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Dealer Ops

Ask not What your Salespeople can Do for You... Ask What You Can Do for your Salespeople!

August 31, 2006 • by Sean Wolfington • Bookmark +

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I was talking to a sales manager recently, and he was complaining to me about the fact that he cannot find good salespeople. And I must say that I do not think that is the problem. I think the problem is that salespeople cannot find enough leaders and coaches that they want to work for. Many managers are always thinking about what their sales people should be doing for them to sell more cars, but they should be thinking what they could do to help coach, develop, motivate and lead their people to help them sell cars. The fact is that winners are developed, not hired. There are some people with more potential than others, but the best leaders can transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. Managers must want to become coaches and true leaders and that begins with how they think.
It is not about you.
 
Once you become a sales manager, it is no longer about you. It is about serving your customers, and your customers are not only your external customers, but they are also your internal customers - your sales team. This philosophy is also true for sales people. It is not about you. It is about your customer, and your job is to serve your customer. In summary, it is the dealer’s job to serve the managers and the manager’s job to serve their sales people, and it is the sales person’s job to serve their customers. This mindset starts at the top. The best way a dealer and manager can teach their sales team to serve and satisfy their customers is to show them by how they treat their sales people. Is it not true that if your internal customers are happier, they will treat your external customers better and they will be happier? So, the question is, “how do I serve and satisfy my sales team so they, in turn, do the same for our customers?”
People pay more attention to what you do than what you say.
 
If dealers and managers want to change the attitude and behavior of their sales people, they need to change their own attitude and behavior. To see if this issue relates to you at you dealership, ask yourself these questions:
  • Do you believe that people learn more from what you do than from what you say?
  • If you want your sales people to treat your customers better, should you treat them better?
  • If you want your sales people to always seek to learn, grow and improve, should you also strive to learn, grow and improve?
  • If you want the sales people to have a great attitude with their customers, should you have a great attitude with your sales people?
  • If you want our sales team to use positive and professional language, should you always use positive and professional language?
  • If you want your sales people to greet their customers with a positive approach, should you greet them with a positive approach when they come to the desk?
  • If you want your sales people to interview their customers before they pick a car, should you, as coaches, interview them at the desk before you pick a pencil?
  • If you want your sales people to focus on building value in the people and product rather than spend most of their time focused on price, should you change your approach at the desk to also focus on the people and product rather than focusing so much on price?
  • If you expect your sales people to listen attentively to their customers without interrupting, should you not show them how to do this by attentively listing to them with out interrupting?

Make a deal and make a difference.

The point is obvious, if you want your sales team to change their attitude and approach to what they do every day, you need to change your attitude and approach to what you do every day. In the end, you will change your dealerships culture, your people’s behavior and sales department’s results. The best part is that you will not only help your sales team make more deals but you will also make a difference in their lives which will help them and their family for the rest of their lives. And when the dust settles, a leader not only helps people make more money, but they also help them become better people, which helps them in every part of their life, and the profits go well beyond the wallet. Dare to be a leader, because sales people are looking for leadership and to find someone to follow.
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