Since his first movies, Clint Eastwood has worked with the same production crew every time he makes a film.

Since day one, our goal has also been to do the same; hire great people, train them effectively and take care of them better than anybody else will, so that as a team, we could build the greatest training company in the car business.

Whether it’s our trainers that attendees meet in class, our salespeople or our training coaches for our online training subscribers, the most common response we get is, “Wow, you have great people!”

Every employee we have, from our admin staff, shipping department, IT, marketing department, HR, accounting and even Ron, our art department director for 20 years who nobody ever sees – all of them become the image our company projects, so we only hire the very best people for every position.

If everyone would just step back and realize that your employees are your most valuable assets – then everyone would make hiring only the best, training them, managing them and taking care of them their most important priority.

You can’t even put customers first if you don’t have great employees because without great employees it’s impossible to provide a great customer experience.

So where do you start if your goal is to end up with the very best people?

Well logically, the very first step has to be a total management commitment to developing the best team in town. No, not just having the nicest team, not just the best dressed team – but the most competent team in town who puts your customers first every time.

That’s why clarifying exactly what you want a salesperson to do is critical to hiring. Without clear guidelines on the person and the skills you’re looking for, you get confused and make the biggest mistake; hiring people you like instead of people who are most qualified.

Or you’ll cave in and just hire someone to fill the slot while you try to find somebody else. Pretty soon all the slots have been filled with incompetent people and that makes it even tougher to get a good one to work there.

At the end of this article there is an offer for Recovery & Growth a free dealer/manager book, and while you’re reading it go through Section 7, it’s all about employees who make or break your dealership. Add that to your action plan meetings and make a decision on who you’ll be hiring from now on.

Tip: You have to decide whether to create a safe-house for underachievers in sales and management, or to grow every year.

There are no secrets to hiring...

Always be recruiting. Don’t wait until you need a salesperson to start trying to find a good person. If you have a full staff in sales, but get the chance to hire a 15-car guy who does 100 percent repeat business and doesn’t take ups, wouldn’t it make sense to hire him now?

I realize your most loyal underachievers and your 12-car guy who snakes all the ups, works double shifts and gets all the house deals might get upset if you start hiring higher achievers – that’s why you have to read section 7 in Recovery & Growth.

Where do you recruit...

The Newspaper: The Internet is rated the best choice for recruiting overall.

But that’s about jobs overall, and some jobs are better filled with an ad in the paper, so keep a presence there, too.

The Internet: Monster.com, AutoJobs.com, your local newspaper’s online postings...all of these are good sources for finding new employees. You can post your jobs online and you can sign up to review online resumes and contact only the ones you’re most interested in interviewing.

Vendors and Merchants: The reps who come into your dealership are in sales and

so are the merchants you work with (printer, etc.). If they’re good, hire them if you can. Or they may know a good salesperson who is unhappy, especially when dealerships cut their pay.

Job Fairs: I just talked to a friend of mine who recently opened a new dealership. He ran his own job fair at the hotel next door and got 209 people to show up and 77 great candidates. If you don’t do your own, try the local job fairs in your area.

Referrals from Employees (Our First Choice): Some of our very best employees were referred by other employees.

Tip: We used to offer $500 for referrals and didn’t get many, so we added a zero. Now we pay $5,000 for salespeople, managers or trainers. It works a lot better!

Tip: If you do this, pay $500 upon hiring, $500 more at 90 days, $2000 if they hit Level 3 (90-day avg. 15+) in six months and the other $2,000 if they reach Level 4 (20+) within a year.

Note: If you’re continuously hiring, you have a management problem.

Hiring the right people is key to your success today and your long-term growth, so stop taking shortcuts in this critical process.

Lastly, stop using your ‘gut feeling’ to decide who to hire. Your past is littered with all those ‘gut feeling’ failures that didn’t make it.