Joe Webb is the Founder of DealerKnows and answers this month's question.
Our dealership has some challenges with finding and keeping good sales managers. Any advice for us?
There are few positions as important to a dealership as the Sales Manager position. A great Sales Manager can have a profound impact on how the entire dealership operates. With that said, it is obvious that a good majority of Sales Managers in our dealerships arent up to the task. So I ask, whats your sales managers deal?
Ive gone on record before to say that the responsibilities of a Sales Manager, while not easy, are simple to define. In my opinion, there are only five primary duties in which a good Sales Manager should focus their efforts.
1) Hold the sales team (and each other) accountable
2) Train the sales team (and themselves)
3) Motivate the sales team
4) Crash T.O.s
5) Close deals
These five steps should be on their minds at all times. Yet, they all seem to shy away from these tasks. Sales Managers seem to find a way to make themselves busy with superfluous tasks. Whether they are in meetings that wont add value to the months end or they are focusing their efforts on time-intensive errands or menial projects, they arent focusing on whats important. They dont perform these necessary job functions for one of two reasons. Either they feel entitled or theyre simply scared. And THAT is their deal.
Many Sales Managers have worked hard on the showroom floor. Theyve earned their stripes. Theyve served their time. Theyve upped customers for years and delivered hundreds of cars. They did a lot of things right (with the help of their own Sales Managers) to be successful. So once they get to that big, cushy chair at the desk, they believe it is a reward. Take it easy. Youve arrived, they tell themselves.
Sales Managers often feel entitled when they achieve their designation, so they sit back and get lazy. They dont get up and greet customers with the same fervor. They willingly pencil a deal four times before getting out of their comfortable chair, walking out from behind the sanctity that is their tower, and close customers. They need to sell. Instead, Sales Managers tend to lose their edge because they feel as if they did the face-to-face thing long enough back when they were salespeople. They cant be further from the truth. They need to be active, attack, lead by example, and be more involved with customers than ever before. Not less. It isnt the time to sit back on your haunches, but rather a time to prove your worth. Is this your Sales Managers deal?
Or are they scared? Lets face it. Some Sales Managers were better soldiers than leaders. They were great at executing the tasks asked of them by their previous sales managers, but didnt necessarily have the capacity to think for themselves. For this reason, they are scared. Some Sales Managers dont have the natural skill set to train, motivate, or close deals on their own without reciting what had been taught to them at the tower minutes before. Or, quite possibly, they find the technology around them too daunting to learn. New systems scare and confuse them so they dont hold salespeople accountable for their own actions, including following up or embracing the stores technology. Or, even worse, they are from an era where customers werent as equipped with information and access to pricing so theyve never trained themselves how to combat todays researched clientele. For this reason, theyre scared. Is that your Sales Managers deal?
Sure, there are a few other duties that may be assigned to Sales Managers above what I listed. Working with the service department to ensure vehicles are healthy enough for sale, monitoring gross profit and inventory age, or executing dealer trades can be others, but those are perfunctory.
Lets look at the duties I believe should be on the plate of todays Sales Management team:
Hold the Sales Team Accountable
This requires the use of technology to ensure tasks are executed properly and thoroughly. If your Sales Manager doesnt actively use their CRM and doesnt have the CRM dashboard up throughout the day, they simply are not doing their job. Today, it is the only way to monitor whether or not your sales team is doing what is asked of them. Look at your Sales Managers monitor. If nothing is ever showing beyond their desking module and Youtube, they need to get on board with the program. This means holding themselves accountable, as well as their sales team.
Train the Sales Team
Sales Managers must be the Renaissance men/women of the dealership. They must be steeped in the art of product knowledge, process, customer service, and negotiation skills. Moreover, they must understand how to communicate these skills to their tThe Article April 2013 | Ask The Expert appeared first on Automotive Digest.