It’s football season once again which means thousands of car
salespeople are thankful that their states have laws in place giving
them Sundays off from the store.
Many of us have a passion for football the same way we have a passion
for selling cars. We sit on our coaches in our living rooms
(showrooms) and play armchair quarterback. We call plays. We tell
the young folks how it used to be. What we would do different if we
were in charge…if we were throwing that pass….if that was OUR
customer.
Majority of sales people are the same. They prefer to sit on the
sidelines and talk about what went wrong rather than get on the field
and get their hands dirty. You need a strong sales manager (QB) to
lead the staff onto the field. The question for dealers is: Is it
best to employ a Game Manager or a Playmaker to your sales desk? NFL
teams live and die by the person (QB) leading their teams as does any
owner relying on a manager to bring the profit.
In my opinion, the “Playmaker” is the Sales Manager that can close
that
deal for the big hit. The huge profit. All of the coins. Mucho
gross. A “Playmaker” Sales Manager gets the biggest scores. At the
same time, they miss their targets quite often. Reaching for the big
deal often gets intercepted and they lose customers with their
arrogance. They can win huge games, but they can also throw away the
easy ones.
A “Game Manager” sales manager, on the other hand, still concerns
themselves with gross profit, but never makes the big hits. Their
front-end is a little lower and their back-end a little lighter.
However, their accuracy (read: closing ratio, if you are still with me
on this poor analogy) allows them to close more deals than the
“Playmaker” and the CSI is always higher.
It is the good old “gross vs. volume” debate. It is up to your Sales
Managers. The QBs of your showroom. Will they bring your players all
the way through a season/year with a winning record? Will they have
some amazing wins, but not make the playoffs? It is up to you when
hiring for Sales Manager to make that decision.
Categorize your Sales Management candidates and determine who you want
to play with. Who do you want to coach? Who will make the smart
decisions, not for their own interests, but for the store’s?
I may go against industry trends, but I’d call a timeout and bring in
a Game Manager for my staff.
Are you employing gridiron greats?
