This is one of my favorite sayings that have been around for years and I constantly use it in service training today.  The message goes something like this…..

How are you setting yourself up to succeed? What preparations do you make in advance to ensure you are positioned to do well? Really the most successful people are this way because of the hard work they do preparing for the right moment and then when the opportunity opens up they strike. From the outside most of us credit it to being in the right place at the right time but in reality they have been working hard and preparing and waiting for the exact right moment. Typically success is not a virtue of being lucky, it comes at the expense of hard work and preparing. Those who succeed in business are not usually the smartest, best educated (or attended a certain school) or the one who grew up with the most money or had the most resources to funding available. The single greatest influence on who achieves success in business is PREPARATION.

So how does one prepare that will equate to success in the service drive or in the repair shop or in a dealership environment for that matter?

Spend time and effort to develop yourself and your team.

What is the overall goal? Is it hours per RO, GREEN CSI or is it turning a certain amount of hours within the pay period. Whatever the goal is make sure you discuss it and develop a plan or strategy to accomplish it. Then review your team and assess what area you will need to help develop.

Here are a few key areas to start with.

• Knowledge
  • Does everyone not only know the goal but also know how to achieve the goal. Is there training needed in a specific sales technique or does your team need more information or research about a specific service offering to have confidence to sell it?
• Determination and confidence
  • Does your team have the psychological and emotional capability to achieve the goal? Really, are they confident in their own capabilities?
• Interpersonal skills
  • Is your team assertive, do they have above average communication skills, are they leaders?
• Health
  • Is the vigor there to withstand the daily battle? Active and in general good health.

These are the very basic initial assessments that will help you and your teams preparation to win when the opportunity arises. Oh by the way the opportunity is the next vehicle that rolls in the service drive or the next phone that rings. Is your team maximizing their opportunity to succeed?