Of the over two hundred dealers that our company has done training or consulting for this year, most of them have stated the similar problem of finding, hiring and retaining good people. All businesses are made up of either successful or unsuccessful people; therefore, the ability to find and keep successful people becomes the most important key to your business.
A large percentage of the dealers have given up on the idea of getting and keeping good salespeople. Many dealers have bad perceptions of salespeople in general and have come to believe that the revolving door in dealerships is a part of the business. The revolving door costs a dealer thousands of dollars for each lost or unproductive employee.
Recently, at the request of one of our clients, our company ran an employment ad for salespeople in a local newspaper. Before we designed the ad, we asked ourselves the following questions:
1. What would the ideal employee look like to us?
2. What type of person are we looking for
3. What characteristics and background would we want that ideal employee to have?
4. After we had created the profile of our ideal employee, how could we make our ad different than all of the other employment offers in the newspaper and what would our compelling offer be to get that ideal prospective salesperson to inquire?
Once we came up with the answers to those questions, we became focused on our desired results and moved away from just hiring warm bodies and hoping that anybody would inquire.
We ran the employment ad on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. We received one hundred and forty seven applicants! This was done in an area with a good economy, low unemployment, high per capita earnings, and an educated population base. All of the aforementioned factors had been given to me as excuses as to why a dealer could not get good people. We interviewed thirty five of the applicants and hired five. We also have a base of applicants that we can now continue to cultivate for the future.
Each person interviewed was given personality and IQ tests to enhance our profile of the person that would be used to make our selection. After the tests and two interviews, the candidate was required to take a drug test and a copy of their DMV was pulled. If a person can go through this process, you have eliminated a lot of bad apples. If a person cannot make it through this process, you don't want them anyway. A choice has to be made that others must fit your profile rather than constantly changing ours to fit the profile of a potential candidate.
Once the candidate is hired, the real work begins. We put the candidates through a week of intensive training that included our sales philosophy, required selling standards and intensive role-playing. We videotaped our new employees and required homework assignments. We then set up a training schedule for the next year for the candidates. The candidates are required to meet with management daily to focus on questions and improvements to their selling skills.
I can guarantee you that if you put as much work as we did into this hiring and training project, you will have success in getting and keeping good people. Many dealerships are putting little effort into recruiting, hiring, training and wondering why they are getting poor results. The time to think about recruiting and training is not when it's a necessity and you're pressured to hire warm bodies, but well before.
We were so encouraged by our results that we have added this as a permanent service to be provided for dealers. We know that dealerships may want to accomplish the same results as we did with our company but feel limited in resources to do so. Whether a dealership hires and trains internally or out-sources this task, a commitment must be made to a long-term approach with a specific outcome in mind. Start by outlining what your ideal employee would look like and begin your game plan on how to get them. Eventually you will live by the law of attraction and have others come to you rather than desperately seeking employees.
Mark Tewart is President of Tewart Enterprises, Inc., a sales and management training and consulting company working with dealerships internationally. Mark is also a keynote speaker and seminar leader. If you have specific questions or require more information about this subject, please check the appropriate box on the reader response form on page 3.