3 Steps for Repairing Advisor Sales Performance Permanently.

It’s no secret that average sales per repair order is under pressure.

There are many reasons for this.

Everything from factory paid scheduled maintenance, vehicle quality, mileage intervals between services, COVID, work life adjustment, etc, etc, etc. have all contributed to less sales opportunities in the service drive. With all this downward pressure on sales per repair order, there is a greater need for professional sales people in our service drive.

How do we help John Q. Advisor break out of average or below average service sales?

Here are 3 action steps for you and your team to start the process of changing John Q's average sales per repair order into exceptional sales per repair order.

1. The best place to start is not with John Q Advisor.

The best place to start with is you!

Here is the reason. You have total control over all the conditions, the processes, the training, the management and the time invested in John Q. There is no better environment available to you to help him learn the process, change behavior(s) and promote performance.

And the best place to start is with a review of what you have done so far. Begin with answering these 10 questions.

????Have I clearly defined the performance standards the employee must meet and have I clearly communicated those requirements to him or her?

????Have I measured those standards on an ongoing and regular basis and coached or counseled the employee based on their individual performance?

????Have I made training available?

????Have I determined that the employee has been completely trained in their duties?

????Have I observed the employee in the performance of their duties?

????Have I determined that the employee has been allowed to perform the duties of their job?

????Have I determined that the employee can perform the duties of their job?

????Have I determined that the employee won’t perform the duties of their job?

????Have I met with the employee and discussed their performance, attitude and behavior?

????Have I made the best decision possible given the circumstances surrounding the employee and their performance and their attitude?

Answering these 10 “Have I” questions will give you a complete and total picture of the advisor and their performance.

It is a self-diagnostic tool to determine where you can make changes and improve your team’s performance with a self-prescribed series of action steps you can take to correct John’s performance.

???? Let's give it a try!

Haven’t spent any time coaching John Q.? Start with a daily coaching session on his previous days results. Results are not accidental.

Haven’t provided training? Train him. Just because someone does something all day every day doesn't mean that they know the BEST way to do it, they only know the way they have been doing it.

Haven’t observed him and watched his service sales process? Get out there on the service drive and make observations.

The reality...it is hard to make the time investment. Every day is an obstacle course filled with alligators, cheetahs and mud pits. Anyone who has spent time in the "chair" knows what a challenging day looks like.

But when you do invest the time, consistently, you get results.

Keep working your way down this self-diagnostic list. And then lather, rinse, repeat. If you do this for every advisor, in a relatively short period of time you will have corrected conditions that prevent your advisors from achieving superior service sales. ?

This self-diagnostic tool pinpoints exactly what action steps you need to take to get John Q. moving in the right direction. If increasing sales per repair order is your goal, then use this tool to get to work on the things you have direct control over.

2. Communicate Effectively and Directly!

The second step is communication. How you communicate to John the changes necessary to improve John’s performance will have the biggest impact on whether or not you are successful.

And that starts with a direct, positive confrontation of the facts and effective communication of the expectations.

Keep in mind that there are many variations of leadership styles. You might identify yourself as one the four basic styles; authoritarian, paternalistic, democratic or lassez-faire. Each has strength and weaknesses regarding how effective you are as a communicator.

But you don't need a label to tell you how to communicate.

You have to determine how you are going to adapt your communication and leadership style to one that John Q. can relate to.

Pro Tip: Remember that communications are the currency of leadership. It’s how we get things done.

The best way is to develop a direct, positive confrontation and effective communication style that you can adapt to the person you are speaking to.

Positive confrontation is a dialogue you have with John regarding the facts surrounding John's performance. If you want an increase in hours per repair order you must be able to talk to John about what you have observed and why you think he is struggling.

That needs to be based on facts.

And you must be willing to listen to John's side of the story. One thing is for sure, there are "3 truths" to every interaction.

Your truth, John's truth and what is the truth. The best way to merge these truths is to get specific.

“John, for the past 2 days I have observed you working with 22 service customers. In those 22 encounters, 7 times you did not perform a walk-around, 15 times you did not present a maintenance menu and for all 22 you did not explain the multipoint inspection process. Is there some reason you are not following the service drive sales process?”

Positive confrontation is not about blame, it is a fact finding behavioral change mission to confront John about his performance and tell him what is keeping his sales numbers below minimum standards, based on your observations.

Effective communication means listening to what problems John has in carrying out the service sales process and telling him what steps you are going to take to get him the support he needs to succeed. Closing the loop is letting him know what the standards of performance he will be measured on from this point forward.

“John, let me be clear. From today my expectation is that every service customer will get a complete and thorough walk-around, a maintenance menu with the items they need based on time and mileage clearly explained to them and a complete explanation of the multipoint inspection process. Is there any reason you can’t meet that expectation?”

Ask John to buy in.

"John, is there anything else we need to discuss before we put this action plan into place? Is there something else on your mind?"

If he does not believe in what he is trying to achieve, he won't achieve it.

3. Intelligent and Thoughful Rewards Help Increase Performance.

The last step revolves around rewards. There are so many ways people feel rewarded and validated that this could be a 10,000-word essay just on this subject. Rewards are just what the word means “something given in return for something done.”

When John Q. hits new sales per repair order numbers, it is important to him and your team to see a reward for a job well done. This reward can take many forms.

Monetary, parking perks, gift card, personal letter to John and his significant other, escalating bonus plan…whatever fits your dealership and your team’s expectations.

The number one thing about rewards is it must be consistent. You may have an increase in performance and there may be a concerted effort to stay atop the leader board in hours sold per repair order by John Q, but once the reward program becomes inconsistent, the morale will fall and there will be hard feelings that may have lasting effects if John Q. is still working in your service drive.

Ineffective managers are the number one reason people leave a dealership and one symptom of that disease is the “ever changing pay/bonus plan.” Inconsistent rewards programs are one of the largest contributing factors to employee churn.

By the way, you don't have to have a reward, bonus, etc program....but it helps.

What you do need to have is a way for John to see the improvements he has made, a review of what he is doing well and what he still needs to work on.

Consistently. No "one and done" programs . They don't work. Professional teams are not professional because they do something really good once. They do it every time, over and over again.

Helping John Q. Advisor change from an average service sales advisor into a service sales performance machine may seem like daunting task, especially if this has been an ongoing condition.

By now some of you are wondering why I haven't mentioned digital MPI as the new "sales performance" increase tool. It's simple actually.

Using the digital MPI does nothing to improve John Q Advisor sales skills. Nothing. It is only capturing what was already there. With a little professional sales presentation skills, John would close even more opportunities.

Think about this. If John can close an additional 20 or 30 percent using digital MPI, what would he close with digital MPI and professional sales skills combined? It boggles the mind.

When you apply these 3 action steps and follow through on your commitment to making a change, you will have lasting results in service advisor sales performance while developing and growing your service team.

Bio: Leonard is a Service Sales Process Coach, Trainer, Speaker and Author. Contact him here.