I think we at some time or another  have had a family member that had an addiction to Alcohol or drugs and we felt so sorry for them because we loved them. They would come to you and say, I just need a little help, a few bucks to get by with and you feel sorry for them and give them money. They always promise to do better, they even say * I hate being this way* and that they want to be a better a person. But the cycle continues, they get high and they spend their money and drugs and or alcohol and then come running to you or some other family member to continue the cycle of failure.  The truth is they will never change until someone has the guts to say * NO! No more!  You have to say no more because now you are starting to not have money to pay your own bills because you are trying to keep them from getting thrown out of their home or to help them stop from having their vehicle   repossessed and they are still out partying and getting high while you are trying to be the responsible person and take care of your family and yourself.

   The same holds true with sales people when you do not hold them accountable to do the job that they are paid to do. As managers we become enablers when we do not hold sales people accountable for their job performance and their job duties. They will not do their job in the manner set forth by company policy and yet complain that they are not making enough money. They are the same sales people that never has their paperwork ready or complete. They do not log their customers or phone calls or internet leads. They complain about the mini deals, they complain about not having enough time off, so we start to do their job for them and not performing at our best at our own job.

So how do you stop being an enabler you ask? Well it is very simple, it is by holding them accountable, such as when they sell a car and they hand off the paper work to the F&I manager and all the information is not there to complete all the paper work you walk out and introduce yourself to the customer and say ( I am sorry but this will take a few more minutes, because little Johnny does not have all the information that I have to have in order to get your paper work done so you can be on your way.

Once you do this to a sales person a couple of times they get the hint that you are not going to do their work for them.

The same with when they have a live customer in front of them, if you know for a fact that the customer has not test driven the vehicle that they are trying to pricing or payments on, you walk into their office and introduce yourself to the customer and say something like* So John tells me you really like the pre-owned Impala, how did you like the ride of it? It is amazing isn’t it? The customer will let you know that they have not driven the vehicle and you can tell them that they really owe it themselves to drive the vehicle because if they don’t like it, then the price or payment really does not matter. Again once you do this with a couple of customer the sales person understands that in order to get a price or payment from you that they must do a proper walk around and test drive.

These small types of actions of standing your ground on the correct way to sell a vehicle will make them follow your instructions.