You’ve worked your way up. You know this is a big job and people are counting on you. It’s your first time to sit in the office manager role and, frankly, you have no idea what to do. The devil is in the details – so let’s manage those details.
There’s a big disparity between perception and reality when it comes to running a new car dealership. Dealerships, on average, only produce about 2.2% of net pretax profit as a percentage of total sales each year.
It’s time to take a deep dive. We need to get better at controlling the “controllables.” Am I spending money in places I shouldn’t be spending? Am I holding onto inventory that I don’t need? Let’s slow down and control everything you can.
Take inventory for example. We buy inventory so we can sell it. What happens if you don’t manage it well? You get frozen capital – a lost opportunity that you shouldn’t take lightly.
NADA’s Professional Series Office Management course teaches participants the formula they need to determine the desired cost of inventory, frozen capital and interest expense. From there, you can discover how much excess inventory you have. The average dealer in North America is holding onto nearly $4.4 million in excess inventory. This course will teach attendees how to control all their inventories with purpose and discipline.
Office managers typically become a voice of reason in the dealership and department managers often come to them for advice. This course will help office managers teach other dealership managers how to set goals and how to forecast, as well as encourage department managers to provide regular updates to all management on progress towards their goals. When every penny counts it’s up to office managers to control costs and motivate the team to find inefficiencies.
Upon completion of the Office Management course, you’ll come back to the dealership with action plans ready to go.
With sessions offered across the country, NADA’s best-in-class instructors are ready to help tailor a plan to meet your dealership's goals and advance your career. You’ll learn how to protect your dealership’s assets by producing accurate and timely data.
Interested in learning more? Click here to download the Office Management white paper, Four Steps to Cash Management Success.
For more information or to find a class near you, click here.
As a former general manager and president of a dealership group and a Ford Motor Co. district manager, Munson brings a wealth of experience to the NADA Academy. As an instructor, she leads NADA’s Professional Series, which offers training programs exclusively for future dealership managers in sales, office, service, and parts.
