We have all been the new person at one time or another. A few days of training or shadowing an employee or watching the manager will properly set a green employee up for success, correct? Generally speaking, for many industries, not so much.
It is certainly no secret that sales consultants have one of the highest turnover rates within the auto industry, with some not even lasting their entire first shift and many others leaving before 90 days. What’s more is that, when they do leave, it is commonly because there “wasn’t enough opportunity”, the hours just didn’t work, or just an inability to fit in.
While common responses to these points of contention by leadership are that these employees were not cut out for the space or didn’t’ t have a chance, Chris Vitale, Vice President and Partner of Phone Ninjas, recognizes how this stance can be damaging to the success of the industry. In fact. If we took the time to evaluate our processes fairly and honestly, could we really assert that 90% of salespeople that quit did so because they did not truly have what it takes to make it? Or, rather, could it be because leadership failed to provide an adequate opportunity to help them make things work through proper training? Remember that simply shoving the new hire with some guy at the company or shadowing the manager does not qualify as training.
Here, Chris Vitale addresses the Sales Consultant turnover within his industry as well as how leaders can work to rectify it.
Understanding the Position New Salespeople are Placed In
Many say that the auto industry gets in your blood. Meaning, once you are in it, you are in it for life. That, of course, is not the case for everyone, and it is certainly not the case for new hires as they have the highest turnover rates found in the industry.
Chris cautions leaders to remember that we all started somewhere, and it was very likely not selling 20 cars a month. Top performers figured out quickly how to learn on the job and make things work, but one cannot deny that it takes hard work to figure the industry out. What that doesn’t mean is that all successful salespeople in the industry already knew what they needed to and didn’t require training.
More to this point, it does not mean that individuals who quit before figuring it out themselves did not have the talent or means to make it happen either. In many cases, it is simply because they were not properly trained and that sales leaders should more closely evaluate their training and onboarding processes.
The Value of Proper Training
Chris Vitale notes that there have been times where the new guy, despite not being trained, is assisted by the general manager or Sales Manager and is able to successfully sell a car. Once they sell their first car, they may figure it out. However, figuring things out means that they have their own sales process now, which can in turn make it much more difficult to coach them on by the book methods. Even worse, it can be hard to help them work on breaking points and areas of opportunity as well once the foundation has been established.
If proper training is put in place, all of these factors would be aligned, and this goes for top performers who have already proven their mettle within the industry as well. A streamlined, standardized process does not just provide better results on an individual basis, but it leads to better management processes overall and stronger results as a team. With the improved processes, team performance, and customer service, it also creates a more comprehensive and enjoyable customer experience!
Are New Hires Costing You More Than Your Top Sellers?
One common complaint about new Sales Consultants is that they cost dealerships money. This can be through a bad we-owe, a messed up trade-in, etc. Chris upholds that, despite this argument, it is not just new hires that are costing organizations money. For example, it might not appear that your 15-car sales employee is costing your money, but have you ever fully reviewed their promised agreed to repairs, we-owes, or misinformation that was provided to a customer to seal a deal?
Administrators should not lose sight of the fact that our most experienced professionals are just better at working the desk and coaching customers than the new hires are- and bad-owes and promise repairs can certainly be damaging to a dealer’s front and back-end profitability. A few hundred or thousand tends to add up very fast. So, maybe your top performers are selling cars, but that does not necessarily mean that they are not costing about as much as your new Sales Consultants.
What Can Leaders Do Instead?
The question of how leadership can help goes back to training. Just because top Sales Consultants are selling cars does not mean that they are profitable, and it does not mean that they are following your dealer’s sales processes either. Naturally this makes one wonder if the new sales guy could also those 10-15 vehicles within a month with just a little more direction from leadership and receive the training necessary to be more effective?
Often times, after managers have helped the new sales consultant, they are thrown to the wolves and forced to fend for themselves. This likely is what leads to them quitting, and it can also cause issues at the dealer level. Instead of leaders suggesting that they new a new hire would mess things up, we should instead consider how the outcome may have been more favorable if the new hire had been given training on how to handle objections, lot-ups/phone-us, Picture how many more cars they could sell a month!?
Rather than keeping the door open and looking to hire 1-2 new sales consultants monthly, our processes could be better if we took the time to create and maintain an onboarding program to give them the training, they need to be successful. We need to stop thinking that core concepts learned on the job and through training are “common sense”. If they were, we would see a much higher success rate. Sales leaders need to realize how many Sales Consultants they are letting quit instead of refining their ongoing process.
It Starts with Caring About the Process
Chris Vitale urges sales leaders in the auto industry to consider how many phone-ups are being mishandled by top performers to get down to the five or so that show. How many floor-floor ups are burned to get to the 10 that sit? Chris acknowledges that through conversations with leaders, many do not care as long as they continue pumping out their desired monthly outcomes. To him this is nonsensical and shortsighted.
Imagine the power of having a team of properly trained sales agents set up to handle the phones, the floor, and the web while overcoming any obstacles thrown their way. Instead of having one team member burn through 250 to sell 25, maybe you could have 10 working those 250 properly to sell 125. This is the strength of paying proper attention to your internal processes, and it starts with caring about the process.
About Chris Vitale
Chris Vitale is the Vice President and Partner of Phone Ninjas an industry leader in dealership phone training and sales trainings that empowers businesses to close more leads, improve call quality, and sell more products and services. Chris has over two decades of experience developing, launching, and refining sales, service, and tech strategies and solutions to streamline their processes.
