Should A Professional Automotive Salesperson Track For Improvement ?
Posted by Kim Clouse | Posted in Car Sales Goals | Posted on 13-10-2009
Tags: Automotive Consultant, Car Dealer Training, Consultant, Setting Goals
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You know, I have been in a few new stores lately and one of the first things I have been just walking up and asking everyone on the sales floor is; “Can you tell me your closing ratio?” What types of answers do you think I get?
Well, I don’t track it because some folks call, stop in or send a request from the same household. Huh?
Then there is” what is a closing ratio?” “Are you serious? How long have you worked here?”
My closing ratio is 42%! “Can I see how you figured it?” I’ll get it for you when I finish this. “This what?”
42% of 10 % maybe. I bring this up because it is disturbing. What happened to setting goals and tracking?
An example:
If I want to sell 15 cars I need to talk to 100 people because I know my closing ratio from all sources is 15%.
We all look at these statistics e-mail leads answered in 3 minutes close at ___
Phone calls from a referral close at _____
Service customers usually close _______
And in every single store so far, very few have their closing ratio, their demo’s, their TO’s but we keep throwing out numbers and we believe them. The reason salespeople need to know this and their direct manager needs to do a 1 on 1 with them every month is not because of big brother! Not because they are picking on you.
How can you improve if you do not have any idea where you are? We all need goals and activities to reach them. They have to be real and reachable not pie in the sky, fluff or fictitious. If you can’t swallow this get out of the car business, right now. Do your family and yourself a favor and go.
The best salespeople 15 years ago could tell you this stuff in 10 seconds and they did not have computers.
They tracked by hand, without automation, and I know it was more accurate because they needed it to improve and survive. They did not look at it as a scolding or punishment when they were asked because they had to know. Those that actually worked 8 hours a day were true professionals.
Do we need to know? Really? Ask yourself if you actually work just 5 hours a day and be honest now, do you think you could sell two or three more cars a month?
Just a thought.
KC
I believe it is the manager’s job to make sure all customers are logged. One reason the salespeople don’t log all their customers is that the managers condone it. The sales manager has the responsibility for the success of all their salespeople. Without the proper information it is difficult to determine the main areas of weakness.
Jay,
Thanks for the post.
I agree that the sales manager should be held accountable for the log. The problem is much larger than we know. If the staff has not been trained properly to begin with and the process, policy, and consequence are not defined, it is impossible to hold anyone accountable. I also agree that the sales manager has the responsibility for their sales staff success. What if the GM thinks differently or the Dealer has no clue, and the turnover rate at the store is like a war zone? Should the sales manager even wnat to know the name of the 5th guy they have replaced this week? Yes he should but how is the process structure set up at the store? I have seen a great deal of very good sales managers get their lives destroyed because they have had the guts to recommend change. The next day they were unemployed and given a bad reference. The point is; if the entire managemant staff is not on the same page starting with the dealer or owner and there is no set training that they all agree will be the standard, nothing will fix it.