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Let's Talk Employees - Chris Cotton Weekly Blitz [E031]

Chris Cotton Weekly Blitz Oct 25, 2021 11 min

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About this episode

Chris Cotton dives into the dynamics of employee performance in the auto repair industry, introducing his 20-60-20 rule. He emphasizes the importance of evaluating your team, advocating for the removal of underperformers and the retention of top talent. Cotton challenges listeners to consider who they would rehire if given the chance, stressing that complacency can hinder business growth. He shares real-life examples of how limiting behaviors in employees can impact profitability and encourages business owners to take action against mediocrity. Future episodes are teased, focusing on overcoming limiting behaviors and achieving greater success.

Topics: employee performance 20-60-20 rule business growth limiting behaviors staff evaluation retaining talent removing underperformers profitability shop management

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Hey, everyone.

I hope the world's finding you.

Well this morning, you're having a great day.

Chris cotton here from auto fix auto shop coaching, where we work hard

to support your financial success.

If you have an idea for a show topic, or just wanting to talk shop, please

get with [email protected].

Now let's talk employees.

so I've got some notes here.

about some thoughts that I've had.

And I wanted to share, I've gone back and forth about doing individual episodes

I've thought about doing this one.

So.

I'm going to talk about this and then I've got some follow-up I've

already wrote out some notes.

We'll talk about some episodes that are coming up or, or one episode in particular

that's coming up, for you to look forward to typically we look back at episodes,

but this one we're going to, we're going to look forward and I want you to be

on the, on the lookout for this one.

First of all, I want to talk about my 20, 60, 20 rule.

Now, this is a rule.

I don't know.

I, I think I may have, stayed up one night and popped in.

It doesn't really come from anywhere other than me and my beliefs.

Right.

So the 20, 60, 20 rule was this 20% of the employees you have are

underperforming and you don't need, right?

Like, like there, there are people in your business that you just tolerate

because you're waiting for somebody else.

One thing I would say is let's not suffer fools.

If you've got 20% of your, your employees, let's get rid of them.

You're better off without them than you are with them.

That's a reason, there's a reason why Amazon pays people to leave.

Right?

They've got to figure it out.

You're better off somewhere else than you are.

The 60% of the 20, 60, 20 is 60% of your employees are right where they need to be.

They're right.

Where they should be pay wise and everything else.

And they're, they're getting along.

This is like the middle, right?

The last 20 of the 20, 60, 20 is.

You probably have 20% of your employees that are the top of the top.

If they left your business, you would really, really suffer in

some way for having them being gone.

And all the time I take phone calls from shop owners and they're like,

oh, well, this person's leaving or this person's out leaving.

I'm like, why?

You know, if it's a money issue.

Why wouldn't you pay him two, three more dollars an hour to keep them if

they're that important in your business?

for us in the auto repair industry, if it's a technician,

you raise your labor rate.

We're all too cheap on our labor rates.

Anyway, like, like every one of you out there could go add $30 to your

labor rate, hire better people and your, your customers would be fine.

Because it's the value it's the experiences is what you provide.

People are way more parts, price conscious than they are labor price colleges.

Anyway.

So if you need to do something different your business to keep those

20%, then, then you need to do that.

Okay.

So that's the first bullet point today, the 20, 60, 20 rule.

I want you to think about your business and probably every, every one of you

shake your head and be like, yeah, I could probably do without those two employees,

those six employees are doing good.

And these, these other two employees are doing, you know, great things and

I need to do what I can to keep them.

So that takes us into the next one.

If you've owned your business for five years, 10 years, 20 years, I don't care.

I want you to stop right now.

And I want you to think about you waking up tomorrow and

having to rebuy your business.

And if you had to rebuy your business and make everybody that's working

there today, reapply, who would you rehire and who would you not rehire?

What'd you think about that for a minute?

And this takes us back into the first book.

You know, if you have people in your business that you would not

rehire, why the hell are they there it's time for them to go.

And I don't want to hear, the whining about finding

employees and everything else.

I've got shops all across the country that were hiring left and right.

Technicians, service advisors, support people.

You have to set your business up so that you're available to hire those people.

And two, you have to be a place people want to go.

And so I need you to think about that for a minute.

If you have people holding you back, holding the business

back than you need to.

To move forward.

and that takes us to the, to the next bullet point I've got here.

Don't let your employees hold you hostage.

You know, you know what you wanted when you started your business,

you know what you want to continue.

And I want you to think about this for a minute.

What you allow what you allow is what will connect.

So I get a lot of people all the time and they're their clients.

And they're like, oh, but Chris, this is happening.

And oh, but Chris, this is happening.

And I just sit back and I'm like, you know why that's happening?

Right.

And they're like, no, I don't know why.

And I'm like, because you're continuing to let it happen again.

No excuses on the employee front be a great place to be in great.

People want to be a part of what you have do not let employees hold you hostage.

If, if you get comfortable in your business and you have people that

you've hired to clean the toilets and they're doing it wrong and

they're holding you back, guess what?

It's time to fire those people and get back in there and get

your knuckles dirty on the tour.

You know, we get, we get to an, to a level is as business owners to where

we're comfortable and we're fat and happy.

And we think it's beneath us to step back and step back into

our business and do something.

Sometimes you got to step back into your business, show

everybody else how it's done.

Show everybody some hard work and kick ass and take names,

repeat and do it all over again.

You guys need to remember that.

You need to remember that sometimes you got to get back into

your business and make things.

Okay.

So that brings us to my last bullet point for today.

It's it's called limiting behaviors, and I'm going to do a whole episode on this.

It's going to be episode number 34.

So, so look to the future for that.

It's going to be episode number 34 limiting behaviors, and we're going

to list those limiting behaviors out.

I'm a firm believer in that.

You have employees in your business that can only take you so far.

And it's really proven out this this year.

I mean, I've had several shops.

I'm going to give you a couple of a couple of examples.

one shop owner had a service rider.

She was good getting us to, $20,000 a week and sales a hundred grand a month.

And she could hold a $400 average repair order really well.

And her, her GP was okay.

It wasn't spectacular, but it was okay.

And no matter what she did, that's all she could do.

there was always some excuse why she couldn't move forward,

why she couldn't do better?

Why, why, why, why, why?

And so I talked to the owner and was like, look, she either needs

another support person above her.

She can't be the manager cause she can't manage us to the $150,000 a month level.

She can't manage this to the 30, 40, $50,000 a week level.

So she needs a better manager.

And if she can't step back and accept that, then she needs to go.

And we had this talk like weekly for six months.

And finally it got to the point to where we had a great person apply.

He came in as the number two person, but it was pretty clear from day one

that he was, a number one rider, stormy.

Okay.

And so, you know, everything happened, we let her go.

And now this guy's cranking out 30, 40, 40 $5,000 weeks in a business

that's doing 150 grand a month.

Now everything's way more consistent.

The leadership stare her limiting behavior was that she had.

She couldn't do any more than what she was already doing.

She couldn't get any better.

So she was not open to learning from anything else.

And if we're talking about technicians, this would be somebody that we call as Mr.

Greatest.

Like, oh, you can't teach me a thing already know it.

All right.

There's nobody out there.

There's nobody out there including me.

There's always somebody better than you.

And if you're standing around going, Hey, I'm the best there is.

I'm sorry, bud.

You're not the best areas.

All right.

There's always somebody better than you.

Another example is that we've got another shop.

I did a shop visit here recently, and I have a great relationship with these

people, but again, we'd be talking quite a while about a service advisor

that needed to, go down the road because of his limiting behaviors.

And I'm always the, the guy or the coach that will push you to the next level.

Like if you tell me you want, see, I'll tell you what, why

aren't we getting X let's shoot for X and end up on P somewhere?

Right?

So I walk in.

Just getting some work done on my truck.

Cause they're pretty close to where I'm at now in the country.

And they had a goal of 130,000 for the month on the board.

And I was like, no, no.

And so I reached up there, I wiped it off and put one 50, I go, you

guys are capable of doing 200.

Why are we settling for one 30?

Let's go for one 50 and see where we're at.

and to say, I wanted to spit bullets and I got a little red under the color,

the service advisor that saw that he's he just laughed and looked at me like

I was an idiot and said, we can't, there's nothing we can do to get there.

And.

You know, I'm a big guy.

I can be violent if I need to be like, I'll say my family I'll save your family.

but emotionally pretty, even keeled.

And I just looked at him and I said, I'm sorry that, you know,

I'm sorry that you think that's the case, but that is not the case.

This, this business can do more, either with you or without you.

It's, it's your choice.

And if you, if you choose not to do what we need you to do, then your replacement.

So needless to say, within a week he was gone and.

This is the first month that we've been there and the shop's going

to break 150,000 for the month.

Their gross profit also jumped 8% and it's all because of the limiting

behaviors that this guy had and the attitude that he brought to the business.

And if you're surrounded by people with limiting behaviors in your business,

they're holding your business back.

Don't let, don't let them hold your business hostage.

And sometimes it's you.

Sometimes the hardest person that I have to crack through is the actual shop owner.

And once I, once I can get you to believe.

What I know you're capable of, then the sky's the limit.

That's also a future episode I'm going to do, it's called hitting your five

iron and I've got it here on the board.

That's going to be episode 33.

So we got some really, really cool stuff coming up and I hope you

guys are listening and I hope this is resonating with you and you're

getting something great out of it.

All right.

Hey, thanks for taking time out of your busy day to listen to everybody.

This has been Chris cotton from auto fix auto shop coaching.

If you find yourself struggling in your auto repair business or have feeling

like you don't know what you don't know, but you're eager to learn and

grow your business, then please feel free to reach out to me, Chris, at auto

fix sos.com or give me a call at nine four oh four hundred one zero eight.

Have a great day, everybody.

I love you.

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