Avoid Demotivation By Car Sales Success

Are you a new car salesman or new car saleswomen? Or maybe you sell cars and manage others who also sell cars. Whatever the role, success in car sales is all about avoiding demotivation.

Many times in any industry from the automobile or transportation to the high tech, there are people who want to help others to reach success. Their desire to motivate others is good, yet the reality is that there are just as many obstacles that demotivate a sales force.

To be a success in selling cars begins with a strong internal belief that you are a success as a person. What this means is that you have weathered the adversities of life and have made it to the finish line for whatever race you are currently running.

Motivation in sales is quite interesting. What motivates one person may not motivate another. Hence, it is difficult to apply the same actions to everyone within the dealership. However it is much easier to demotivate the sales force.

Demotivation begins when the dealership fails to have a strategic plan. If a dealership wants to increase car sales, then the first step is to make sure that ALL actions or behaviors are consistent. Inconsistency in behavior will not increase sales. To avoid this inconsistency requires a written values and vision statement.

Changing the mission is another demotivating factor. One week the goal is to sell X cars, the next week the goal is to sell X add ons. Hitting a constantly moving target is difficult even for the best sales persons.

When a simple mission statement is crafted, the focus is then on the same goal only broken down into shorter time frames such as months. If the mission is to sell 1,500 units this year, then each month the dealership needs to sell 125 units provided historical records do not show any months where sales were consistently high or low.

Policies and procedures are another way to demotivate the sales force especially if they are not applied consistently. For example, at the car dealership everyone must go through a specific training and an agreed to sales process. A new sales person is hired who has a proven track record of selling 15 cars per month. This person does not have to follow the sales process nor attend any sales training.

What happens is that the rest of the sales force sees this exception and their internal motivation has been dramatically reduced. Even though they may try not to allow this to bother them, it does. Exceptions always affect the performance of the organization. (Think for a moment about the teacher’s pet and how you felt.) This past conditioning affects current behaviors.

When the obstacles to demotivation are removed, each sales person can focus on what he or she needs to do – sell more cars or units. By taking such action, not only will you increase sales, but you will begin to lay the foundation for a high performance work culture.