Executing For Increa$e
Each day that passes dealers are more inundated with what seems like an endless road of options directing us toward the common goal. More sales are what we are promised by today’s technology, internet development and abundance of vendors and programs. It seems we will inevitably be “beaming” customers into our showrooms as this technological race continues. However, regardless of our success when it comes to driving traffic into our showrooms, the question looms. Are we executing at a level that matches our advertising budget? We continue to spend countless dollars at the drop of a hat to obtain more prospects while our sales staff struggles to play catch up with their skill set. As our concerns for accommodating our customer’s desires increase, our closing ratios have plummeted when it comes to first stop shoppers. As an industry we seem to have abandoned the ability to create that all illusive sense of urgency with our customers. This typically leads us to spend more dollars for more prospects that we continue to be less effective with. In our zealousness to provide the “ultimate CSI experience” we continue to emasculate our sales force at the expense of our dealership, our personnel and ultimately the customer.
Successful dealers recognize trends in the industry and position themselves accordingly. Thankfully, this one is not going unnoticed. Training and execution is what is truly beginning to separate dealers in today’s market. Dealers that are focused on building professional sales teams are cashing in on sales and CSI as a result of having a highly trained effective sales staffs. This creates new and more pleasant problems like, looking for people to hire in order to handle increases in sales volume. Dealers that justify the absence of a disciplined training plan in order to create a better shopping experience and are held hostage by the CSI expectations are subscribing to a counterproductive theory. The result is that they are forced to spend more money to be less effective while competitors are distancing themselves with highly trained sales teams. When a sales professional can execute properly, he or she can lead the customer to a decision that they feel great about on the first visit and CSI scores will follow.
The challenge for most dealers today is where to begin when it comes to training. The key is ACTION. The truth is that it has never been easier to implement professional training within the dealership. The irony is that once again technology (the very thing that in part is responsible for us straying) can be our greatest ally in selecting and implementing professional training. With such things as webinars, podcasts, youtube, websites and trainers at our techno savvy fingertips. We can also go the old fashioned route consisting of daily training led by our management team. Whenever in doubt as to what to train on remember, yesterday’s deals are today’s training. Dealers that develop a professional sales force position themselves to sell from a position of strength. True selling begins when people meet people.. People will always be your best ROI.
Are your people prepared to “Execute for Increase”?
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