Comment

Comment by Mark Tewart on June 13, 2013 at 7:04pm

Jay, I agree with everything you say and cover all of your points in other videos in this series. All underperforming dealerships have a bad culture and environment set by bad leadership. Keeping bad and underperforming people applies to all people including leaders and managers. This video was not just about salespeople. Often the bad or underperforming person in the dealership is the dealer himself. 

Comment by Jay Anderson on June 13, 2013 at 6:48pm

Very interesting thought, and I agree with most of what you say, but I want to point out a few issues. Somebody hired the toxic underperformer at the dealership, right? If the managers spent more time prepping a new hire for what they want  through training, mentoring, and coaching, you probably wouldn't be in a position of underperforming in the first place........maybe a look at the top sometimes is needed before making a decision to fire people for the failures of management. Here is some additional rants I have:

 

Flooding a floor to increase sales is one thing....Flooding a sales floor, not training them, and then being upset when the flooding thing didn't work out is the status quo. This process sends the wrong message to your veteran guys, and is a cancer affecting many dealerships today. Respect is earned, and when your sales staff sees that you don't respect them you've lost your team. Toxicity runs rapid at this point, and the whole department is toast. Why not bring in the right people, train them (in addition to the factory certification), mentor them, and give them a fighting chance? It will make the whole team better.

The fact remains, that a decision is made by a GM/Dealer principle to hire more salesman (or women), and when hired the new hire is placed behind a computer to learn about the product. Very little time, if any, is spent on the process that is expected for everyone on the team. The talent pool is very thin, and the success rates are very low for new hires at dealerships in my area.

I can't substantiate any of this with facts, only reporting on what I've experienced..........As the economy improves, the talent pool will get even smaller, and dealers will be forced to take care of their employees at a level they abandoned a decade ago. 

sorry for the rant, but I don't think the average dealer appreciates the level of sacrifice their salesman make on their behalf. Why not give them the training they need to be successful? I would rather have 10 solid process driven salesman, then the alternative.......6 solid performers, and 8 confused poorly trained salesman.

DOING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AGAIN AND EXPECTING A DIFFERENT RESULT IS THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY

Comment by Mark Tewart on June 13, 2013 at 5:39pm

Thanks for the comment Simon

Comment by Simon Jalbert on June 13, 2013 at 3:45pm

Great video Mark - hard not to be in complete agreement with you.

Letting the wrong people go is just as important as bringing the right people on board. People usually don't recognize the negative secondary effects that having bad employees carries. The whole organization suffers by being surrounded by these people and many don't realize it until it's too late!