Dealer Consultants

First Day of Training — Part 4: Being prepared

Steve LemcoMy first question to the class is, “When does a sale begin?”

I will always hear, “When you greet the customer.”

Now of course this is where the communication begins between the salesperson and the customer, but I believe the sale began much sooner than that. I think the sale should begin the night before.

Every night when a salespeople are ready to go home, they should go over in their head what took place during the day. They should ask themselves a very important question: Did I give it my best shot?

There is nobody to lie or exaggerate too. This is the time to lay the cards on the table and do two things: Think about what they could have done better and then hopefully do it.

Also, they should ask themselves what they did well. They should congratulate themselves and make sure they keep those plays in their playbook. Somef of the best sales meetings they will ever attend are the ones that they will give to themselves.

Many days the salespeople are kept pretty busy. They are tired and ready to go home at the end of the day, but before they do, I suggest that they leave themselves a note about anything they need to get done in the morning. Maybe a particular follow-up phone call needs to be made. Possibly a motorcycle needs to go to the service department. There are many possibilities.

The important thing is when they show up fresh and ready to go in the morning, they have a game plan to get themselves in motion. It is their game plan, so I doubt that they will fight or argue about it.

Many salespeople, particularly the younger ones, need to be reminded that even though we look at sales as a game, we also look at it as a professional one. This is how they are going to be making their living. It is their profession. You do not see many professional ball players closing down the taverns at night. They need to get to bed in order to get enough sleep to will provide them with the most energy the next day. Vince Lombardi, legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers said it best, “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.”

About 5–10 minutes before salespeople get to the dealership, I suggest that they turn off the radio and give themselves a pump up meeting. If the dealership has a daily top salesperson contest, then they should focus on the steps it takes to score and win the game.

I personally like a daily write-up contest. You start the pool at $20. Whoever had the most write-up points at the end of the day rolls the dice. If he or she rolls a double, then that person gets the $20 pool. If he or she doesn’t roll a double, then the pool would go up to $30 for tomorrow’s roll.

Each day $10 is added if a double is not rolled. If a salesperson wins two days in a row, then he would roll the dice twice. Each day he wins the write-up game in a row, an additional roll is added.

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This contest will cost the dealership $10 a day, but will increase write-ups by 10 percent. Again the difference in a baseball player being in the minor leagues who would have a .200 batting average or the major leaguer with a .300 batting average is just one more hit out of 10, or 10 percent. A write-up difference of just 10 percent will dramatically increase sales.

Click on the headlines below to read the previous blogs in this series.

  1. Hiring the right salespeople is the key to increasing sales
  2. Taking the incoming call from potential salespeople
  3. Preparing for sales training
  4. First day of training — Part 1
  5. First day of training — Part 2
  6. First day of training — Part 3

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 three sales books, the new “Training and Hiring New Salespeople,”  “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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