1. Hiring. Always be interviewing! Your best people are most often recruited and usually be employed. Dealers will make the mistake of waiting until they need someone and then place an ad to fill the position at that time. The problem with that is that they are tapping into the available labor pool at that specific point in time and those people are reading an ad because they are unemployed, not always, but ask yourself if you would read a want ad. What type of person does? Always be interviewing. The best time to hire someone is when you are not under pressure to fill a position.
2. Training. Train your new staff in YOUR processes. Too often a dealer will hire a new GSM or Sales Manager and because that manager has experience they will let them do what they want. If left to their own devices the new manager will change all your systems and processes to what he believes will work. Then six months to a year later when he leaves the new guy will change everything again and so on and so on. Pretty soon no one knows what the heck to do. Stick to your plan and don't allow new staff to reinvent the wheel all the time.
3. Track the data. I love data. Numbers, if they are accurate, have no personality, no gender, no ethnic background, no age, etc. They just sit there and speak the truth. You must hold people accountable using data or you will be making decisions based on whether or not you like the person. Sometimes the guy with no personality is the real worker. Holds the most gross, sells the most product and is the real worker bee. For the sales floor it's ups, demos, write-ups and closes per salesperson, team or however you organize your staff. You can pinpoint individual and group areas for improvement by doing something as simple as having a paper log sheet with the sales managers. Someone also needs to check CRM entry. You must hold your people accountable instead of just wishing things will work out.
4. Motivate. I was at a large dealer group the other day and spoke with one of the sales ladies who set a company record the previous month for Mercedes sales. When I spoke with the Director he had no idea that this had been done and no plans to give her an award or recognize her achievement in any way. Bonuses, plaques, lunches, newsletter announcements of employee achievements are all ways to highlight someone's success. Employees work for more than just money. Peer recognition is more powerful than money. Not only does it get the employee who is being praised to continue their behavior but it gets the other employees to understand that if their coworker can do it, they can do it.

See you soon.

After almost 40 years in this business I’ve watched the customer interaction experience evolve from the salesperson doing everything to the many systems and processes we have in modern dealerships today. There’s some amazing stuff out there. 

I learned a long time ago that hiring staff and letting them loose on your customers without training and most of all, tracking, is a good way to burn through customers. Having processes in place and holding people accountable for hitting measured goals is the way to go. Incredibly there are still a few dealerships who have no idea how many ups, sales calls or e-mail leads they receive. I believe those days are over. 

Now, most dealerships have at least three separate departments for handling the common ways the customer chooses to contact the dealer; walk-ins, internet and phone.  As it is today some customers just drive to the dealership, some choose to handle everything online and some choose to use the phone or in some cases they combine these actions in order to make the most informed decision possible. Over time many dealers have realized that the floor salesperson may not be the best at handling the e-mail leads or the inbound /outbound sales call. So most dealers have addressed these issues in different ways including separate Internet departments, floor sales and Business Development Centers which take and make phone calls. Currently this seems to be the best way to maximize sold to lead ratio on lot-ups, e-mail leads and sales calls. 

I look forward to what the future holds for this business of ours.

Dave Neighbors
President
Ironstorm, Corp.