Sales & Marketing
Before You Can Commit to Your Customers – You Must Honor Your Promise to Your Salespeople
By Forrest Scott
Is it really possible to have satisfied customers when your salespeople are dissatisfied? It's possible, but not likely. The fact of the matter is, many salespeople today are not happy. As a result, customers continue to be frustrated with the sales experience. Industry critics like to point their finger at the negotiation process. Personally I feel this may be the least of our concerns. I speak with customers every day. What I hear is their frustration with the lack of professionalism they receive while shopping for a new or used vehicle. Sure, some of them hate the negotiation process. However, most are used to it and in many cases they look forward to it. What customers seem to dislike the most is when they come in contact with a salesperson who they feel doesn't have a clue.
Where do your salespeople rank? Do they have what it takes to sell you? Would you let every member of your sales team handle one of your relatives, or your best friend? Do you have to think twice before deciding who you should have handled a friend or relative? The sad part is that most dealerships spend enormous amounts of time, energy and money trying to bring their sales team to the next level. When it come to professionalism, most dealers and managers are just as frustrated as their customers with regard to the level of professionalism among salespeople.
What should be done about this rather common problem? Unfortunately, the typical reaction is to blame the attitudes of salespeople today. Many would say, "You just can't find good people today." I believe the root cause is training. Sure, we have hired some people who simply won't make it. However, I believe we have lost many good people because of poor or inadequate training.
Please note, I am not saying we have a bunch of bad managers out there. Quite the contrary. The fact of the matter is, sales managers today have significantly more to do than ever before. The sales manager's job is becoming increasingly difficult. Aside from running the sales floor, a sales manager is now forced to be computer literate, order vehicles via a significantly more complicated process, maintain a mental database of the factory programs and bank rates (which change rather frequently) and amongst numerous other things, protect the dealership from violating more regulations and laws than ever before. As a result they are often forced to neglect the important task of trying to get the salespeople up to speed and then keeping them there.
It's not uncommon to hear a sales manager say, "I hire a new person, I tell them to do exactly what I say, they do it, sell a lot of cars, make a lot of money and then 90 days later they think they know everything, and fall on their face." Actually what is happening is that the sales person is coming to the sales manager and the manager is helping. However, after the sales person goes to the manager a few times, the manager tells the sales person he should be catching on by now and should be able to do it on his own. The manager thinks of this as a "weaning" process. The sales person thinks the manager feels he isn't learning fast enough and begins to fear losing his job. As a result, the sales person reduces or stops visits to the manager and the problems begin.
It's easy to say that managers should be more tolerant, understanding and spend more time with the salespeople. The problem is how. Where will they find the time? Like many questions, they are easier to ask than to answer. Equally difficult is the fact that every dealership is different. What will work in one dealership may not in another. Therefore a solution unique to each dealership must be created.
Many dealerships have elected to outsource the sales training. While this may be the best route to take in one store, it may just as well be the worst in another. While it's been a long time, I can remember the dealership having sales trainers come in to train us. After a few minutes, everyone in the room thought the trainer didn't have a clue and tuned him out. Why did we feel that way? We felt that way because the trainer didn't know or understand the systems of the dealership. He didn't try to get us involved. He didn't ask questions or even attempt to understand whom he was training.
I believe that outside trainers can work well. However, I feel the dealership's management and the trainer should be in total sync. I also believe that trainers, be they in-house or contracted, should evaluate the people they intend to train. Being forced to sit through a training session on a topic you are proficient in is boring and unproductive. Additionally, I believe the training systems should be required to include a significant amount of interaction. The people being trained should be required to interact with the training a minimum of 60 percent of the time. Any less and you take the risk of losing the audience.
Sales training can be done in-house. However, a sales training curriculum should be established and followed. If you choose to do the training in-house and are uncomfortable creating a sales training curriculum, don't panic. Contact me through the magazine and I will be happy to send you a complimentary copy of the 14-page training curriculum we have created. If you would like, I would also be happy to send you a copy of the form we use to rate a sales force.
The quality of the sales force can be no better than the training we provide. When we hire salespeople we tell them the wonderful earning opportunity they have. We also tell them that they will be trained and educated. If we truly believe that finding good people is hard, then we should also believe that losing good people is worse. It's not only tough when a good person decides to take a job elsewhere, it's expensive.
Forrest Scott is president of Dynamic Marketing Strategies Inc. fscott@dealeronline.com
