Live Direction

from: Philip Cheatham

Check Live Dates

Automotive Software Home

Signup For our FREE Newsletter and links to Secret Videos...

Listen to the Dealership Process Secrets Audiobook for FREE! + Receive The Automotive Software Newsletter! Totally FREE!

The Automotive Software Dec 10th Article

3 Reasons You

Aren't Getting Any

Buy-In From Your

Sales People or

Management Staff...

And What To Do About It...

AVAILABLE CLASSES

By Philip Cheatham Dec 10th, 2020

You Are Trying to Create Desire: You CANNOT create desire: Desire is something that happens chemically inside the brain. If it's not happening, its not happening.
You are not setting realistic expectations up front: We love to talk about how much money our top guy is making to recruit or even in interviews, but are we really telling our recruits what that takes?
You aren't focusing on what really matters to them: We get caught up in the moment of "making 10 grand this month" so much that we forget the much more important long-term ramifications of what we are doing, which are the skills we are developing. Are you reminding your team of this? Do you need to remind yourself of this first?

You Are Trying to Create Desire: You CANNOT create desire: Desire is something that happens chemically inside the brain. If it's not happening, its not happening. You may have rare examples and stories where you created true desire. True desire pushes us into action. We all have desire. It's that true desire that sometimes has to come from us running low on money or needing money that people need to really go all-in. Trying to create true desire where it doesn't already exist is futile. This is why the most important trait to us when we hire is enthusiasm. People are enthusiastic when they believe they can get or achieve something they truly desire. You can transfer enthusiasm to others temporarily. This is the most important and I would say underlying magic in any sales transaction. You cannot however permanently place your enthusiasm on another. Tony Robbins talks about this and proves it at all of his events. He speaks quite a bit to his crowds about how he knows they are pumped in the moment but that action is what they need to take. He says most won't take the action when they get home, after he says that. He then asks a lot "how bad do you want to change?" In my experience hiring and managing, you cannot change or create desire. You are in charge of getting the most out of whatever levels of desire you currently employ. You won't however have much effect on anything that changes this level in anybody. You can of course watch somebodies level change because something in their life changes and this happens all the damn time in our business. You must work with what you got and realize everybody has a different and challenging life experience they are going through at any time. Don't even worry about why somebody is motivated or not. Do your best to get the most out of wherever they currently are with their desire levels.
You are not setting realistic expectations up front: We love to talk about how much money our top guy is making to recruit or even in interviews, but are we really telling our recruits what that takes? I don't believe most hiring managers in the car business do at all. I would guess at a number like 90-95% of hiring managers are juicing up their new hires with all sorts of stories about their top guys biggest check ever as if that's the average and then dodging questions like "how many hours did he have to work to make that?" This is the exact opposite of how you should prepare your new hires. It's truly awful. If you are doing it right, when asked "how many hours did he have to work to make that?" you would respond with, "do you have a maximum amount of hours you can work?" I'd proceed into "you can make that in this business, you really can, especially at this dealership, but it's going to take a level of commitment that is pretty high and I'd say impossible if you're asking me that question for the reasons I assume." I just wrote that by placing myself in this interview. This is how I interview for our business. I will absolutely tell my candidate how much my top guy made, every time. I'll even usually tell them that I don't think a real record has even been set yet, because at most dealerships, you don't have a salesperson that really marketed and created a business inside that dealership yet. I will then tell them that to make that and become the top guy or gal, at first you will have to eat, sleep and dream this business. There is no other way. You cannot come in half-ass or even think you are going to have a life, at least for the next 90 days if you want to be that guy. Is that you? You should be asking every candidate you interview this question. You should be telling every candidate you interview what every last one of us did, that ever did anything remotely impressive in our business, which is what I outlined above, we ate, slept and dreamed this business. Your top guy or gal may not do that now, at one point they did. You know this. So how do we not properly set up the expectations of what it takes to be successful for every single person in our business almost? What are we expecting our candidates to do once they see the reality? How do they even see the reality? Your top guy may not have to work like we all did at one point anymore to be the top guy. Your new candidates don't even know this, if you don't tell them. How do you expect them to work more hours than the top-guy if you don't tell them he didn't always have it like that? Coming in this business fresh, you have to go all-in. You must. Especially if you want anything special to potentially happen. By interviewing this way, you will hire a lot less people you don't want, and you will get a lot more out of the hires you do want. One of my last actual hires came up to me on his third week and asked me if he could take a day off. I didn't even realize he hadn't taken a day off. He was doing mediocre at first. He also made it and is still in our business. If he hadn't worked that way, he would've sold nothing and he wouldn't be in our business. I set him up properly. He worked his first few weeks till he dropped and barely caught on in time to make it. We also all love to talk a lot about earning respect in our business. Usually when people are talking about respect, it sounds fishy as hell to me. Well for all of you out there, this is how you actually get a ton of long-lasting and real respect. You don't lie to people and you set people up properly for success because you actually care. Then they become successful, WHOA! Who do you respect? Think about it, seriously.
You aren't focusing on what really matters to them: We get caught up in the moment of "making 10 grand this month" so much that we forget the much more important long-term ramifications of what we are doing, which are the skills that we are developing. Are you reminding your team of this? Do you need to remind yourself of this first? This is the second thing I harp on in hiring interviews. I also harp on this to my management team constantly. In 10 years, what you make this month, won't mean shit. You won't even care a little bit. You won't even remember exactly how much money you had in the bank or what you wanted to buy with it. What will matter in 10 years are the skills you've created and the habits you've developed. Who you've become based on the decisions you've made. This is what will matter. Think about how broadly this applies to everybody that works for you. Have you ever been stuck when an employee told you.. "I won't be in this business much longer."? You shouldn't! My immediate response is always "well this is great place to develop your strength and character for wherever you are going." Then "however you act here is how you'll act there, so if you want to be there, act here how you want to act there." Most of us don't even think about these ramifications. Thats what they are. Your behavior today becomes your habit tomorrow. Tell your new hires: "Whether you want to be in this business long-term or not, this is a great place to learn fast and develop skills and habits you will take with you everywhere else you go, ohh and enjoy it and have a lot of fun if you won't be here forever! right?"