When legendary NFL coach Bill Parcells was asked about a mediocre team’s performance, he responded, “You are what your record says you are.”
This statement applies to anyone who works in a performance-based business. It’s especially applicable to your sales team.
Every day, your team writes its own record, and your CRM makes it easy to track processes and performance. Just like every coach needs a game-winning strategy, your sales team needs a strategy for success.
Here are a few tips for improving your team’s record.
Manage and Measure Sales Activity Daily
The average purchase path for new vehicle buyers ranges from 14 to 18 weeks, according to the J.D. Power New Auto Shopper Study.
To ensure your team stays on top of leads for weeks at a time, measure and manage activities on a daily basis.
Typical dealership managers love to review results, but that data is already history. Current activities tell you who’s setting records and who’s falling behind. Review metrics that matter daily, including: emails, calls, connected calls, length of conversations, appointments and test drives.
Daily check-ins enable you to immediately spot and address problems before they negatively affect sales.
Focus on the Present
Salespeople love to stand on the results of their best months. The guy who sold 30 cars last month thinks of himself as a 30-car guy. But if he’s 12 days into the current month and only has two sales, he’s a two-car guy. Your record is where you are in the moment, not where you were last month.
Focusing on the present lets you catch slow-downs and gives you time to turn things around before the end of the month.
Impress upon your salespeople that every day is a chance to improve their record. History is history. We’re focused on the present.
Enable Multi-Channel Customer Communications
To improve your sales team’s record, make sure they have all the tools they need to succeed. Phones and emails are great, but these days the ability to communicate with customers via text is critical. If you don’t yet have texting integrated with your CRM, get it.
Too many dealerships allow salespeople to text prospects and customers with personal mobile phones that can’t be tracked. That’s a huge chunk of your customer communications being lost every day. How can you track activities if they can’t be accounted for?
Besides, texting a girlfriend or bookie may look productive, but it sure isn’t doing much for sales performance.
Consider purchasing business-only mobile phones for your salespeople and integrating texting into your CRM. The expense is worth it for the ability to manage and measure text activity.
Hold Daily Meetings
The importance of one-on-one meetings with members of your sales team cannot be underestimated. A manager’s job is to manage and coach their sales team, which should include daily meetings as a group and with individuals.
During these meetings, review your sales teams’ record and activities.
Parcells also said, “Knowledge is confidence. And confidence lets you play fast.”
When your salespeople know where they stand, why they’re there and how to improve, they’ll become more confident and productive. Additionally, daily meetings are better for accountability because your team knows they can’t slack for even a single day.
As a salesperson, you’re only as good as your record. Last month doesn’t matter.
As a manager, keep your team’s focus on the present with daily activity checks and meetings. This strategy creates a sense of urgency and holds salespeople accountable for their records — every day.
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