Who is the boss in the dealership?

Now that I am increasingly guiding and helping dealers and importers both domestically and abroad with the issue of lead follow-up, I am increasingly shocked by the apparent carelessness with which opportunities are handled. The past few days were no exception: I visited a large importer in Belgium and spoke with many dealers who all more or less have the same issues: how do you get your salespeople aligned so that they do what you believe they should do, rather than the other way around?

Many of my conversations revolve around the so-called “buy-in” from salespeople, where weak managers say they don’t know if they can “sell” a different process or follow-up method to their salespeople. Excuse me? How is this about “selling”?

The example I always give, which tends to trigger an “aha” moment, is the following: imagine a three-star chef in a restaurant who quits because he no longer wants the self-imposed pressure to perform at a star level every day, and says: I’m going to flip burgers at McDonald’s… Can that chef decide for himself when to flip the burger, how many pickles, mustard, and ketchup to put on it, or is the McDonald’s process leading?

Exactly, the process is leading, and in lead follow-up, it’s the same: you, the manager, the owner, the dealer, the importer, decide how and in what way you believe the leads should be followed up, not the salesperson, right?

And if the salesperson says they don’t believe in it, or want to do it differently, they are free to go to the Chamber of Commerce and start their own store with their own rules. But if they accept a salary, they also accept the company’s rules of engagement. Of course, discussion is possible to see if there’s a better way, but once the discussion ends, one person makes the decision, and it is followed.

At Calldrip, we had a few dealership locations for some time where leads were not followed up, Calldrip was ignored, and the process was not followed. Until the owner said to us: put me last in the flow, I’ll handle it… And immediately all leads were followed up by the salespeople. In other words, if you struggle to get your employees to do what you believe they should do, it may be more of a management problem than a salesperson problem… It must be very clear who is the boss in the dealership and who sets the direction!