don't have the time to be an effective manager in your business.
Now this experience I have had many times. Have you ever heard the phrase, "The emperor has no clothes"? Well, sometimes the sales manager has no substance. I can't even count the number of times I have seen managers promoted only to have them turn into lazy lumps that suddenly don't know how to get up from a desk. One day, I could hear one of these guys yelling at our top sales guy in the showroom, "You have to respect me, I'm a manager!" And there it was. The sign. If you have to demand respect because you have a title, if you have to demand it because you haven't done anything to earn it from the staff, then you're that manager. The one that decided when you became manager that you didn't have to work hard anymore. The one that never had to call or speak with a customer again. The one that thinks the job is about the show, about them, about meeting with banks or warranty reps, and going for lunch in their fancy demo. Rule number three. Don't promote an empty suit. Look for people with substance and work ethic who are more focused on leadership than on followers.
So there it is. Selecting your next sales manager is not as simple as promoting someone who leads the board, or someone who has been there a long time. There are red flags that definitely exist if you look deeply enough. If someone is high maintenance as a salesperson, that isn't going to change when they become management. If someone is all about the show, and the clothes, and the bragging, and the image, then watch out because there may not be much underneath, and make damn sure they can do math, because you definitely don't want a moron as a decision-maker. Focus on three rules for promoting your next manager. Don't promote an idiot. Don't promote somebody with tons of baggage, and don't promote the empty suit. It's not perfect but it's a step in the right direction. Good luck and good selling.