Blog Post from Sewells Group

1. HOW TO IDENTIFY FUTURE LEADERS
FROM YOUR SALES FORCE
‘Weekly events and daily appointments’ have
become important operating strategies employed
by many major auto brands to deal with tough
market competition. Management of workflow
thus becomes imperative for dealerships. A sales
consultant for example has to wisely look after
customer development, invitations, reception,
needs analysis, product presentation, test drive,
procedure illustration, contract signing, vehicle
delivery and follow-up visit.
To ensure all of the foregoing procedures are
carried out exactly as per the process, scripts
and standards; an efficient individual is looked-
for to train, supervise and motivate every sales
consultant. It thus becomes crucial to identify a
capable leader for the sales force.
In many dealerships, Sales Supervisors are elected
from the sales team. This approach however may
have some issues. For example:
1. Motivated by the belief that a good salesman
makes a good leader, dealers promote their top
salesman to a management position, but this
might perhaps end up with poor management
and loss of major sales force;
2. If the above circumstances happen, the sales
supervisor might choose to leave instead of
resuming the previous sales position;
3. Additionally, other Sales Consultants may
find this approach of promotion to be unfair
causing demotivation. A few might even leave
for competitive brands.
So how do we avoid the above risks? Maybe
it is the time to make the selection procedure
transparent.
We recommend the following approach while
appointing leaders in your organization. Let’s
continue with the example of the Sales Supervisor.
• Firstly, make the job duties and responsibilities
of Sales Supervisor known to all. Both the Sales
Consultants and Supervisors should know
the value of a Sales Supervisor to the whole
dealership. Shared direction will increase tacit
agreement and reduce obstacles for team co-
operation.
• Secondly, make the selection criteria known
to all. A good salesman does not have to be
a good leader. Thus the candidates for Sales
Supervisor do not have to be the best at sales
(certainly not the worst). One may as well set
primary criteria. For instance, a criteria could
be that all the employees whose sales volume
is above average in the last 6 months would be
eligible to apply.
• Thirdly, to make the selection process
motivational,onemustensureallthecandidates
are willing to apply for this position instead of
being forced to. For this, the application notice
can be modified stating those with the intention
of being in the management team and who
fulfill the stated criteria can apply. Along with
this, it is important that the applicants are
communicated with the consequences of poor
performance after promotion.
• Any new supervisor is bound to face several
challenges such as assigning tasks, process
monitoring, training & coaching, team
motivation and so on. To ensure that the
transition from the previous role to that of
the sales supervisor is easy and that the newly
appointed supervisor is ready to face these
hurdles, relevant training and support needs
to be provided before the appointment. This
training could be in the form of theoretical
assessments as well.
AN EFFICIENT INDIVIDUAL
IS LOOKED-FOR TO TRAIN,
SUPERVISE AND MOTIVATE
EVERY SALES CONSULTANT
sewellsgroup.com
Win Jiao, Project Manager
Process Solutions, Sewells Group China
BLOGPOSTS @ SEWELLS GROUP
• The final step could be evaluating the practical
operational capability of the individual. One
technique could be introducing business
competitions to test the capability of the
shortlisted candidates. It is also suggested
to consider the KPIs of the past quarter for
selecting the final candidate.
The idea behind the above principles is to make
the selection and promotion process transparent
and specific. This procedure will ensure selection
of the most competent leader while guaranteeing
improvement of team morale and a healthy
competition.
by Win Jioa