Numbers Don’t Lie. Salespeople?

Why is it that salespeople don’t like tracking their numbers? It comes down to several factors, but the one that comes to the top of my head is that most salespeople don’t want to know the truth.

So what they do is run from it and they do that by not logging their information. If you are the dealer then how will you get to your goal if you don’t have the correct information? You can guess your way or you can blindly close your eyes and stumble your way. Neither is a good option.

Another reason why they don’t track is it might hurt their sensitive feelings when they find out that their closing ratio isn’t as high as they thought it would be. This hurts their egos. Just so you know — we are developing a sensitivity training workshop for salespeople whose egos get bruised or their feelings are hurt when they find out their closing ratio’s aren’t so high. Just kidding … Back to the

article.

Now another reason why they won’t log is management might use the information against them and fire them. No dealer wants a lot lizard to burn ups if you know what I mean. When you get the tracking information the goal is to adjust the sales staff’s activities so that they increase sales.

For example if you have a salesperson who sees 75 selling opportunities and demos 35, and then writes up 18 and sells 9 you have a problem. Now most salespeople would say, you have a traffic problem. That’s not the case here, however. The salesperson had enough Ups for him to keep him busy and motivated, but his demo ratio is a bit low. His write ups are low, yet the closing ratio between the amount of what they wrote up and what they sold is 50%

That is actually the standard for most types of car sales. Buy here-pay here is different due to the fact that you are selling credit so the number that needs to be adjusted higher is actually credit applications.

The salesperson example above has enough traffic so what is the problem? Look closely at the numbers above and you can see there is a demonstration problem - good grade on demo to write up ratio, and a 50 percent closing ratio between write up and sold.

Now what you can do with this is make your improvements. Instead of saying to your salesperson, take more ups, do more demos, you need more write ups, you can eliminate that and take a more tactful approach.

That is why one-on-ones are an important training tool. You take the tracking information, sit with your salesperson, coach them on what they’re doing right, and help them in areas where they are weak.

It’s obvious to me that the salesperson above sees enough prospects, so what is the problem? Do this. Take the salesperson outside and get them to role play with you on how they take their customers through the basics. Spend some time on this exercise and I assure you that you will see the problem with out using a magnifying glass.

The above salesperson is rushing through the steps to the sale. They are not taking time to build rapport and investigate the prospects needs, wants and buyer’s motivation. They are inconsistent and the numbers prove that. So what you have now is a skill problem. Now that’s where training comes into play. Oh sure, you can get them to commit to improvement, but for the most part that is talk and we know the CMV on talk, it’s way back of

book.

There are several ways to improve your sales team and you need to make sure you have a training program in place. Our online sales training has all the steps to the sale along with how to master the basics, how to close, how to get your customer to say yes to you. E-mail me at

george@georgedans.com and I will

give you a free 3-day pass on our online sales training courses.

Now you can always do it your way and say, I have been in the biz for 20 years and I can teach them my old tricks....zzzzz. We have some old Beta tapes that feature Louie Loser showing you how to throw the keys on the roof and block the customers trade or you can just turn them over to DOT. Yes that stands for Director Of Training.

Now be careful here, because for the most part, that is 6 car Sammy, Seven Car Sally - Eight Car Eddie or Nine Car Nathan..... or if you get desperate turn them to Brochure Billy who loves to staple their card to the nice brochure.

There is a saying that I have been repeating as an important mantra for the last few years, “If you fail to train, then you train to fail!

If you don’t have a tracking program or a spread sheet, then e-mail me and I will send out the tracking sheet, which is easy to use and will help you sell more cars right now.

I used the KISS system on this, all you have to do is enter the salesperson’s unit goal and it will determine the amount of Ups - Presentations - and Write Ups. Too easy here. So touch the mouse, it won’t bite and e-mail me at george@georgedans.com right now. KISS means - Keep It Simple Sales Manager