When it comes to selling cars outside of the product, the sales manager has as much if not more influence than any other person in your dealership. There is no surprise to that statement.  They have the responsibility to hire, train, lead, negotiate, close and nurse the sick.  Yes, nurse the sick.  Oh not the physically ill, those who came to the job this morning with a hangover, or after a horrible fight at home or even those who may have something going on outside that is mentally and emotionally challenging for them every day.  The sales manager is the one responsible for helping to keep them in the game at a performance level equal to or above the average sales representative.  It is not my intention to demean the sales person or to belittle their efforts in presenting, selecting or beginning the sales process.  Yes they are truly valuable and those who understand their role as a sales representative and follow through with the processes outlined by the dealership will make the sales managers job much better, not easier, but most certainly better. 

It is my fervent belief that a true sales manager should have two or at the most three functions.

1. Work with a sales person who has a customer
2. Work with a sales person to find a customer
3. Train, Coach, Inspire a sales person

The practice it seems with managing our managers is to load them down with those things that are counter to even their job title.  Managing sales is a function that requires all of the time allotted during any particular work day. Yet, we have them re arranging the lot, standing in the used car bays determining whether or not to repair a used vehicle, or sitting in endless meetings trying to tell them how they should have sold more and how they could have done better.  We have mistakenly combined an inventory manager and used car manager as a sales manager.

If we, all of us, spend more time allowing sales managers to perform those three things and only those three things the following will happen.

1. More daily appointments will be set
2. More customers will be contacted daily than ever before
3. Customer satisfaction will be consistently higher
4. Sales staff will be better equipped to handle our customers
5. There will be consistently higher gross profits
6. Closing percentages will skyrocket
7. Staff turnover will decrease

I am sure there are more benefits.  I have watched the evolution of sales managers who had a clear description of their daily activities as outlined above and the results are incredibly profitable.