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Get The Whole Store Involved I was finally able to come up for air today after the last few weeks. Then I realized I had not finished the Dealership Innovation Guide from Driving Sales. Must say, I love it. The particular article...

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To Tell The Truth? An Automotive Question from Kim... To Tell The Truth!   Well, since I watched the video post by Ralph Paglia on Social Media Douchebags, (here for your pleasure if you missed it.)  http://bit.ly/92jg0U I could not resist stirring the...

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Social Media Policy Question from Julie Powers - Lia... What's the best way to develope a social media policy for employees without sounding like "big brother" or defeating the purpose of an "open conversation"? Julie, I find that it is best to research...

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Social Media Policy Question from Julie Powers - Lia... What's the best way to develope a social media policy for employees without sounding like "big brother" or defeating the purpose of an "open conversation"? Julie, I find that it is best to research and...

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Should A Professional Automotive Salesperson Track For Improvement ?

Posted by Kim Clouse | Posted in Car Sales Goals | Posted on 13-10-2009

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Kim Clouse

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

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Do you allow all sales staff access to internet pricing?

Posted by Kim Clouse | Posted in Dealer Process | Posted on 12-10-2009

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Every dealership I have visited lately has every phone call, tracked or not, going to the switchboard. Then they are round robin to sales staff if the ISM is busy. We know that never happens; The problem is either the GM, GSM, or phone king, will not make it mandatory that they have inventory, incentives, and information open on their desktop all day. They all have computers but they refuse to use the data or the log in to pertinent data is top secret. Gotta have a 4 square right?

Managers who keep information from sales staff are practicioners of Bovine Skitology period.
We know all of our customers are online. We know they OEM’s, KBB, Edmunds and everyone else who can gives them data. that is, for the most part correct  but below is what I hear when I listen to calls. Dealix had a webinar on phone traffic a few days ago that was very good. But are all of the walk in customers immune to the data inflow we are feeding to the universe? Be ready or stay away from customers, period.

 Thank you for calling ABC motors: ” Yes new car sales please” one moment: “new car sales this is Joe Bob,
kelp ye?” (Yes seaweed) ” I am calling about the 2006 Camry you have listed on usedcars .com, gold with tan leather, is it still available?”
“Yep sure is” ” can you tell me anything about it?” “I think it has been marked down to $21699 but I can beat that a little” “Really, online it says must go $14650.00 out the door” That’s a typo” Oh, okay do you know what it should actually be?” ” Naw but I can git with the manager and call you right back, whats that number?”   click: And they tell everyone about this highly professional individual or, just shoot themselves righ there on the spot. Either way you loose the deal.

 Does anyone else see this? If you are doing this, do you need to be at Burger King saying, “Would you like some fries with that?” I can’t wait to hear this.

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