For more great content like this or to learn more about our Automotive Training Programs please visit: http://wyemanagement.com/
Hello, Chris Schulthies here for Wye Management. Okay, you've gone the route of trying to hire experienced salespeople away from other dealerships, and all you seem to end up with is a horrible attitude, bad habits, low productivity, and low morale on your showroom floor. Now you've decided to hire energetic and ambitious men and women new to the automotive industry. They have some limited sales and customer experience in other industries but still require training for the complexities of selling cars in today's competitive marketplace.
Managers often don't seem to have the time to review basics, such as job descriptions, compensation plans, HR policies, and how to use dealership DMS and CRM software, understanding bills of sale, loan and lease agreements, and the mountain of information that a new sales person needs to consume in order to feel comfortable and to begin to contribute. .
Untrained salespeople shred valuable prospects on the showroom floor, on the telephone, or by email. Untrained salespeople sell a lower volume of vehicles at substantially lower gross profit per vehicle. Untrained sales people deliver a disjointed and disappointing sales experience, and most importantly, untrained salespeople simply don't stay. The constant stress on management and the cost of high employee turnover is astronomical and the damage to dealership reputation immeasurable. Dealerships cannot afford to have an inexperienced and ill-trained salesperson waste even one precious customer opportunity.
Let's do the math. Salesperson A has had no formal training and closes 15% of his customers. Salesperson B has participated in a formal off-site training program and closes 30% of her customers. If they each had 50 customer opportunities per month, salesperson A would sell eight vehicles per month and sales person B would sell 15 vehicles per month. Assuming a conserved gross profit of $1,000 per vehicle and $1,000 of gross profit per vehicle in the business office for a total of $2,000, the untrained salesperson is costing the dealership $14,000 per month in lost profit. That's seven less vehicles sold times $2,000 per vehicle or $168,000 per year.
I think that you would agree these profit examples are extremely conservative. Successful dealerships do not view formal training programs as an expense but rather an investment and one that will offer a substantial return. When it comes to formal sales training, does your management team really have the time, focus, and energy to be locked away in a boardroom with a new sales person for days on end to give them the counselling and qualifying skills, vehicle presentation skills, negotiation and closing skills, and modern steps to the sale necessary for survival and success?
We'll train participants the sub-steps of the entire closing process of the sale, asking for the sale, asking again, delivering a financial proposal, and explaining a trading value with confidence. Participants will learn negotiation fundamentals that will show them how to support their selling price and how to justify a trading value. All of this with persistence, without pressure, and without alienating the customer. We'll also arm participants with strategies for just about every challenging situation they'll encounter on the showroom floor. Of course, unsold customer follow-up techniques and modern methods of prospecting for new business, including the use of social media are also examined.
Invest in your greatest dealership resource and asset, your people. Give them the training and tools to succeed and stay. Remember, training is an investment, not an expense.
What's worse than training a salesperson and having them leave? Not training them and having them stay. We look forward to meeting your new sales person.
I'm Chris Schulthies. For more great content like this or to learn more about our Automotive Training Programs please visit: http://wyemanagement.com/ or call 1.888.993.6468 and discover how an automotive training solution could work for your dealership.
