managing multiple stores

[gmpartsguy147]

Hi I was wondering if any of you that are managing more than 1 parts department have any tips that may help me. As we are aqquireing another GM dealership and I am being asked to manage the GM dealer I am managing now plus the new one thanks

[partsintime]

Hi,

Had to make an account to reply to this. All I would say is good luck, not worth the headaches. You will not get paid enough to do both jobs, and then they will be shocked as you lose all your hair and cannot keep up. Only works if you have very seasoned parts staff and both stores, that are willing to do 'manager' tasks for you.

[smoyer]

I have never done it but my old boss has, it never works out one location is going to suffer you can't manage two places at once very well , usually you will end up staying at the problem child store more than the other. i did work for a place that did not have a manager and the three people in parts would just take care of everything what a cluster that was after the first time of the order not getting put in because quote the other guy was too busy i just took the role of manager without the pay , but it all worked out because they saw who was really in charge and made me the official manager with the bump in pay and bennies but good luck if you can make it work you need to write a book lol

[Zep33]

I recently finished up a 2 and 1/2 year stint taking care of 3 parts depts. It was brutal. Money was good but the stress levels were not.
It ended when all 3 stores were sold. GM and Subaru sold to one group and Toyota sold to another group. I stuck with Toyota and couldn't be happier to be done with GM, hopefully forever.

The toughest part was the lack of a really good staff to handle things that I couldn't be there to handle. I had a great guy at Subaru so that was a breeze and I hardly had to be involved. On the other hand, GM was a mess when we acquired it and still a mess when it was sold. I had inherited employees that were part of the original dealership that had been run into the ground. My best guy left and I spent the next 2 years trying to find decent staff. That along with all of GMs bullshit made life miserable. I only agreed to take on the 3 if I could keep Toyota as they are a joy to work with and needed it for my own sanity. I'd been with GM before and there was no way in hell I would leave Toyota for GM. So I took all 3

I would spend half the day at one store and the other half 25 miles away at the other, every day.

At least you will be dealing with the same manufacturer if you take on a 2nd. First thing is look at your staff and ability to replace if needed. That was my most difficult task.

Good luck!!

[MultiLineManager]

I spent over a decade running 5 different dealerships in two states; I recently “retired” to a smaller dealership out of the group a mile away from home.
It definitely has its challenges but if you like to set goals and work them into reality you love it. I have two pieces of advice for you:

1. Make sure that you have support from your higher ups. If they undermine your decisions with your staff call them out on it or your staff will always work for them and not you.

2. Be a manager not a worker. Teach your people how to do their jobs and hold them accountable. I spent way to many years trying to be the good boss and “helping” them do their jobs until I realized that I was just doing their jobs for them all the time. If you make them work it will leave you time for the important things, like A LOT of paperwork, growth, creating standard operating procedures, pretty much anything to improve efficiency.

Good luck!!