Managers – It’s Time to Get Involved

In case you’re wondering this article is for managers, not salespeople. Last month we examined the importance of the Test-Drive, which established an appropriate awareness about salespeople who fail to build value for their customers. Assuming that was taken to heart, it’s time for the next step. Here’s the simple question: What IS next?

Did you know that manager TO’s increase closing ratios by 21%? That’s quite a statistic! So why not get involved early and often Go introduce yourself!

“But I don’t want to micro-manage my team.”

That, to be frank, is a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to manage. By being involved in the sales process you are managing in a very general fashion. No one is asking you to breathe down the neck of each and every salesperson, but there has to be some middle ground.

Allow me to posit this: if you lack the basic knowledge of how many customers your individual salespeople took, then how could you possibly know their sales average? How could you know how to use your expertise to help them improve, to better train them? The obvious answer is YOU CAN’T. It’s time to get involved in a very basic sense.

Don’t be a mysterious figure behind a desk that occasionally makes a surprise appearance for a customer. Make an impact. Make an early introduction before the salesperson and customer get down in the trenches during a negotiation. If your only appearance is during negotiation, then you will automatically be perceived as a threat because the customer will more than likely be on the defensive. You will appear as nothing more than reinforcements for the opposition.

At that point you aren’t likely making things better. A TO is most useful if you have properly presented yourself at the BEGINNING so as to establish yourself as a friendly faction to the customer. You’re simply saying hello, asking a few non-intrusive questions, and making it known that you want them to have a great experience.

The fact that the average customer only visits between 1 and 1.5 dealerships before purchasing a car has become reasonably well known. So it’s fair to say that if there’s a way to increase closing ratios by 21% without ever spending a dime, then it’s more crucial than ever to do it! The point of getting management involved is not to scare a customer into buying a car, but to use the higher level of authority to get things done more prudently and quicker.

Aside from the numbers, why is managerial involvement really important? It’s simple. Just as a Test-Drive builds value in the product, if done right, managerial involvement builds value for the dealership. A customers perception of a manager is that they have an ability to affect how things go, why not show the customer that you will have a positive effect on how it goes.

You can influence the culture of the dealership, affect the very core of how it operates. Whether true or not, that is often the perception. With that being said, IF you (the management) make a fantastic first impression and establish a degree of trust, then that directly effects the customers perception of the dealership as a whole.

Have you ever had a friend tell you “That restaurant was unbelievable! I mean the food was great, but the waiter was so nice! Plus, the manager visited us and even joked with us for a few minutes.” But TWO people alone shaped their entire perception of the restaurant. Because of good food and those TWO encounter, your friend thought the entire business is amazing. Plus, they shared the experience with you.

Do you not want that for your dealership? I’m not saying you will necessarily change the national perception of car dealerships, but you will change the perception of the customers that you interact with.

Invest in your future. Make your customers perceive you and your team like this, and people WILL associate it with your dealership.