How do you get employees to invest in themselves?

I’m perplexed by the lack of effort or desire on the part of staff. Training is an essential element of growth in every industry but most dealership employees have little interest. Why is that?

As an employer we have some responsibility to provide ongoing training and support. Like many other dealerships; we provide in-depth training to support our goals. The issue I find most discouraging, is that most employees are unwilling to invest in themselves.

Do you find the same issues at your place of business? What do you do to support the ongoing training of your staff? Do you reward those who have invested in a seminar, training meeting or school? I’m interested in your feedback.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Fran Taylor on May 15, 2010 at 8:00pm

IT'S EASY TO GET SALES PEOPLE TO INVEST IN THEMSELVES. TEACH WHY, WHEN, HOW AND WHAT IS THE BENEFIT. WE START WITH 11 WRITTEN GOALS AND ONE IS PROSPECTING ACCOUNT. HAVE BONUSES THAT PAY PROSPECTING TOOL. MAKE IT A REQUIREMENT DOWN THE ROAD AND NOT A REQUEST TO HAVE PROSPECTING TOOLS. THIS IS THE FIRST THING WE TEACH OUT OF OUR TRAINING BOOK. THIS IS PARTLY THE REASON SOME DEALERS HAVE DOUBLED THEIR BUSINESS IN 18 MONTHS. WE HAVE SALES PEOPLE PAYING FOR THERE OWN BILLBOARDS AND SELLING OVER 35 TO 40 PLUS CARS A MONTH. SHOW THEM HOW AND THEY DO IT.

Permalink Reply by Craig Lockerd on October 2, 2010 at 11:25pm

I agree with Fran 100%...bonus towards Client Development tools....Mr. Clementi, have you asked your salespeople to invest? What is their feedback? When we recruit and initially train salespeople for dealers the "students" pay a tuition[Commitment]that is reimbursed back to them after a certain period of time or based on certain perfromance...."Glue"....If it is important to you it will be imporatnt to them! I commend you on looking into this,shows your commitment to your people! If thru additional training a salesperson could increase 2 /mo at 2k per car...and it cost them 2-400 bucks....wouldn't you bonus them back 2,3 ,4 times that which they invested?....What R.O.I. that would be.....times the number of salespeople you have.

Fran Taylor said:

IT'S EASY TO GET SALES PEOPLE TO INVEST IN THEMSELVES. TEACH WHY, WHEN, HOW AND WHAT IS THE BENEFIT. WE START WITH 11 WRITTEN GOALS AND ONE IS PROSPECTING ACCOUNT. HAVE BONUSES THAT PAY PROSPECTING TOOL. MAKE IT A REQUIREMENT DOWN THE ROAD AND NOT A REQUEST TO HAVE PROSPECTING TOOLS. THIS IS THE FIRST THING WE TEACH OUT OF OUR TRAINING BOOK. THIS IS PARTLY THE REASON SOME DEALERS HAVE DOUBLED THEIR BUSINESS IN 18 MONTHS. WE HAVE SALES PEOPLE PAYING FOR THERE OWN BILLBOARDS AND SELLING OVER 35 TO 40 PLUS CARS A MONTH. SHOW THEM HOW AND THEY DO IT.

Permalink Reply by aaron kominsky on October 2, 2010 at 11:48pm

Any successful salesperson or manager is highly trained and competent.I know quite a few salespeople and mgrsthat have selling experience wel beyond 20 yrs . Do they have 20 plus yrs of experience?Do they continue to improve their skills ? NO .Most of them will only do the minimum to get by., whatever get by means to them.It may mean the desire to earn 25 thousand to one person, or 200 thousand to another, yet some salespeople never go beyond monetary considerations. Imagine what could happen if salespeople invested 10 percent of their time to learn their craft. Very very few salespeople continue to invest in themselves . Succesfil salespeople share the following 5 interests, Interest, Attitude, energy method and success.

Permalink Reply by Joe Clementi on October 16, 2010 at 11:06am

Well put. Good feedback from everyone. Investment is more than a monetary consideration. It is simple to find the comitted employee from one who is not. You will always see the difference in the results. Thanks for all of your feedback.
aaron kominsky said:

Any successful salesperson or manager is highly trained and competent.I know quite a few salespeople and mgrsthat have selling experience wel beyond 20 yrs . Do they have 20 plus yrs of experience?Do they continue to improve their skills ? NO .Most of them will only do the minimum to get by., whatever get by means to them.It may mean the desire to earn 25 thousand to one person, or 200 thousand to another, yet some salespeople never go beyond monetary considerations. Imagine what could happen if salespeople invested 10 percent of their time to learn their craft. Very very few salespeople continue to invest in themselves . Succesfil salespeople share the following 5 interests, Interest, Attitude, energy method and success.

Permalink Reply by Agustin Vasquez Jr on October 28, 2010 at 10:20pm

Joe, this is definitely a big discussion that can go on forever; but, I will only touch on the inception of a new recruit into our dealership. A new hire is partnered up with a more savvy sales professional ( that has solid track record with our company). The tennured employee receives compensation based on how well the new employee performes, this brings out plenty of training pertaining to our processes, products, walk-around competitions etc...

It would surprise you how well this mentorship progarm really works for us to include boosting morale, employee colaboration, roleplaying and much more.