Automotive Sales Training - Why Dealerships Struggle: Part 1

          In what now can be considered a good selling market and what many predict will soon be a booming market, there are many dealerships underperforming and even mightily struggling. Why? Although there can be many reasons for dealerships that struggle, after two decades of consulting, coaching and training dealerships there seems to be very consistent themes for the struggles. Let’s start with common theme number one – the wrong people.

 

          There are four elements to any dealership and I call these the 4P’s – People, Process, Product and Positioning. Without the right people it is impossible to make the other P’s work. Struggling dealerships hire the wrong people, keep the wrong people and allow the wrong people to damage their business.

 

          First of all, you must determine who you are looking for and what you want in a candidate. You must take the time and write down what I refer to as your Ideal Candidate. If you do not take the time to identify what it is you are looking for, how would you know if you found this person? When you do not identify specifically what the traits, characteristics and talents that you are looking for, you are looking to make personnel judgments based solely upon emotion. Your decisions seem to be irrational with no well thought out theme for selection.

 

          As an example, look at NFL teams and the amount of effort they put into the draft. Hours upon hours are put into research, tests, measurements and interviews of potential draftees. A plan is formulated as to what type of player they are looking for and what role those players would fill. Fielding a team at a dealership is really the same thing. Nobody ever knows if you will make the best or even the right selection but with a well thought out and executed plan you tend to get much better results.

 

          Dealerships that struggle often have less than desirable team members and often that is true of their leader. I have never seen a Dealer Principal who has a struggling dealership with a plan for assembling a team. There is no strategy and action plan with the end result in mind. Struggling dealerships continue to spin their wheels and eventually gain a reputation as a bad place to work with bad people. Birds of a feather flock together. The struggling dealership perpetuates the struggle and a victim mentality begins to set in about how it impossible to get good people these days.

 

          After you identify what your ideal candidate would look like for each position, you must put together an action plan to attract these people. If you are still running only newspaper ads for positions you are woefully behind the times and more often than not attracting lower end people.

 

          You must utilize as many resources as possible such as Career Builder, Monster, your website, LinkedIn, all of your social media sites, industry social forums, referral programs, job fairs, college and technical school recruiting, on and offline newsletters, other industry forums, recruiting military, other industries and businesses you frequent.

 

          Successful recruiting is well thought out and ongoing never ending process. Your goal is to reach the level of recruiting from the position of want instead of need.

 

          Let’s cover some additional recruiting and hiring tips. When you conduct an interview with a potential candidate, have a long list of interview questions handy that you use faithfully. Would you want a salesperson to address a customer without knowing a long list of well thought out profiling questions? So, why do you interview candidates without well thought out questions? Do you like cars is not one of those questions? Come on!

 

          Do you use predictive indicators, personality profiles and other qualification tools? These tools may not be one hundred percent accurate but these assessment tools certainly help to weed out bad candidates. You must begin to add logic to the emotion of interviewing and selecting.

 

          Do you conduct more than one interview with more than one manager? This process is not only about differing opinions it is about a process that would be expected for a top position. You must have good candidates go through a thorough process because that is what would be expected for a professional position. The key word is professional. You must begin to think and act in terms that will create a different belief system. Your belief system must change the environment and culture of your dealership to one of success and winning. Success and winning always starts when the leadership changes the belief system by raising the bar for expectations and lowering the bar for tolerations. You get what you expect and or tolerate.

 

          Struggling dealerships expect lesser quality and tolerate lesser quality work, behavior and results. Championship teams start with champion leaders and team members. Begin to turn your struggling dealership around today with a champion attitude, belief system, strategy and execution for recruiting and hiring champions.

 

For my two FREE Reports “Hiring Champions” and “Top Interviewing Questions” email me at info@tewart.com with the words “Hiring Champions”

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Comment by Mark Tewart on August 11, 2013 at 10:04pm

No problem Katie. If you could see the mistakes I make on a weekly basis your mistake pales in comparison. LOL

Comment by Katie Colihan on August 11, 2013 at 5:30pm

Mark! I scrolled down into the comments and ready your previous comment to DAVID (which I tend to do before commenting) and called you David.

I'm all for error correcting. ;) Regardless, well done! 

Comment by Mark Tewart on August 11, 2013 at 5:08pm

Thanks Katie

Comment by Katie Colihan on August 11, 2013 at 4:41pm

David, 

I can't tell you how many times I have worked for a dealership in which the owner hired "anyone" with the hopes that they could teach them the ways of the biz. While I get the idea, not wanting someone with pre existing experience that could cloud the judgment, I think that even inexperienced people, it takes a special "someone" with basic, ingrained qualities. Can you teach personality? I don't think so.

I personally didn't have any car biz experience when I was hired but I had a knack and passion for effective communication and that enabled me to sell myself, much like the upsell of a car.

Well done, here. Loved this!

Comment by Mark Tewart on August 8, 2013 at 10:58am

Thanks David

Comment by Mark Tewart on August 8, 2013 at 10:58am

Thanks Ron, I agree

Comment by Mark Tewart on August 8, 2013 at 10:57am

Thanks Clifford, I agree

Comment by Mark Tewart on August 8, 2013 at 10:56am

Thanks for your candid comments David. You are right. I have been a sounding board for better recruiting, hiring and training for over two decades. As much as we change in the business, we tend to stay the same in some areas. It is my very candid observation that most dealers will fall all over themselves for a new technical gadget or an advertising program but do not put but the smallest effort and money in to recruiting, hiring and training. Turnover is horrible and it starts with these issues and also better pay plans.

Comment by Mark Tewart on August 8, 2013 at 10:51am

Thanks for your comment or question Steve. You are right, it starts with managers or dealers and more specifically leadership.

Comment by Steve Richards on August 5, 2013 at 9:32pm

The #1 reason for failure, by your definition, should be management, shouldn't it?

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