Most people know I like to have fun when training and I work to get everyone, whether they are in service, parts or sales, to understand the dealership has one purpose which is to make obscene amounts of money. Each person on your team should understand that there is nothing wrong with the dealership making great profits. This is accomplished by not only [...]
In spite of the various shelter in place orders by the states, most of our dealers are finding their year is either just slightly off of their projections or on target with what they were hoping for. While that is good news for the industry, no one knows exactly what the late spring and early summer might bring. That’s why every customer that [...]
With everything that is currently going on in dealerships, nothing is more noticeable than the phones ringing off the hook. With each state, county and city having their own individual rules on social distancing, showrooms being open, or parts being delivered curbside, the phone has become once again the lifeline we have to connect with our customers. I thought because of that it [...]
As we think about setting our goals over the next 90 days, let’s focus our attention next on whole goods, or the sales department. During season, if we miss the mark on this department, it is painfully obvious! We like to view the whole goods in a dealership as an apple tree. We plant the tree, through the sale of a piece of [...]
One of the most important jobs of a department manager is working to keep their team motivated. In the parts department it is even more important than in service and sales because of the amount of customer contact that happens daily. One unmotivated parts person can impact both your parts sales and your customers’ experience with your dealership. One of the simplest and [...]
Calculate closing ratio It all starts off with some basic calculations, the first being your closing ratio. Let’s say that you kept track for a two-week period of time and found that 70 people had come into your dealership to look at equipment. Out of that group of 70, 20 ended up buying from you. Keep in mind that the type or size [...]
Compensation, regardless of the position in a dealership, is always a hot topic. How much can I afford to pay? What level of performance do I have the right to expect as an owner from my people? How do I know whether I am paying too much, or just as bad, not enough, and then risk losing my good people to a competitor? [...]
Who is your typical customer? Do you know? Grab a piece of paper and write down the answers to the following questions about your “typical” customer. What is their gender? What is their average age? What is their favorite radio station? Got it? Now, next to that I want you to write your gender, your age and your favorite radio station. Do the [...]
Regardless of whether it’s service, parts, sales, or rental, each department has various roles that need to be filled to successfully take care of customers and to make sure the dealership is growing as projected. In the past, I have discussed both the service and parts roles; this week I want to focus specifically on sales. Depending upon the size of your dealership, [...]
When you think about sales people, what comes to mind? For most people, it’s words like slick, slimy, greasy, or con artist. Now tell me, who wouldn’t want to be a sales person when those words come to mind? As you are looking for salespeople, I think most dealers we work with would agree that the words above aren’t words that they would [...]