I've always heard the expression, "you don't miss something til you no longer have it... ", and I experienced that recently in a dealership I was training.

At the start of the day, management had told me that their weakest performer Steve (not his real name), needed to sell 14 cars this month or he would no longer have a job at the end of the month...

Now I was at the dealership on the 7th of the month and he had only sold 1 car so far... Not a great start. For a guy who knows the writing is on the wall...

So I observed Steve's sales activities for the day. He did:-

Follow up calls - 1
Walk in enquiry - 1
Phone enquiry - 1
Internet enquiry - 1
Prospecting calls - 0

Guess how many cars he sold...

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You guessed it, NONE!

But at the end of the day, he told me "I'm going to try like hell to get there!"

Sorry Steve, didn't look like a whole lot of "trying like hell" today!

I know from working out at the gym, that you only get out what you are prepared to put in... You can't turn up to the beach on the first week of summer and expect to have washboard abs if you go to the gym twice a week and eat fast food and drink Coke all week...

So why do we as salespeople say we are trying, and then don't back it up with real actions.

Key selling activities are your priority as a salesperson. All other activities in a dealership are "noise" and must be prioritised accordingly. 

I feel for Steve, as I know no one wants to actually be fired, but really he is putting his success down to the hope and chance that he is going to get lucky with plenty of quality enquiry every day for the rest of his career.

Let me encourage you that your success is determined by 3 things 

1. Attitude 
2. Selling / Persuasive Skills
3. Work Ethic

Choose today to improve each area in order to become the indispensable, not the dispensable.


Great selling!


Dave Benson