As mentioned in one of our recent articles; Why Won’t The Automotive Sector Embrace Entrepreneurial Operators? In this, our last new article before Christmas, we wanted to explore just what the diary of a successful sales professional looks like because these professionals did not become successful by accident; they became successful through a continual process of personal development and hard work.
We think this is important, not necessarily because the sales professionals within your franchise dealership could not be capable of aspiring to this work ethic and level of productivity, but because they are not being given the chance. All we ask is that you open your minds and are prepared to see how different things could be if only the investment is made in attracting the right talent to your franchise dealership and/or developing the sales talent that is already there.
The Current Sales Environment; As we work with franchise dealer networks throughout the UK and Continental Europe we are astounded at what we see, in terms of sales professionals and the environments created for them. There is no doubt in our minds that the current situation has developed as a consequence of non-sales based professionals, (those promoted from aftersales and/or accountancy backgrounds), becoming responsible for running dealerships and therefore making decisions that directly impact the sales department within your franchise dealer networks.
This is not a happy mix, in the same way as getting your sales executives to service and repair cars would not be a happy mix. Now, if you are senior professional from an aftersales and/or accountancy background, please be reassured that this article is not being written to undermine your achievements; rather to caution that making decisions in a highly specialised area of the overall business, (the sales department), and when you have no experience in what is involved, is a flawed process.
Anyway, expanding on this, (although important), is for another article, probably in January, so we will return to this subject then; but let us finish by saying that unless we understand the weaknesses within the management structure our franchise dealership and the flawed way that operational decisions are being made, then nothing will change.
So before we look at the current sales environments being created at the vast majority of franchise dealerships, let’s get 2 very important sales based facts out of the way. Firstly; selling is not only about dealing with inbound enquiries, in fact the majority of success will come from out bound generation of sales opportunities; and secondly, the moment your sales professionals are not involved in generating opportunities to do business, their time is being wasted.
So when we see sales executives checking in new cars off of a transporter and running around doing jobs that could be encompassed in a some else’s or a new role, (and for not much money), we are quite understandably thinking, wow these are very expensive ways of getting these jobs done, whilst no one is generating sales opportunities and/or dealing with customers.
Another thing we would not recommend; sales executives completing new and used car handovers, (also an expansive subject for another article), because with the technology and the complexity of modern cars a thorough handover, (should that be what the customer requires, but of course not many people ask the customer how thorough a handover they require), can take up to 2 hours. It would still be our recommendation that the sales executive meets the customer on the day of collection and then hands the customer over to another professional to complete the handover process; which by the way is the perfect way of training future sales professionals and getting them used to dealing with customers.
Now before everyone gets up in arms at this suggestion, for the record, a successful and committed sales professional would happily pay for the handover to be completed by someone else, because they realise that it is an important part of the sales process, but one that they haven’t got time for; and besides this gives them back another 2 hours to be, (guess what), creating more opportunities and selling more cars.
But let’s move on because the purpose of this article is to look at the diary of a successful sales professional and how they structure their day. However the preamble is important, because unless you understand how much time is currently being wasted and how the sales executives in your franchise dealer networks are operating, what we advise below will be meaningless, because you will say “There Just Isn’t Enough Time To Do All This!”
To which we will reply, yes, you are right, but only because no one is developing sales teams in your franchise dealer networks to become truly successful and productive, and this isn’t happening because no one within your franchise dealer networks knows how to do this. Why? Well probably because there is no one within your franchised dealership who has developed successful sales professionals. If a large majority of you as Dealer Principals have come from an aftersales or accountancy based background then you will, no doubt, have excellent aftersales and accountancy procedures and operations within your business, because your knowledge can be passed down.
But, and this is the thing, we all don’t know what we don’t know, and until we stop treating the sales department as the part of the business that technology takes care of, in terms of driving sales, and where no one needs daily managing and development, then your new and used car sales ambitions will always be vulnerable.
The Successful Sales Professionals Diary; As much as the successful sales professional will look to work to this structure, they also realise that they must remain flexible around the needs of their customers, (note here that we say customers, not the business). This may be a major shift in understanding for some of you running businesses but it is important to grasp the fact that a successful sales professional wants to do what they are good at, all of the time, just like anyone else employed at the dealership.
However, one thing that will remain a constant is the 5 appointments every day; and by appointments we mean just that; meetings face to face with customers, whether that be a demonstration, an appointment to sign them up, showing them a particular car or a first stage meeting and discussion about changing their car. No doubt some of you reading this will say that this is impossible, and in the current environment you would be right because the current structure is one of dealing with inbound enquiries only, waiting for things to happen, because no one is being taught in how to create outbound sales opportunities. Let’s get one thing straight now; you will never see a diary like the one below from a sales professional dealing with inbound sales enquiries only!
So in order to make sales people more productive they end up being given other jobs like checking in new cars off of transporters, moving used car displays around and a host of other tasks not associated with selling, because they aren’t busy! Of course they aren’t; they aren’t busy because they don’t have the environment to be, or know how to make themselves busy.
Without further a-due, (although the structure may change slightly on a daily basis to fit around future appointments), please find below the diary of a successful sales professional;
- 07:30 AM – 9:30 AM: Follow up emails and developing electronic engagement, (enquiries received via the internet and email that need progressing to the first stage meeting).
- 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM: Out bound sales initiatives and campaigns; the generation of future sales opportunities.
- 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM: 5 X customer appointments, as referred to above.
- 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM: Follow up calls and diary planning for the next day.
Now we have purposely left this brief in terms of the content and it is supplied to be indicative of how a day in the life of a successful sales professional will look. All we ask you to do is to take this template to the sales departments in your franchised dealer networks to see how the diaries of the sales executives employed compares. Sadly we know that you will find sales executives with diaries that have no appointments in for the day and little clarity on how to change this and to become successful.
We would caution though, that this is not their fault, expecting sales executives to self-develop themselves and to acquire these skills is folly in the extreme. Without development and sympathetic high quality sales management practices, they are not going to get there and all the technology based selling initiatives you can develop, will not get you to where you need to be.
Unfortunately one of the most damaging consequences of the last decade of under investment in sales professionals, especially used car sales professionals, is that there have been none making the move into senior management, so these sales skills have been lost from both the sales floor and the management structure.
Now we appreciate that finding genuinely successful used car sales and management professionals is very difficult for both manufacturers and their franchised dealer networks, we have covered this topic many times, especially in the articles below;
Do Successful Used Car Professionals Exist For Manufacturers?
Do Successful Used Car Professionals Exist For Franchised Dealers?
In reality only a lucky few will be able to employ the genuinely successful sales professionals they require, the rest will need to be developed and trained, and at a time when none of you are running, or have access to, the personnel development and sales training programmes required; whether that be by your own organisation or your parent manufacturer. Luckily though help is at hand; if this post has resonated with you and you would like to know more about our used car business development consultancy and/or our sales training programmes, then we would very much like to hear from you.
The owners of Autoformance have owned and run successful used car operations and been at the forefront of the development of approved used car business development and sales training programmes for a host of manufacturers and franchised dealer networks. For an exploratory conversation regarding our services and how we can develop bespoke used car business development and/or sales training programmes on your behalf, please do not hesitate to contact one of our Used Car Business Development Directors; Andrew Banning at ajb@autoformance.com or Malcolm Thomas at mgt@autoformance.com
Alternatively please feel free to call me on 07796 260261.
For more information about our services please visit our website at www.autoformance.com
Andrew Banning.
Used Car Business Development Director.
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