When working with dealerships, I’m often asked, “How can I help my new salesperson succeed – right from the start?” Most salespeople, especially new ones, fail for one reason; they don’t produce enough daily activity to get their business up and going. This is why I encourage owners and sales managers to make sure that the salesperson is starting out with a sales funnel that is full of customers to contact. Whether your salespeople are new or experienced, nothing can create sales success more than a full sales funnel. If I were starting a new salesperson, I would go into my database and pull up a list of customers who have purchased from me in the last 10 years but have not purchased anything within the last 5 years. This group has the highest probability of buying from your dealership in the near future.
While it varies according to how long you have been in business, most of the dealerships we consult with will find that a simple search will generate a couple of thousand customer names. From those, you should load your new salesperson up with a list of 400 names & phone numbers. That should be enough to fill their sales funnel and set them on the road for a successful year.
After they receive the list of names, their job is to reach out and make a call to each one. They should let the customer know they are new with your dealership, that the owner (insert your name here) asked them to give them a call to introduce themselves, and to see if they have any needs the dealership could help them with. Most of the customers they call will be kind and pleasant to them and a few will even say, “By the way, we were thinking about getting a new, bigger or different piece of equipment and I was wondering what it might cost to upgrade?”
It is amazing that with this specific group of customers how easy it is to get a new salesperson up and going quickly. It is not uncommon to have owners report back to me their salesperson ended up exceeding their objectives and are on target for a stronger second year. Whether your sales people are new or experienced, having a full sales funnel is one of the best ways to avoid failure and reach new levels of sales success!
