If you MANAGE ACTIVEY, you CONTROL RESULTS. Sales people AND Managers must manage activity and inspect it throughout the day to ensure the work plans are executed.

Remember the Kevin Costner movie a few years ago, Field of Dreams? Remember the theme of the movie? “BUILD IT AND IT WILL COME”. Once you have the “right” people, properly executed procedures and processes run any company. There is NO quick fix!

1) Use a UNIFORM SALES PROCESS and ensure it's followed with each manager and sales person. Many times the dealership will hire managers from other dealerships, each with their own preferred selling process that their previous dealership used. Therefore, when working with the sales people, there may be 2 or 3 “systems” within your dealership which leads to confusion and ciaos between the managers and salespeople. “Don't do it that way, do it my way” or “forget everything you have learned or what the other manager said and do it my way”. Whatever the sales process, it needs to be the same throughout the dealership. (How do you make a McDonald's hamburger- THE SAME WAY, EVERY TIME, AT EVERY MCDonald's Restaurant in the world)

2) Always start the day with a WRITTEN PLAN OF ACTION. Do it BEFORE starting the day- preferably the night before going home as everything is usually fresh on your mind. In addition to the regular follow ups, call backs, etc., you also need a plan for business development. Do you have a plan for the entire day, even the down time, not just a few hours of the day?

3) You need to FORECAST at the beginning of the month and COMPARE YOUR ACTUAL SALES TO FORECAST EVERY DAY. Generally, if you fall around 2-3 days behind your forecast at any given time, it becomes more difficult to catch up before the month ends. Many sales people, and/or managers, don't have a plan and wait until around the 25^th of the month, realize they are critically behind forecast, and panic trying to catch up.

The majority of the time, it's too late. When you compare forecast to actual sales and you are behind, WRITE A CORRECTIVE PLAN OF ACTION. It's important to write it down vs just talking about it. What ACTIVITY is required to get back on forecast BEFORE it's too late to catch up. So, for example, you are behind 2 cars and you personally must see 4 customers to close one sale. This means you need to create the activity to see at least 8 people to close 2 NOW and catch up.

4) VISIT WITH YOUR MANAGER EVERY MORNING to REVIEW YOUR ACTIVITY (One-On-Ones) and ASK FOR HELP if needed. Two heads are better than one! If you need help with a call back, closing a deal etc, ask the manager to assist as needed. Personally, I've always had the best results IF THE MANAGER calls the pending (unclosed) customer with the sales person. This can more than double, even triple, you're closing ratio with pending customers. This management procedure is know as “Inspect what you expect”. If the manager doesn't INSPECT it, don't EXPECT it!

4a) Management needs to meet with the sales person again around mid-day (1 or 2pm) and again review the day & plan of action, the customers reviewed during the morning meeting and their progress (plan of action), activity, and appointments for the afternoon and/or evening hours. This is just a quick 2-3 minute meeting. Manage Activity, Control Results. Managers need to keep a MASTER WORKSHEET of all pending customers in their pocket at all times.

4b) As a manager, meet again for a few minutes with each sales person around 6pm. This is a critical follow up meeting. If any customer was pending at 9am and still not resolved by 6pm, they are priority #1. In the independent customer survey I've mentioned in earlier blogs that was conducted with over 200 dealerships and 250,000 customers, over 30% of the customers said they would have purchased had the dealership followed up more promptly and effectively. These One-On-One meeting 3 times a day helps to ensure follow up in done promptly and that no customer slips through the cracks. Manage Activity, Control Results.

A technique our dealerships used for nearly 20 years that increased our follow up and closure to over 70% was to GO SEE the customer with the car they wanted at their home, and within 3-24 hours after visiting the dealership. When our competitors were calling trying to set a 2^nd or 3^rd appointment, making promises to discount their cars more, etc., we were at their home face-2-face earning their business. We sold the car and at a higher gross 70-80% of the time. The close- relationship building and truly working to earn their business.

If you a manager, do YOU know the status of each unsold or pending customer for every sales person you supervise? If not, WHY? (EVERY sports team has a good coach who knows and coaches the plays and players. Would your favorite team win without their coach? No! Coaches must coach, managers must manage.)

Part 2 Tomorrow!