Advice From a 30-Car Guy

People often ask me what is the most amount of units I sold on the showroom floor…? 33, that is the most I ever sold in one month, but I consistently sold 30 units per month. I know there are people who sell more than that. Actually I have met sales professionals that have sold 40 units and even 50 units per month. They are far and few but they do exist in our industry. So the question is how does someone sell 30+ units per month? They have a plan! I never ever met someone that walks into a dealership and has NO IDEA what to do or how to sell cars and at the end  of the month, they have 30 or more units delivered. But before we get into the plan, you have to want it… you truly have to want to be successful. Not because your manager chewed you out at the sales meeting. Not because you are all amped up from an article but because YOU truly want it inside, you want it just as much as you want to breath. You want it so much you are willing to do anything to be successful (Legally, ethically and morally of course).  You are willing to sacrifice television time, video game time, hanging out with the other sales people that are selling 9, 10, 12 units per month, stop complaining about things you have absolutely NO control over like politics, the economy, the weather, your OEM, your managers, your competition and even your prospects. You have got to stop focusing on everything else and start to focus on yourself. Dr. Covey, author of the 7 Habits of highly effective people calls this the “Circle of Influence versus the Circle of Concern”.

Remember… If you want to achieve the things that the average salesperson doesn’t do or can’t do (like sell 30 units per month) Then you need to be willing to do the things that the average salesperson isn’t willing to do!  If it were easy, everyone would be selling 30+ units per month. If it were easy then the national average units sold would be 30 NOT 10! Lets be serious here about what we are talking about. If you are delivering 30 units per month then you are making OVER $100,000 In a year. Depending on what your pay-plan is, what kind of bonuses, spiffs, OEM spins etc… you can possibly be making $120,000 - $150,000. Especially, if you know how to work your pay-plan the right way.   Think about what I am saying here… $100k, $120K, $150K! In this economy, working at a car dealership. It is real, and people are doing it all over this country. It doesn’t matter if you are in a city like New York or L.A. or if you are down south in Nashville Tennessee. It doesn’t matter if you are selling Toyotas or Fords, imports or domestics, new or pre-owned. There are people selling 30+ units per month. As a matter of fact a couple of years ago, I wrote a 3 part article (over a 3 month period)  where I interviewed a salesperson that was making over $200,000 selling Toyotas on the showroom floor at Peruzzi Toyota! And that was is the recession, normally he made $250,000.

OK, now that I have your full attention the question is how do you do it? How do you actually sell 30 units per month and make over $100,000 per year? First is “Begin with the End in Mind”. You have to have a plan, you can not just tell your self that you are going to work hard and sell cars. It is not at simple as that. You need a real plan with GPS precision on getting you to your destination of success.

 So, lets break it down:

• To Deliver 30 units you are going to need to have at least 60 people to present to.
• To have 60 people to present to (or 60 appointments that have showed) you are going to need to make 120 appointments.
• That is a 50/50/50 ratio… 120 appointment, 60 appointments showed to deliver 30 units. This is good, now you know what you need to do to sell 30 units but, it doesn’t tell you how…
• You must break it down from here even further. To make 120 appointments in a month that means that you need to make 60 appointments per week. Breaking it down even further is making 6 appointments per day (In a 5 day work week). At most dealerships salespeople are working 8-9 hours per day and some even are doing “Bell to Bells” meaning 9-9, a 12 hour shift. You should have PLENTY of time in between meeting with prospects, doing product presentations, demo drives and deliveries to cultivate.
• Another way of looking at it is that you need to have 3 people a day to show up, 15 people per week or 60 people per month in order to hit your goal.
• Or in order to sell 30 units per month, that means selling 7-8 units per week or 1-2 units per day.

You are NOT going to be able to accomplish your goal of 30 units per month by waiting for “ups” to walk through the showroom either. You need to be Proactive not Reactive. So, you need to know that there are 6 other ways to sell a car BESIDES showroom / walk in traffic. I will list them all (including walk-ins)

1. Walk-In Traffic in the Showroom
2. Internet Leads
3. Phone-Ups
4. Referrals
5. Prior Customers
6. Service Conversions
7. Prospecting… Ah, the “Lost Art of Prospecting”.

You need to create a plan on how you are going to Maximize ALL 7 areas within a dealership to sell 30+ units per month.

For the Dealer Principals, GMs and GSMs that are reading this article… If your dealership is NOT training your ENTIRE Sales team on these ways to sell cars or if your dealership is ONLY MOSTLY selling from Fresh Ups, Internet and the phone… then you are leaving a LOT of money on the table. Especially knowing that a referral closes at 50% plus has a higher gross profit.

Dealers spend about $50,000 per month in advertising to bring traffic to the dealership. How much time, money or skill is being used by salespeople in prospecting. In actually creating your own opportunity for yourself and the dealership?

It seems that “prospecting”  is dying a slow death. Why is that? This is in fact “Your Own Business”…

If you have any questions about this article or would like some free ideas on how you can sell 30 units per month, or would like to know how you can “Save Prospecting” from becoming an endangered species you can call or email me at Sean@dealersynergy.com or call me at 856-264-0564