If you’re very fortunate, you have a stable staff of quality salespeople. You don’t often find yourself in the position of having to hire new ones. But if you’re like most dealerships, staffing your sales positions with quality people is one of the most challenging aspects of your business.
Tell me if this sounds familiar. You have a staff of salespeople that is mostly stable. But then you lose one, or two, maybe even your best one or two, and it’s panic time. Time to run an ad! We need someone now! Then in a panic, or because you’re desperate, you hire, let’s say, not your ideal candidate. You start the process of interviewing and hiring until you find the one or two you need, then you stop. Why do you stop?
Even the most stable car dealership experience turnover.
It’s such a common problem in most car dealerships, hiring and maintaining quality staff. Maybe you lose some because they get manageritis or because the grass is greener somewhere else, or occasionally the old case of rock star mania where a few strong paychecks turn into a never-ending party until, well the party ends, usually with the job. But the bottom line is this. Every car dealership needs sales staff. Good sales staff. And every car dealership experiences turnover, even the most stable.
If you’re a typical car dealership then you have basically two goals when hiring and managing an effective sales staff. First, you need enough sales staff, and then you need them to be as good as they can be. That’s it. I need X number of salespeople, and the better they are, the more cars we sell. Not brain surgery. Yet why then do dealers go through this constant cycle of running with staff, many who are well, mediocre at best, then fly into a panic to hire someone when they lose someone. Are they like, “I can’t believe we lost a salesperson!” or “We need salespeople now!” “Hire the next person that can fog a mirror!” How is it that dealers are constantly thrown into some kind of panic when they lose a few sales staff? They know it’s going to happen. And that it will continue to happen. Why not just plan for it? Make it a part of your business plan? Have a process for the constant flow of new employee applications through your door, so that when you need one or two, you pick the best from the pile you have. Doesn’t that make sense?
If the two core elements of your sales staff are the number of salespeople you have, and the quality of those people, then wouldn’t a constant flow of resumes into your business solve both of those issues? If you are looking at one or two quality resumes from excellent candidates, wouldn’t you take a second look at those sales staff that are constantly occupying the bottom of the board? Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to replace someone the moment you lose someone without having to go into panic mode and hire the first sober person to walk through your door? Imagine how great it would be if you could just look at a group of people you have already interviewed and choose the best ones to instantly plug a hole.
Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to replace someone without having to go into panic mode?
Do yourself a favour and instill a process where you have a constant flow of resumes to review. There is no law that says you have to hire anyone, so the only thing lost is a few dollars running the ads, and that’s if you don’t use all the free job posting platforms out there. There is a secret though. Do not depend on one person, like your sales manager, to run the ads and hire the people, because it won’t happen. As soon as a few get hired then it will fall apart. After all, your sales manager has more important things to do than interview salespeople when he or she doesn’t need any staff. That’s the reality. Without a structure and process that is consistent, it will fall apart right away because it’s not top of mind for your manager.
That means someone other than your manager has to manage the flow of resumes, until it’s time for an interview, then simply make appointments for interviews with whomever is responsible for hiring salespeople, likely the sales manager or general sales manager. Again it doesn’t mean you have to hire anyone, but it does mean that you always have a stack of quality candidates ready to contact the moment you need a new salesperson or when you are looking to improve your staff, which should be all the friggin’ time. Good luck and good selling.