SALES MANAGER ACTIVITY

[GONEFISHIN]

Do you mark on your contracts somewhere that they are a house deal? Has your mgr handed out house deals by taking turns in the past? Unfortunately if these things are occuring they will drop your sales moral very fast. Is the salesperson new? Does the mgr see a huge potential in the salesmen so he gifts him more to make him hungrier and see his own potential?

[BENJAMIN4165]

Both the Salesmanager and the salesperson have been with our Company for about six years, and no, we have no way of knowing for the most part which deals are house deals or referrals to this particular individual, since he gets a lot of calls and walk ins that ask specifically for a Manager, I guess some people feel they will get treated better that way, or their price will be lower.

Ben

[pjpeery]

ben

i would have the salesmanager log all house deals for 2 months and then you can see who is getting them ..

paul

[BENJAMIN4165]

Paul, that would be great if we could get an accurate count, but what is to prevent him from skewing the tabulations?

[GONEFISHIN]

Just a thought, does the salesman have a higher closing ratio than the rest of the sales staff? If he does, is it because he has more tossed his way? If none of these thought's ring true,for the benefit of the doubt, it will posion your frontend, attitudes get bad, cut throat gets worse. Makes for bad business, customers can feel it, not ethical, i would have to say good by. Tough to do.

[kcatdeejay]

If in fact such activity is taking place, the sales manager's value just dropped to zero when he crossed the line. If it is condoned or overlooked, the damage it can do to your sales staff will be monumental. Tenured employees should have to adhere to the same standards. Try the MBWA approach and see just how well known this activity is. Chances are, if it is happening, others know of it, too. How you handle it will set the tone for the future.

[morley01]

Ben,
It sounds like you dont trust this person, and he may have altered (enhanced) his pay plan without your knowledge. Pretty serious stuff in my store. How many other things has this manager pulled that he or she has gotten away with?

Good luck.

[Lhansen]

Trust is all we have in this business!
I would have someone other than the sales manager log all the ups. You have a receptionist or a sales assistant that could do this for you. It can be open or discreet, depending on the tone of the store. NADA published a Code of Ethics a year or so ago. Might be a good time to bring it out and have ALL employees read and sign off on it.
If the sales manager has been doing this, what else has he or she been doing? Do you review all deals and incentives? Might be a good thing to do, to make sure your people know that you are in control and watching over the store.

All the best!

Linda

Linda Graham Hansen
Auto Dealer Focus www.autodealerfocus.com

[This message has been edited by Lhansen (edited 05-25-2006).]

[pjdevereaux2003]

Benjamin

I would offer them a bit of severance, say their last month's or two month's earnings in return for a release of all liability. Otherwise, they are employees at will and I would take the risk that they will sue, which 99% of the time they will not. Given your strong suspicions, termination is not unreasonable and that is the standard to which you would be held in any lawsuit. Not proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

[TC-Fireman]

I would firstly have to say woooaaaaahhhh.

Don't rush into this. There has to be a way to investigate this on some level.

Remember that you can still rely on the balance of probabilities to either issue a verbal warning or get them into a disciplinary hearing if the evidence supports it.

Sometimes even threatening a hearing ( in a diplomatic way of course ) is enough to sort the problem out.

Here's what I would do.

Sit them both down in a meeting with just you and say something like this.

" Guys there is a very important reason why we have to have this meeting urgently and solve this situation out."

" There seems to be talk that you guys are working together with supplying deals in return for favours or etc etc etc."

" I cannot allow this to happen as this will end up bringing the company into disrepute as the effect that this will cause on your fellow colleagues is enormous and this will have a detrimental effect on the company as a whole"

" I would like to let you both know directly from me that there is going to be a investigation about these alleged rumours, and I want to give you the chance now to explain anything which may come into the open"

"If you choose to not say anything and nothing comes up then that is fine"

" However if you choose to remain silent and evidence proves that you two have in some way been working together, the penalty could be instant dismissal."

Something along those lines.

Actually I have changed my mind on the tactic. I would stick with calling them in but I would do it one by one but let the first individual know that right after you have finished with him you will then call the other chap in without allowing them to speak beforehand.

This works rather well.

Good luck