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10 Ways Companies Drive Away Talent

ddavis

Boss
Jun 28, 2011
1,491
496
First Name
Doug
DealerRefresh is mostly about the internet and geek stuff but unless you only manage yourself, being able to attract, retain and motivate quality people is of serious importance.

I saw this article by Liz Ryan on Forbes. As I was reading this, I kept thinking how out of touch most dealerships are with the majority of people. Read here.

Decades ago, NADA published the statistic that 87% of people that enter car sales are gone in a year. I doubt that this has changed.
 
Salespeople, at many dealerships, are as expendable as toilet paper. This is a source of contention, with me, as I have always held good salespeople in high esteem.

Salespeople fail for three main reasons: they aren't trained properly, they can't control the customer or can't ask for the money. Dealerships must take full responsibility for providing adequate training for their salespeople. Managers have a moral responsibility not only for their salespeople but the dealership. You can train most salespeople to take control of the customer and you can teach them ways to make it easier to ask for the money. This is important because you usually have to ask more than once. You can also hire women, they have an innate ability to ask for money as evidenced by my two daughters and granddaughters.
 
Part 1).
Everywhere we look, hundreds and thousands of college graduates are underemployed working retail stores and restaurants.
Everywhere we look, dealerships are filled with... old dudes (Hey! I am an old dude :)

Part 2).
If automobile sales can produce 6 figure income... Where's all the hungry new blood?

Answer: We get what we asked for. One or two young new shooters show up and everyone else looking else where.

Industrywide, our recruiting and training model is built to find this rare, high performing shark. It just so happens, this recruiting and training fits the Alfa-male profile of the general manager as he came up through the ranks.

Quality talent out there isn't driven exclusively by high income. They want to become part of a winning team, to be part of the brand. They also don't want 50-70 hour work weeks.
 
Recruiting top talent is a challenge to owners & management. You can't just put a Band-Aid on it and expect it to work. It has to go all way into the core of your business.

Glassdoor.com did a study of top-performing retailers*, employees gave Nordstrom No. 2 spot. The employees gave high marks for factors like “commission-based” sales performance, “awesome employee discounts” and good pay, “especially during the busy season.”

Ok. Nothing extra special here, why is Nordstrom so awesome? It's because their staff are an integral part of the Nordstrom experience, the Nordstrom brand.

Here's a glassdoor review:
“The best reasons to work at Nordstrom are the interactions that you get when working with your customers. Also the relationships that you build.”


Nordstroms management created an experience of world class loyalty for their shoppers. You the only way they accomplish this is to deeply integrate this world class commitment and empower the staff into the brand experience.

One price stores are well on their way to this new "brand experience" world.

*http://www.forbes.com/sites/elainewong/2011/03/17/the-highest-paying-retail-sales-jobs/
 
After getting out of the military, I went back to college on the GI Bill. I had a job with the Veterans Affairs office so obviously I met a lot of veteran/students. I ended up joining a fraternity that was national but locally made up with guys fresh from the rice paddies. When the bars closed you could find the hottest girls at this fraternity house. Unlike other fraternities, there was no personal servitude, nobody getting beat with a paddle or anything of that nature. Honestly, we didn't want people that would tolerate that kind of nonsense. Most fraternities are made up of members that were abused as pledges. They were abused which gives them the right to be abusers. It's some kind of sick right of passage. This same mentality exists in many dealerships and even some dealer groups. I've had my share of battles with other managers and the way they have treated one of my people. As a department director, you mainly effect the culture of your department.
 
The young kids in their 20's (guys) most of them are wimps and do not want to work. I have found the ladies in their 20's are the ones work and work hard. The car business is not a easy business. It takes TIME and TALENT and genuine communication "people" skills...Most kids in their 20's lack in the people skills because they communicate electronically and not verbally. Those who succeed in car sales are the "older guys" who have grasped technology and used it to their advantage and not resisted it....Thats my take and I deal with this every day at my 3 stores....
 
Todd, You might also try to recruit veterans. They are used to the hours, and taking direction. It is important that salespeople have a clear understanding of what is expected of them. It doesn't hurt your image to let the community know that you support the troops.

I started a thread about a friend that is a salesperson, in the metroplex. I was shocked by the response especially from people that I normally agree with. I was accustomed to being able to recruit some of the very best talent in the market. Usually, strong salespeople are difficult to manage. I have always taken pride in being able to control them. Here is a link to that tread.
 
Define: Alpha-Male

The young kids in their 20's (guys) most of them are wimps and do not want to work.....Most kids in their 20's lack in the people skills because they communicate electronically and not verbally. Those who succeed in car sales are the "older guys" who have grasped technology and used it to their advantage and not resisted it....Thats my take and I deal with this every day at my 3 stores....

;-)
 
From my seat, our industry's inability to attract new talent is a product of our generations-old sales employment model and is a bit of a "canary in the coal mine" signal.


Dealer Principals (DP) outside the box ask "how much of my business financial performance comes from "my organization"? Then, they'll want to compare this against how much ADDITIONAL business does the commissioned sales staff generate (over a non-commissioned sales staff).

Example:
If you have 10 reps and the avg pay per sales rep is $45k, How will 15 Customer Service & Product Specialist Rep (aka "Brand Evangelist") at $30k compare financially?

Additionally, what of the "Customer LifeTime Value" (CLV)? Does the traditional sales commission model help/hurt the your brand experience (which will be seen in improving CLV dollars)? Does the traditional commission model help/hurt referral sales to family, neighbors, co-workers and friends? Will a sales team of "Brand Evangelists" create customers that are also "Brand Evangelists" (aka Nordstroms)?


Be on the lookout for dealers conducting a WAR study.
WTF is WAR? WAR is a major league baseball term that stands for "Wins Above Replacement"*.
"The WAR value recorded for a player is claimed to reflect the number of additional wins their team has amassed relative to the number of expected team wins if that player was substituted by a replacement level player": a player that may be brought to the team for minimal cost and effort".​

WAR is simply a replacement player study.

Surely some of the 20,000 dealers over the USA are running a WAR test now (comparing commissioned reps to Customer/Product Specialists) IMO, Look for these performance insights to come from One price stores.


*Wins Above Replacement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Customer lifetime value - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
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