 I moved from working in my business to working on my business!
Jim White, Founder Savor Dallas http://www.savordallas.com |
 I found a community of business leaders who make being in business a lot more fun and less lonely.
Jeannine Sandstrom, CEO CoachWorks International, Inc. http://www.coachworks.com |
 I now have a place to be open about my business success and future challenges.
Debbie Mrazek, CEO The Sales Company Author The Field Guide to Sales http://www.the-sales-company.com |
Posts Tagged ‘coach’
By Ray Branch, President and CEO, The KEEPS Corporation
Imagine if your service advisors asked every customer that came to your service department to do regular, needed maintenance on their vehicles. In numerous studies, more than half of the customers said, “Yes!”
How much potential gross profit is available? $20-$30 per repair order is conservative. What would this mean in a year? For example, monthly customer repair orders: 800 x $20 = $16,000 x 12months = $192,000 per year.
Measuring for Increased Sales
Compare sales department measurements with service department measurements and notice the differences. In sales, most dealerships carefully measure every customer contact from the moment the customer arrives through the entire selling process. Qualifying, information gathering, presentations, demonstration rides, write-ups, turnovers…the list goes on. After the deal is closed, additional items such as aftermarket sales, finance reserve, credit insurance and others are also closely measured for the results attained and how to motivate each employee to achieve the best possible result. Untold hours are spent analyzing this data to develop action plans to improve the weak areas. At the heart of all of this information is a comprehensive, multilevel pay program that puts incentives on all key areas of performance.
In service, we have access to volumes of information, but does this information really report on the “sales process?” Hours sold per repair order, effective labor rate, gross profit percentages are all closely monitored. But does this tell what level of sales effort is being performed? Is there a “closing percentage” on services sold? The relationship of actual vs. the “opportunity” to sell maintenance and needed repairs is seldom, if ever measured. Over the years, I have heard from many dealers who told me that if their people could just sell more than two hours per repair order, they would be satisfied. Unfortunately, I must argue that if those two hours sold were heavy repairs without any maintenance, a large opportunity would still be missed. In fact, many dealerships have high sales per repair order due to a low maintenance to repair mix.
Dramatically increased profits can be found by implementing the measuring processes below:
1. Measure the “Ups” to sell maintenance. The KEEPS proprietary web-based program Repair Order Analysis and Management System (ROAMS), tells you how many customers had a mileage level close to each major service interval, then evaluates how many services were sold by each service consultant versus how many opportunities there were to sell. Coach each employee based upon their individual “closing” percentage and you will see dramatic results.
2. Measure maintenance to repair ratios closely. If service consultant (A) sells regular, needed maintenance to most of his/her customers and is at 1.9 hours sold per repair order and service consultant (B) sells only heavy repairs with little maintenance but has a 2.5 hours per repair order average, who does a better job? If hours sold/RO is the only measurement, (B) is better. If you want your customers to return to the dealership on a regular basis and possibly have less major failures, (A) is better. Note that the technicians that work for (A) are probably more productive and efficient as maintenance work is always done in less time than the flat rate time allowed. In many cases, service consultant (A) will also have more total sales than (B). ROAMS shows how many labor operations were maintenance related and compare this with the repair operations. Compare this ratio among each service consultant. In many cases, what you thought was your best service consultant could be missing a lot of opportunities. Use this information to pinpoint the areas where items are not being presented, and or sold.
Paying for Performance
Many successful sales operations use a comprehensive commission plan that pays for selling the vehicle but also pays for selling related products associated with purchasing a vehicle. Similar to sales department pay plans, service consultant plans should be based upon minimum sales objectives for many items. Major services sold, flat rate hours sold, upsold items, and a significant dollar amount for CSI attainment is just a starting point.
To create the plan, establish a percentage of last year’s total income that you will allocate to each of the above components. Divide the anticipated “units” sold or attained into the component dollars to create individual dollars per unit (see example in item (c) below.)
Be sure your pay plans include at least the following:
a. Eliminate or limit salary. Most powerful and effective compensation plans include the need to accomplish a minimum standard. If there is a salary involved your sales efforts and motivation will be limited by the income level desired above the salary level. While full commission plans can initially be intimidating to employees, incorporating a small dollar amount for flat rate hours turned by the shop will help with the anxiety.
b. Pay weekly. If you pay a draw or salary and then settle up at the end of a month, the motivation to do something this week is limited. With a weekly plan, there is more motivation to limit the nagging, end of month, “work in process” or “open repair orders.
c. Pay strongly for major services sold. Determine how much money should be devoted to this portion of the plan (example: $40,000 annual income x 20% for menu component = $8,000 annually for menus sold. If there are 21 working days each month and the standard is one major service sold per day, this would result in 21 services sold per month x12 months = 252 services sold divided into $8000 = $31.74 per major service sold.)
If you are looking to improve your service department profits, carefully measuring the sales processes and emphasizing the maintenance portion of the work mix will dramatically increase sales and gross profits. If the pay structure is directly related to maintenance items, the rate of improvement will accelerate.
For other free tools to find and keep hidden profits in your service department visit www.keepscorp.com. To discuss how these and other profit enhancing tools can greatly impact your dealership’s performance, contact your Auto Driving Force Consulting Group member today. We will be happy to discuss your unique situation and introduce you to The KEEPS Corporation.
Are you a professional athlete? Or a performing artist? Chances are good that you don’t fit into either of these categories so why, in the normal course of your life, would you need a coach? Well, not all coaches go to work in a jogging suit or leotards. There is a whole new category of coaches out there ready to motivate and guide you down the path to success. Today, you can hire a coach to help you achieve your personal, family and business goals. Coaching provides the support and structural mechanisms that are needed to help you focus on your priorities, remove barriers and learn from your own experience. The ideal coach will listen to you and challenge you. They will also encourage you to take control of both your professional and personal life so that you can strike a healthy work/life balance.
What can you accomplish while working with a coach? If your goals are personal, coaching can help you:
- Clarify priorities
- Deal with personal problems that are interfering with productivity
- Determine career direction, strategy and income goals
- Establish and achieve personal goals including ones relating to relationships, health and spirituality
- Help you create daily habits to support your goals
If it is professional assistance you seek, a coach can help you:
- Clarify your business mission, goals and strategy
- Communicate effectively in the workplace
- Cope with difficult co-workers and employees
- Develop leadership skills
- Increase productivity
- Make better decisions
- Tap into hidden strengths
Why hire a coach? Well, coaching is different from seeking advice from a consultant, a therapist or a friend. Consultants usually offer answers to specific problems. Therapists help you understand and deal with the anguish of past problems. Friends typically lend a sympathetic ear. Some describe a coach as part consultant, part motivational speaker, part therapist, and part rent-a-friend.
How does coaching work? Coaching is normally done privately though not always. Professional coaches typically conduct an initial face-to-face meeting. Then, most of their work is handled over the phone. Following the first meeting, a coach can begin to develop a plan for you to accomplish your goals as well as set up a structure for working together. You can expect coaching fees to range somewhere between $500 and $2000 per month if you average one session per week. Highly specialized coaching can approach $5,000 per month and may include several face-to-face sessions and 24/7 on call availability.
What to Look for and Where. Coaches typically have a specialty – career, relationship, business, etc. It is best if they have had some coursework in their area of expertise as well as some training in psychology and counseling. Though coaching has been recognized as a profession since the late 1980s, coaches are not licensed by any state or national agency. They do, however, typically belong to organizations such as the International Coach Federation (ICF). This organization offers a free coach referral service so you can select one that will mesh with your specific needs.
A Business Coaching Success Story. Dr. Fred Grosse, a clinical psychologist and renowned business coach, has dramatically improved the life of many realtors and insurance agents around the world. Dr. Grosse uses a sports analogy to explain the importance of business coaching. “No one at the Olympics got there without a coach.” He continues on to say that you need a coach to be a superstar in the business world as well. Dr. Grosse coaches in a group-setting and covers topics including: reframing thought patterns, focusing, establishing a morning ritual, and establishing systems within our businesses. A single realtor from one of his group sessions claims to have increased the number of transactions made from 43 to 95 during the course of a single year. Not bad!
To hire a coach and be successful, you must have at least one goal that requires you to grow and improve as a person. You must also be committed to achieving your goal and willing to try new things in the process. Regarding your coach, it is imperative to select one that not only has the appropriate experience, but with whom you feel mutual respect and trust. Your coach must be equally committed to your success. And remember, you are hiring someone to motivate you, so enthusiasm is a must as well. No matter what type of coach you select, you can bet that you will reap benefits in many facets of your life.
We have coached many businesses to increased performance, if this is one of your goals for 2008, it’s not too late. Give us a call today!
Written By Debbie Mrazek
Okay, you’ve decided your sales are in poor health. How do you get your sales healthy again?
The first step is the sales examination. We’ll talk about where you are and whether the cause is internal (that means you are responsible for what’s going on) or external (that means someone else is impacting your efforts). Internal issues could include fear or lack of certain skills or tools needed to be successful. External forces could point to something in your business or company that affects your sales. This could be anything from poor customer service to unfulfilled customer expectations. What are your sales? How do your sales stack up against your sales goals? How do you set sales goals?
Once you’ve disclosed everything about your sales life, it’s time to move to the diagnosis. Asking someone else to walk through a sale with you can give you great insight into what’s working and what’s not. You need a safe environment to explore what’s going on and then pinpoint what’s causing the pain. Choose someone who can be both objective and honest and has a successful track record in sales. The diagnosis might include something that can be quickly addressed, or it might be something that requires longer treatment. It could be a combination of two or more things. What is important is figuring out what it is and moving past it.
What’s the prescription? During this phase, we look at what you can do today to move your sales in the direction you desire. Perhaps we need to begin with goals. Sometimes it can be as simple as that. Goal setting requires a structure that can ensure you are on the right track for you and your company.
How do you keep sales healthy? Once you have a specific diagnosis, you can develop the plan to keep you from returning to that situation. A regimen is a plan that helps you turn your sales efforts into actual, measurable results. This plan outlines what you will do, how often you will do it, what you can expect from your efforts and strategies on what to do when things just aren’t going as planned. It’s a scaffold for you to develop new habits that will make sales easier and that will not only help your sales grow, but will lock in more profitable sales. It’s not enough to grow sales if you don’t realize more profit at the same time. Who wants to work more and make less? Not me!
Ever have a doctor who sent you out the door with a shot and a prescription? Now, how many of you take every one of those pills you are prescribed. We start feeling better, we get our energy back and the prescription goes by the wayside. We behave similarly with sales. Once you have your regimen and you’ve tested it out and it’s helping you with your sales, it might feel like you are cured. A sales check-up can help you stay on track. Talking about what’s working and what’s not working will ingrain the process even more. After all, we all know we eventually will stop doing anything we don’t enjoy or that isn’t successful. The goal of a check up is to minimize the pain so it’s not necessary to get another shot three months, six months or even a year down the road.
So, let’s say, you’ve stuck with your regimen and we’ve talked about what’s working and what’s not and you feel good about where you are. How do you stay on track? That’s where a coach can make the difference between staying motivated and backsliding. Our clients call us the boss’s boss. Making yourself accountable to someone, even if that someone is yourself equates to bottom line success. In a lot of ways, maintenance is the most important part of your sales program. But how do you maintain your program?
The basics are the same for everyone. Apply the knowledge you’ve gleaned from the rest of the process and continue to expand your sales endurance. Like any good maintenance training program, you have to push yourself out of your comfort zone everyday – just a little. Make one more phone call, use a different sales tool, push yourself to exceed your weekly goal. Every step you take toward growing your sales repertoire makes what you’ve just learned easier. Each skill builds upon another. You can do this!
Written by Debbie Mrazek
Use this prescription to build healthy sales for your business.
Okay, you’ve decided your sales are in poor health. How do you get your sales healthy again?
The first step is the sales examination. We’ll talk about where you are and whether the cause is internal (that means you are responsible for what’s going on) or external (that means someone else is impacting your efforts). Internal issues could include fear or lack of certain skills or tools needed to be successful. External forces could point to something in your business or company that affects your sales. This could be anything from poor customer service to unfulfilled customer expectations. What are your sales? How do your sales stack up against your sales goals? How do you set sales goals?
Once you’ve disclosed everything about your sales life, it’s time to move to the diagnosis. Asking someone else to walk through a sale with you can give you great insight into what’s working and what’s not. You need a safe environment to explore what’s going on and then pinpoint what’s causing the pain. Choose someone who can be both objective and honest and has a successful track record in sales. The diagnosis might include something that can be quickly addressed, or it might be something that requires longer treatment. It could be a combination of two or more things. What is important is figuring out what it is and moving past it.
What’s the prescription? During this phase, we look at what you can do today to move your sales in the direction you desire. Perhaps we need to begin with goals. Sometimes it can be as simple as that. Goal setting requires a structure that can ensure you are on the right track for you and your company.
How do you keep sales healthy? Once you have a specific diagnosis, you can develop the plan to keep you from returning to that situation. A regimen is a plan that helps you turn your sales efforts into actual, measurable results. This plan outlines what you will do, how often you will do it, what you can expect from your efforts and strategies on what to do when things just aren’t going as planned. It’s a scaffold for you to develop new habits that will make sales easier and that will not only help your sales grow, but will lock in more profitable sales. It’s not enough to grow sales if you don’t realize more profit at the same time. Who wants to work more and make less? Not me!
Ever have a doctor who sent you out the door with a shot and a prescription? Now, how many of you take every one of those pills you are prescribed. We start feeling better, we get our energy back and the prescription goes by the wayside. We behave similarly with sales. Once you have your regimen and you’ve tested it out and it’s helping you with your sales, it might feel like you are cured. A sales check-up can help you stay on track. Talking about what’s working and what’s not working will ingrain the process even more. After all, we all know we eventually will stop doing anything we don’t enjoy or that isn’t successful. The goal of a check up is to minimize the pain so it’s not necessary to get another shot three months, six months or even a year down the road.
So, let’s say, you’ve stuck with your regimen and we’ve talked about what’s working and what’s not and you feel good about where you are. How do you stay on track? That’s where a coach can make the difference between staying motivated and backsliding. Our clients call us the boss’s boss. Making yourself accountable to someone, even if that someone is yourself equates to bottom line success. In a lot of ways, maintenance is the most important part of your sales program. But how do you maintain your program?
The basics are the same for everyone. Apply the knowledge you’ve gleaned from the rest of the process and continue to expand your sales endurance. Like any good maintenance training program, you have to push yourself out of your comfort zone everyday – just a little. Make one more phone call, use a different sales tool, push yourself to exceed your weekly goal. Every step you take toward growing your sales repertoire makes what you’ve just learned easier. Each skill builds upon another. You can do this!