The Background 

In the 1990’s Mitsubishi moved from the specialist car market into the mainstream, with launches of hatchback and saloon models. It soon became apparent that there was a change needed in sales approaches. In addition, the Sales Director was frustrated with the traditional incentive programs being used to try and drive dealer performance.

“We spend millions each year on running high profile incentive programs, but I end up taking the same dealers on the trip each year and the same ones stay at the bottom of the list, with no change in their results.”

The Challenge

The training being offered by the manufacturer was aimed at sales staff and was delivered at a central location. When these people went back to their dealerships it was obvious that they were much more influenced by their peers and managers than by the training they had received. This being the case, we needed to make this influence much more beneficial and to show improvement in dealer results.

The Program

Prosell changed the process from central, general sales training to dealer specific performance improvement programs. Each of the dealers in the program received a detailed analysis of their sales effectiveness and their ability to improve sales – from dealer principle down. The program focused on the ability of managers and senior sales people to train and coach their people in line with new models, competition and the challenge of technology – buyers using the internet to choose the vehicle;

As one dealer principle put it – “I used to get 30 to 40 visitors to my showroom each weekend – about 25% of which were serious buyers. Now my showroom is a ghost town and I get 30 to 40 emails with the make, model and spec already chosen, asking for my best price. I know this email has gone to 10 other dealers as well. My sales people struggle to know how to change their sales behaviour to deal with this.”

We changed the sales process and the way in which the relationship with the customer was sold. In addition, we put in place a sales coaching program for sales managers that enabled them to continue the development of their people. Finally, we gave Dealer Principals the tools to measure and manage the sales effectiveness needed.

The Results

Over a 6 month period, we evidenced a 38% increase in overall sales volumes and 8% increase in sales margins.