The culture of our business

[calgm988]

Has anyone seen the numbers? It appears as if volume has decreased but more importantly so has grosses. Why? Volume of customers, lack of quality sales people, perhaps its the variety of media outlets that limit your marketing approach?

Anyone that's been around our business has seen these trends more than once. Like any retail outlet they're cyclical. So, in a challenging market how do we rebound?

The answer is simple; go back to the basics. I'm not talking about reverting to '70's sales tactics but rather re-inventing our business. Train your manager's, internet departments, sales staff and "manage" your GSM's. Hold them accountable for proper follow-up,fifteen minute a day training and motivational meetings. Notice I said "motivational" and not "beat-downs". We're in control of our destiny. As influential business leaders it is our responsibility to generate the momentum to carry your dealership through trying times.

What do you do to keep your staff moving? What positive changes have you created? I'll share mine, what's yours?

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"focus on the purpose, not the outcome."

[bsilcox]

There is so much information availible thru the internet! Can we just apply it to our business of Automobile Sales/Fixed Op's to make our people better> We need to teach them to invest in their our careers. Can we get our Sales Teams to invest in their careers one hour a day? Even if we could get them to invest 15 minutes a day it would be great!! I believe that we need to train and train hard to teach our people to look at the whole picture not just what happens today!! Reguardless in the Vehicle Sales Department or the Service Sales Department they need to learn to invest in their long term future. If they are going to work in the Dealerships of the world, make it a career. I don't think we will ever get there treating Vehicle Sales People like minimum wage employees. How do we change that, So we don't have the on-going turn-over in Sales.

[tcollins]

I'm afraid that most people avoid the whole sales process more than going to the dentist. They just don't want to be hasseled. We need to consider why there are more people on our lots when we are closed than when we are open and fixed the problem. Only then are we going to see a reversal in the trends.