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The next morning I arrived and was introduced to Anthony — my sales closer. Anthony would show me the ropes and when it became time to close the sale, I was to introduce Anthony to the customer to wrap up the deal.
I was handed a few brochures for product knowledge and then told how to locate a particular vehicle. That's it — end of formal training. The old-timers were reluctant to share any insight into the business. They had seen so many rookies come and go that new people had become a burden on their resources and time. They didn't even want to know my name until thirty days had passed. Green peas wasted sales opportunities and were resented for it. Finding answers to questions became increasingly difficult. Managers didn't want to spend the time to give classes because they assumed you would be quitting within 30 days. In eight weeks I witnessed over a dozen new people quit, that was fifty percent of their entire sales staff. The employee turnover was horrendous. After my training, (two hours) I was told to start selling cars. I worked for days trying different approaches on customers, studying the inventory and formulating more questions than anyone was willing to answer. I was standing alongside people that ranged in experience from several days to thirty years. The most frustrating situations were those when a customer asked me questions I should of known the answers to. It was totally up to me to ferret-out the answers. How frustrating that can be. How can customers be expected to trust your judgment when they don't sense that you are a knowledgeable professional? How can they possibly be expected to follow your recommendations? I struggled through my first 60-hour work-week without a sale. Slowly, the sales started to dribble in —but it was a numbers game. I was so aggravated with the management, that I almost quit myself a few times. I had had enough! I stormed into Al's office and snorted, "Meeting tonight — your house — six o'clock." I was fuming. How can they expect anyone to succeed under these circumstances? Al looked at me and smiled, " Looks like you have some recommendations, Pete. "You bet I do, Al —six o'clock." The rest of the day was fruitless; I was de-motivated by frustration. Our shift ended at 5:30 p.m. A quick bite to eat and off to Al's I went. Al, sitting poolside with a tall drink, unwinding from the day’s stresses greeted me. Poor Al, I really let him have it. I blasted him with complaints. He just looked at me calmly and asked, "Well doc, you've put your finger on the problem, can you help me solve it?" At least the man was open to suggestions.
"Al, the culture is all wrong at that dealership. No one wants to help or share. It's no wonder that turnover is what it is. New people have enough obstacles to deal with outside of training. They want to fit in and be given the tools to be successful — that's a manager's responsibility. When a manager fails to do that there is no loyalty in your organization. Without employee loyalty you have nothing, my friend. Here's what I'm going to do. I'll finish this month in my own way. I'll do what I did in the plumbing business. Let's meet again in three weeks and review."
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Learning to sell cars is like being thrown from a helicopter in the middle of the ocean and asked to learn to swim. It is a daunting task to just tread water — let alone swimming with the big fish.| Peter Morici - [Intro] | [Articles] | [Email] | [Website] |
| The views expressed in this article are those of the individual author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or staff of MasterPlumbers.com |
