Round robin, is it really fair?

[Chris Fruchey]

I was recently tasked with starting a BDC at our store due to blown sales calls, not logging, and let's face it sales consultants are lazy. I started at the beginning of the month and we are already seeing a huge increase in shown and sold appointments even though we do not get near as many sales calls as we thought - (actually half), due to the reps not logging it correctly in CRM. As it goes now I answer sales incoming and whether an appointment is set or not, I round robin the lead and monitor follow up. Here is why I am asking for help inherently you have stronger salespeople and lazy ones as well as those that will not be here in a month or 2 because they do not have the capacity for sales ie; mental fortitude, capacity to learn, or the drive. Another issue is that the guys that camped by the phones and did pretty well are blacking the entire sales floor out.I can not stand to know that the person I just spoke to is hot to trot and a sure deal, Bob is up and cannot close a door. Is there a best practice when giving out appointments/leads?
Any advice is appreciated..

 

[Steve Stauning]

A basic round-robin for leads and appointments generally works well only when you previously identify your "qualified" performers and put them in a round-robin distribution model.

The key is "qualified" performers.

For example, if someone cannot close appointments at an acceptable rate, why are they given BDC appointments? They're clearly not following your processes and they don't deserve to be on your store's "A Team" (Appointment Team). Only "A Team" members are given BDC appointments - everyone else must generate their own Ups or wait on the Up Bus until they can qualify for the A Team.

Likewise, you would never retain a BDC Agent who failed to respond to leads or didn't follow your lead-handling processes, so why does a floor salesperson get to participate in the distribution of these leads if they fail to perform at an acceptable level? Create an Internet Sales Team and allow them to participate in the lead distributions. If unqualified salespeople want to join this team, they have to prove they're capable first. (Perhaps by generating X number of appointments from the sold database in a given month.)

Generally speaking, poor performers will argue that including everyone in the round-robin is "fair," but is it? What's fair is what sells the most cars for the store; end of story. It's not fair to the top performers that they get the same number of opportunities as the guy churning through your appointments and selling 7 cars a month.

 

[Chris Fruchey]

A basic round-robin for leads and appointments generally works well only when you previously identify your "qualified" performers and put them in a round-robin distribution model.

The key is "qualified" performers.

For example, if someone cannot close appointments at an acceptable rate, why are they given BDC appointments? They're clearly not following your processes and they don't deserve to be on your store's "A Team" (Appointment Team). Only "A Team" members are given BDC appointments - everyone else must generate their own Ups or wait on the Up Bus until they can qualify for the A Team.

Likewise, you would never retain a BDC Agent who failed to respond to leads or didn't follow your lead-handling processes, so why does a floor salesperson get to participate in the distribution of these leads if they fail to perform at an acceptable level? Create an Internet Sales Team and allow them to participate in the lead distributions. If unqualified salespeople want to join this team, they have to prove they're capable first. (Perhaps by generating X number of appointments from the sold database in a given month.)

Generally speaking, poor performers will argue that including everyone in the round-robin is "fair," but is it? What's fair is what sells the most cars for the store; end of story. It's not fair to the top performers that they get the same number of opportunities as the guy churning through your appointments and selling 7 cars a month.

I have been working on creating an appointment culture and your online training has really helped. Thank you for your advice Mr. Stauning it is a pleasure to hear from you.

 

[Steve Stauning]

My pleasure! Please let me know where I can help - always no charge for advice and answers. - Steve

 

[Chris Leslie]

Fair?? This aint called Car-Friends.. It's the Car Business. =)

 

[Brendan Dolan]

Here's what I helped implement in my dealer group, as I was pissed that weak salesmen were burning opportunity.
Mandatory phone certification for sales. That means you trained in the BDC, learned the word tracks, how to transfer, and how to log a call. If the BDC transferred you something, and you didn't log it, you were out for the rest of the month. Zero tolerance, and if someone complained it wasn't a sales call, I'd pull the recording and make a decision.
Once they showed, we again had mandatory logging of everything in the CRM. Drivers license, updated info, email address, what steps of the sale were completed, etc.
After we had that data, the guys that closed car deals got the majority of the leads, and when they were full or busy, we'd go down a rung and hit up the B team. Hate to say it, but it's sales, and it's business. I'm not there to be everyones friend, and everyones spoon feeder; I'm there to move metal.
It pissed a lot of low performers off, but hey, that's life.

 

[Christian Salazar]

For me, I personally want my salesperson with the best closing percentage touching as many leads as they can... it’s fai to the employees yes, but round robin sometimes isn’t fair to the dealership...

 

[Alex Snyder]

For me, I personally want my salesperson with the best closing percentage touching as many leads as they can...

The guy who only puts people in the CRM to print paperwork and cards every breathing thing that touches the pavement?

 

[Christian Salazar]

You make no sense... why would a person like that exist in his new BDC?

 

[Alex Snyder]

You make no sense... why would a person like that exist in his new BDC?

My apologies Christian. I didn't realize you were replying to someone else. Round Robins were originally created for the sales floor and later adopted within ILM technology. Some general managers have used a round robin system to combat that sales person with the artificially high closing ratio I was referring to. That's where my head went when I read your post.... obviously out of context.

For both our sakes, do you mind using the "Reply" button when you are responding to someone else? This way we'll all be communicating better.