Can a monkey do it?

In my last article I talked about what makes a “GREAT” General Manager; in this one, I want to dive into the sales manager position.

A couple of weeks ago, one of my best clients asked if I would mind visiting one of his dealer friends that was having problems in his dealership to see if we could help. I agreed and set the appointment with his friend for the following week.

Soon after the meeting began, the dealer started complaining about the money he was spending on “solutions” and “shiny objects” to make his sales managers jobs easier. He went on to say that with software like the “electronic pencil” that he could get a “Monkey” to do the sales managers job, because “anyone can now start a deal”………………. I knew then that this was going to be a very short meeting!

Are Sales Managers Important?

A recent study by the Harvard Business Review concluded that sixty-nine percent of the salespeople that exceeded their annual quota rated their sales managers as being excellent or above average. Fifty-six percent of the salespeople that rated their sales organizations as excellent also rated their sales managers as excellent compared to only 3% who rated their organization as average.

If these statistics are accurate, and in sixty-nine percent of the top performing sales organizations, the salespeople rate their sales managers as excellent what does that tell us needs fixed first in an underperforming dealership?

One of the first questions I like to ask a sales manager when we go into a new client is, “tell me what you do?”. Generally, I get about 60 seconds of unintelligible garble. The sad truth is that 90% of the sales managers can’t tell you because their “work” life has no structure! They run from task to task throughout the day because they don’t have a plan for success. No one has told them what they expect, or how to meet those expectations. If they have been told, they have never been held accountable “DAILY” to make sure that it’s getting done. I often tell dealers, “your people don’t wake up in the morning, sit up in bed, clap their hands and say I’m going to do an awful job today”! The reason their performance is less than it should be is because first, we don’t tell them what we expect, and secondly; “WE NEVER HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE TO DO IT”!

Let’s take a look at what I feel are two of the most important areas for a sales manager to master if they want to move into that sixty-nine percent.

Recruiting:

You can’t win or even be a coach until you first have a team. Alabama’s Nick Saban, and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney don’t run two of the most successful football programs in the country year in and year out, simply because they are the best coaches. What they are the best at however is the art of recruiting the top talent! They are 2 and 3 deep at every position. How does that compare to the talent on the sales floor in your dealership? Could it be because your sales managers never recruit until someone walks out the door?

Regardless of where we go in the country, we hear the same thing, “we just can’t find good talent anymore”! Could it be because you continue to fish in the same hole that everyone else is fishing in. There are tons of “GOOD” people out there that are looking for a “GOOD” place to work, but we must understand that the good ones aren’t unemployed “THEY ARE WORKING”!!

Posting an online ad on Indeed, Career Builders, etc. just doesn’t cut it anymore. Everyone is doing that, which means that everyone is competing in the same pool of people that have subpar talent, drive, or worse yet, you are hiring each other’s failures! What about going after a top producing salesperson in the vacuum cleaner business, or with a debit insurance route? I personally was recruited out of the pre-need cemetery sales business! Does experience tell us that people that understand prospecting do well in our business? You betcha!!! What better place to look for people that fit our industry than to look at those industries that the “ONLY” way that you can make a sale is by digging up a prospect for yourself first? News Flash: There are no “Walk-Ins” in the cemetery business!

Would you like to interview 3 top prospects for your sales team tomorrow? Schedule 3 presentations to look at vacuum cleaners for your dealership; I bet that you buy at least one vacuum cleaner and try to hire them all!

Another great place to look for salespeople is at your competitor’s dealership. Wait; I thought you just said, “don’t hire retreads”? I’m not talking about hiring their retreads I’m talking about hiring their “TOP” people. Let me explain.

When I was a sales manager, and later a General Manager I made it a priority to know who the best people were in every department i.e. sales, technician, advisor, sales manager, etc. at my competitors. I would start out with a quick phone call to introduce who I was, congratulate them on being a top performer in our industry, and then invite them to lunch; I made a habit of doing this at least 2 to 3 times per month.

At lunch, I talked about everything, “BUT” hiring them. In fact, regardless of how the conversation went, I refused to even talk about the possibility of them working for me on our first visit. Why? Physiologically, we all like to be courted, and praised for what we do. What do you think Nick and Dabo say on their first visit to a top recruit’s house? You are talented, we are watching you, after meeting you we are even more impressed, let’s stay in touch, etc. “THEY DON’T OFFER THE FULL RIDE” on the first visit!! If this approach works in recruiting an ego driven, talented, testosterone filled 17-year-old QB, why wouldn’t it work for us? Sooner or later that other dealership will change a pay plan, embarrass the employee in front of his peers, etc. and when they do; who do you think will get his/her first phone call, and the first shot at hiring them? “ME”!

There are many other places to look i.e. referrals from your good employees, sales and service customers that like you and are doing business in your dealership every day, etc. We will discuss this topic in more detail in future articles, but the point is; the recruits that you need to improve your team are out there, “YOU JUST NEED TO LOOK IN THE RIGHT PLACES”!!

Training:

“You can delegate authority as a sales manager, but you cannot delegate your responsibility”. What do I mean by that? First and foremost, the salespersons productivity in the dealership is the responsibility of the sales manager; “PERIOD”! If a salesperson can’t pay their bills at the end of the month a great sales manager will take personal responsibility for this, or they are in the wrong position.

When we go into a store that has a sales problem, the first place that we look is at the sales manager position, not the salesperson; why? Because in most cases the salespeople are doing exactly what they have been taught to do by their sales manager; either through their training techniques, or in most cases, lack thereof.

To become a great sales manager requires a commitment to be the best and starts with the sales managers understanding that continuous education is critical to both their, and the dealerships success. Who should be the best person in the store to do a new or used car walkaround? Who should be the best person in the store at closing? Who should be the best person in the store at motivation? In my store, it would be the sales manager, or I would be looking for a replacement.

How do you get to be the best? You drill, practice, & rehearse walkarounds, closes, watch motivational videos, etc. You get the sales managers job (in most cases) because you excelled in one area; selling cars! To “EXCEL” as a sales manager you must be better in many more areas than that or you will surely fail. You will never win or advance up the ladder in a dealership based on what you can individually produce. Remember; “the person who can develop 10 men is stronger than the person who can do the work of 10”. As you work at honing your skills, you will not only get better, but you will build confidence, which will help you immensely in your recruiting efforts because people will want to work for you!!

Much has been written about the things that are better or worse with our industry today as compared to 30 years ago. One area that I think could definitely use improvement is the initial  training of our salespeople. When I was recruited and hired into the industry, I started out my career with an intense two-week training class. We learned the history of the dealership and our industry, product knowledge, word tracks, did walk arounds on every car we sold, mystery shopped other dealerships to see how their people did it wrong, and we role played our 10 step sales process until we wanted to puke! 7 people started in my class and only 5 came out; the other two decided this wasn’t the business for them. Two years later, 4 of the final 5 in my graduating class still worked at the dealership, and I had recently been named salesperson of the year. Looking back, I can tell you that even after that training I wasn’t ready, but how does that compare to the current onboarding process in your store? With NADA statistics telling us that the average dealer pays $500+ for each opportunity that we get, shouldn’t our commitment for initial training for our new salespeople be more?

It’s hard for me to buy into the argument that millennials are the problem. If we gave them the same access to training that I was given, could they too be successful? Until dealerships are willing to commit the time and resources necessary for us to find out I don’t think we will ever know. We all could agree that a house is only as good as it’s foundation. What kind of foundation are we giving today’s salespeople? Many of them never go on a demo ride, can’t do a competent walkaround, or attempt a trial close. If they are lucky enough to stumble into a deal they have no idea why they should, or for that matter how, to go over the owner’s manual, explain to their customer how to set and use the technological features on their new vehicle, or do a proper sales to service handoff. Is it any wonder that they fail? The easy out is to say, “they are millennials”! Really? If I had been given the same startup training, maybe I would have been judged a millennial long before my time. 

In closing, I think we all can agree that if a sales manager that could perfect just these two skills that he could make an immediate impact in 90% of the dealerships in the country! Then let’s commit to hold them accountable to do it from this point forward and stop this revolving door with salespeople at our dealerships!

There are obviously many other parts to the sales manager’s role i.e. EMI, inventory management, etc. that are very important. We will explore those in more detail in future articles, including the difference between a desk and a sales manager; or is there one?

If you are a dealer, or General Manager, like the content of this article, and would like this type of mentorship for your management team, I hope that you will reach out to Advanced (DMS) Dealership Management Solutions and let us show you how easy it is to get started. Our team is not only good at “talking the talk”, but also at “walking the walk”! Our companies best attribute is having the ability to deliver the message to your team they need to hear, in a way that they will listen to, and then being able then to sit in their seat and show them how it’s done!

Training costs less than you think, and if you don’t believe it, take a minute and analyze what “NOT” training your people is costing you now!