Hi Jim Ziegler, the alpha dog, and I got a special treat for you today we got my guest is gon na, be mr.
no Walsh and before we get started.
Of course, I got to do a little housekeeping and be sure we make this broadcast public.
So so bear with me before I bring bring no on okay, refreshing the browser high-tech.
Forgive me on an old guy doing the best I can here we go public, we’re public, hello, no Walsh Jim.
How are you I’m having the best day of my entire life? You’d be amazed, I mean Debbie Knights had a great weekend, we went down to a mout door and did the Arts Festival and we took Sadie the wonder dog with us and we stayed in the hotel for a couple days.
One hundred and thirty year old, haunted hotel.
You know just fun stuff sounds like a good time.
Yeah.
Well, you know.
As always, you look good.
You look energized, you look fresh, so you guessed, I understand you and Sarah went the hiking this weekend.
We did.
Yes, we took the kids we needed to get out of the house.
We’ve been fighting, uh fighting a funk going through here.
I know you and Debbie’s have somewhat of won yourselves, but we did we got out.
We did a little bit of hiking.
We went to two ikonn, we didn’t see a theater performance, but we walked around the theater and did some hiking on the Red Rock, and so it was uh some well needed family time after being on the road.
Quite a bit.
Lately: okay, we’re a Johnny Leigh.
Just showed up hello, Johnny Lee anyway.
Let’s this audience build up a second um.
My guest today is no Walsh Rover, Vader sales, trainer, professional speaker, jack of all automotive trades.
I mean this guy is a super super high performer.
So no tell us a little bit about your company.
First of all, tell me a little bit about your background.
You know so many trainers out today that are complete frauds.
Never did it in their life.
I mean you know, tell me about your background.
Absolutely so.
I literally grew up in the business.
My father was up to a GM level and he started as a salesperson.
My stepdad was a service manager at a Chrysler dealership.
My dad’s father ran Ford steel.
He was the foreman of forged steel and my mother’s father, my mother.
My grandfather on my mother’s side owned a Dodge dealership right on the Detroit border, so basically my whole life, I’ve grown up in the car business, I’ve grown up on the weekends and after school, washing cars for delivery working in the service department.
Vacuuming out, you know, customers vehicles in for service, and so I started selling back in 2000 as 21 years old, and my dad made me wait till last 21 because I was doing construction with my brothers and I wanted to start at 18 because I knew construction.
Wasn’t really my thing and my dad said: no, you aren’t mature enough, yet we’re gon na make sure we’re gon na.
Do one run at this.
We’re gon na make sure you do it right so you’re, starting when you’re 21.
So what are you doing construction? What do you tell me about that? Yes, so I did framing both of my brothers had construction business, so I did framing so you know building the building the sticks, putting the frame together.
We know it’s amazing.
When I was 21, I was hanging sheetrock.
Okay.
I have a friend named Leland Wetherington and it’s amazing Leland and I were a two-man team and in those days we were getting like a dollar 25 a board, a dollar 75 for a ceiling board, we’re using hatchets and and and actually hammering the nails instead of Shooting the nails – and you know it was a little different then and of course I got out of it – went a different direction.
I went into radio as a DJ, but Lili Mona.
He is a world-famous builder.
He he’s building you a million-dollar houses all over Florida right now he’s highly successful.
It’s amazing! We both got that construction in our background well, well, tell me some more: you got out of construction.
You went in the car business run in the car business, and so I started out really really good.
My first year I was the top used car salesperson at the dealership.
I was at and my dad left after about six months.
He was the used-car manager and then he went on to be a GM at a Chevy store.
So I got a new manager and a great first year was the top used car salesperson at the dealership, and then I kind of thought that I knew it all right.
So I thought that I every every salesperson that gets in the business starts out.
They make an incredible amount of money, they sell an incredible amount of cars and about three months in they catch a disease.
I call expertise, you’re, absolutely true, and for me it took more about a year to catch that.
Oh, you catch the expertise, disease and so I put a drop in an income every year and as I’m dropping an income, you know we’re having our family’s growing or buying a house.
Now, we’ve got all these other bills.
When I was making you know my first year when I made really good money, I had like no overhead.
You know my overhead was like five hundred dollars, I mean imagine the hats, and so I had like no overhead.
Well now I had overhead, so I figured out you know: I’ve got it.
I’ve got to switch this around, so I started becoming more of a student of the business again like when I first started in paying attention to the top producer is getting my hands on any sales, material and training.
I could you know back, then it was different.
Basically, your dealership had to sign up for it.
It’s not like now to where you can go to Facebook.
Instagram YouTube.
There’s all this material out there getting my hands on all the material I could and really um.
You know understanding the craft and really learned and dialed in on the basics.
That is, it’s really a people business and if you handle yourself as a professional and you’re truly there to serve your customers, really, sales is really that easy.
It’s amazing! I walked in a car dealership and I was just going to do this until I got a better job.
No, that was 42 years ago, yeah so the third month in the business, maybe the second month I’ve lost track.
I made forty five hundred dollars.
I had been general sales manager of a pretty large radio station, a very executive position and I never made that kind of money in 1976 right now.
That’s unheard of you know and yeah.
I set the all-time record for the dealership three months in and that’s the cognate organization at Jacksonville and about two years later, three years later, I get I get a call from mr.
Coggan himself.
He says Jim the managers are afraid to approach you.
I said what what what he said.
Well, we we have a new insurance company and we’re taking all performance cars out of demo service.
I’ve Drive it a 280zx that I had won the right to drive in a sales contest.
As I said, mr.
cog and I’m a single man and I’ve got that demo for a year, I want it in the contest he said well, we’re taking.
All Trans Am Xand.
All 280zx is out of get yourself a nice Bonneville now what a Bonneville 280zx.
So I went on strike one in my office, cross my arms and turned the lights out about five minutes into that strike.
I get a call from Robbie Boone at Westside Toyota 30 miles away.
He said mr.
Ziegler, I understand they’re taking your demo away.
Wow I mean it’s like five minutes into right.
He said I’ve got a.
I got a.
I got a Porter right now, shining me up a new Supra and I was very loyal to the coggan organization as it.
What covers that super? He said black and gold.
I said: send the Supra, so I I wouldn’t got my salesmen Samsonite out of the service department to cardboard boxes, right loaded it up, and I had a sales manager hanging around my leg, trying to keep me there.
They sent the porter with it with a with a car and I’m left.
Well, when I went to Westside Toyota on the 15th, I had not sold a car, not one and Robbie said I’m disgusting, I hired you.
I heard all these rumors about how great you were, and you know you haven’t – sold a car.
We got green peas that sold fifteen week.
We got Toyota Thon’s happening spot lights in the sky.
I said well Robby, I don’t know what the problem is and then I figured it out.
I was trying so hard to show off for the other sales people.
That didn’t know me.
I was the king, where I was right, but I walked in Westside Toyota.
I was a nobody.
How much show Who I am.
I took every shortcut, I did every expertise, I did everything wrong.
I step steps and I went to the Robby Boone the next day I said Bobby.
Look when I was at coggan, even though I was the top sales when they managed me you’ve.
Given me my own schedule, my own demo, my own, you know desk my own deals.
I said.
Excuse me.
I want to be managed just like everybody else in the tender meetings I did not.
I was the not the number one sales from that month at Westside Toyota, but I came into solid number two, that’s strong.
After starting at zero on the 15th, you caught the disease of expertise.
Tell me about that yeah.
So that’s that’s exactly what it was it’s like you said I was.
I was skipping.
The steps I was just always focused on what was gon na pay me.
The most, what was going to be the easiest route, what all the wrong things I was focused on, and I just kind of kept getting worse and so, like a lot of other people right, I started joining the huddle right.
I started joining the team sports.
The huddle can’t be done.
The dope ring yeah in the corner, talking about how it’s everybody’s fault, but but our own – and you know, there’s this this vortex out against us.
So then it got to the point to where my wife was no longer gon na work.
She was pregnant with our daughter, so I had to make the money.
So that’s really, where changed my focus, that it wasn’t any more about getting by or being able to have nicer things or do nicer things it was having to that.
I had another life coming in, and so I had to and that’s really when I just I just kind of wiped the slate clean and I just started out like a complete student and, like I said I fall the top producers.
I followed their processes.
I followed how they did their follow up, how they talk to their customers, how they handled multiple customers at once, and I also got like I said my hands on as much training as I could to really grow my skill level, and then it was just just Kind of like I teach and train, then it was just kind of you know.
It was kind of like a snowball, because you know then then I got back to making six figures and then every year I went up 20 % regardless of recessions, and that because that was my focus, that was my mindset and I really became a student of It and then, as I became a student, my dad was a really good trainer he’s trained hundreds of salespeople in his years of being and management.
You know like you, have on both ends on the management end and on the on the vendor side.
On the training side, but the things that he taught me when I first started then started clicking in you know, and so I think my problem was, is I learned quick and fast and then I thought I knew it all so, like you said, I was skipping Steps, it was all about me.
It was all about pre-qualifying customers, all they are, they aren’t gon na, buy, look what they’re pulling up and – or you know, 15 minutes to closing – I’m not gon na.
Take that up.
They might keep me here longer and they might sell a vehicle right.
I’m gon na go home and do nothing anyways.
You know so you know so I just went back to being at work to work and just listening to that customer.
Just zoning in on that customer and always just putting a car sale together in my mind the whole time the whole time yeah it’s amazing because as a sales trainer, when I go into a dealership – and I I’m not doing that anymore – you know I’m.
Basically, you had the last dealership I visited was a year ago.
Well I take that back.
I broke the rule in three months ago.
I did one in Pennsylvania, but that was a friend that wanted me in there, but for the most part I was traveling.
You know 200 days a year out of town working in dealerships, and one thing I always experienced was the mutineers.
The first time you go into a dealership, you’ve got you’ve, got the mutineers they’ve had a little meeting the restroom and the first thing they tell the other salesman.
Is these guys come and go as soon as you know, they already have my plane scheduled.
They knew when I was leaving and they knew their managers weren’t going to do it when I left so yeah.
Do you experience anything like that? Yes, yes, I know, I know what you mean, that’s why I prefer the longer contracts with with the the scheduled, quarterly or six-week in-house training, because you really have to keep them involved and your skier so right.
This is something that people don’t talk about as much, but you can train.
I can train who’s ever out.
There.
Training can train the best material, the best systems, the best processes that will create results and the sales people can start doing it.
But if they aren’t facing you know the customers appreciating it and accepting it, and it’s just a constant fight or an uphill battle.
It’s it’s not going to work, so sometimes you get the people in there.
That say, you know, have the the predetermined notions of all this guys this or this person’s, they add or that’s how it’s gon na be.
Sometimes you have those.
Sometimes you have those who really want to want to learn and those are kind of like when I sold vehicles.
My favorite customers were the real standoff customers, because those were that you know those were the ones where you really like feel you got like.
I made a sale like I overcame every objection they did not want to buy.
I made a sale I’d like those ones, much more than a referral that came in and said, hey.
We want this stock number and you know we’ll take the 0 %, and you know they’re like done like that.
So sometimes I appreciate those people.
If I get the opportunity to show them and they will actually accept it, because those sometimes are the best students because they fought it in the beginning and then when they see some value, you know when somebody uses a word track or a script or uses a Process that I teach and then they make a sale off it, then they continue to use it and see that it works.
That’s how you can change those.
You know they’re sayers into believers.
Well, we’ve got a guy on the sidelines here.
Johnny Lee Johnny leads us.
How can you train motivation? You know you that’s a great question because you, you really can’t train motivation.
You can put motivation out there.
You can use techniques to try and bring people to find that motivation inside them, but you know Zig Ziglar said it best when you know motivations, like like hygiene, you know it needs to be done on a daily basis, and I teach about this in conquer you That you need to find outside motivation.
You need to be able to find a way to motivate yourself and then along the way to motivate others, because sometimes that’s so rewarding you know you can be having the and you probably know, but this you can be having the worst day or you’re sick or Whatever the case is you’re, your dishwasher goes out.
It’s the last thing you want to deal with, and then you get one of those messages on Facebook where somebody’s like hey you’re, you know you’re so inspirational and motivating, and thank you and I’ve grown my career.
So those are really what you know.
What makes being a trainer great is when you get those people have what I call a nut mentality: they’re not trying to get ahead.
They’re not trying to excel they’re, not trying to be a super success.
They just want to cover their nut one more month in a row.
They know exactly what their expenses are.
They know exactly what their nut is and the minute they hit their nut.
They lay down stop selling for the rest of the month right.
A lot of people have in the car business have that nut mentality you you can break out of it.
I tell people, I can’t teach you focus, I can’t teach you intensity, I can’t teach you motivation, I can stand up here, strut around and show you what it looks like, but I can’t teach it you reach inside to you and create that it has to be A desire – and I every sales meeting I do starts out with.
Do you want more than you now have? Do you want a better house? You want a better car, you want jewelry, you want vacations, you want fine, dining, you want luxury, you want education for your children.
You want retirement security into your days.
Why are you doing and are you doing enough to get it? Are you doing enough to have it? Because if you can’t tell me where that house is and what it’s made of and what neighborhood it’s in your? Never hey, you can’t have it it’s just a smoke.
Smoke dream right.
You agree! Oh yes, it’s a very all! Well, tell me about your company: what do you do? Yes, nwa sales training.
I started it back in 2010 when i was still selling at the time and that started out a lot of times.
I’d go in and I’d train.
I never trained anybody in my direct area, but I’d go and train.
It was usually a friend or somebody.
I’d worked with in the past, a story that they were GM of our GS and I’m not going and drained or fail staff.
And then I started writing some blogs and I some of my blogs, picked up four different automotive websites.
In fact, I can’t even tell you what they’re on right now, because they switch constantly.
I have a company that I went through and they’ll kind of switch around I’ll get paid a lot and I won’t get paid for a little bit and then it comes back around.
But so I started doing that as my training and then in 2012.
I had a huge opportunity to do training for an international non automotive company really, and it was right when my wife was having our second child, and you know I don’t try and sound like whiny or anything, but we really never had help from family.
So when we had a kid, it was kind of like me and Sarah doing everything, and so we had our child, and so I stepped back off of that.
I tapered off.
It’s like all the timings not right.
There’s too much going on, I’m making really good money selling I’ve got.
You know.
401K.
I’ve got insurance, that you know, blood lock and I’m like and I’ve got you know.
I’ve got a I’ve got a big nut.
So I was always the sales managers favorite sales guy, because I had a big nut.
You know I had.
I had to make a lot of money and I had to max out my 401k.
You know I had all these goals that I wanted to do so.
Um, so in like 2014, we got to a point where we thought about moving to a different climate, a better climate – and I shared a little bit of this with you on our conversation the other day, and so I was looking at my training material and I’m Like wow, I’ve got really great stuff here and I’m like you know, this is real.
Just what I did you know it’s not complicated.
It’s what I did.
It’s proven.
You know it’s got his track results and what I did and shared with other salespeople at work and what they implemented of what I did – and I said you know if I don’t ever move away from this – I’m never gon na do this because you know I’m Making good into six figures life is perfect right.
I’m good equity of my house max out my 401k that a lot so I’ve got this big client base that I built.
So we moved to st.
George Utah, basically like like ninjas in a week, we move 2,000 miles.
What were you thinking yeah my pride? I didn’t move away from my job.
I would never do my sales train, and that was really my passion because are you? Are you Mormon? No, no, I’m Catholic.
Okay.
I tell women all the time.
Look, I’m happily married, but ever turned Mormon you’re on the list, love that Justin humor, hey Becky, churn X on the broadcast yeah Becky glad to have you see: we’ve met.
We talked on Facebook about this, but so that was really my passion was you know I like training, and it got to the point where sales people were coming up to me more than the managers, and so I was kind of doing the training and walking them Through and manage them in a lot of ways, anyways, and I just really felt that you know I’d like to try more the vendor and seeing how I spent so much time in dealerships and I love being in dealership when I go back.
There’s still something electric about that dealership, especially when it’s busy you know, especially when there’s there’s people coming in there’s people buying, I love taking Tio’s.
I love helping with phone calls.
I love doing all this stuff because there’s something magical, you know that really gets salespeople and managers, and you know car car people hooked.
It’s just that energy and alertness in the room when it’s busy.
When I go in a dealership – and I hear the F and I manage you’re complaining about this – that or the other or the desk manager – oh, you can’t do that here.
Get up.
Let me sit down and I’ll take over the sales desk I’ll go in and deliver cars in the Athan I office and they’d never seen very many trainers do that cuz, I’m a management, trainer and and – and I came from a management background which you know, I’m A sales trainer as well but sales training was never my focus.
My focus was always training training doers how to be doers training.
General managers, how to be general managers.
You know just that’s always been my focus and that’s why my stuff has been successful and why your stuff is successful is because we get our power base from the dealer.
Yeah no offense, but I’m going to dealership and I have a manager come up and say to me: you know mr.
Ziegler.
This is the way we do it here and I’ll say what you don’t think they brought me here because you’re doing a good job.
Do you think you think they call it a master chef and then change the recipe right right? Have you experienced that? Oh, yes, most definitely you know that’s one of the toughest things is to get the buy-in.
You know at that culture level because a lot of the times the salespeople they want some training.
You know I talked to salespeople all the time.
They’re like wow, we’re glad they’re bringing in training.
They haven’t been doing training in a while and a lot of people, especially you know, the youth is, is really into training because that’s how they grew up.
We grew up kind of in the in the car business said: hey here’s! Here’s the seven steps to make a sale go out and get one right.
You can dad to find it out that the youth now they’re so used to growing up off watching a YouTube video.
How do I do this? We’ve figured out? We would call our grandma we’d call our mom.
We call whoever we thought knew how to do that.
Now we just go to a YouTube video.
So a lot of the sales people do want the training.
You know.
I think the management sometimes feels that there’s a there’s, maybe their ego may be acted or adjusted, or I’m gon na completely downgrade everything that they’ve done up to this point and I think that’s the biggest backlash and the biggest obstacle with with management.
I have a saying – and I think I may share with you before in the car business – we don’t have a knowing problem, we have a doing problem, see people say we need more training.
No, you don’t you need to just do what you’re trained you already know.
What to do right and I mean, as a manager, my strength was not being smarter than everybody else.
I was able to set records because I did things they didn’t do, but you know it’s the same stuff they knew, but I did it in reality and and that’s what made the dealership so successful.
No, absolutely there’s a you know, there’s there’s a difference between action and productivity, and I teach that all the time that you know sometimes somebody that well, you know I talked to eight customers or I sent out this many emails right.
I did this, but they didn’t produce anything and it’s like all right.
So action and productivity aren’t the same that it’s good you’re doing the motions, but you’ve got to make sure that those are productive.
That I’ve been met right that you, okay, if it’s not working and you’re doing the motions and something needs to be adjusted and addressed, and that’s where I think you know that they should really management should really step in and sales people should really go to management Because, like you said a lot of these managers, you know, I would say most of them got there, because they were good at something that the GM or the owner thought they were worthy to become a manager and so a lot of times.
They have skills that obviously don’t have all the skills, but that’s the nice thing about having five six seven different managers between F & I and sales floor and closers and GM’s is you have those people that you can go to and really overcome that objection that You’re facing well, you know it’s, it’s amazing, because so many managers don’t have hyper awareness and that’s one of my pet theories is that you have to be aware of every deal in progress.
Yes, I go and do a shift today.
They got their head buried in the CRM and they’re, not watching their business.
Have you seen that? Yes yeah? The managers are all sitting at a common desk 20 feet long and they’re, looking down at their CRM and they’re, not watching their business managers should be like sharks that never stops swimming.
They constantly in motion constantly being aware of everything that moves.
You know if you’re not actively working a deal, you don’t need to be sitting at the desk right.
I don’t you know very true, because yeah you know when you’re really surveying the showroom floor and the actual buyers that are there, the people that are negotiating deals or they’re going on demonstrations they’re ready to buy that way.
You can see the body language.
You can see where your salesperson is.
You know you can see if they’re getting nervous, you can see if they’re skipping steps, you can just stay on top of everything.
If you see some some tense body, language shakes a great opportunity to go in and just at least introduce yourself, everybody loves dealing with the manager.
You know, how often do you hear? Oh, I only deal with the manager 15 years.
I only deal with the manager and all they do is they say hi to the manager for a few minutes and they deal with the salesperson.
But that’s the you know, that’s the feeling that they get so no.
I think that managers really need to be.
You know that’s one thing: I think it’s this herd, this business in a sense, is it’s become so and technology’s great, don’t get me wrong, but this business has become so technology centric people forget that it’s still a people business.
Imagine that you know it’s not all about the app or the CRM or the DMS or the DH.
It’s still about a handshake, a good greeting you know making the customer feel comfortable about what they’re doing providing value, and you know all these.
Other tools are nice to keep it afloat, to keep it going and to take away some added steps, but it’s still about selling the people is what selling cars is, how many times you’ve seen the salesperson shake hands with a consumer, give them given their name.
They give you their name and 30 seconds later.
I can say that said with.
What’s his people saying you know, you know when I was teaching Carnegie back a long time ago.
The first thing in Carnegie is get their name, remember their name and use it right.
That comes right out of car, you get their name, remember their name and use it as a salesperson.
I can’t tell you how many times I forget their names right, because I didn’t pay attention when I asked it and it’s okay for salesmen to say.
Excuse me, sir, I I apologize I’ve forgotten.
I won’t forget again.
What is your name, it’s okay, to say that right they wouldn’t mind rather than say your name yeah, and they say I see salesmen today say.
Excuse me, sir, how do you spell your last name? Jo NES you moron, hey Kevin O’brien, just showed up Cheryl men’s on the broadcast Jessy Hernandez, John Garland Darrell Libby.
We got a crowd.
We do.
I saw that I’ve been watching it here on my phone still staying focused yeah John Johnny leaves asking questions Becky turnings on Mike Phillips.
We got, we got, we got the who’s who the car business on Allen Eagles.
I didn’t see that earlier.
Okay, Allen ego says you can have every trainer in the world as much as you want, but until the managers buy in and do their job you’re wasting money train retrain, replaced.
You can’t train motivation, that’s you know, that’s act absolutely spot-on and we talked about that.
A little bit earlier that you and I we can go in, we can train all the processes.
Systems scripts were try everything they would ever need to be successful and have a higher closing ratio, but if they aren’t getting buy-in from from leadership, if leadership doesn’t accept that vision, then it’s it’s gon na be a failed.
It’s gon na be a failed problem.
You know failed battle because, after a while, the salespeople keep facing resistance and they’re just gon na quit and go back to what they’re what they’re accustomed to motivation.
I don’t think you can.
You can teach it, but there are so many ways out there to get that you can find a way to bring it out.
Inside of you like when I said when I really turned my career around, it was us having our first child.
My daughter that motivated me I had to write, I had to make more money.
I had to provide all the all the things that she should have in life, and so that really motivated me – and I found my way my you know – I found ways to keep myself motivated in other ways.
You know and you’ve worked out so working out sometimes is motivation right you get up early and you’re like hey.
I already worked out today.
Look I’m looking good.
You know, I’m feeling strong that that motivates okay.
If I did that by six now, I can go, and I can go do this and you know there’s the as we talked about there’s so much motivation out there.
You can find it in so many different facets and on so many different channels and platforms that it’s out there.
It’s if you want to be motivated or, as you said, you just want to make your nut and you just kind of want to want to settle a metal where you’re at I ask salesmen all the time when I don’t have sales meetings.
What did the top salesperson in this dealership make last month, and I hear numbers anyone ten to twenty thousand dollars, the top salesman in the dealership made twenty thousand ten thousand fifteen thousand.
What did the least paid salesperson make last month? 2,500 now is.
That is that a professional salesperson that’s been in the business a while yeah he’s been in business three years.
Okay, how come one salesman made $ 2,500 and another salesperson made fifteen thousand right.
You did the the $ 2,500 a month salesman, just catches, the unlucky ups and the other guy caught that or a person caught the the lucky UPS.
I mean they both worked, the same number of hours, right access to the same customers, the same community, the same phone calls, but one salesman made twenty five thousand one of them a 2500.
Why wasn’t that you? Why are you the $ 15,000 guy, yet every opportunity? The $ 15,000 guy or woman had, why didn’t you do it and that’s one of my best sales meetings you’d be amazed how our sales people react to that? Oh, I bet they come up and the ones making the 2500 3500 we’re out there.
You know hitting it hard, because that’s what I always loved about sales is everybody has everybody starts over at the beginning of the month.
Everybody has the same opportunities like you said.
You know you can say.
Okay, you know, Johnny has a bigger book of business and Sally’s been here 12 years and you can rest on those excuses or you can just you’ve got the same.
Inventory you’ve got the same new car programs.
Like you said you have the same customer base yeah.
You have the same lenders, you have the same service department, the same body shop.
You have all the same opportunities and I think the problem is.
I just read a stat and we know this being in sales and being in training is you know? 80, 80 % of a sales persons day isn’t used as far as work.
No, it’s you know it’s watching a cat, video on YouTube.
It’s calling their girlfriend or their boyfriend.
It’s spending an hour and a half it or not.
Where they’re gon na go for lunch.
It’s talking fantasy football, it’s you know anything but work-related, and if you look at those top sales producers like your Ollie, Rita or your Chad lens or so many of these other guys, they’re they’re using a hundred and ten percent of their whole day.
Oh absolutely, I was doing a meeting at west way Ford in the 90s West way.
Ford was seven a thousand units a month and when I started working with them, they were selling 400 Wow and I had a hundred sales people in the sales meeting from from their new a used operation.
A hundred salespeople and managers and two guys walked in late with her breakfast biscuits and I was a pretty pretty big guy.
I was like younger than you – I wouldn’t do this today, but I grabbed their breasts.
The McDonald’s bags – and I said I know you didn’t disrespect me and the owner by bringing your breakfast whatever this is I’m gon na throw that garbage over here in front of a hundred people.
I threw their breakfast into garbage.
I see people had come to work and I got sent out for their breakfast and they got ta work.
The crossword they got ta do all this bogus thing, but they spent their whole day getting ready to get ready right right.
You know, hit the ground running.
Man I was there at seven o’clock, I’m working a service drive before the the showrooms open and I set records in every dealership.
I worked for you know because, not because I’m smarter than everybody else, I just did things they wouldn’t do know and that’s uh, and you brought that up earlier and I think that’s actually absolutely the key to success.
Is you know doing the things that others won’t? Do I switch dealerships after five years? I worked at two Ford stores.
I switched the Varsity Ford, which is one of the largest four stores in the nation, and I got my way up.
The ranks really quick.
I could have came up with every excuse of how I couldn’t do it, but I just utilized every opportunity that was in front of me.
I learned at that store that leasing was definitely the way to fast-track your career and your repeat and referral business.
And so you know, I became from a store where we did probably 40 50 % leasing, and it was something that we all tried to stray away from to a store that was 75 % leasing to where we actually got paid better on it and saw what That did to my career, but you know, like you say I utilize my whole day and that’s really.
When I became successful, is I utilize my whole day? I stayed away from fantasy football leagues.
I told my wife not to call me at work unless the house was on fire.
I just I went into work to focus on doing what it took to get customers in the showroom to sell them vehicles.
Well, you know you know.
No, I’m I’m personally a prospecting juggernaut.
I do you get chance to watch those videos.
I sent you.
I did get a chance to watch a couple of them.
Yes, did you watch some one where the guy was talked about when I sold a car in a median? Yes, in the rain, the guy from org, I can walk out of any dealership in the country if it’s not a Sunday, if it’s good weather and not a holiday and I’ll, sell a car and deliver a car to a stranger before five o’clock.
Any city in the country and every every salesperson can do that, but you know nobody: does it anymore? Yeah prospecting you’re swimming in a sea of ups.
You where, where our ups try the expressway five o’clock, they’re bumper-to-bumper, what do you do pretty detailed? What do you do in the dealerships? Yes, so what I like to do when I go into a dealership and I’m doing training is first off I like to to run the meeting, so you know run the morning meeting or be a part of the morning meeting to let them know who I am, What I’m doing there and really what the the objectives are that we’re going to accomplish from there? I would pick a subject matter that the dealer wanted to work on with their staff that they fought thought that they were really really faulty on a lot of times.
It’s it’s prospecting.
It’s follow-up.
You know you hear the same things.
It’s you know, prospecting follow-up, those different things, so we do like a two-hour workshop with some role-playing and going over different processes, different systems.
What they’re currently doing? Why that isn’t working what they can do to to find a system that works so I’ll? Do that with two different classes from there? What I like to do is, depending on the size of the dealership, I’d like to spend about a half hour hour with each salesperson to go over individually exactly what we covered, because you know when you’re in a classroom style.
Even if it’s six or eight people, usually a couple people get left out right, there’s the people that I always questions and there’s the people that are just somewhat shy by Nature and they get left out.
Throw I’d like to spend a half hour hour with each.
Both individuals shown the process has shown the phone scripts that we talked about, show them how to make the calls show them how to leave a proper voicemail show them how to follow up their CRM.
Just really shown the basics.
It’s you know, the basics are the basics for success.
They really are and when you follow the basics, you don’t have to have the most extravagant process.
If you’ve listened to all e-readers process, he doesn’t have an extravagant process.
He’s like I, don’t have a secret handshake.
You know I don’t have magic dust, I just do what works the same way every time and expect similar results.
So what I like to do is just really go over the good habits.
Show them how to do it and then have follow up with management and really get management’s perspective on each salesperson management’s perspective on what they think needs to be changed.
What they’ve, rather their salespeople, doing and then really kind of putting my synapses together for the GM and for the dealer of where I really see growth, opportunities and and what changes need to be addressed.
So you don’t get that you don’t get that clash and you are getting a buy-in, that’s over sighted and overseen by the GM or the dealer, so that it makes sure that it gives implemented, because the whole thing is is well.
That’s that’s Sarah’s job she’s, the GSM, that’s her job! I just expect her to get it done, and you know and then having it fall there that, knowing that hey you’ve got to work with these people on this, because the biggest problem right now is retention.
It has been four years in this business, but I see it more than ever right now and the cost of new hires is ridiculous.
Why not cultivate what you have there with you? You know when somebody goes and gets a job for the for the post office or the government.
It doesn’t mean that they’re the most qualified employee, but they find a way to make them work and at least spending more time into trying to make your sales staff work out after you’re sure that they’re qualified that they’re trained that they’re catching on that they want To do this, rather than giving them the 90 days, you’re out less hire a new batch.
What do you think the number one reason for dealership turnover is, you know I think it’s I think you you know.
I think you know training would be one thing but, most importantly, I think it’s the salespeople actually knowing their role and their tasks and how to succeed.
I’m going to disagree with it.
The number one reason people leave dealerships is spouse pressure over the hours.
When I consult the dealership, I actually I’m management, you know, I’m not I’m working on a different level.
I train the salespeople, but I’m working or management changing their whole culture and process right.
We first thing we do.
Is we shorten their hours and hire more of them? You know, we’ve got salespeople matter of fact.
They they they have a complete weekend a month off from Friday at noon till Monday, at noon.
Wow, that’s impressive and that that weekend off is carved in concrete.
The manager can’t change it.
You’re short on people.
That’s your fault live with it.
You gave that sales woman that salesperson that that day off Friday at noon, half a day travel Monday at noon.
Half a day, travel in the whole weekend and retention went through the roof when we shortened their hours we ran through, we ran three teams and the big dealerships and a hundred percent of the time one team was off.
So we had two teams working a hundred percent of the time.
One team was off, that’s how we shortened their schedules and the retention of salespeople.
We had a lot more people, nobody thought you flooded the floor because there were only two teams on the whole at any one time right, so nobody had the impression to the store.
The floor was flooded right and, of course, appointments are the number one thing we had to train salespeople today.
Yes, tell me about appointments, yes, you know.
I see it now, especially when I go in training, and I see people trying to put a car deal together over over a text message or a facebook, Messenger and yeah they’re just sitting here going and they’re sending all this information, and you know what the customers Doing now is they’re just taking that information they’re just forward in that tax to your competitor, trying to get the best price.
So I think what we’re what we’re forgetting is.
You know really the set the appointment thirds with all those things that are nice, email text, Facebook, messenger, Instagram, all your different social media platforms.
We want to transfer those into a phone call where we actually have a verbal call, because when you’ve talked with somebody they’re more likely to stick with their appointment than just message you and be like.
Ah you know what I’ve got other stuff I’ve got to do.
I just won’t make it especially it car dealerships right or your point rate, isn’t like doctor’s office or dentist office.
You know it’s it’s low, so then get them on the phone really answer a couple of their questions because still you’re just you’re just another website, you’re.
Just another face on online really answer a couple: their questions show them some value and then, from there set the appointment for them to come in, it’s so hard to sell a product that people haven’t touched.
They haven’t smelled, they haven’t driven yep from the benefits, and here you are trying to sell them a five hundred fifty dollar a month payment on a picture that they have online on your website with a 360 view, rather than getting them in there and getting that Whole, you know the sales buying process, especially for vehicles, is always going to be driven on emotion, so they have to drive so you’ve got to get them to drive, yes, got a drive, get them in there, get them to drive the vehicle show them.
You know find out what they liked best about the previous vehicle find out what they wish.
Their new vehicle had find the right vehicle touch points on those options on those features that are important to them.
That would bring value to them and that’s how you have a high percentage of appointment shows and you have car sales rather than trying to sell that $ 55,000 Explorer over a text message and fill showroom.
Correct the website – and I can’t find their phone number and some moron told me one time.
Mr.
Ziegler we’d like to get the customer day on the email, conversation or a text conversation.
So we can get their phone call and column and convert them to a phone call.
That’s what why don’t we just like start with the phone call quit it.
You know it’s absolutely absurd.
You go over there, contact us page and there’s only you know, fill out your name and email, and somebody will contact you and it’s like.
I just want to call it.
So I type yes, we will call you back.
Mr.
me, — off does make for a good laugh.
Yeah haven’t had many cartoon characters or covenant dealerships.
Oh you know, they’ve got to do more, shows about car dealerships.
That’s definitely a comical place.
This is that I was offered.
I was offered a reality.
Show on cable I mean I was offered some big bucks to do a reality show, but six years ago – and I mean the guy that was – was producing the showed.
Do you ever.
Did you ever see the movie good burger? Yes, welcome to good burger home of the good burger that, yes, it was the same guy that made that movie okay and he was the producer.
He wanted me to do a reality show about about TV about the car business and I was working at the time.
This is this has been more than five years ago, because I was working with them Tobin dodge in in Las Vegas.
Yes yeah, the chopper.
Oh, we got that dealership up to 800 units a month on a three acre lot: yeah amazing, the blue genie and yeah yeah king of cars and king of cars – and you know I was I was like behind the scenes.
Rich rich Ackman was a general manager and they were, and my processors were going nuts and you know they were, they were a little edgy.
Those guys were little edgy, you know, but that wasn’t anything I taught him, but the step they got from me.
We got up to 800 units a month, I mean we had cars crammed in there that we had to get little skinny guys to crawl in the hatch dug to drive the cars out.
They couldn’t open the doors, I’ve been there and it was amazing and the way we sold cars are just people, don’t get it there’s not dealership in the world.
That’s not leaving a hundred thousand dollars a month on the table.
Oh, I agree with you completely right now.
We are in a slowdown where the business is slowing down right and, if you’re going to do business today, you’re gon na have to take that business away from a competitor that has that business and you’ve got to come in under the radar screen.
You’ve got you’ve, got you’ve, got a conquest.
Those deals, you can’t lose the deal.
How much intensity are you teaching in your seminars? You know I try and teach intense enough to to get the message across but to keep them engaged and so you’re.
Absolutely right that you know I obviously I love girls when I sold right.
Every salesperson should love girls, but I looked at every deal as a customer, and so I’m not saying give away your unique used vehicle, but if you’ve got a 500 for escapes and they want just a basic one, do whatever it takes to make that deal, because It’s not always that deal initially.
There’s the car deal.
It’s all the deals that you get off of that, but it’s also like you just kind of stay, this one less for your competitor, cuz they’re, going vehicle that day, so it’s either plus one for you or plus one for your competitor.
So you know I do find a point to call it quits, because obviously, there’s always going to be customers that just have ridiculous expectations and somebody spoil them too much in the past or they just don’t understand the process.
But you know we should try and get every deal that we can and I definitely teach that that there’s there’s nothing more important.
Just like the the process to get the appointment, there’s nothing more important than a customer on your lot in front of you.
It’s a complete opportunity and more important than the deal in progress and when that car is being sold, everything else stops and gets out of the way the sale.
Yes, I see managers that are involved in the dealer trade, while the sales going down right and one of the biggest problems we have right now is getting the customer from the sales department to the F & I department correct, I mean and ordinarily that that a Lot of times, that’s the salesman spot fault.
You know they’re not putting a prepared deal in there correct.
I was I was at five years ago.
Four years ago I was working with Tamela Blouin in Baton, Rouge and Shreveport Louisiana.
You know the or or or Nissan right I desk the deal that was $ 7000 on a program, Ultima, we’re holding seven grand on a program, Ultima and thirty minutes later I walked by the office and the customer and her father are still sitting in the office.
Thirty minutes after I penciled the deal, and I heard the father say you know we’re moving too fast.
We might need to go home and talk about this and where’s my salesman.
My salesman is in slow motion, stupid mode.
I got to get some numbers off the car.
I have to go get deep, I mean all the things that should have been done.
Weren’t done right and sales people have got to realize the importance of getting everything in the CRM when that manager, pencils the deal and I’m a manager.
I want that deal in the fni office within fifteen minutes.
Oh, absolutely, nothing kills a deal like time right in the deal right.
There I mean when I pencil the deal.
The shot clock is running, you’re, you’re, you’re right there, the shot clock is running and the F & I office is a basket right.
Yeah no you’ve got to keep that process going because you know especially now everybody’s got a computer right in their hands.
So if you’re making them wait too long and then they start to get the second gases like they always do right.
They start to second-guess their decision now, they’re right on their on their phone, reaching out to other dealerships, get through sit in their showroom shopping.
You yes right and the salesman comes back finally to take him in the F & I office and the consumer says I just found a deal on true car yeah crosstown it I love a sudden.
Your whole deal is unwound right.
You got to start back over and start the whole thing over, so no there definitely needs to be, and that takes buy-in from all departments.
You know your sales manager should over be seeing the salesperson make sure they’ve got everything correct and their the sales manager.
You know needs to make sure that it gets into F and I so the F and I director or finance manager gets that to keep the process moving forward, because if you give them too much time to think customers are gon na come up with them.
We all do the same thing.
You know if you end up waiting too long for something we all second-guess ourselves.
Should I be doing this? Do I need it? Am I gon na use it? Am I getting the right? One.
Customers have something.
I call buyers, anxiety, mm-hmm, the closer they get to the deal, the more they start backing out correct.
Have you ever had a consumer that was mean to you rude to you, mistreated you, a verbally abuse you a little bit ever, have a customer like that.
Oh yeah, we all have, and I mean, but that when they made the decision and signed the purchase order, they got nice right.
It was never about you right.
It was always about the decision they knew they had to make and didn’t want to make right.
So you have to be a master at getting them beyond the decision, correct fun, part of ownership.
I never tell a customer they’re buying a car.
I talk about ownership, you know yeah when you own the car, when you own it right talk about buying it.
Buying buying sucks, owning fun right very true, and it’s a great way to put that is ownership because yeah buying is, is, I usually use purchasing, but that’s just a better form of buying.
You know it is.
It is ownership, but that’s why it is so important to keep that process.
Going and you’ll see your growth you’ll see your closing percentage go up, but there’s nothing worse than putting it spending all day, putting a deal together, jump it through every hoop and then at the last minute.
It starts to unwind because the process took too long because they had to wait two hours to go into F & I, because the salesperson didn’t have the right information in there.
Then they start their showroom shopping on their phone and they were terrible long away from the customer at the desk right anytime.
You are away from the customer that deal is going backwards.
Yes and that’s why I tell Sony you put a customer in a car and let them drive and you didn’t go with them right yeah.
We do.
You have a brain cramp.
You know well they’re driving by themselves, they’re talking themselves out of the deal right.
We have to be there, so they don’t talk about you behind your back.
You need to be in their presence.
If nothing else and salespeople, don’t a sale has a rhythm and as a heartbeat as a pulse.
You know when you were in the rhythm of the deal you know when you were out of the rhythm of the deal and managers need to keep the rhythm of the deal flowing, that that’s their job correct as a manager.
I touch every customer often and early.
