The combination of consultancy, training, mystery shopping followed by coaching visits has been ideal for us. This is an excellent programme that I believe would benefit the entire network. It has certainly enhanced our business. In terms of showroom traffic we are busier than ever!
Tony Taylor, Sales Manager Northern Motors - Harrow
This manufacturer is one of Europe’s super brands and accounts for its group’s largest market share in this region and yet keeping the sales process alive and sales force motivation high are two fundamentals that are never taken for granted by the manufacturer’s board of directors.
Robert Purfield, Joint Managing Partner of PHP Ltd explained, “Our trademark is our passion for results! This manufacturer brand is strong and has a reputation for innovation, style and good design. But traffic has been thin on the ground across the entire retail sector and this dealership network has been no exception. There are many steps that can be taken to counter this and this being a pilot programme we chose to concentrate on just one of the many proven methods we have up our sleeves. In order to sell more cars the dealers needed to get more buyers into their showrooms. We designed this bespoke pilot programme with a focus predominantly on improving the number of appointments generated by sales people from incoming enquiries.”
This pilot programme ran for 4 months and the results have been outstanding! In month one PHP carried out a mystery shop benchmark exercise to determine the start point - ‘where the dealerships were’ in terms of conversion success rates, (namely their ability to turn incoming enquiries into appointments). Immediately after the benchmarking exercise PHP delivered training to the manufacturer Field Sales Team, the dealer based Sales Managers and sales people covering all 10 dealerships chosen to be involved with this pilot.
Kevin Chetwynd, Sales Manager at Greenhous, Hanley told us, “Prior to the PHP programme, showroom traffic had been slow to say the least. PHP shared with us their view that a person making the effort to phone a dealer about a car is more likely to be at the end of their buying cycle rather than at the beginning. This has been an important realization for us. Now my sales people dive for the phone when it rings because they know it could well be a buying customer.”
Tony Taylor, Sales Manager at Northern Motors added, “One of my guys didn’t buy into the programme initially. He’s been a salesman for 10 years, been on every course imaginable, he believed that he knew everything and certainly did not want to be mystery shopped. However, PHP and I worked with him and managed to get his buy-in quite early on in the programme and he really surprised himself with the results he achieved. Now he thinks the programme is fantastic!”
The training was followed by another mystery shop exercise (Phase I) with operatives simply posing as buying customers to test the sales consultants’ abilities to turn their incoming enquiries into appointments.
Kevin Chetwynd, Sales Manager at Greenhouse added, “Manufacturers need to change the way they mystery shop to the PHP way. PHP’s emphasis is on getting the appointment which is clearly more focused on getting the sale. Manufacturer mystery shops go into car specs and discounts and my sales people lose points and quickly become demotivated. PHP’s way has shown us that mystery shopping can be used to inspire a sales team. Getting the appointment is the important thing and we realize this now.”
PHP consultants followed up with a coaching visit where they studied the Phase I mystery shopping results and discussed and revisited the skills taught in the training.
Andrew Rogers, Sales Manager from Premier Motors, Edinburgh, added, “The fact that my people knew they were going to be mystery shopped gave it an edge and encouraged them from day one to take it on board. Hearing copies of the tapes really helped them and I too could see they were actually putting what they had learned in the training and coaching sessions into practice.”
This same cycle of mystery shopping followed by coaching was run again twice more by PHP (Phase II and Phase III) to complete the pilot.
Ian Buse, Joint Managing Director of Wards has kept a keen eye on the PHP pilot programme. He told us, “I am a big advocate of mystery shopping but the best way to do it is over a longer period of time. This programme should be run for at least 6, or even better 9 months, if we are to make real headway. That way the sales people will not be able to let down their guard. They will have to make a life-change in the way they handle incoming telephone enquiries. This can only lead to more sustainable positive results for the network. It shouldn’t stop there - we need to bring the mystery shopping into the showroom with video recordings to drive the benefits throughout the whole sales process.”
Adrian Ford, General Sales Manager for Skurrays told us, “The programme has been well put together and has gone very well for us at Skurrays. I am pleased with the actual number of appointments and the sales made from those appointments. This has come from a realization that people who phone should never be viewed as time wasters. PHP has definitely taken our team a step forward in the right direction and we are winning more business!”
Tony Taylor, Northern Motors’ Sales Manager added, “This is the best programme a manufacturer has ever brought to us as far as I’m concerned. I want more mystery shopping. I don’t want my people slipping into old ways and forgetting about appointments. The difference between PHP mystery shopping and other mystery shopping is that the sales team has found the PHP shoppers more genuine, they sound more like real purchasers. My team liked the fact that they were told at the end of a call that they had been mystery shopped, congratulated for getting the appointment and thanked. The whole team feels better about mystery shopping in general now because of the PHP approach!”
In summary the mystery shopping results show that this programme has lifted the appointment-making capabilities of the dealers involved from turning only 10% of incoming calls into appointments to an outstanding 86%. In the Phase III mystery shopping exercise 65 calls were made across the 10 dealerships and an amazing 56 appointments were made!
Mark Smith, Sales Manager from Murketts said, “This is a programme all the manufacturers should be doing in my opinion. It brings salespeople into the real world. It is all well and good taking at face value that your sales people are doing what they say they are doing, but you cannot beat having a 3rd party, like PHP, giving you true insight. I have a far better picture now. It has been a truly valuable tool for me that has to be continued. There is an ongoing need. I do not want this programme to end here!”
In conclusion, this successful pilot has brought home to the 10 dealers involved, the true value of that ringing telephone. That using consultancy, training workshops, mystery shopping and coaching in an integrated programme that is entirely focused on results has been a winning combination for this manufactuer in the short 4-month pilot period. The possibilities are endless in terms of extending the programme across all dealerships throughout the network. Simultaneously the next step would look at how we handle potential customers that make the effort to visit the showroom and how to use mystery shopping as an inspirational tool to drive the sales team to achieve outstanding results rather than a stick with which to hit them. Already several of the dealers involved in this programme have approached PHP independently to buy further mystery shopping and others are talking to PHP about people development throughout the retail sales process, fleet sales and the service and bodyshop areas.
PHP uses a sophisticated 5-piece model of human change technology as the basis for the design of all their results-driven programmes. This Retail Telephone Response Pilot is a good example of the PHP approach driving amazing and sustainable results very quickly! Talk to PHP today about using this approach to realize your business goals.
