Faulkner: Top 3 Controllable and High Impact Activities for Regional Operations Managers

In my last column, I gave you what a regional sales manager should focus on, but we can't forget about operations right?

For a regional operations manager in the automotive aftermarket, the same three themes still apply, but the focus shifts from selling to building a process that makes sales easier, faster, and more reliable. The three activities become: 1) Plan your week around operational bottlenecks and opportunities, 2) Lead in the field to see reality, not reports, and 3) Personally know the top accounts from an operations and service perspective.

These are the levers that most directly impact revenue, margin, and customer retention.

1. Plan Your Week: Solve the Right Problems

From an operations seat, planning the week means organizing time around the issues that most affect fill rates, on-time delivery, and service consistency, because those are critical drivers of aftermarket revenue and loyalty. You can frame this section around:

• Blocking weekly time to review performance (fill rates, delivery performance, backorders, returns, and aging inventory) and then choosing a small number of high-impact fixes for the week.
  
  
• Coordinating with sales on upcoming promos, new line launches, and seasonal patterns so operations are ready with inventory, staffing, and routing adjustments to support them.

2. Lead in the Field: See Where Promises Break

As a regional operations manager, leading in the field means spending time in branches, warehouses, and on delivery routes to see where the customer experience is actually created or damaged. Points to highlight:

• Riding with drivers, visiting will-call counters, and walking the warehouse to observe process breakdowns that cause late deliveries, mis-picks, or poor communication to customers.
  
  
• Using these field days to coach supervisors and frontline teams, showing how their choices directly affect shop productivity, customer experience, and ultimately parts output volume.

3. Personally Know Top Accounts: Operationally Protect Key Relationships

From operations, "knowing" top accounts means understanding their service expectations, patterns, and pain points so the network can consistently deliver what they value most:

• Building relationships with owners, service managers, and parts managers at the top 20–50 accounts, specifically to understand cut-off times, delivery windows, accuracy needs, and special handling requirements.
  
  
• Creating account-specific operating notes or service standards (for example, rush-order handling, core return processes, communication expectations) and making sure every branch and driver that touches those accounts knows them.

These three activities show that a regional operations manager is not just running trucks and warehouses but actively shaping the customer experience that keeps high-value accounts loyal and makes every sales promise believable.

In closing, everyone in every position is in the business of sales in the automotive aftermarket parts industry. Operations is a key part of clinching one of the most vital parts of the sales process. They make the promises come true and executable. The only way a regional operations manager can make sure that it is fully happening is if they are in the field to see and feel what the team and customer see and feel.

Metrics are the compass, but the captain still needs to physically guide and steer the ship to its preferred destination.