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Stop Talkin' and Start Doin'
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Need a Business Development Department?
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Make 2007 Your Best Year Ever
Business Development, What Works and What Don't
Three Management Pitfalls that Cause Underperformance
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Cultivating a Burning Desire to Succeed
During an interview a
few years ago, a reporter asked California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger how he
managed to reach the top as a professional Bodybuilder and Movie Star. Governor
Schwarzenegger replied with one single word, “Drive!”
All great success ultimately begins with an idea, but
what makes ideas become reality is the fuel of human desire. An idea by itself
can give you a temporary feeling of inspiration, but burning desire is what gets
you through all the perspiration necessary to overcome the inevitable obstacles
along the way.
Take a
moment to think about the goals you've set for yourself. How committed are you
to achieving these goals? Under what conditions would you give up? What if you
could significantly increase your desire to achieve these goals? What if you
wanted them so badly that you knew with absolute certainty that you would
absolutely, positively never ever give up? When you are truly 100% committed to
reaching your goals, you move from hoping to knowing. If you want something
badly enough, then quitting is simply not an option. You either find a way or
make one. You pay the price, whatever it takes.
Those
with an intense, burning desire to achieve their goals are often referred to as
being "driven." But is this special quality reserved only for a privileged few?
Certainly not! With the right approach, anyone can cultivate a deep, burning
desire within themselves and move to a state of total commitment, knowing with
certainty that success is as inevitable as the sunrise.
So how
do you cultivate burning desire? You begin with an outside-in approach, altering
your environment in ways that will strengthen your resolve while eliminating
doubt. If you take the time to do it right, you'll establish a positive feedback
cycle, such that your desire will continue to increase on a daily basis.
Here
are eight steps you can take to cultivate burning desire to achieve any goal you
set for yourself:
1. Make a Real
Commitment
I'm not
going to pull any punches with this one. If your goals are really important
enough to you, then you can start by burning the proverbial ships, such that you
have no choice but to press on. For instance, if you are a General Manager, GSM,
Sales Manager and you want to improve your sales process, you can begin by
making the commitment to tracking your sales staff, doing daily one-on-one
coaching, training and teaching the staff how to get to a professional level,
and requiring that your process is followed. Write a letter to your dealer
stating that you are going to do these things by a certain date, and if you
don’t have these things implemented/changed by the stated date that you will
tender your resignation. Put it in a stamped envelope and mail it to your
boss.
One Las
Vegas casino manager made the decision to quit smoking. He didn't feel he had
the personal willpower to do it alone, so he took out a billboard on the Las
Vegas Strip with his photo on it along with the words, "If you catch me smoking,
I'll pay you $100,000!" Was he able to quit smoking? You bet! (Ok, bad pun.)
This is called willpower leveraging. You use a small bit of willpower to
establish a consequence that will virtually compel you to keep your commitment.
As Andrew Carnagie once said, "Put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch
that basket!"
In the
classic book The Art of War, Sun Tzu notes that soldiers fight the most
ferociously when they believe they're fighting to the death. A good general
knows that when attacking an opposing force, it's important to create the
illusion of a potential escape route for the enemy, so they won't fight as hard.
What escape routes are you keeping open that are causing you not to fight as
hard?
If you
don't burn those ships, you are sending the message to your subconscious mind
that it's ok to quit. And when the going gets tough, as it inevitably does for
any worthwhile goal, you will quit. If you really want to achieve your goals,
then you've got to burn those ships to the ground, and scatter the ashes. If
you're thinking that the average person won't do this, you're right -- that's
why they're average.
2. Use positive
visuals as constant reminders
Let's
say one of your important goals is to lose weight. Get some poster board, and
make your own posters that say, "I weigh X pounds," where X is your goal weight,
and put them up around your house. Change your screensaver to a text message
that says the same thing (or to some equally motivational imagery). Get some
magazines, cut out pictures of people who have bodies similar to what you'd like
to have, and put them up around your house. Cut out pictures of healthy food
that looks good to you, and post those around your kitchen. If you work in an
office, then alter your office in the same manner. Don't worry about what your
coworkers will think, and just do it! They may poke a little fun at you at
first, but they'll also begin to see how committed you are.
3. Keep yourself
surrounded with positive people.
Make
friends with people who will encourage you on the path to your goals, and find
ways to spend more time with them. Share your goals only with people who will
support you, not those who will respond with cynicism or indifference. If you
want to lose weight, for instance, get yourself into a gym, and start
befriending those who are already in great shape. You'll find that their
attitudes become infectious, and you'll start believing that you can do it too.
Meeting people who've lost one hundred pounds or more can be extremely
motivating. If you want to become a top salesperson, become friends with the top
salesperson in your market. If you want to become a great manager, hire a
coach, join management groups, etc... Do whatever it takes to make new friends
who will help you keep your commitment.
Although this can be difficult for some people, you also need to fire the
negative people from your life. I once read that you can see your future just by
looking at the six people with whom you spend the most time. If you don't like
what you see, then change those people. There's no honor in remaining loyal to
people who expect you to fail. One of the reasons automobile salespeople fail to
become top producers, for instance, is that they spend most of their time
associating with other average or below average salespeople. The way out of this
trap is to start spending a lot more time associating with top salespeople and
managers, such as by joining a trade association. Mindsets are contagious. So
spend your time with people whose mindsets are worth catching.
4. Feed your mind
with positive information on a daily basis.
Inspirational books and audio programs are one of the best fuel sources for
cultivating desire. If you want to quit smoking, read a dozen books written by
ex-smokers on how to quit the habit. If you want to start a business, then start
devouring business books. Go to seminars on occasion. I advise that you feed
your mind with some form of motivational material (books, articles, audio
programs) for at least fifteen minutes a day. This will continually recharge
your batteries and keep your desire impenetrably strong.
When
you absorb material created by an extremely passionate person, you'll often find
yourself feeling more passionate as well. A great book I read was Pour Your
Heart Into It by Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks. As I read the book, I was
absolutely amazed at how someone could be so fanatically enthusiastic about
coffee. Other enthusiasm-building authors/speakers I highly recommend are Harvey
Mackay, Og Mandino, and Zig Ziglar.
5. Replace sources of
negative energy with positive energy.
Take an
inventory of all the sensory inputs into your life that affect your attitude --
what you read, what you watch on TV, the cleanliness of your home, etc. Note
which inputs influence you negatively, and strive to replace them with positive
inputs. I'll give you some good places to start. First, avoid watching TV news
-- it's overwhelmingly negative. Do you really need to hear about the woman who
was mauled to death by her neighbor's dog? Fill that time with positive inputs
instead, like motivational and educational audio programs. Spend more time
laughing and less time worrying. If you have a messy desk, clean it up! If you
have young kids or grandkids, spend some time playing with them. Some of this
may sound a bit corny, but it will really help increase your overall motivation.
If you have a hard time motivating yourself, chances are that your life is
overflowing with too many sources of negativity. It's far better to happily
achieve than it is to feel you must achieve in order to be happy.
6. Dress for success.
Whenever you pass by a mirror, which is probably several times a day, you get an
instant dose of image reinforcement. So what image are you currently
reinforcing? Would you dress any differently if your goals were already
achieved? Would you sport a different hairstyle? Would you shower a bit more
often?
Although for years I enjoyed the ripped jeans and T-shirt look, I noted that
when I visualized myself in the future, having achieved certain goals, I was
dressed a lot more nicely. With some experimentation I found a style of clothing
that looks professional and is also comfortable. So I gradually donated my old
clothes to charity and replaced my wardrobe with clothes that fit the new
identity I was growing into. I learned this idea from an ex-Navy Rear Admiral,
who stressed to me the importance of taking pride in your appearance, and I can
say with certainty that it makes a noticeable difference. So make sure the
clothes you wear each day are consistent with your new self-image.
7. Use mental
programming.
This is
a Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) technique that will help you associate
strong positive emotions to whatever goal you're working to achieve. Find some
music that really energizes and inspires you. Put on your headphones and listen
to it for fifteen to twenty minutes, and as you do this, form a clear mental
picture of yourself having already achieved the results you want. Make your
imagery big, bright, vivid, colorful, three-dimensional, panoramic, and
animated. Picture the scene as if looking through your own eyes (this is very
important). This will help you form a neuro-association between the positive
emotions elicited by the music and the goal you want to achieve, thus
strengthening your desire. This is a great way to begin each day, and you can
even do it while lying in bed when you first awaken if you set things up the
night before. You should cycle the music periodically, since the emotional
charge you get will tend to diminish if you listen to the same songs each time.
Keep in
mind that this form of mental programming is already being used on you by
advertisers. Watch a fast-food TV commercial, and you'll note that the food is
big, bright, and animated -- spinning burgers, lettuce flying through a splash
of water, ripe tomatoes being sliced -- and don't forget the catchy tune. So
instead of letting others program your desires for you, take charge and mentally
reprogram yourself.
8. Take immediate
action.
Once
you set a goal for yourself, act immediately. As you begin working on a fresh
new goal, don't worry so much about making detailed long-term plans. Too often
people get stuck in the state of analysis paralysis and never reach the action
stage. You can develop your plan later, but get moving first. Just identify the
very first physical action you need to take, and then do it. For instance, if
you've decided to lose weight, go straight to your refrigerator, and throw out
all the junk food. Don't think about it. Don't ponder the consequences. Just do
it immediately.
One of
the secrets to success is recognizing that motivation follows action. The
momentum of continuous action fuels motivation, while procrastination kills
motivation. So act boldly, as if it's impossible to fail. If you keep adding
fuel to your desire, you will reach the point of knowing that you'll never quit,
and ultimate success will be nothing more than a matter of time.
If you
apply these eight strategies, you'll add so much fuel to your desire that the
fire will never burn out. You'll move towards your goals like a guided missile
to its target, and you'll enjoy the process because you'll be so focused on the
positive rewards instead of the difficulty of the tasks. If you get enough
positive energy flowing into you, you'll soon have positive results flowing out
of you. And you'll quickly become the kind of person that others refer to as
"driven."
Stop Talkin' and Start Doin'
Every day I hear managers talk
about things like “If my guys would only…”, “we can’t get good people..., these
guys won’t…” We talk a lot about what should happen in the dealership; things
like doing a good greeting, making a professional presentation geared to what is
important to the customer, giving every customer a demonstration drive, building
value on something other than price, doing unsold follow-up, prospecting, and
getting referrals. And yet, when I talk to dealers and managers, 99.9% say
their sales staff is not doing a good job in these areas. Why? Normally I hear
excuses like “we can’t get good people”, “they are lazy”, and “I don’t know
why.” I hear managers and dealers doing a lot of talking about what’s not
right, but other than the occasional “come to Jesus” sales meeting, and trying
to manage while penciling deals, I don’t see much real action taken. Don’t get
me wrong, I’m not suggesting that these people are bad managers or bad dealers.
Most of them are brilliant individuals. Being a dealer or manager in the
automobile business is tough. It’s fast paced, and there’s always some kind of
“fire” to put out. Most of the managers and dealers I talk to know what needs
to be done to improve their sales staff. The reason they don’t execute in most
cases is that they don’t have a plan of action or the tools necessary to make
implementation and execution easy. Let’s take a look at what it takes to get a
sales staff on the right track and how to keep them there:
1. Understand that one manager or one dealer cannot
do it all. Managing and coaching a sales staff requires a team effort. If the
entire management staff is not committed to and accountable for implementing and
executing professional process, policy, procedures, and business plans, none
will work.
2. As a management team, decide what you want to see
happen in your dealership. Decide how you want things done in every area of the
sales process, from the initial greeting to the delivery. Decide what you want
your sales staff doing when they are not with customers and how you want them to
do it. Decide how you want managers to manage and coach. Decide what the
penalty is for not following process, procedures, policy, and business plans for
both the sales staff and managers. Don’t leave anything out. Once the
management team has reached a consensus on policy, procedure, process, and
business plan, put it in writing. Once it is in writing, hold a meeting with
the entire sales and management staff, distribute copies in the meeting, review
the material, answer questions, and let everyone know that it is required.
Then, keep your word, implement and execute.
3. Get or make a Daily Planner for your sales
staff. The planner should include a page to set goals at the first of each
month, a page to track progress toward the goals, a page to track weekly selling
activities and customer types, a daily page that shows things to do,
appointments, prospects that came into the dealership, phone calls in and out,
mailings, emails, selling activities and results for the day. There are several
good planners on the market. You can make your own planner. We have a 90 day
planner that runs about $29 each. Just get something. Divide your sales staff
into three groups and hold a one day meeting with each group to teach them how
to use the planner.
4. Divide your sales staff into teams of 3 to 6
people. Assign one team to each manager in the dealership for 30 days. Include
all of the managers, F&I, sales, GSM, GM and Dealer. Put the manager and the
assigned sales team on the same work schedule.
Each manager should meet with
each salesperson on his/her team individually for five minutes at the be-ginning
of their shift. These meetings need to be scheduled in the sales staffs and
managers work plan or they won’t get done. During these five minute meetings,
the managers should look at where the salespersons current production is in
relation to their goal, what their selling activities and results were during
the previous day, what their work plan for the day is, and coach them on areas
that need improvement. The manager should initial the top right hand corner of
the salespersons daily page each day. Our planner is designed to be a great
improvement tool for salespeople and a great coaching tool for managers.
If you
would like to see a sample of our Daily Planner for Automotive Sales
Professionals, give me a call at our office or send an email. Each
manager should also schedule a lunch during the month with each sales team
member individually. Rotate the teams to a different manager every 30 days.
The rotation will allow the sales staff to be exposed to the different skill
sets and perspectives of each manager.
5. Don’t keep people that
are negative, that are low producers, or that don’t follow policy and
procedures. There can’t be any “sacred cows” in the dealership. I’m not
suggesting that you fire everyone. I believe that it’s a managers job to help
low producers become high producers, to coach people that get a bad attitude
every now and then, and to make sure that everyone follows policy and
procedure. What I’m suggesting is that you use your judgment. If you know
you’ve done everything you can do to improve someone, and they don’t want to
improve, then get rid of them. If you don’t, it will drag your entire team
down. Dealers, this includes managers. Dealers, this includes dealers. If you
are a negative influence on your team, fire yourself and stay away from the
dealership. You’ll make more money!
6. Make sure that your
management staff isn’t a bunch of glorified secretaries. In many dealerships I
see the bulk of sales managers time spent doing paperwork, locating cars,
ordering cars, and everything but what a managers job should be. A managers job
is to lead, train, motivate, track, and monitor his/her sales staff. If that’s
not what they are doing all day long, every day, then you’ll never reach your
potential as a dealership. If your managers are doing too many administrative
functions, hire a sales secretary. A sales secretary can do all the
administrative tasks that weigh a manager down. The return on your investment
will be tremendous because the sales managers will be able to do what they are
really paid to do– Make sales happen and grow the business.
7. Don’t ever have the “come
to Jesus”, yelling and hollering meetings with the sales staff. This will hurt
sales and increase your sales turnover. If you need to have a negative meeting,
do it on a one-on-one basis. All your meetings with the sales staff should be
positive.
8. Coach your sales staff
when you are at the desk. I hear so many managers just say “whadya got?” Then
they give a pencil and say “go get em’.” Managers should greet salespeople the
same way they want the salespeople greeting customers, and managers should ask
salespeople the same questions that they want salespeople asking the customers.
Take the opportunity to coach when you are working deals.
9. Get a Business
Development Department and staff. The function of a business development
department is to support the sales staff, and to keep the sales staff
face-to-face with a continual flow of good prospects. If
you’re not sure how a Business Development Department should be set-up, please
read my January 4, 2007 Newsletter- Business
Development, What works and what don’t.
10. Don’t have a 30, 60, or 90
day program. Dealers and Managers have implemented programs in
dealership that they’ve let go by the wayside too many times. Salespeople roll
their eyes when they hear the dealership is implementing anything new. They
think, “here we go again. This one will go away in 30 days too.” Stop making
your sales staff skeptical. Stick to your guns, make the things you implement
last long-term. Sometimes good processes have “rough spots” that you need to
work through. Don’t drop an idea just because it’s not perfect, improve it!
11. Hold a training meeting a
minimum of twice each week for the entire sales staff. The meetings only need
to be 30 to 45 minutes. Rotate the responsibility for planning and giving the
meeting between all managers in the dealership. Target specific areas that you
want to improve. I design a monthly training plan for my customers with
reference to the pages in my manuals. This makes it very easy to plan and give
good training meetings. Training meetings are not sales meetings. Sales
meetings are to discuss things like inventory, advertising, product, production,
goals, bonuses, and spiffs. Have a sales meeting at least once each week and
keep it completely separate from the training meetings.
13. Dealers and Managers should also go to work on
their skills. Just because you own a dealership or run a dealership doesn’t
mean that you should stop learning and improving. To gain the respect of the
sales staff, you have to be able to “walk the walk” that you talk. And for gosh
sakes, read a book sometimes.
14. Keep your staff informed. Be very clear on your
expectations and be prepared to explain your thinking. If your staff feels
informed and involved, your goals become their goals. A sales team that is
really a team, focused on common goals, is a beautiful thing!
15. Get some help. Hire a trainer, a personal coach,
or both. Get your managers and salespeople exposed to an expert trainer or
coach. Just make sure the one you hire gives a lot of support and monitors your
progress.
Remember, becoming a great
salesperson or a great manager doesn’t happen overnight. It is quite common to
hear, "we want our managers to be leaders," and “we want our salespeople to be
professionals.” But this transformation does not occur, just because it is a
new dealership mantra. People have to learn to be better leaders and better
salespeople, and like all learning, it takes time and commitment. But that is
not all it takes. Perhaps you have heard the story about the first time
visitors to New York City who asked a local how to get to Carnegie Hall. He
responded, "Practice, practice, practice." Besides time and commitment, learning
to lead and learning to sell takes practice.
Managers do not suddenly turn
into leaders because of a new title, promotion or even self-proclamation, and a
salesperson doesn’t automatically become a pro. They must learn and practice new
skills, and become more confident and competent in applying them. It is not
enough to attend a couple of training sessions each year and then read a few
books on the topic. There is surely benefit in being exposed to a wide variety
of leadership and sales approaches. But exposure to the "latest and greatest,"
which seems to change almost monthly, can in fact make it more difficult to stay
focused on those skills that most need to be practiced and refined.
Learning about leadership or
sales is not the same thing as learning to lead or learning to sell. They
certainly go together, but to earn the invitation to the Carnegie Hall of
leadership or salesmanship, you must be able to demonstrate your great talent,
not just your knowledge. Becoming proficient in leadership, sales, or any other
endeavor, requires vigilance, hard work, trying, failing, trying again, and so
forth. It takes practice, practice, practice. It is easy to find examples of
the relationship between practice and extraordinary performance. There are
already legendary tales about the amount of time Tiger Woods spends on the golf
course immediately before and directly after competitions, perfecting his game.
Even pilots, from commercial air carriers to the space shuttle, spend time in
simulators, honing the skills they need to be their best.
Finally, there is a message for
those of you who are trying to help your managers become leaders or your sales
staff get to a pro level. You need to be very encouraging and supporting of
them. You need to make it safe for them to learn and try new skills, and work
with them to help them improve. You need to be aware of the emotional toll that
occurs with learning, and help them overcome the feelings of inadequacy they may
be frequently feeling. And then of course, you must always look for ways to
recognize the progress they are making, and continue to re-assure them that
their struggles are for a truly important and worthy goal. I could list 100’s
of things that will improve your sales staff, but let’s start with these. Call
me if you want clarity or if you want other ideas.
These little suggestions, if implemented, will make a big impact. Good Luck!
Do You Need a
Business Development Department?
Do you need a Business Development Department? Does Business Development work?
What is a Business Development Department and how should we set it up? These
are questions that many dealers and managers have asked themselves over the past
ten years or so. I want to give you my thoughts as a real professional car
salesperson, a real professional manager, and as someone who has had the
opportunity over the past ten years to see thousands of dealerships either do it
right, do it wrong, or not do it at all. First, the simple answers, and then I
will expand. Question: Do we need a Business Development Department? Answer:
Yes, but only if you want to grow your business, keep your customer base, raise
customer satisfaction, increase market share, and run a lean, more efficient
business. Question: Does Business Development work? Answer: Yes, if you
do it right it works and it will last. Do it wrong, and any positive
effects will be short-term and eventually the project will be considered a
wasted investment. Question: What is a Business Development Department and how
do we set it up? Answer: A Business Development Department is a communication
hub for your dealership. It is responsible to effectively handle incoming sales
calls, first unsold follow-up calls, internet leads, lease loyalty, retail
loyalty, marketing, sales support, customer satisfaction management, service
loyalty, and service satisfaction. It’s highest priority is to help keep the
dealerships sales staff face-to-face with high quality prospects all day long,
every day. The most effective way to set up a Business Development Department
is to consolidate many of the people already performing some of these functions
for the dealership into one department. Move the responsibility for managing
these activities away from the managers that have them assigned as just “part”
of their job, and give one manager responsibility to manage this department and
it’s important functions.
So many dealerships have tried what was termed “business development” over the
years. These attempts have normally been in the form of a Phone Room, or what I
call a “sweat shop”, that the sales staff cycled through. Most of these Phone
Rooms only last about 90 days, because it’s a fight just to get sales people to
do their shifts, and the management staff soon tires of the fight. But that’s
not the real reason why we don’t want the sales staff handling incoming sales
call, internet leads, etc… The real reason is that the highest and best use of
a salespersons time is to be face to face with hot prospects. If we can keep
our salespeople face to face with hot prospects, then they will sell more
vehicles. If they are not face to face with hot prospects, they should be
really prospecting either on the phone or outside of the dealership. If a sales
person is waiting around for an “up” to walk through the door, we’ve all agreed
that is not productive. Isn’t waiting around for the phone to ring essentially
the same thing? If a salesperson is waiting, what happens if an “up” doesn’t
come in or if the phone doesn’t ring? If we have a staff that is dedicated to
selling appointments on incoming calls and internet leads, the sales staff will
be able to go out and find new business while still getting their fair share of
the incoming call and internet opportunities. In addition, when salespeople are
put into phone rooms to handle incoming calls, only about 30% of the sales staff
will actually take the time to gain good skills. The rest will just be there
because the manager made them, and they won’t be any good. The salespeople with
good skills will quickly work themselves out of phone time because of their
skills, i.e. the customers show up and they have to sell a car. That means that
the dealership is left with the personnel on the phone that doesn’t want to be
there and aren’t any good. Say goodbye to the opportunities you paid a lot of
advertising money to generate.
I have also watched many dealerships invest in expensive technology solutions
under the assumption that they were getting a Business Development Process.
Technology will never give you a successful business development effort.
Process, training, and skills drive business development. Technology, good
technology, is simply a tool that helps the process execute strategy more
efficiently. A dealership that has excellent business development process,
training, and skills, with only a hard copy tickler file and note cards will be
more productive that a dealership with great technology and poor process,
training, and skills. My customers, on average, generate over 70% confirmed
appointments on incoming calls, over 70% of those appointments show, and over
50% of those shows are delivered. They also get over 30% of unsold customers
back in to the dealership, and over 60% of those customers are closed. The
results are phenomenal, and none of my customers have spent a significant amount
of money on technology. I do encourage dealers to be very skeptical of software
solutions. Many software companies in the auto industry bill themselves as
“CRM” (Customer Relationship Management) software. So far, I have not seen one
that is a true CRM. Most are very expensive and incomplete. Be extra skeptical
of web based solutions. Most are slow, down often, and you don’t really own
your data.
One of my big motivators for starting my company, and offering a business
development solution, was that I saw so many dealerships sold bogus solutions,
and very few getting results. When I sign a dealership for business
development, I only sell them the training, process, and skills. I give them the
technology. Dealers should look for the following when considering a CRM
Software solution:
1. How much of the process is automated? We don’t want our team to have to
think too much about what should be done next; it should just happen
automatically and show up in their daily work plan.
2. Does it have development process built in for every type of customer and
prospect? Will it do things to insure that everyone who buys a vehicle for me
will buy from me forever. To get referrals from my existing customer base,
insure that everyone that doesn’t buy will be developed until they buy, be it
one day, one week, one month, one year, or ten years?
3. Is it integrated with my DMS, Internet Lead Providers, websites, and
telephony applications?
4. Is it customizable to fit my dealerships unique needs?
5. Do I own the software and the data?
6. What is the potential to build enhanced applications as my dealership
improves (i.e. pda applications, auto dialer, predictive dialers, etc…)?
7. How effectively will I be able to mine the data for prospecting and
marketing campaigns?
8. How is it supported? Is the support at least six days per week and
available during the hours we are open? Is it supported remotely? Is the
support immediate, or do we have to wait for someone to show up at the
dealership?
9. Is this just software, and maybe training on how to use the software, or is
this a complete business development process with training, and skills that will
drive the software?
10. How much?
Here are some success tips to follow when setting up a business development
department. Have a great hiring process. Hire specialists to work in the BDCC.
Begin with Incoming Calls; you will be able to create immediate incremental
sales and justify any future expense by getting a handle on your incoming
calls. Nationally, only 3% of incoming calls result in a confirmed appointment
and only 12% of incoming call customers end up showing up at the dealership with
or without an appointment. With good skills, your staff should have 40% of the
incoming call customers showing– that’s over a 300% increase in opportunities.
Don’t pre-assign the appointments generated from incoming calls. Pre-assigning
will cause many headaches, too many to go into in this article. Call me and
I’ll be happy to explain. The rule should be whoever “ups” them gets to stay
with them. After your staff is on the road to mastering the incoming call, roll
in the first unsold follow-up call. Customers are more responsive to a third
party calling from the dealership. Teach your staff how to identify the
customers objection to buying and close a management appointment based on their
objection. You will find that 20% of the time the customer just didn’t like the
salesperson, (that’s an easy one to get back), 20% of the time the objection is
something easy that was overlooked in the heat of the sales process, 30% of the
time it’s a product objection, and 30% of the time it’s a price, payment, down
payment, trade, rate, credit objection. With good skills, your BDCC staff will
get between 35% and 45% of your customers back into the dealership, and over 60%
of those customers will buy a vehicle. Make sure that the unsold follow-up call
is made within 24 hours by the BDCC. If the customer is not reached within 24
hours, or if they are reached but an appointment isn’t set, the follow-up for
that customer should go back into the salespersons work plan. Have a great
introduction and turnover process for every appointment. Move the internet
response into the BDCC. To maximize the Internet opportunities you must have a
fast response, a unique response, get them on the phone, and have great phone
skills. Cross train everyone in your BDCC to handle all of the BDCC functions.
Implement a good business development process and it will change your business
and insure future growth and profit. If you don’t do it, you could find your
dealership behind in the race for market share and growth.
Keeping Resolutions?
Ask anyone in the Automobile Business on
January 2nd if they have New Year's Resolutions or goals and nine out of ten
will probably say, “Yes!” Ask the same people about their resolutions three
months later and they’ll look at you like a deer caught in the headlights of an
oncoming car. All good intentions aside, exhaustive studies have shown only 3%
of the population engage in some form of goal setting and only 1% on average,
write their goals down. It is not a coincidence that the 1% who write goals
down are the highest achieving, highest income-earning men and women around the
world.
Successful people always have clear
goals. Great musicians, great athletes, successful salespeople and inspiring
leaders know what they want in life, and they go after it. Great people work at
it. No one becomes an astronaut by accident!
And yet the great bulk of automobile
salespeople and managers continue to drift through life with no goals at all, or
with only vague dreams, hopes and wishes. No wonder many of them achieve so much
less than their potential!
If you want to put the power of setting
goals the right way into your dealership, then follow these principles that have
worked for me and thousands of my customers:
1. Decide what you want- be very specific. You can't have everything in life;
but you can have anything you choose, if you focus, pay the price, and pursue it
with all your heart.
2. Be certain your goals are consistent with your most important values- what
you really want in your life, business, and/or career.
3. Write goals down! Be specific and describe your goals in detail. When will
you achieve them? What will success look like? Write down the details and read
your goals every day. Take a moment to summarize them every morning. Stay
focused.
4. Write out an action plan. Think
about what you believe you will need to do step by step. Make it easy to follow
by planning small steps daily.
5. Break your production goals down to
a daily number. Project the daily number cumulatively through the end of each
month, and then track your results daily and compare them to your forecasted
goals.
6. Take ACTION! To run a marathon, you must jog every day. Building dealership
sales requires you to improve sales, skills, and process, every day. Your daily
actions need not be profound or heroic, but they must be consistent and
persistent. Do it every day! Follow your action plan.
Success does not "just happen". It is built like a work of art. First, it is
imagined, then the skills, tools and materials are gathered, and the artist sets
about creating a thing of beauty. It takes time. It requires skill,
determination, persistence and faith.
Just as an artist will make preliminary sketches and work out the details in his
mind, the success of your dealership and salespeople requires written goals,
careful choices, clear commitments and daily persistence. You can do this. Make
2007 your best year ever!
If you would like a guide to help you
identify areas to improve and set goals to actually make those improvements,
the
following Management Survey is a great tool. It will help you identify areas
that will grow your business. The questions will give you an excellent platform
for discussion and identifying areas that could be improved to generate
incremental sales. I recommend that you make copies of this survey and
distribute them to your Managers. Have them complete the survey (use a separate
sheet for answers) and give it back to you. If you prefer for them to do it
confidentially, just have them put the completed survey in a sealed envelope
and mail it to me. I will compile their answers and send the results back to
you (no charge). If you would like to use my original version with room for
answers, send an email to me and I’ll send the survey back to you.
1. What is
your current sales process? Do you believe it is being followed consistently by
the sales staff and the managers?
2. Are all
sales activities being tracked accurately (opportunities, presentations,
demonstrations, write-up, closed, deliveries, etc.)?
3. How often
does your dealership have sales training (not including sales meetings) for the
sales staff? Is it scheduled? Who does it? What is covered?
4. How are
goals set for your sales staff? How often are they tracked?
5. How often
is Management Training (not including sales meetings or policy and procedure
meetings) held at your dealership? Is it scheduled? Who does it?
6.
Do Managers at your dealership have daily
one-on-one meetings with the sales staff? What is the process? What are the
objectives?
7.
Do you set sales goals for your dealership? How do
you do it? Are they set daily, weekly, monthly, yearly? How are they tracked -
daily, weekly, monthly, yearly?
8.
Does you sales staff have a process for follow-up
on both sold and unsold customers? What is it? Is it followed consistently?
9.
Do you believe your incoming sales calls and
incoming internet leads are handled effectively? Are the inbound call statistics
tracked? Of the prospects that call in to your dealership, what percentage show
up for an appointment? What percentage of the Internet leads show for an
appointment?
10. Do your
salespeople consistently ask for referrals? Do they use a script? If so, what is
the script and is it effective?
11. Do
you know where your business comes from - what percentage are walk-ins, repeat,
referral, be-back, phone, internet appointment?
12. Do you
feel that your advertising generates interest in your product? How can you
improve your advertising?
13. Do your
employees enjoy working at your dealership and feel it is a good place to work?
Do they feel that their compensation is fair?
14. Do you
have written job descriptions for all sales related positions?
15.
What do you think your customers’ perception of
your sales process is? Do you think the customer feels the negotiation process
is confrontational or non-confrontational?
16.
Do you feel that your sales staff comes to work
to succeed daily? How many hours per day do you believe that each salesperson
spends on sales generating activities?
17.
Do you have a method to measure if a salesperson is
improving? How do you track it? Do you have salespeople (even top achievers)
that seem to be stuck at the same level consistently? What do you believe could
be done to help them get to the next level?
18.
List three areas of your front-end operations
(new, used, F&I, leasing, retention, etc…) that you would like to see improved.
What specific things within those areas do you believe need improvement?
19. In what area of your
dealership do you see the greatest opportunity for growth over the next five
years? Why?
20. Are there any skills
that you would personally like to improve over the next twelve months? What are
they?
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