True Professionals

The struggle for a competitive edge requires skill enhancement. The techniques of yesterday are no longer acceptable tools. Knowledge of products, technology and problem solving all take on new meaning while working with today’s customer.

Customers no longer accept mediocre presentations, canned closing questions and product demonstrations that lack comprehensive knowledge. The customer is and will continue to be, more prepared for the buying process. They will ask questions that an untrained salesperson will not be able to answer. Customers will come prepared with product comparison data, pricing parameters and have a solid understanding of the value of their trade-in.

Salespeople will need to be more prepared than ever to compete for a customer’s business. Customers aren't necessarily interested price comparisons so much as they are assessing the salespersons' knowledge. The preparation of the salesperson will ultimately determine whether or not a vehicle is sold. Average is no longer acceptable to the buying public.

Allowing staff to go about today as they did yesterday will ensure regression. A salesperson attempting to sell automobiles while failing to improve his/her skills will most certainly be unproductive. Technicians must constantly be tested and retrained on their skill set. Their training consists of updated modules, technical service bulletins, and renewals of certifications. Doctors, attorneys’, CPA’s and other professionals are continuously being trained on the latest technology. Athletes’ and coaches are constantly reinventing themselves and their playbooks to become more competitive in their environment. All of these people share one common thread; they are professionals.

True professionals invest in themselves, reinvent their approach and work on improvement of their skills. The book store has a multitude of books on the newest sales advances from outside our industry. A small investment in a seminar from one of the many outstanding innovators in our business could and often do, lead to skills' enhancement.

There are a lot of rumblings around our industry that the Internet will be the only avenue to purchase a car in the next few years. The perception...the “salesperson” is no longer needed. The assumption is that the buying process will be completed online without having to visit a dealership. If you believe that, get out of the business now. Do not look back, move on and enjoy being a greeter at one of those big box stores!

Professional people embrace technology and the advancement of processes. Long gone are the days of unmotivated and unprofessional salespeople. Customers demand more from their car buying experience. If you don’t give them the experience they deserve, no price will be low enough to keep them. In general, most showroom floors have lacked the work ethics needed to progress. The demand on the business has been strenuous as the market drifted from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market. Dealerships of all sizes needed to adjust their budgets to fewer cars at smaller profit margins. Discretional expenses such as training have been either eliminated altogether or depleted to cover only the essential. During that time, the internet has grown exponentially. Social networking has given consumers more power than ever and that will only continue to grow. Chat rooms, buying clubs, online reviews and other social media provide an endless stream of information. Buying decisions are made every day based on information provided on the web. Whether or not the information is accurate or not is, not relevant.

The sales process has evolved, this much is true. The evolution is knowledge and not the deletion of professional salespeople. What customers want, is to have honest answers to tough questions, unbiased responses to product comparisons and a non-confrontational buying process. Sound familiar? It should because it hasn’t changed in years. Ultimately, customers will decide who gets to stay in business and who doesn’t.

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Comment by Joe Clementi on June 16, 2011 at 5:48pm: Jim Thank you for the input and feedback on the blog. Your spot on with the paradigm shift. We're overdue for that and on our way. Thanks for the comments and the insight into intellacar.

Comment by Jim Hughes on June 16, 2011 at 3:47pm: I ABSOLUTELY agree with your view: "Professional people embrace technology and the advancement of processes. Long gone are the days of unmotivated and unprofessional salespeople. Customers demand more from their car buy experience." And customers DESERVE more. Why are people excited to shop at the Apple Store but dread car shoppping? It's time to change that old paradigm! The cool new styling and technology in cars has evolved to an exciting new level, yet the customer experience at many dealerships is still the same.

We've been working on that issue for 2 years now and are seeing some awesome results with incorporating IntellaCar (iPad sales tool - www.intellacar.com) into the sales (and training) processes. Customers have spent hours online prior to coming to dealerships and they are responding very positively when a sales consultant uses a mobile resource throughout the sales process to share information. No longer do customers wonder if the sales consultant is tellling the truth as they are looking at all the information on the iPad together...shoulder to shoulder. It quickly develops a transparent, engaging rapport with customers and builds value at each step of the sales process.

Sales consultants who use these type of new approaches are jumping to the top of the professionalism scales, while delivering a best in class customer experience. It's exciting to see our industry evolve in exciting new ways!

Comment by Joe Clementi on June 15, 2011 at 3:52pm: George: Thank you for your comments to the post. Congratulations on your movement to improve your stores.

Comment by George Foster on June 15, 2011 at 2:59pm: So true. We are in the process of changing the way we do business in our 7 stores. The internet has evolved and you always have to have your A game when you talk to a customer.

Comment by Joe Clementi on June 14, 2011 at 9:33pm: Dealers and their GM's have to understand and value training! It's unfortunate that a lot of dealerships only provide training when something is drastically broke. Even then, they're waiting for the one-stop, cure-all method to come in and save them. Everyone has to buy-into the theory that training isn't a substitute for effort.

There's a reason you and I fortunate to be where we are today. We understand the value of continued training. Salespeople that are unwilling or unmotivated to improve aren't worth investing in. I do agree 100% with your comment, "we inspect what we expect; the question is we aren't expecting much"! Training is as much as a way of doing business as opening the doors every day. I'll quote my own article "The evolution is knowledge and not the deletion of professional salespeople. What customers want, is to have honest answers to tough questions, unbiased responses to product comparisons and a non-confrontational buying process. Sound familiar? It should because it hasn’t changed in years. Ultimately, customers will decide who gets to stay in business and who doesn’t."

Comment by Marsh Buice on June 14, 2011 at 9:13pm: I agree with you. Employees must buy into it you are 100% right. Not all of them think like you and me, those under our leadership know how important training and learning are to us; in turn most follow that belief (some slower to change than others); I feel the problem with education is many managers dont share a belief of how important education is to our business. We inspect what we expect; the question is we arent expecting much. The incongruent belief is we want the results without the investment. With the internet customers have choices and are better prepared, unfortunately many salespeople are still winging it; the only winging that should be done is at Hooters and left off the Blacktop. It starts with the top and trickles down.

Comment by Joe Clementi on June 14, 2011 at 8:56pm: Great question Marsh! The reason is somewhat complicated; but in simple terms training is a controllable cost. I'm not saying that I agree in whole with the choice but dealers also know the ROI for taining. Most salespeople don't take it seriously and never do anything with the information. Think of it this way - if you give your kids a toy for no reason, they never truly appreciate it. The toy gets lost or worse still never truly gets played with. On the contrary, if the toy is a reward for hard work, they'll appreciate it and cherish it more. Dealers' generally feel training is an expendable expense b/c very few employees value the lessons they learn. Not all mind you!

I wrote the article because I believe training must be employee owned as well. If the dealership spends money on training and it never truly produces gross profit, than it's wasted revenue. The employee that makes the investment in themselves will ultimately produce revenue. Thanks for the feedback my friend!

Comment by Marsh Buice on June 14, 2011 at 8:28pm: Joe, why do most dealers cut training when trying to trim costs, but keep a cappuccino machine instead? With the internet, customers now have choices; they dont have to accept the run of the mill flake, they can now choose to do business with a true pro. Salespeople also have to invest in their future or expense their excuses why they ended up out of the business. We have to invest and reinvest in our futures; the only way this will happen is when leadership does the same and ceases to stop looking at learning as a nuisance. You nailed it sir!

Comment by Joe Clementi on June 11, 2011 at 11:22am: Agree 100% with your comments John. Investment is a two-way street, both dealer and employee must invest in themselves in an effort to improve. Too little, too often and there you have it...mediocre

Comment by John Fuhrman on June 10, 2011 at 7:50am: Great comment Joe. In selling there is no maintaining skills. One is either getting better or getting worse. This is always determined by how they invest in themselves. Too many are waiting for the dealer to get the training for them. And too many dealers are afraid to invest in training because of a fear of losing those they trained to other dealers. What you end up with are untrained sales teams bouncing from dealer to dealer.

Unless and until there is a different way for a customer to take delivery of a car, there will be a need for salespeople. When dealers finally make the decision that they want to be the best in their market, they will make everything thebest. Showroom, service, and even the sales team will be part of that investment. It has been proven for decades that dealers who invest in their people for training, enjoy the lowest turnover and highest performance.