This week's guest, Mickey Seelye, President of the Seelye Auto Group
What is the most challenging trend you and your team see with respect to recruiting Technicians in today's market over the next few years?
Our most challenging trend with respect to recruiting Technicians in today’s market over the next few years is making sure we continue to keep local high school, community college and apprenticeship pipelines open to replace many of our long-time and very high quality current techs with. It’s important to make sure we are staying in front of and building relationships with those in positions to advocate for us when the time is right.
What skills do you believe are in higher demand today and in the future as we see an ever increasing influence on our business from data and digital tools?
Skills I believe are in higher demand today and in the future as we see an ever increasing influence on our business from data and digital tools are heightened communication skills, high levels of adaptability to change depending on the different needs of each customer, empathy, professionalism, confidence balanced properly with humility, attention to detail, asking the right questions upfront and an awareness of the value of time are all topics that come to mind. In heightened communication listening needs to take higher priority.
How do you see consolidation in the retail dealership arena impacting the need for talent and development of that talent in the future?
I see consolidation in the retail dealership arena impacting the need for talent and development of that talent in the future by fully recognizing the extreme changes we have already seen and will continue to see in the speed, transparency and adaptability customers are looking for in who earns their business. I believe brand loyalty and dealership loyalty will have to be earned more than ever before with customer service being defined differently by the customer as a much higher priority item. Dealerships that see this early and make changes now will thrive later putting the customer first in all areas of the sales process. It’s time to start getting uncomfortable to the possibility of being wrong in order to truly listen to what’s important to the customer, even if it doesn’t make complete sense to us yet. Like I have said before, humility is extremely powerful and there is no place for pride in making business decisions.
What is the most exciting/initiative happening at Seelye Auto Group today and how will it impact your business operations and/or personnel?
The most exciting/initiative happening at Seelye Auto Group today is our recent decision to implement non-commissioned salespeople who will be compensated very well for customer service and volume performance based metrics. All of our stores are now on this plan and in a position to market and recruit differently. We are the first Auto Group in our area that we are aware of to have the boldness to do something this extreme this early and go against the grain of what most of our peers in the industry would consider too risky at this point. We are confident this is the right decision for the future of our Auto Group and our customers winning together. We also believe this will help to solidify the team members who were already here prior to this change and attract the right personnel going forward to better serve our vision/mission statement more consistently.
