How To Sell 30 Units Your First Month

Let's face it...hitting the 30 mark as a car salesperson is a lofty goal. My guess is only a small percentage of salespeople ever hit that mark in their sales career. That's a number that in most cases you work up to.

It's a progression from 12, to 18, to 24, to 30. It's seldom 30+ in your first full month on the sales floor. However, I'm going to share with you the formula on how to hit 30 in your first full month on the sales floor. 

For the record, this isn't a technique that I teach or would endorse for that matter. In fact, back in February of 2013, I had a sales training class of new hires. Nobody in that class had sold cars before. Some had sales experience in other sales environments and others had customer service experience. 

One of the guys in my class (Anthony) had some sales experience in another industry. Anthony wasn't someone that stuck out in class that week as being someone that was going to knock the ball out of the park his first month.

He was rather laid back, didn't engage much, and if you asked me after the end of the week what I thought his production would be I probably would have said, "Average."

The class I had ended on the 22nd of February. I have no idea what Anthony finished with in February, but in March of 2013 which was his first full month, he sold a whopping 34 units.

Anthony outsold all 140 salespeople we had in the group at that time. His first full month on the floor mind you!

When April rolled around I went up to Anthony to congratulate him. But, I had to ask him. I said, "What was your secret?" Of course, I was hoping he was going to say, "I had the best trainer on the planet. That's why."

Unfortunately, that's not what he said. But what he did say was that he took to heart what we talked about in class that sales is a combination of numbers, personality, and technique.

He went on to say, "I sat down and did the math. My target was to hit 30 and from what you told me in class I could expect to close about 1 out of 4 people I talked to."

Anthony went on to say, "So, I took out my calculator and typed in the number 30 for the number of units I wanted to sell. Then I divided the 30 by the expected closing ratio that you said I could expect which was 25%."

"That number came out to 120 people I needed to see that month." Based on my schedule I had six days off that month which meant I had 25 working days. I took the 120 people that I needed to see and divided it by the 25 days that I was scheduled to work. That came out to 4.8 people per working day; I just rounded it up to five."

Anthony went on to say, "I was afraid I wasn't going to hit my target so I decided in the first week that I wasn't going to take my day off on Sunday. I was also short on my goal the first week in that I only delivered five cars."

When all the dust settled in March of 2013 I delivered 34 cars and trucks. I worked 31 straight days from the time you opened (I was there at 7 working the service lane and didn't leave until closing each night; sometimes after closing if I was still working a deal).

I got in front of 4-5 people every day. I talked to a total of 140 people which gave me a closing ratio of 24.28%. My total check with bonus that month was $22,493.48. 

Conclusion

34 units delivered and 22K is an extraordinary job especially in your first full month on the floor. However, when you dig a little deeper into the numbers Anthony only accomplished an average job. His closing ratio was less than the average overall closing ratio of the store at 25%. So, did Anthony do an extraordinary job that month or just an ordinary job? 

The bottom line, it's a success formula for hitting 30+ units. The formula looks like this: Work 31 straight days, bell to bell. Get in front of 4-5 people every day and just be an average closer. You'll hit 30 by virtue of the numbers if nothing else. 

Happy Selling!

Scott Klein is the Corporate Sales Training Director at the Smith Automotive Group in Atlanta Georgia. We're always looking for career-minded people that are looking for a long term career. If you're looking for a place to call home feel free to reach out to me here.