I know some manufacturers and a few dealers that have taken this quite seriously, but I am not sure that companies pay their sales managers or reward dealers on the effective management of sales activity.

• Information that I would say is vital in this regard:

Sales enquiry volumes by vehicle.

Source of the enquiry (phone, walk in, promotion etc).

Number of potential trade-in vehicles.

• With this info, the sales manager can:

Manage the workload of the sales team.

Determine what vehicles are being enquired about (efficiency of advertising, pricing, branding and positioning).

Determine what resources are required where (telephonists, floor salespeople, greeters, product specialists).

Which salespeople are proficient in dealing with clients face to face versus over the phone.

Which salespeople are more successful on which models.

Predict sales outcomes that will enable the sales manager to manage stock more effectively.

Determine which salespeople are better at negotiating a deal when there is a trade-in.

Once you have accurate activity data over a period of time, it will give you an incredible insight into which salespeople and processes are truly effective and where there is opportunity.

An example I use often is if salesperson A regularly receives 100 enquiries and sells 15 vehicles and salesperson B receives 20 enquiries and sells 10 vehicles, who is in fact your better salesperson?

You may want to find out why two salespeople have such a vast difference in enquiries – maybe one has a telephonist friend and receives more than their fair share of enquiries. Another possibility is that salesperson B may be happy with selling 10 vehicles and is not too keen to take on extra leads.

I could go on forever with possible scenarios, but the fact of the matter is that unless you have activity data that can be effectively used to manage sales, you cannot maximise the potential of the dealership.

In closing, I have personal experience in using the data described above and it made our business incredibly efficient and effective, as we know, efficiency and effectiveness always lead to improved results.

• Dealerfloor (dealerfloor.co.za) and I will be publishing regular articles on dealership efficiency. I am really looking forward to sharing ideas with you. Join the conversation by sending a WhatsApp to 082-776-1887 to be added to our group.

Take care.

Donald