Congratulations on being promoted to manager! You’ll soon find out that managing a car dealership for the first time is very different from being a sales rep. As a salesperson, you were expected to close deals by yourself and meet or exceed your quota. As a manager, you are expected to take charge of other salespeople’s performance and success. As a former first-time manager himself, Mark Gilbert shares three tips to make your first stint as a manager a successful one.
1. Keep building your hiring pipeline. Mark Gilbert believes that hiring does not begin only when there is an opening, nor does it end when the opening is filled. It’s important to keep recruiting because finding and hiring the best candidates takes time and effort. You should hire the best salespeople you can find, at rates that you can afford. You won’t be able to predict when you’ll need another sales rep.
2. Equip your salespeople with the skills they need. At many dealerships, training begins and ends with new hire orientation. This is never enough, Mark Gilbert believes. With so many new models coming in each year, sales people need to learn new things about the cars they sell. They also need to learn the latest sales tactics or even basic interpersonal skills. Your job as a sales manager is to ensure that they are equipped to handle each challenge that comes their way.
3. Retain your people. Your success as a manager is not based on sales figures alone. A really successful sales manager keeps their people motivated and hungry to do more without sacrificing work-life balance. Mark Gilbert says your reps should feel that they can grow in your dealership and learn from the best in the business. Recognizing the top-performing reps is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many other things you could do to retain those who get their hands dirty and come up with the sales.