Have you got the right sales people in place and is your reward scheme set up properly?

A colleague of mine bought a new car through a well-known and, to all intents and purposes, reputable dealership in Liverpool.  On completing the deal the sales person agreed to supply the missing spare key saying that it would take about a week…  6 weeks and endless calls later, my colleague still hasn’t received the key.  Excuses have ranged from ‘getting caught up in a heavy sales period’ to the ‘key supplier being on holiday’!

So imagine her surprise when she received a call from the sales person asking her why she hadn’t completed the customer feedback form because it affected his ‘scores’.

My colleague has vowed never to buy a car from this dealer again and has told just about everyone she meets what terrible service she has received and all because of a key!

So what’s going on here? 

Two things strike me.  Firstly we have a sales person who is more interested in his own personal success represented by the scoring system than he is in fulfilling his promises to the customer.  He seems to think that people will give him good marks regardless of poor service.  Admittedly his scores may reflect his pay packet at the end of the month but surely points have to be earned?

Selecting sales people who are interested in customer satisfaction first and their own scores afterwards will satisfy both needs.  Note to management – make sure your talent acquisition strategy includes something like Harrison Assessments to engage sales people with an approach that will result in customer satisfaction, repeat sales and ultimately high scores – win/win for all!

Secondly, is your reward system for sales people set up correctly?  Is it rewarding successful, productive behaviour with the types of rewards the sales people want?  The only way to find out is to ask them with an objective (not subjective) retention and engagement survey.  Here again Harrison Assessments can help with a highly cost effective, easy to complete, objective survey measuring 8 employee engagement factors, ensuring your reward system is aligned not only to the business’ expectations, but also to your employees expectations.

If you would like to know more about how we can help you, select, engage and retain your sales people do get in touch:

pat@quadrant1.com  – 07768 922244.