Burning Matches: How to Make Change Stick at Your Dealership

My kids are competitive swimmers, and my daughter loves the long course (400 meters plus). As an endurance athlete, she thrives in the aerobic phase – streamlined stroke, steady breathing, and the ability to swim long distances. 

But to win a race, she’s learned that short bursts of high intensity (anaerobic) are usually required to close a gap or pull ahead. In endurance sports, this is sometimes called “burning a match” and is a powerful metaphor that her coaches emphasize at the start of each race. 

Athletes like my daughter have only three anaerobic “matches” they can burn during a competition. Each match represents a burst of high-intensity effort that can propel them forward but depletes their energy reserves significantly. Once she’s burned all the matches, she’s left to rely on endurance alone. This concept offers a valuable lesson for managing change in a dealership environment, where the balance between radical and incremental change can determine the success and sustainability of your improvements.

Understanding the “Matches” in Your Dealership

Like an endurance athlete, you have limited resources and energy for implementing change as a dealership leader. Each attempt to make a significant shift can be seen as burning a match. Whether it’s adopting a new technology, restructuring the sales process, or overhauling service practices, these changes require considerable effort, focus, and resources. The key is determining which changes are worth the “match” and how to make those changes stick without burning out your team.

I often work with dealer principals who struggle with the right approach to driving sustainable change. For example, when adopting a new business system, should you burn a match (radical change), or should you focus on gradual and incremental improvement? Let’s consider the pros and cons of radical and incremental change, and when to use each. 

Radical Change: The Big Push

Radical change is akin to burning a match in the middle of a race. It’s a substantial effort aimed at achieving significant, rapid transformation. In a year at your dealership, you probably only have one match – certainly no more than three. The benefits of radical change can be considerable, but so are the risks.

Pros of Radical Change

• Quick Results: Radical changes can lead to rapid improvements, making a noticeable difference in performance and customer satisfaction.
• Competitive Edge: By making bold moves, you can leapfrog competitors who are slower to adapt.
• Motivation Boost: A significant change can re-energize your team, fostering a sense of purpose and urgency.

Cons of Radical Change:

• High Risk: Big changes can fail catastrophically if not executed perfectly, leading to wasted resources and potential setbacks.
• Resistance: Employees may resist drastic changes, decreasing morale and productivity.
• Resource Intensive: Radical changes often require significant investment in time and money. 

Reflect for a moment on a radical change you’ve driven at your dealership. What was the desired change? How long did it take you? What was the outcome?

Incremental Change: The Endurance Strategy

On the other hand, incremental change is like conserving energy for the long haul in an endurance race. This approach involves making small, continuous improvements over time. It’s less glamorous but often more sustainable, leading to steady progress without overwhelming your team or disconnecting from your customers.

Pros of Incremental Change:

• Lower Risk: Smaller changes are easier to manage and adjust if they don’t work as planned.
• Employee Buy-In: Incremental changes are less likely to meet resistance since they are less disruptive. This is huge. In my experience, the best way to drive change is to directly involve those whose job is impacted by the change from the get-go.
• Sustainable Growth: This approach ensures steady improvement without exhausting resources or burning out the team.

Cons of Incremental Change:

• Slower Results: It can take longer to see significant improvements.
• Complacency Risk: The pace of change might be too slow to keep up with competitors.
• Less Impactful: Incremental changes may not generate the same level of excitement or motivation within the team.

Balancing the Two Approaches

The key to effective change management in a dealership lies in balancing radical and incremental change. Like an athlete who strategically decides when to burn a match, you must determine when a bold move is necessary and when a steady, incremental approach is more appropriate.

When to Burn a Match

• Crisis Situations: When your dealership faces a significant threat, such as a sudden market shift or a drastic drop in sales, a radical change might be necessary to survive and thrive. For example, if you haven’t burned a match to address your high inventory levels and carrying costs, now’s the time. 
• Strategic Opportunities: If a unique opportunity arises, such as a new market opening or a chance to acquire a competitor, burning a match might provide the necessary push to capitalize on it. But there’s no point in doing so if you don’t already have the right business structure and processes to ensure a (relatively) smooth onboarding of your acquired units. 
• Innovation Drives: When adopting cutting-edge technology or a new business model, a radical change can turn around the business or place the dealership in a competitive position.

When to Conserve Energy

• Long-Term Growth: For sustainable, long-term growth, incremental changes ensure continuous improvement without overwhelming the team.
• Cultural Shifts: When trying to change the dealership culture or improve employee engagement, incremental changes can foster genuine, lasting transformation.
• Process Improvements: For optimizing internal processes, small, continuous adjustments can lead to significant gains over time without the disruption of a radical overhaul.

Making Change Stick

Whether the change is radical or incremental, the ultimate goal is to make it stick. Here are some general strategies to ensure lasting impact:

• Communication: Clearly communicate the vision and benefits of the change to all employees. Transparency builds trust and buy-in. A VP of Service (Mike) recently shared with me a question he received from one of his service managers: Mike, how many times do I need to communicate the change in our post-repair inspection process to my shop techs to make it stick? Mike’s response, just one more time! Don’t expect lasting change to occur with just one or two communication points. Over-communicate using a variety of mediums (email, in-person, posters) to reinforce the need for change and benefits to the team. 
• Training and Support: Provide adequate training and resources to help employees adapt to the new changes. 
• Feedback Loops: Establish a mechanism for ongoing feedback to monitor progress and make necessary adjustments. How can your team ask questions about the change? Where can they go for more information?
• Celebrate Wins: Acknowledge and celebrate small victories along the way. A Friday afternoon ice cream social goes a long way to thank people for their effort and commitment to the change (and don’t forget your field folks). 

Managing change at your dealership is like navigating an endurance race. Knowing when to burn a match and when to conserve energy can make the difference between short-lived bursts of success and sustainable, long-term growth. By strategically balancing radical and incremental changes and ensuring robust support mechanisms, you can make change stick and drive your dealership toward a high-performing future.