Let's get our salespeople back in the game!!!!!

Over the past 20 years we have asked less and less of our salespeople. They don't handle phone calls,they don't handle internet leads,they don't network or prospect for new business and in some cases they don't even deliver the cars they have sold.

I feel the main reason for this is that the high salesman's turnover have left us with, at best nice greeters. We all know the old adege "you get what you pay for". A quality person who wants to try automobile sales leaves because he or she can't make a decent living selling cars, so all that leaves us with are salespeople who can live on a marginal income.That is why we need to keep taking job responsibilities away from them and pay to have specialized departments pick up the slack.(BDC's,Special Finance Departments,Delivery Coordinators etc)

I want to get the sales pro back in the business and give them some of the $ I am paying for all of these specialized services. All they need to bring to the table is the desire to succeed and the desire to learn. From there I feel it is my job to provide the tools they need to help themselves make $.

That's why I am focusing a greater percentage of my marketing dollars on keeping the owners I have and my training efforts on the art of networking to people you know and building a more vibrant referral base.

We all know that our previous owners and referrals close at a higher % and gross so why not have a plan to attract and keep more of them?

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Comment by JASON BENNETT on October 26, 2012 at 1:28pm: I have many times watched the true sales pro continue to walk away from the new philosophy of the larger dealerships. The reason I sell at Tent Events or Road Shows is because of the old school mentality of making good ( Fair) gross paying a resonable pack and earning a fair commission and a fair check. The new philosophy in large dealerships is Huge packs, most sells are mini's and focusing only on units sold. The old pros are still out there I watch them everyday but you don't see them in dealerships that's why they bring us in for the sale. I would love to find a dealership that truly still cares about the sales pro. When you talk to the new salesman breed I find it very hard to believe they don't know what an evidence manuel is or that proper follow up is 3 day, ten day, thirty day, 6 month and one year on the phone and every month by the mail. What happened to cold calls, ten letters a day and practicing your trade. The few last pros that are in dealerships and yes I know there are some, become more frustrated daily. The new philosophy of the dealerships has breed a new salesman. The new salesman has a job not a career. Until dealers start treating and paying sales professionals as sales professionals, we will continue to see basic old school liner closer system, where the salesman are information gatherers and management are the closers. .

Comment by Rob Winters on October 20, 2012 at 10:23pm: I couldn't agree more. Until upper management stops treating salespeople like second class citizens and begins to pay them a living wage, it's not going to happen.