People are the core of a car dealership - customers, hopefully lots of loyal, happy ones, and a great sales team. Your sales team makes the connections, follows the leads, and generates the sales, so building a great sales team and supporting that team is vital for your car dealership’s success. 

So how do you build a great team? 

• Hire diverse employees
• Train your employees
  

Hire a Great Team

First, hire people of diverse backgrounds and thoughts and talents so that all car buyers will be able to connect to your team.¹ A dealership full of young, outgoing employees will probably sell cars to young, outgoing buyers, but the older buyer, or car lover, or family-oriented shopper needs a person to connect with as well. 

Today’s car buyers watch reviews and do research online more than ever.² They know a lot about what they want and need, so it is often the connection with the right person that will secure the sale. This remains true whether buyers are connecting with your sales team in-person or online, so you need a team that will serve customers well no matter how customers want to connect. 

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In order to attract the right people, consider adjusting job postings to fit your expectations and the expanding needs of your customers.³ Maybe it is time to advertise for a person with a strong social media presence? By hiring a diverse team you will ensure your car dealership has the potential to serve a wide customer base and, even better, attract new customers. 

Train Your Team

But a diverse team is not enough - you need to train your team regularly. In 2020, the automotive industry saw a massive move toward more technology, digital retailing, and data systems, so your employees need to stay up to date.⁴ With customers shopping online more and more, your employees have to manage a fast-paced, information heavy, work day as effectively as possible. 

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Sales, inventory, and customers can all be managed efficiently if you get a good data management system and train your employees to use it. Dealerpull offers automotive management software that is easy to use and mobile friendly, a perfect platform for easy training to increase sales.

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And don’t forget buying and selling cars is also an emotional experience. Your employees need training in managing information, absolutely, but they need training in working with people too. Consumers rate buying a car as a stressful experience, so your employees need help learning how to move that customer stress toward customer satisfaction.⁵

Train your employees to work with customers on an emotional level. Not so they can devour customers who enter your showroom, but so they can respect them. Sales will improve if your team learns how to listen well, read body language, and offer genuine praise at the right moment. 

You might be tempted to hire good people and hope for the best, but make sure you devote time and effort to training. Effective training not only keeps up with changes in the technology, it will create a positive workplace that will satisfy employees and then make better customer experiences. And better customer experiences increase sales. 

1. More with Less: Align Teams with Sales Tools & Technology - Dealer Solutions   
2. How to Identify the Best Sales Opportunities from Your Data 
3. How to Set Up for Success in 2021  
4. 5 Ways to Help Your Team Adapt to Digital Processes  ‍
5. 5 Ways Emotional Intelligence Can Help Your Sales