The T.O. strategy has been around for quite some time, yet at some dealerships it’s not an “all the time” thing.  Some salespeople view it as a friction point with management.  Some handle it very well.   They are grateful for the opportunity to get additional support as a final effort to close a sale.

It is highly recommended…

One challenge in many dealerships is building an environment where teamwork thrives. Salespeople are focused on their own individual commissions, not the stores; technicians are focused on the billable hours they produce, not the departments; and F&I managers want their penetration and back-end gross to be high. Aside from management, there’s a simple reason to…

There is a lot of talk going on about car dealership turnover. It seems that everyone has an opinion about it but not a whole lot of solutions. I am going to do some "REAL TALK" in this post because it is time that the sugar coating stops. I have spent a great deal of time between consulting dealers and working for dealers on a case by case basis over the…

An excellent article on Customer Experience Insight shared an analogy that resonated with me as it can be applied to automotive salespeople. The article compares salespeople to trees and states that only 10 percent of salespeople are considered evergreen; are strong and productive no…

With a steadily improving economy and declining unemployment rates, the automobile industry is geared up to experience another year of expansion and progress. While this is great news, it would be wise to consider that just as customers now have more choices when it comes to buying or servicing their vehicle, employees (and prospective employees) also have more options than they did just a few years ago.  In general they no longer feel quite so loyal to their position, nor do they fear…

When developing an employee retention strategy, a business must ultimately consider salaries. There’s no doubt that a long-term employee will feel slighted if a new employee joins at a higher pay. Chances are they may even feel slighted if the new employee receives the same wage. In the automotive industry (and business in general), it’s increasingly acceptable to see…

One of the hardest techniques to teach a salesperson is that of the turn-over (T.O.). Boiled down to simplicity, the rules for a T.O. can be…

Even if you don’t believe, as I do, that high sales staff turnover is the number one issue facing the auto industry today; we certainly can agree it is right at the top of the list. There is not one positive thing that happens at our dealerships as a result of high turnover, and the benefits of low sales turnover are so obvious that I don’t need to list them.

High sales turnover has completely undermined training efforts. It creates the mental attitude amongst many managers…

In the automotive world, the bottom line is that many dealerships experience very high turnover rates with employees, especially in sales. Our world is one of high stress, long hours and feast or famine. (This might not be as true in the service departments.) However, the face of your dealership to a customer who bought their car from you is their salesperson. Yes, it is.…