A lot of SERVICE ADVISORS want to move into leadership.
But wanting the promotion and being ready for it are two very different things.
In Service Drive Revolution #358, Chris Collins and the team answered a listener question about career growth in the automotive industry—and the conversation hit on something many dealership employees struggle with:
Why do some people move up quickly while others stay stuck?
The answer usually has less to do with titles or education… and more to do with how you perform every day inside the service drive.
Experience Still Matters in the Service Drive
There’s nothing wrong with earning a degree or taking management courses.
But in automotive retail, real-world experience still carries the most weight.
Why?
Because leadership in a dealership isn’t theoretical.
A strong leader understands:
- Difficult customer situations
- Workflow pressure
- Advisor challenges
- Technician relationships
- Time management inside a chaotic environment
That kind of experience can’t be learned from a classroom alone.
The best leaders in Fixed Ops usually worked the front lines first—and earned credibility through performance.
Being Good at Your Job Isn’t Enough
This is the part many people miss.
You can be productive and still struggle to get promoted.
Why?
Because leadership isn’t just about personal performance—it’s about influence.
Managers look for people who:
- Communicate well under pressure
- Adapt to different personalities
- Stay coachable
- Handle conflict professionally
- Bring consistency to the team
If someone is technically strong but difficult to work with, promotion becomes harder.
That’s not politics. That’s leadership reality.
Coachability Creates Opportunity
One of the strongest points discussed in the episode was adaptability.
People who grow inside dealerships are usually willing to:
- Accept feedback
- Adjust their communication style
- Improve weak areas
- Learn from leadership
The people who struggle most are often the ones who believe they already know everything.
Top-performing advisors understand that growth requires adjustment.
Sometimes the issue isn’t talent.
It’s resistance.
Your Reputation Is Built Daily
In dealerships, your reputation forms faster than you think.
Leadership notices:
- How you handle stress
- How you speak to coworkers
- Whether you take ownership
- How customers respond to you
- Whether you solve problems—or create them
Every interaction either builds confidence in your leadership potential or works against it.
That’s why strong SERVICE MANAGER leaders often promote people based on consistency and attitude just as much as raw numbers.
Communication Is a Leadership Skill
One major takeaway from SDR #358:
When customers misunderstand your recommendations, trust starts to fade.
When coworkers struggle to work with you, teamwork suffers.
And when leadership has difficulty coaching you, career growth becomes harder.
That’s why future leaders know how to:
- Listen first
- Explain things clearly
- Adjust their tone depending on the situation
- Build trust with different personalities
In the service drive, those people skills matter just as much as operational knowledge.
Titles Don’t Make Leaders
A promotion doesn’t magically create leadership ability.
The habits that make someone promotable usually show up long before the title does.
That includes:
- Accountability
- Emotional control
- Reliability
- Problem-solving
- Helping the team succeed—not just yourself
The advisors who move up fastest are usually already acting like leaders before anyone officially calls them one.
The Bottom Line
If you want career growth in automotive, focus less on chasing titles—and more on becoming the kind of person leadership can trust.
Because dealerships don’t just promote skill.
They promote:
- Consistency
- Communication
- Coachability
- Leadership presence
And those things are built every single day in the service drive.
Final Thought
The service drive is one of the best leadership training grounds in the dealership world.
If you can learn to:
- Communicate under pressure
- Build relationships
- Stay adaptable
- Lead through problems
You won’t just become a better SERVICE ADVISOR.
You’ll become someone impossible to overlook.
FULL VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Introduction and Career Navigation
Welcome everybody to the big show. I am Chris Collins. Adam is here. Hogi is here. We are excited. What’s up everybody? We have a really fun conversation for you. Mostly what we talk about today is how to get promoted and how to navigate that versus a degree. It’s a follow-up from an earlier question from somebody that called in. I will remind everybody that if you have a question, you can call 833-3-ASK-SDR and we do still look at that and we’ll answer your questions on the show. 833-3-ASK-SDR and that and much more is coming up right now on Service Drive Revolution.
How’s everybody doing today? Fantastic. Doing great. Doing great. It’s not very convincing. No. Well, probably not. I’m a little bit confused. Before we were getting started, somebody had sent me something on Instagram. So I was scrolling and have you guys seen how many dealerships right now, their social media strategy is to make fun of customers? Have you guys seen any of these? I haven’t. It’s an interesting tactic and on the surface you think this is terrible, but then you wonder does it have the reverse psychology where people are trying to please them when they go into F&I? You know how if you tell your kids not to do something, they do it.
The Problem with Mocking Customers
Yeah, maybe. Are customers just a bunch of kids? I would love to say that we’re so data-driven that we’ve tried something that outside the box and paid attention to the results and it drove dynamic results and we’re like, “Oh, you’re never going to believe how you do this, but this is how you do it. It really works.” But I hope that’s it. I hope you’re right. Personally, I’m just kind of confused. I was sitting here just thinking about the one I just watched. They’re making fun of a customer in finance getting ready to sign and their hands shaking and they’re like, “No, everything looks right.” Right. Like “well, I got to check with my wife.”
Are there any comments in there? No. I mean, a lot of the comments are from other dealerships with laughing faces and stuff, so I don’t know. I don’t think I get it. I’m trying to figure it out. It’s not customer-facing. No, that’s like an internal joke that nobody really gets or likes unless you’re in that band of thought. Dealers just don’t know how to market. They’re terrible at online marketing. I can’t think of one that’s good. In other industries there’s so many good ones. It’s not hard to find good examples if you’re looking.
Misguided Social Media Strategy
No, but it is funny as hard as lead generation is, or they talk about how hard it is and they get frustrated by all the money they spend on it. They find this new thing and they’re like, “Hey, you can reach out, you can get in front of your people with social media,” and they know the tool is for the salespeople to be active in it. So they know that’s the new avenue to their customers, but then they’re going to make fun of them? I’m trying to understand it, but it was crazy.
I was just going to say it’s crazy that I think that most businesses, especially in our industry, they see and think and hear about social media and instantly they’re thinking they can just, “Oh, I watched that on a TikTok and now I got my phone and now I can just put it up and do whatever I want and that will just hit.” They have a presence, but they’re not really having intentionality in how to truly connect. Well, and it’s also hard to hide the loathing they have for customers. Like, you’re really just showcasing how much you hate what you do. These people that are making these videos hate what they do. It’s a funny juxtaposition because from my perspective it makes me super uncomfortable. I would want to highlight customers, but we always try with everything we do not to punch down like that. Punching down is what it is.
Marketing Influence and AI
There’s this book that I’ve been reading and I was going to have the team here do a book record on it. But it’s this author, her name’s like Anna Angelo and the book is called Hitmakers: How Brands Influence Culture. It’s so good. We’ve kind of been the first ones to do the AI stuff. Dealers are still talking about SEO and SEO is dead. Search engine optimization’s been dead for over a year and you got to optimize for the AI because people are searching in AI. They’re not searching on Google anymore.
Industry Challenges and Global Impacts
Hogi, with the new thing that Trump has done to the European cars and adding higher tariffs to them, you think about how many Volkswagen dealerships we have that are suffering. BMW and Mercedes stores are going to start to suffer because even on a Porsche, you’re talking about 200 grand now. I have a lot of friends that have money. They’re not going to spend 200 grand on a Porsche. These European cars are to the point where you’re just not going to buy a 7 series. You’re going to go buy something else.
Think about the amount of market share that Tesla took away from BMW and then think about now if they lose another 20% of their sales because the cars are priced out of budgets. It’s really bad. If we don’t have them selling cars, we don’t have the traffic in the drive. We’re going to have to get better at marketing because you can’t afford to run a dealership and lose 80% of your customers to independents if you’re not selling new cars.
We might see consolidation where Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche are all in one store. Some of these local owner-operators are going to sell to the bigger groups because they just can’t survive.
Inventory Stagnation and Pricing Struggles
How much are sales down for Volkswagen dealers? It’s crazy. The electric Volkswagen is in some of the markets at a 1,200 day supply.
During COVID there was no supply, so people started charging over sticker. Then dealers started ordering cars fully loaded. Then the manufacturers wanted to get in on this, so they started raising the prices. Remember when Chevy raised the price of the truck like 8 grand? They weren’t even close to Ford price-wise . You had to somehow justify that the thing is 10 grand more. That’s a hard jump to make. All of these people got stuffed into these cars, had all this negative equity, and now the cars are even more expensive.
They’re doing longer terms. I’m just waiting for the next commercial that’s 2.9 at 96 months. It’ll be zero. They keep on going out longer and longer. Zero percent interest is cheaper than the flooring and those being 1,200 days old.
The Canadian Market and Chinese EVs
Have any of you guys seen what Canada did? They’re allowing in 50,000 of the Chinese electric cars. Literally lopping the shins off of the automotive industry up there and the workers. From what I understand, the government kind of had to make a deal with China for them to keep buying their canola or something for the farmers. The only way that deal could get done was to take electric cars, and these electric cars are priced way under the market. You can buy one of these cars for $15,000-$20,000 and the tech is better.
The Chinese government subsidizes the manufacturing of these cars to gain market share. That’s what China does—they will subsidize steel or rare earths and everybody else will go out of business and then they own it for the world. Toyota, nobody can keep up price-wise. It’s kind of the beginning of the end when you let them into your market because who’s buying a $40,000 Honda Accord? Honda manufactures in Canada and you literally are lopping off the shins of the automotive worker by doing that.
Meanwhile, let’s make videos making fun of customers. In all of this, we’re making fun of customers. The ones that are still coming to buy a new car. I want to be friends, Adam. Can I punch you in the nose real quick? Yeah. It’s like I like it. We’ll bond. They were just bullied as kids.
SDR Academy and Going Live
One of the things that we’ve been talking about is going live with SDR to have interaction. Then on the back of that, we were going to do this new Service Drive Evolution Live or SDR Academy . We’re going to teach how to market, how to run a profitable department, and leadership in an interactive environment. We’re thinking about starting that on YouTube in June.
I feel like I should have made a video when I bought my truck. Can we get back at them as consumers? Like a little hidden war? We’ll make our video experience of buying it and get back at the industry. We’re not consumers. We’re in the industry. I bought a brand new truck. I was one of the ones that got 0% for 60 months. We make videos making fun of dealers? It’s a terrible idea. It’s punching down.
The Turkey Hunting Story
You keep making me think about the turkey I missed over the weekend. Did a turkey walk through your front yard and you didn’t have a tag? I went out hunting, I missed at a tom, I actually tried running after him after I shot him. A tom is a male turkey. I was shooting with a shotgun. Isn’t that a little overkill for a turkey? No way, you’re just going for the head.
This deal here was my eyesight was on a different bird. This is at 40 yards away. I think I might be a better shot than you. I’m pretty sure my soon-to-be six-year-old daughter is a better shot than me. Adrenaline was rushing, the bird flies down. My father-in-law’s other bird flies down. The first bird I’m looking at is probably 70 or 80 yards away. The other bird I shot and missed at was 40 . My father-in-law goes, “Shoot it.” I’m looking the other way. I go to turn and I shoot as his head is going down the hill and then he just opens up his wings and starts going. I started trying to run after him to try to shoot him and I missed again.
Target Practice and Small Town Vibes
My father-in-law said, “Not again. You’re cursed.” I come back Saturday morning to cut the grass at 1:00. I get on the riding lawnmower to go down the hill and guess what? A hen and a tom are in front of me running towards the timber . My suggestion is get yourself to the range. Start shooting at some targets to close that gap. It’s a red dot site. Because we use special ammunition, the pattern is actually a lot wider. It has over 100 little BBs of tungsten instead of just regular steel . So you missed with birdshot? Run some ammo through that thing and dial in the red dot .
Adam, I have some comments, but I’m trying not to punch down. Is there a range by you? Yeah, it’s called a farm. I just get too excited. You know what I like to do is go to Safeway and get Safeway Select cream soda. It’s five bucks for a case of 24. You shake them and put them on the fence and that’s what you shoot. When you hit them, they explode . I thought you were going to say you take target practice in Safeway. I’m talking about up in Washington. At home up there, Safeway Select Cream Soda is my favorite. When people up there ask how your day is, they seriously want to know. It takes half an hour to get out of the grocery store .
Savannah’s Question: Career Advice vs. Education
We have a follow-up question from before. She called and gave us more context .
Savannah’s Call: “Hi guys. You answered my question last podcast. I have three years experience in the automotive industry as a service advisor. My first year I started as an express writer. I got promoted to a service advisor my second year and now I am a lead service adviser and I just graduated with my bachelor’s in automotive business management. I feel like I’m just kind of stuck in a lead advisor role and I haven’t been given the opportunity to take on more responsibility. They basically put me in this role as lead advisor to answer all the advisor’s questions, help with warranty things, and I’m still getting paid the same. I’m trying to move up and do something different. Do I need to spend another two years in the role I am to gain at least five years experience or do I need to do something else with my work ethic to show that I’m ready?”
If you’re the lead advisor, I would attach myself to a couple clear measurables like average sales per ticket and customer satisfaction. How can you show leadership and affect the overall outcome without you actually doing the work? When we become the manager, unfortunately everybody doesn’t do things like we did. It’s hard to influence the group to perform at the level you were performing. I would pick a couple measurables to attach yourself to and really show dramatic increase through your influence.
Everything in your career comes in seasons. You might be in the season of doubling down and proving you can lead and affect outcomes versus making more money, you might have to do that before you make more money,
Results Over Degrees
You would get hired because of your results, not because of your degree. We would be looking at the department that you ran before: what was the profitability and CSI? Your degree would really not even have a seat at the table most of the time. What makes you special and irreplaceable is your ability to affect outcomes.
I would forget about the money for a minute and for 6 months to a year, just focus on how you can affect the outcome and make it better for everybody. Focus on taking what you were handed and making it dramatically better. How can you double the sales? How can you have perfect CSI? Plant some seeds where you are right now. Don’t look beyond the horizon. Just prove to yourself that you can do this. Get used to the fact that the manager doesn’t make as much as the top advisor a lot of times. You’re not necessarily going to get a raise by being the manager.
Leadership and the Value of Education
An advisor that’s performing at a really high level, their ability to take the next step is their ability to make those around them better. Once you get to a certain point, people start to turn to you like you’re naturally a leader. Your ability to further your cause is your ability to make those around you better. Ask your bosses what the most important metrics are—dollars per ticket and CSI. If you can take the people around you and dramatically improve the bottom performers, that’s how you achieve those higher levels.
I don’t believe in investing all this money into a so-called piece of paper. I look at it as an investment in yourself, laying a foundation. In our industry, it doesn’t work that if you get a master’s degree, you’re demanding a raise. I’ve definitely used education as a foundation, but not as a bargaining chip to get more money.
The Value of Practical Experience
How many people come here for our boot camp and they never taught them financial pricing strategies or pay plans? Your money is better spent taking our on-demand training than anything else because leadership is about the results. They’re missing the things that actually make you successful or how to apply it. I feel like it’s more of a catch-up playing from behind. Elon says a college degree is to prove you can do your chores, but you’ll learn more in the field and on YouTube.
Being a successful manager is way more about psychology than anything else. If people are in a situation where they think they don’t have opportunity and want to go somewhere else—people are wearing that out and it doesn’t serve them. Where the actual leverage is is different than what people automatically think. They think they need more traffic, but why don’t we do more with the customers we have first? Do really good where you’re at and the next thing will find you. You just can’t keep results a secret.
When we’re interviewing for our team, we’re looking for results. What outcomes have you changed? If you don’t have those on your resume, you’re not going to make it through our first part of vetting. This dealer who owned a bunch of dealerships asked me to go to lunch and said he would write me a check for a million dollars and give me equity if I would run his store. He said it was because I have a track record of selling cars. That’s not common. You just can’t keep results a secret .
Conclusion
So focus on that. Thanks for the question, Savannah. Thanks everybody for tuning in. Make sure you’re subscribed and we’ll see you next time on Service Drive Revolution.
Final Outro
We’re uploading new stuff every day, so make sure you subscribe and click the bell icon so you don’t miss out. If you have a question you’d like us to answer on the show, call 833-ASK-SDR, and we’ll answer your question on the show. That’s 833-ASK-SDR. For special deals on our books and training, head over to offers.chriscollinsinc.com. I’m Chris Collins, and I’ll see you in the next video.
🔗 Related Resources
- How Service Managers Should Handle Difficult Customers in Fixed Ops
- 9 Reasons Service Managers Fail in Fixed Ops (And How to Avoid Them)
- Why Fixed Ops Systems Matter More Than People in Dealership Service
Feel free to explore the linked articles above for deeper insights into each strategy. If you have any further questions or need additional resources, don’t hesitate to ask!
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