| We are too Busy to Succeed |
seeing and hearing from dealers, managers and salespeople these days. |
Copyright© 2008-2010 Automotive Dealers Network. All rights reserved.
| By Joe Verde President Joe Verde Sales & Management Training email: jverde@automotivedealersnetwork.com |
Joe Verde Sales & Management Training is the largest sales
and management training company in the Automobile, RV
and Marine industries teaching their exclusive formula for
success. Joe Verde Sales & Management Training has a 23
year, verifiable track record of success and over half the top
500 dealerships are their customers. Additional information is
available at www.joeverde.com.
and management training company in the Automobile, RV
and Marine industries teaching their exclusive formula for
success. Joe Verde Sales & Management Training has a 23
year, verifiable track record of success and over half the top
500 dealerships are their customers. Additional information is
available at www.joeverde.com.
Here we are at the beginning of another “who knows what to expect” kind of year, and hardly anybody has a
real plan yet.
All logic and common sense says with everything that happened last year, this year really needs your
attention, your focus and your direction NOW.
real plan yet.
All logic and common sense says with everything that happened last year, this year really needs your
attention, your focus and your direction NOW.
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SM
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SM
The steps are simple...
1. Evaluate: Meet to go over last year and identify everything you did well, and every area you need to improve. This
is a several hours long meeting.
bad stuff you do, and the good things you do. If you plan on doing this right, this meeting will take several hours.
Remember that 80% of your success will come from just 20% of your activities. Don’t waste critical time by staying busy
but focusing on areas that have the least impact on your success.
3. Plan: Now it’s time to have a meeting and take each of your goals and lay out a clear plan of action in every area
you want to improve. Remember to include a list of improvements for each salesperson and every manager.
You’ll certainly have more goals than just improving the basics, building value, closing, and improving your follow up,
incoming sales calls and Internet leads. Remember though, that just in these four areas alone, you can literally triple
your sales volume and more than triple your net profit in 2010 – so make improvements in these areas a priority.
4. Assign Clear Responsibilities: You’ve done your evaluations, found your strengths and weaknesses, and you’ve
set your goals for improvement and written your plans.
Now specific managers have to be responsible for, and held accountable to follow each plan to reach each goal. Once
you reach this stage, there is no place to hide. If you’re the manager responsible for improving two salespeople’s Basic
skills – it’s like playing ‘tag’, and you’re ‘it’.
This step will separate the managers with effective training, coaching and management skills from those without. Being
a “Good Car Guy” isn’t enough – each manager has to become a “Great Trainer, Coach and Manager” to grow this
year.
5. Action: Here’s your toughest challenge. Between the fire drills every day, managers’ lack of training to know how to
manage their priorities, and their lack of requirements to follow through on the daily training, tracking, coaching and
activity management of each salesperson on their team; without effective training, this step has a 90% failure rate.
1. Evaluate: Meet to go over last year and identify everything you did well, and every area you need to improve. This
is a several hours long meeting.
- I’m not just talking about ‘sales’ and ‘gross’. I’m talking about how you generate sales and gross – your activities.
Those include your advertising, prospecting, follow up, handling phone and Internet leads, the basics, closing,
objections, negotiation, desking, selling in service, selling in finance, your customer retention process and more.
- Evaluating also means taking a hard look at every individual in your sales department, and at everything they do
(activities) and everything they accomplish (results). We aren’t just talking about salespeople, either. You need
to look at every person’s performance who is involved in making a sale, from the dealer down.
- Every activity above is totally controlled by your managers and salespeople.
- Your salespeople, their skills and their habits determine their performance in every activity. That means your
managers are 100% responsible for every salesperson’s activity, every salesperson’s skill and every
salesperson’s attitude.
You can’t improve in 2010 if you don’t evaluate everything you did in 2009. That won’t happen in most
dealerships though, because of ego (can’t admit they could improve), arrogance (I’m a hotshot and don’t need
to improve) and
laziness (I just don’t want to bother).
That means they will continually repeat past mistakes again and again.
bad stuff you do, and the good things you do. If you plan on doing this right, this meeting will take several hours.
Remember that 80% of your success will come from just 20% of your activities. Don’t waste critical time by staying busy
but focusing on areas that have the least impact on your success.
These activities will give you the biggest ROI bang for your time and money...
- • The Basics. You can increase sales 50% within 90 days by following the basics.
Every salesperson has to treat every prospect as though they are a buyer today. This requires a strong initial
training process, and then daily training of every salesperson, daily tracking of every salesperson and their
activities, daily 1-1 coaching and daily activity management of every salesperson.
- Results ... “From 10 to 19 units!”
- “Before your Sales Workshop my 90 day average was 10 units. After class I started using the proper greeting
and following the Joe Verde (basics) process from start to finish with every customer. Last month I had my best
month ever with 19 units! Thanks Joe.” James Duncan, SP, Kamloops Ford Lincoln, Kamloops, BC
- • Staying Off Price / Focusing On Value. You can increase your gross profit 40%-50% within 30-60 days by
properly handling price and selling the value of your product instead of focusing on and selling how cheap you
can offer your product.
- Every salesperson has to get on one page in selling in 2010: the “Value” page. To bypass price on the lot so
they can follow the basics to build more value, also requires a strong initial training process for every
salesperson, and then daily training, tracking, 1-1 coaching and daily activity management.
- Results ... “I went from 10 units to 18 with JVTN™”
- “Before training with JVTN™ I was the typical 10-car guy. Then I learned how to bypass price objections and
started going to work to work and now I’m averaging 18 cars a month. Thanks for helping me increase my sales
and my paycheck!” Michael Gonzalez, SP, James Hodge Hyundai, Muskogee, OK
- • Closing The Sale – Overcoming Objections: 80% of all sales are made after the 5th attempt at closing, yet
75% of the salespeople only know one way to ask for the order and only one way to try to overcome buyer’s
objections. You can increase your current sales volume and your gross profit 40% - 50% by closing the sale on
value and by effectively handling the buying objections salespeople get.
- The sale is made in steps: The Basics are the steps that lead to a “Closing Opportunity”. Building value
increases your gross and your potential to “Close” the sale. But, and this is a BIG BUT, once you reach the point
where it’s time to “wrap it up” – the sale and your gross profit on each sale will still depend on how your
salespeople close the sale and handle your prospect’s most common objections, especially price.
- Even with a perfectly set up sale, a salesperson still has to learn a simple 4-step closing process that will fully
commit a prospect to taking a vehicle home today – without ever asking, “Will you buy it today if...?” This
requires a strong initial training process, and then daily training to master this skill, daily tracking to measure
their success, daily 1-1 coaching and daily activity management of every salesperson.
- Results ... “I doubled my earnings!”
- “I went to the Joe Verde Closing Clinic and I have doubled my earnings. I have achieved the Top
Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep Salesperson status in Ontario, and I’m in the top 7 in sales in Canada. I recommend this
course to anyone who wishes to make car sales a career and not just a job. I agree with Joe that sales can be
the highest paying career out there!” Jack Dugas, Salesperson, Chenier Motors (Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge),
Timmins, ON
- • Phone Skills: Unsold Follow Up / Incoming Sales Calls / Internet Leads. Depending on your current level of
follow up with every unsold prospect they talk to, and your volume of incoming sales calls and Internet leads, you
can increase your unit sales 50-75% within 90 days by developing your salespeople’s phone and follow up skills.
- They can’t call people back without contact information, so every salesperson has to be taught how to get
contact information from at least 75% of your unsold prospects, and they have to learn how to control the call so
they can turn each call and lead into an appointment that will show up on the lot. This requires a strong initial
training process for every salesperson, and then daily training, daily tracking of every salesperson and their
activities, daily 1-1 coaching and daily activity management of every salesperson.
- Results ... “From 8 a month – to 7 in one day after class.”
- “Before Joe’s Workshop I averaged 8-10 cars a month. After class we were having a sale so I started putting my
new phone skills to use. With my new confidence and knowing how to ask for the sale, I set 8 appointments and
sold 7 of them! Thanks to Joe and his training staff for changing the way I sell!” Lindsey Little, SP, Wheaton
Chevrolet, Regina, SK
- Results ... “I went from 15 to 21 Units”
- “Joe: Before attending your Phone / Internet Workshop I was averaging 15 units a month. In just one month, I
increased my units to 21 (a 28% increase). We processed 38 Internet leads, set 10 appointments (26%) and
sold 9 units (90% ). We took 50 incoming calls, set 20 appointments (40%) and sold 12 (60%). I attribute my
success to your class which taught me how to set more appointments. Thanks, Joe.” Angelique Morales, Internet
SP, Toyota of Northwest Arkansas
3. Plan: Now it’s time to have a meeting and take each of your goals and lay out a clear plan of action in every area
you want to improve. Remember to include a list of improvements for each salesperson and every manager.
You’ll certainly have more goals than just improving the basics, building value, closing, and improving your follow up,
incoming sales calls and Internet leads. Remember though, that just in these four areas alone, you can literally triple
your sales volume and more than triple your net profit in 2010 – so make improvements in these areas a priority.
4. Assign Clear Responsibilities: You’ve done your evaluations, found your strengths and weaknesses, and you’ve
set your goals for improvement and written your plans.
Now specific managers have to be responsible for, and held accountable to follow each plan to reach each goal. Once
you reach this stage, there is no place to hide. If you’re the manager responsible for improving two salespeople’s Basic
skills – it’s like playing ‘tag’, and you’re ‘it’.
This step will separate the managers with effective training, coaching and management skills from those without. Being
a “Good Car Guy” isn’t enough – each manager has to become a “Great Trainer, Coach and Manager” to grow this
year.
5. Action: Here’s your toughest challenge. Between the fire drills every day, managers’ lack of training to know how to
manage their priorities, and their lack of requirements to follow through on the daily training, tracking, coaching and
activity management of each salesperson on their team; without effective training, this step has a 90% failure rate.
- Q) Which step is most important? A) Every step. Do each step well and grow or skip steps and just keep
making excuses.
TM