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An MRAA Mini-Guide:Staffing Your Sales DepartmentMade possible by:
MRAA Mini-Guide: Staffing Your Sales DepartmentDear Marine Dealership Professionals,As the Lead Certification Consultant for MRAA’s Marine Industry CertifiedDealership Program, one of the common questions I get from bothsalespeople and leadership is: How many salespeople do we need?It’s a good question, one that gets asked at most dealerships at one timeor another, and it’s an important one to answer. Knowing how to rightsize your sales team will allow you to adjust to the ebbs and flows ofbusiness without missing key opportunities or sacrificing your customer’sexperience.Different dealerships have different philosophies and ideas about theoptimum number of salespeople. Some of the most common ones,however, may keep you from growing your business or at least slow yourgrowth.That’s why we have created this mini-guide for you. Once you’ve had achance to read it, I invite you to reach out and share your thoughts andexperiences with us, so we can continue to learn together.Sincerely,Bob McCannbob@mraa.comMRAA Lead Certification ConsultantWant more education and resources? We would loveto learn exactly what you’re looking for. Send us yourrequests by e-mail at liz@mraa.com.Marine Retailers Association of the Americas 2021Page 2
MRAA Mini-Guide: Staffing Your Sales DepartmentIf this sounds like it could be your store,consider this a wake-up call. It’s time to getto the bottom of this mystery. In the end,you may find that adding more salespeopleto the team will allow you to connect withmore prospective buyers, convert a higherpercentage of them into sales, and improvetheir loyalty to your business.We often find it difficult to evaluate our own businesses objectivelysimply because, over time, we lose the ability to see our familiarspaces with fresh eyes.Time to grow?Is your dealership enjoying busy timeswhere there are more customers in yourshowroom than salespeople? If so, it mightbe time for more staff.People will not wait for a boat salespersonlike they do when they go to the deli or thebakery. Boat shoppers are unlikely to take anumber and get in line to see a person theymay not really want to see in the first place.They will leave and go somewhere else.These are lost sales today, but that’s onlythe start of it. What about the customersreaching out via phone or digitally, throughyour website, email, social media, text orchat? How long does it take before theyabandon their efforts and move on?Finally, your dealership may be losingadditional sales because your salespeopleare too busy to follow-up with thosecustomers with whom they were able tospend time, whether in-person, on thephone or digitally.Between all of these scenarios, how muchpotential income is being lost in yourdealership? Is it 100,000? Half a milliondollars? Several million?Marine Retailers Association of the Americas 2021Find your formulaObviously, different dealerships havedifferent philosophies and ideas about theoptimum number of salespeople.A common method of determining thenumber of needed salespeople is applyingthe 2 million a year per salesperson rule.This may be a suitable start for many dealers,one that will likely require adjustmentsdepending upon the price of the boats yousell and the size of your business. Smallerboat stores often struggle with the 2 millionaverage, for example.However, I’m going to suggest that thisformula will not serve you over the longterm as it will keep you from growing yourbusiness or at least slow the growth.A more effective way to determine the idealnumber of salespeople for a retail showroomis to match it up with the average numberof new sales opportunities that surface daily.When you know the true traffic numbersfor your dealership location, you can betterdetermine the number of salespeopleneeded for the store.This demonstrates how important it isthat your dealership’s marketing andsales strategies work hand-in-hand. In anideal world, your marketing efforts shouldgenerate enough new opportunities foryour salespeople to make a living. And thePage 3
MRAA Mini-Guide: Staffing Your Sales Departmentsalespeople would properly handle theopportunities when they arrive to yourphysical or virtual showrooms, whilealso leaving enough time in their day tofollow-up.If your marketing efforts are notgenerating sufficient leads, the staffinglevels will auto-correct becausesalespeople won’t hang around if theycan’t make money. However, if there aretoo many opportunities and salespeopleare overfed, you will miss a boat load ofboat sales!what do I hear? Crickets! Never mind,knowing the number of leads from eachsource.We’re focused on the Sales Departmentright now, but in a perfect world, we’dalso track this for the Service, Parts andAccessories Departments to help ensurewe’re properly staffed in those areas as well.In addition to helping you properly staffInteresting note: When presentingmystery shop results to a dealer, weoften ask why there was no contactfrom a lead submitted or any followup from a showroom visit. The mostcommon excuse is: We are too busy. Wedon’t have enough time to follow-up. Ifyou find yourself making this excuse,maybe you need additional salespeople!You won’t know for sure, however, untilyou know your numbers.DEALER CHALLENGE #1Can you fill in the numbers below for last month?h?Showroom VisitsBe-BacksInbound Sales CallseLeadsTotal NEW opportunitiesMeasure your trafficBefore you can do the math todetermine how many salespeopleyou should have on staff, you need toknow your numbers. It makes sense,doesn’t it?!? You can’t do math withoutnumbers!You need to know the number ofpeople walking into the dealership,phoning the dealership, emailing thedealership, chatting with the dealershipand texting your team daily. Having thisdata at your fingertips is as important asknowing the balance in your checkbook.However, when I ask dealers how manynew opportunities they had last month,Marine Retailers Association of the Americas 2021Page 4
MRAA Mini-Guide: Staffing Your Sales Departmentyour Sales Department, accurate trafficcounts will guide you to knowing how yourmarketing, promotions and events areperforming.Counting sales traffic is a discipline thatrequires policies and processes thateveryone follows. No sacred cows! I’m notgoing to kid you: Counting floor and phonetraffic can be exceedingly difficult until itbecomes a habit and nearly always requiresa dedicated person(s) to ensure its accuracyand consistency.Not just what but whoYou may have heard me talk about leadfulfillment and response time at theMRAA conference over the years. I oftensuggest using the receptionist to manageyour leads. I say this because receptioniststypically don’t stray far from their desks,which allows them to stay focused on leadmanagement throughout the day. Theydon’t attend as many meetings as salesmanagers do, for example.A receptionist equipped with leadassignment protocols can ensure that leadsget assigned in real time and can monitorwhether the lead has been contacted. Ifa lead is not contacted immediately, thereceptionist can intervene by nudging theassigned salesperson to contact the lead orreassigning the lead to a salesperson who isavailable now.This same person can watch the floor, spotcustomers engaged with salespeople, andnote the time, a brief description of thecustomer and the salesperson on a TrafficLog.If the dealership is using a CustomerRelationship Management (CRM) tool, thereceptionist will crosscheck the Traffic Logwith new activity added to the CRM andMarine Retailers Association of the Americas 2021Celebrate all the things you’re doing right,and take notes on the best practices youidentify that you might adopt to raise thebar at your location.follow-up with salespeople who appearon the Traffic Log but who haven’t addedactivity to the CRM.This might sound taxing, but it is only ahassle for a short time until the crew knowsthat you expect all the traffic to be counted.Then they will begin adding customers toPage 5
MRAA Mini-Guide: Staffing Your Sales Departmentthe CRM to avoid being singled out. Theywould rather be recognized for doing it rightrather than wrong!I also suggest that you change the title ofyour receptionist to Customer ExperienceManager (CXM). When a customer walksin, phones in or emails the dealership,they most probably will encounter thereceptionist. This role is too important not tobe identified with the proper title.Traffic comes in many formsYour Customer Experience Managershould also be accountable for countingthe number of sales calls daily. Theperson answering the phone will knowthe nature of the call from the questionsasked and can count the sales calls.They can add the call to the traffic log,noting the time and to whom the call wastransferred. The same holds true for thecalls getting added to the CRM.The CXM should check to see that thenoted salesperson has added a call to theCRM.Some of you may be saying to yourself:I can’t do this because we haven’tmade that step and aren’t usinga CRM system. Don’t wait for aCRM to count traffic! Simply have thesalespeople come to reception and addthe contact information, amplifyinginformation and appointment time to theentry already added to the traffic log.Your web traffic should be the easiesttraffic to count. Assuming you’re usinga CRM tool, each lead should have theability to be assigned to a lead source andreporting features that allow you to totalthe leads that come from each source.Those without a CRM, my experience withlead management began with creatingfolders in an AOL account!There are numerous ways to manage andcount leads without a CRM tool. They maynot be as easy or efficient, but they are justas effective.If you are a Certified Dealer, you mayremember what Sam Dantzler of GarageComposites taught us about managingcustomer relationships in his ContinuousCertification course, Take Your Dealershipfrom Good to Great with CRM: Whatmatters most is that you have a processand your team follows it.MRAA’s Gold Members canaccess this evergreen course forfree at MRAATraining.com.Marine Retailers Association of the Americas 2021Page 6
MRAA Mini-Guide: Staffing Your Sales DepartmentConsider the alternativesSomeone in your dealership needs time to follow-upwith prospective boat buyers (not to mention boatbuyers after the sale as well as service and storagecustomers).This mini guide is about staffing your dealership withtraditional salespeople. However, another option thatsome marine dealers have used to find success is tocreate and hire for a Business Development Center. Tolearn more about this option, MRAA’s Silver and GoldMembers have free access to the course, Why YourDealership Needs a Business Development Centerby Sam Dantzler of Garage Composites. MRAA’s GoldMembers can also turn to the Continuous Certificationcourse: Align Your Dealership with Today’s Customer,which includes dealer case studies, tools and resources.Finally, you can consider outsourcing customer followup. For example, MRAA and CSI Inc. have partnered toprovide MRAA members with a virtual program for postsale follow-up. Learn more here.Do your math homeworkNow it’s time to go back to the questionabout the number of salespeopleyou need. Once you know the truthregarding your traffic, you can determinethe number of salespeople needed toconvert all the opportunities possible tosales.A boat sale is not typically a “todaysale.” In the auto industry, car shopperstypically buy within 72 hours of visitinga dealership. That’s why you feel a littlemore pressure to buy today at a cardealer. Boat sales customers take longer.The last number I saw from Rollick was187 days from the time we learn of acustomer’s interest in a boat until theday they buy it.Knowing that some still do buy earlyin the process, that means others willtake longer than a year to buy. By theway, this is another reason to count yourtraffic carefully, so you know the averagebuying cycle for your dealership.As you can see, following-up withprospects who engage your salesdepartment is a huge part of sellingmore boats, assuming you aren’t at a100-percent follow-up rate right now.This requires that your salespeoplehave time to stay in touch with theseprospects for an extended period.They can’t do that if they’re too busygreeting and guiding new customersthrough showroom visits every day. Theyneed time to do the follow-up necessaryto sell more boats from yesterday’s, lastweek’s and last month’s showroom,phone and web traffic.Marine Retailers Association of the Americas 2021Page 7
MRAA Mini-Guide: Staffing Your Sales DepartmentYou should staff your showroomaccordingly. To start, set a targetof no more than two to three newopportunities per salesperson per day.When your traffic log is showing morethan that, it’s time to consider adding toyour team.This number will vary depending uponthe price of your boats and volume ittakes to earn enough income to supportthe sales team. However, watchingthe number of new opportunities andensuring you have enough sales capacityis key to growing your sales over time.SPECIAL NOTE FOR 2021: Of course, otherfactors must be figured in, especiallyinventory. No need to add capacity ifyou don’t have any more boats to sell!With that said, if you’re low on inventory,make sure you’re actively seeking boatsto purchase. Want some creative ideas?Visit MRAATraining.com for all our recentcourses and webinars on the pre-ownedboat market.Coach your crew on the trafficcounting processCoaching allows you to create a path fromyour team knowing what to do to themactually doing it on a consistent basis.If you want your team to use the TrafficLog and CRM every day, for example, startby recognizing and thanking those whoare doing it.More reasons to count trafficTraffic counting also enables store managers andowners to align staffing with peak traffic patterns. Youcan identify power hours, those times when traffic peaksconsistently week after week, month after month.Because conversion potential increases when trafficspikes, having a full staff during these windows ofopportunity is a common-sense way to boost sales.On the other hand, I haven’t heard many salespeoplesaying I’m not spending enough time at this dealership.Knowing the slower times is a good time to schedulemore time off. In other words, accurate traffic countstranslate into optimized salesperson’s schedules.Marine Retailers Association of the Americas 2021It would be natural to get up from yourdesk to holler at the team after seeinga report that shows only half of theshowroom visits were added to the CRM.However, it’s more effective to note whois adding their prospects and, the nexttime you meet with the group, publiclythank those by name who entered theirprospects in the CRM. This, along witha reminder to the rest, will reinforcethe need to do so. The others will getthe message loud and clear when theyweren’t included in the recognition.The next step is to know the outcomesof the showroom visits and otherstouchpoints with prospective customerfor each salesperson so you can help themsee where they are exceeding or fallingshort in following the sales process.(Continued on page 10)Page 8
The hotter, the betterGet out your calendarPhone calls are arguably the hottest sales leadsa dealer will receive. As such, these calls must becounted, handled properly with a goal for each call,and tracked through boat delivery and beyond.Salespeople need to be held responsible forgenerating appointments from the phone calls,e-leads, show, and floor traffic assigned to them,along with their own opportunities from referralsand networking.When management knows the number of callsreceived, they can hold the sales team accountableto the number of appointments scheduled andboats shown. That’s why the traffic counts youconduct to determine your sales staffing numbersshould definitely include phone traffic. You needto have enough salespeople to answer the phoneeffectively and the time to follow-up on these calls.Want to learn more about maximizing theopportunity presented by your dealership’sphone? MRAA Members can download the MRAAGuide to Phone Skills at MRAA.com/Guides, andMRAA’s Silver and Gold Members can access ourcourse: How to Fix Your Phone Performance atMRAATraining.com.This means appointments must be tracked tothe number that are scheduled, showed up,and sold. You expect your marketing efforts togenerate leads for the sales team, and you alsoshould expect your salespeople to handle the leadsproperly. To lead your sales team well, you need toknow how effective the team is at creating desirefor the customer to take the next step and visit thedealership physically or by video call.Now that you are counting, keep counting thenumber of inventory selections. Knowing thepercentage of customers who select a boatfrom inventory is a good indicator that your boatordering is in line with your market. Or not.Take the lead and run with itWho made the sale?Leads generated from digital efforts should beoutpacing all other leads. To be competitive today,your staff will be required to meet the speed andquality expected by these prospective customers,as it is critical to selling boats and setting theproper perception of your dealership to those earlyin the sales process.Another number that you must know for effectivesales team coaching is how many sit-downs aretaking place. If your salesperson isn’t sharing aproposal with a customer, there is no danger ofthem selling a boat!Like knowing the number of phone calls received,knowing the number of eLeads the team handlesholds your team accountable for the number ofappointments made and shown.Responding to an eLead properly and effectivelyrequires the same level of effort as a phone call orshowroom visit, and as such requires the same stafftime and attention as if a customer just showed upto your physical showroom.When a customer and salesperson meet on theshowroom, there is always a sale made. Either thesalesperson sells a boat, or the customer sells thesalesperson on why they can’t buy today.So, if this percentage is low, indicating that thesalespeople aren’t sitting down with everyone andsharing numbers, it’s a primary indicator that thecustomer made the sale!The goal for this indicator is to help identify a loststep in the sales process.DEALER CHALLENGE #2Can you fill in the blanks for each salesperson last month?Showroom Visits:Phone Calls:Be-Backs/Appointments:Digital Leads:Appointments Shown:Sit Downs: Sold:Delivered:Unit Selection:
MRAA Mini-Guide: Staffing Your Sales DepartmentTo everything thereis a seasonBy now many of you may be scratchingyour heads and saying, this makes senseright up to the point when the boatbuyers hibernate for the winter. If weare to staff the salesfloor based on thesales traffic, we will be overstaffed in theoffseason. Seasonality is that variable thatmakes running a boat dealership such achallenge and definitely not boring!Hopefully, at this point, you’ve boughtinto the need to staff the salesfloorwith enough salespeople to deliver ona perfect sales experience, no matter ifthe point of initial contact is in person orvirtual. Also, you are allowing time for thesales team to execute on the follow-upbefore and after the sale that is so critical.So, how do we manage those fewmonths of possible downtime beforeboat show season starts and you’re backto running WOT? You might considerhiring a sales assistant rather thanadding the extra salesperson to coverthe growing traffic count. When thesales assistant takes on some of the tasksfrom the salespeople, such as followup with both the customers and theservice department, this will allow forthe salespeople to engage with morecustomers and stay in touch with them.Some folks might call this a lite version ofa Business Development Center (BDC).Don’t worry, be happyIf you’re a professional boat or yachtsalesperson reading this, you probablydon’t care how many other salespeopleMarine Retailers Association of the Americas 2021are on the showroom floor. Pros willcontinue to sell boats, month in andmonth out. They will make money,receive bonuses, and earn commissions.The old saying of “The Cream Rises to theTop” applies when we are talking aboutselling boats for a living.Owners and managers, if you’reconcerned that your team will bestressed by the idea of you hiring moresalespeople, stop worrying – and tellyour salespeople to stop worrying too.Reassure them that there is alwaysroom at the top. Things have a wayof balancing out. Salespeople comeand go, but it always works out for theprofessionals.Tell your people: “Follow up with yourcustomers, keep prospecting, getreferrals, and build your list of customers,and they will provide you with arewarding income for years to come nomatter how many other salespeople arewith you on the floor.”“Follow up with yourcustomers, keepprospecting, get referrals,and build your list ofcustomers, and they willprovide you with a rewardingincome for years to comeno matter how many othersalespeople are with you onthe floor.”Page 10
MRAA Mini-Guide: Staffing Your Sales DepartmentMRAA’s Sales Staffing ResourcesNo matter how many revenue centers contribute to a dealer’s success, a boat must besold at some point to make most of them go.To sell those boats and grow your business, you need talented, trained salespeople tocare for current and prospective customers before, during and after the sale. That makesresources and education that helps you recruit, hire and retain good salespeople amongthe most important we can offer you.Some of you reading this may be members and some may not. Regardless, we have toolsand guidance that can help you. Here are a few of them.FOR ALL DEALERS: Available at MRAA.com/Workforce MRAA Mini Guide to the Org Chart, by Valerie Ziebron: Learn why your dealershipneeds an organizational chart and what it will tell you. Strategy 10 1: A Marine Industry Guide to Growing the Workforce: MRAA workedclosely with the National Marine Manufacturers Association and the Rhode IslandMarine Trades Association to develop this guide, which includes local initiatives youcan consider in developing your workforce.FOR BRONZE, SILVER AND GOLD MRAA MEMBERS Job Descriptions Database: Includes nearly 50 job description templates for commonpositions around the typical dealership. Available at MRAA.com/Workforce. MRAA Guide to Job Descriptions That Amp Up Productivity: Discover how to craftinternal and external job descriptions that create a more productive, accountable andsatisfying work environment. Available at MRAA.com/Guides. MRAA Guide to Dealership Improvement: Discover how to achieve continuousimprovement in your dealership to generate the maximum return on your investmentof time and money. Available at MRAA.com/Guides.FOR SILVER AND GOLD MRAA MEMBERS: Available at MRAATraining.com Fire Your Sales Team, by Eric Keiles: The Internet turned the buyer/seller relationship Why Your Dealership Needs a Business Development Center, by Sam Dantzler:The relationships you develop with prospects and customers drive your dealership’ssuccess. But at most dealerships, the customer relationship management (read:follow-up) stinks. That’s where a Business Development Center can come into play.completely upside down, shifting power from the seller to the buyer. Because of thistransformation, you need to fire your sales team and rehire them as sales guides inyour new revenue department.Marine Retailers Association of the Americas 2021Page 11
MRAA Mini-Guide: Staffing Your Sales DepartmentFOR GOLD MRAA MEMBERS ONLY: Available at MRAATraining.com. Align Your Dealership with Today’s Customer: The behavior and expectations ofcustomers have changed radically. Learn how to adapt your culture, people andprocesses in order to keep up. Hear from a range of experts on how to successfullymake these changes in your dealership during this Continuous Certification course. Develop Your Dealership’s Workforce Outside In, by Jim Million: The No. 1impediment to dealership growth? Lack of skilled workers. Through this course youcan learn how to develop your workforce through coaching and mentoring.Learn more about all of MRAA’s education and resources at MRAA.com/Resources and, ifyou’re an MRAA Silver or Gold Member, at MRAATraining.com.Marine Retailers Association of the Americas 2021Page 12
generating sufficient leads, the staffing levels will auto-correct because salespeople won't hang around if they can't make money. However, if there are too many opportunities and salespeople are overfed, you will miss a boat load of boat sales! Interesting note: When presenting mystery shop results to a dealer, we
