If the proposed change is introduced to the whole team as a concept that is beneficial to them and introduced in sections that the team can absorb and utilise, change is seen as a positive. In any team that employs change, there are always a minority of people who don't like change.

Yes it is in some respects, but from experience once people become accustomed to being accountable for performance KPI’s and have an explanation of why this process is being introduced, they generally adapt and embrace the Managing by Numbers philosophies. When any change is introduced by an organisation, there are always two questions that any person is asking themselves: How will this change effect me? Will it earn me more income? We know how to manage this change and increase sales and effectiveness.

When we are commissioned to consult and train in dealerships, I find that every sales consultant has their own sales process and most sales managers also have their own process. No party is aware of what the other party is doing. There is no “your company” sales process that all parties learn and use. Of course, Path to a Purchase is not set in concrete, instead it has some degree of fuzzy logic where it adapts to each persons personality. By having a structured selling system, every guest has a superior experience. Every Sales Consultant is accountable.  I believe that selling is a science, not an art form passed from each generation to the next.

In my recent visits to various clients’ dealerships, my focus is as always, on sales management performance and accountability utilising the Managing by Numbers sales managers support processes.

Working in a dealership last week, an experience crystalised my thinking on this topic and we want to share our thoughts with you.

In all high performing dealership, the DP sets sales targets and income targets for all departments each month.

In sales departments, the targets involve the following:

▪    Sales targets per month
▪    Average income targets pvs
▪    F&I penetration and income targets
▪    Car care income targets PVS
▪    Extended Warranty Penetration targets

Clearly each departmental manager operates a DOC so that they know exactly where they are operating compared to sales and income targets at any time of the working month.

Also, most of the great sales managers then break down the targets into weekly targets.

All of the high performing sales managers carry out weekly performance assessments (52 critical analysis points very 12) to ensure that their sales team members achieve their individual targets as the departments collective performance relies on each sales consultant and Business Manager and Car Care consultant achieving their individual sales and income targets.

My observation is that most sales managers don't view their sales team members as resources that are paid and empowered to achieve or exceed specific results and maximise their income.

What concerns us more is that when those resources fail to achieve the agreed targets, those people are allowed to continue to produce poor results, well below the agreed performance levels, for extended periods of time.

Every business is in fact a workplace and certain workplace rules apply.

If sales managers are doing weekly and EOM performance assessments, then a trend appears in the performance of all sales consultants.

If the trend is poor and not corrected with weekly counseling and training applied as required, then the sales manager will fail resulting in the dealership failing to achieve maximum ROI and profitability and manufacturer sales and CS targets.

If the sales team is competent, the overall closing ratio should exceed 25% over all sales disciplines: walk ins, phone ups and Internet leads.

So in order to achieve a 100 sales/month target, the sales department will need to achieve the required number of selling opportunities and in this case let’s assume 400 selling opportunities based on a universal minimum 25% real closing ratio.
This 400 selling opportunities is then divided amongst the number of sales team members, but from my experience the lower performers “hog” the selling opportunities and “miss” good customers.  
The better sales consultants follow process, take their time and work every prospect, (in conjunction with the sales manager), to the best possible conclusion.
Of course we can also break down the performance requirements into all of the individual performance KPI’s like achieving a 70% demo ratio, etc.
Using “Managing by Numbers”, targets should be allocated based on real market place opportunity. For example if the market place is flat and the target selling opportunities can’t be achieved, then the fall back position is obviously the closing ratio. Our higher performing dealers are reporting closing over 30% of ALL selling opportunities.