Dealer Consultants

Hiring the right salespeople is the key to increasing sales

Steve LemcoEditor’s Note: This is the first in a series about hiring salespeople. In this blog, Steve Lemco explains how to post ads and screen candidates.

The key to having a super sales department is to have a super hiring system. There are many good qualified people who would love to work for you.

The first thing to understand is the importance of taking the call when someone answers your ad. I have placed hundreds of ads over the years, and I’ve always gotten more than 100 phone calls. I normally ended up with 35-40 new recruits in the first day of my training. The reason I had so much success is that I took every single call within two or three rings.

Someone should be in charge of taking the incoming calls. A top salesman will sell normally five to eight more units per month than an average salesperson. Multiply that by 12 months, then multiply that by your average profit, and it will be a huge number.

If you were going to get a call from a customer today who was going to buy 50 motorcycles from you at retail, would you miss any incoming sales calls? Of course not.

The one call you missed just might have been that person. The 10 calls you missed most certainly means you missed at least one potentially great salesman.

Once you have someone in place to take every call, it is time to run the ad. I have found that most of the time Craigslist has very good results, and for the most part it is free to post the ad. This is the ad that has worked super for me over the years:

Harley-Davidson Salespeople Wanted

(Dealership Name) will be hiring (X amount) new full-time motorcycle salespeople. Male/Female. No experience required. Complete training provided. Product knowledge and past or present riding experience would be helpful but not a deal breaker. Must be able to pass drug and background check. Must be available for training Feb. 23, 24 & 25. If you believe a job can be fun and like making money at the same time, then call Steve Lemco @ 253-826-6110 — 9:00 AM-7:00  PM. OK to call Saturday and Sunday. (If you’re open on Sunday.)

I start the scoring process at the phone call. There is a lot of follow up to the job, and I do make a telephone opinion. I am looking to hear enthusiasm and “Gotta-Wanna.” I also am a big fan if they are a rider, preferably your brand. But I will say that I have hired many super salespeople who were not riders or rode a competitor’s brand.

Training is such an important aspect to having out of the gate success. I always did three full days of training to help them understand the dealerships selling procedures.

In my future blogs I will go over many of the things I did in my training that I feel really helped the people get a firm grip on the simplicity of making someone happy by helping them buy their dream bike.

Steve Lemco is the youngest brother of the late Ed Lemco and has been doing sales training and hiring for motorcycle dealers since 1983. He is the author of two sales books, the new “Motorcycle Sales Made Easy” and “You Gotta-Wanna.” Steve has trained in every state in the U.S., as well as England, France, Australia and New Zealand. Steve incorporates motivational boards and games along with his training and hiring because he believes the best way to get the job done is to make it fun.


Contact: stevelemco@aol.com

Website: www.stevelemco.com

Phone: 253/826-6110

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