CASE STUDY #3
A Winning Culture Built Upon Measurable Commitments
Tire Max is a thriving Tire & Auto business with 6 stores in North Carolina built upon strong core values and deep community involvement. A well-defined process for effective communication has fast-tracked an ambitious 4-year financial goal to be reached within 3 years, and they have the reports, metrics and data to back it up!
Max Gardener grew up in the industry, as a kid fixin’ flats at the family Tire & Auto business in Greensboro, North Carolina during the 1960’s. Over the years he watched his father and uncle’s successfully grow the business and build a tremendous reputation in the community known for taking care of customers and employees as if they were family.
The time soon came for Max and his cousins to take over the business and they continued to build upon the positive culture that their fathers had established. The business grew over the years and they improved it by implementing measurable systems and processes, however there came a point when Max decided to sell his shares and went into wholesale tires for a brief period. It didn’t take Max long to realize that wholesale was not his end game - retail was where his passion was.
In 2003, Max opened his first Tire Max location in Madison, North Carolina. Max is a natural leader and an absolute pillar in his community. As a boss, he exudes a comforting confidence in his employees that minimizes certain stresses for them - he is an easy guy to work for and one that his employees can build a future with. The first location grew successfully over 10 years and then Max opened a second location, and a third in 2016.
THE SOLUTION
Max understood the importance of building a positive culture and maintaining the same customer experience across all locations. “We want the fries to taste the same at all locations”, said Max. And so, he would implement systems and processes across all locations with metrics to measure their effectiveness.
In 2019, Max acquired his 4th location and within a few months the pandemic hit. In the beginning Tire Max struggled like all businesses, but with confident leadership and Max’s relentless pursuit to find ways to improves his business, Tire Max successfully made it thru and acquired a 5th location.
The business was growing, but it began to expose an area for Max to improve: the effective communication skills of his employees. Acquiring more stores meant more employees and more customers, which meant more conversations were taking place. He began to see a wide gap in the communication skills of his employees. Some were excellent with customers on the phone or in-person, and others struggled to close a deal or book an appointment. He needed an effective communication model to teach his employees, and a system to manage, measure and report on the skillset of his employees.
THE RESULTS
In 2020, Max invested in the development of his people and enrolled three of his stores into Power Sales Training. He now had an effective communication model that was easy to implement and provided a simple stair-stepped approach to improve the conversation skills of his employees. Within a few months he noticed a positive shift in the culture. His employees started to show up to work and in all areas of their life with a new sense of confidence. The fundamentals taught in Power Sales Training are deeply rooted in the Language of Commitment and portraying a message that is positive. Tire Max saw results in all areas of the business; building customer loyalty, increased sales, and reducing stress for everyone. Max and his team opened a 6th location in 2021 and set an aggressive 4-year financial goal which they are on pace to shatter in 3 years due to the impact that Power Sales Training is having.
Jonathon Fowlkes, General Manager of Tire Max said, “Power Sales Training not only gave us the ability to have consistent verbiage across all locations; but it has shortened phone calls because we are setting appointments and closing more deals faster because we get to the meat and potatoes of the conversation ALOT quicker. It has provided a defined process with measurable metrics and reporting that allows us to know our employee’s closing % and identify areas for improvement.”