In order to grow, you must coach employees up by training them or you must replace them and hire better employees. Otherwise, your company will fall further behind in a growing and expanding industry when faced with such a tight labor market. As you have heard us say, there are only two types of companies: growing or going out of business.
Does the sales staff say: “YES”?
The more your sales staff finds a way to say YES, the more profitable your company will be. YES, means that I am finding out what the customer needs and then presenting options that best fit those needs. Sounds simple, but most poor sales people struggle with this concept. In their minds they are listening to a voice that says:
- They won’t pay that much.
- Nobody wants a warranty.
- The miles are too high.
- It has too much damage.
- They won’t wait that long.
- I can’t broker because everybody else’s parts are bad.
We know this because we hear this from sales people and from sales managers and owners every day. So instead of “assuming the sale” many underperforming sales people assume the negative and can’t ever get to the “YES”. Many times, this is just a factor of simply asking for the sale: Do you want to buy this part at this price? Wouldn’t you rather work with people who find a way to get something done rather than give you reasons why it can’t be done?
Is inventory purchasing consistent and growing?
In-stock sales depend on a fresh inventory to maintain and grow sales. As much as 50% or more of in-stock sales come from recent purchases. The more you can increase your vehicle purchasing and the more accurate you are in evaluating what you need the faster in-stock sales will grow.
Much of this ability to grow inventory and grow sales depends on the attitude of your sales staff and their ability to think “YES” rather than “NO”. Why? Because of no other reason than in-stock sales move quicker, and the data you buy with it is more accurate. Also, your sales staff is adding additional revenue through the sales of other people’s parts, warranty sales and the collection of freight and core deposits.
Are employees efficient and effective?
If you are spending more than 20% of your income on employee salaries, commission and bonuses you have an inefficient and ineffective staff. This can be entirely poor employees or it can be poor processes and unproductive work you give them to do. Taking time to evaluate what is possible and what is profitable is always time and money well spent. It will pay dividends now and for the years to come.
We have the knowledge that allows us to speak directly into our customers business and identify inefficient processes and unproductive employees. This ranges from the sales counter to production. Every position has an optimum level of performance. It varies some from facility to facility, but most of the time the difference is not that great.
Are you always hiring and training?
Again, if your company is not growing then it is because of one or all of the aforementioned reasons. In order to change this, you must coach employees up (training) or you must replace them (hiring). Otherwise, your company will fall further behind in a growing and expanding industry. As you have heard us say there are only two types of companies – growing or going out of business.
Robert Counts Chad Counts Rich Tyler Emily Richardson Johnny Logel
Robert Counts, robert@countsbusinessconsulting.com; 512-693-6915
Chad Counts, crcounts@countsbusinessconsulting.com; 512-963-4626