With more than 50,000 users globally, Pentana Solutions is well versed in change management. When it comes to migration from one retail dealer management systems (DMS) to another there are many different user types across a business to consider. We make it our business to manage change for everyone from the Dealer Principal, Showroom Consultant, Marketing Manager, Aftersales Manager to Parts Manager and Financial Controller. In each and every case change management means the individuals that make up an organisation have to be willing to make said change. In any case organisations and people are resistant to change and do have to learn new techniques, there will always be a performance dip, however being a great change manager means minimising this performance dip.
Over 40 years we’ve seen a great deal of different scenarios and today we want to share some of our learnings with you.
Are you about to change a sales or contract process, booking system or software package in your automotive dealership? If so, consider these ideas.
Make it Relatable
Change is most often made at an organisational level for a vast array of reasons communicating these reasons is important from the start however as a change agent, you must go down to the individual level. If your change management plan doesn’t consider the individual issues will arise because of perceptual differences. Consider sitting down with departmental managers and running through how these changes will impact their role, daily operations, authority levels or efficiency. From here, ensure you talk through how this merger, new dealer management system (DMS) change or process will effect their team. Will it effect their incentives or bonuses, their ability to perform or communicate? Answer these questions in an open conversation- do this, and you will own the conversation right from the start.
Keep the Communication Frequent and Ongoing
The more people know about the changes in the dealership, the more they’ll talk about them. Use different mediums because the individuals in your organisation absorb information in different ways. Think about using webinars, documentation, videos, fast fact sheets, FAQs, project code names or even host a launch party, change doesn’t have to be boring –right? So in short, start talking early, and continue long after you think you need to with the same momentum. Depending on the change you may need to keep communicating many months after the new process or Dealer Management System has been put in place.
Focus on Execution
When there is a big change management project afoot there are often times when change agents can become overwhelmed. At this point in the project it’s important to keep ticking items off the list. As a change agent, think about narrowing your goals within the retail dealership to those ones that are truly important. What’s the biggest pain point in each department, what’s effecting your performance metrics or business intelligence or moreover – your sales targets.
We hope our learnings in change management help you in your next retail dealership change. If you would like more information about project’s we’ve run please ask us today.
