The Opposite Effect of Empowering

Technology, data, and all the modern advances that we have should be making the world of powersports sales an empowering place for your best sales reps. However, it often has the opposite effect because it feels like one more task to do and something else that needs to be micromanaged. Most of your sales team has too much to do. They can’t spare the time to invest in the tedious details of building your CRM and inputting data when they should be making connections and sales.

It's not just about embracing technology

It’s about finding the technology that delivers the complexity and power that dealers need while still providing ease of use for the salespeople. In the past, technology was used as a means of berating employees. Managers could check in on CRMs and sales platforms (many not very frequently) and see what is and isn’t getting done, and they would use that to push their team or suggest that they need to step up their game.

 

It's time to use data and technology for accountability and coaching, not as a tool for berating people. When it’s done right, technology can build trust because you will be able to see what your salespeople are doing and not have to rely on their word that things are getting done correctly.

 

The Biggest Problem

The biggest problem is that CRMs don’t usually work for sales teams as much as they CREATE work for the sales team. Even updating leads can add hours to the workload. With the right solution in place, you will be informed whether leads are being followed up with or when the ball is dropped. This should be used as a coaching tool, not a blame game.

 

When you know that the data is accurate, the CRM is properly implemented, a technology solution is in place and the shift has been made to foster trust and understanding among the entire dealership, you will know that you can focus on delivering the best customer experience possible. It changes the whole dynamic, and when done correctly, implementing technology will enable your entire team to focus on the customer experience, as it should be.

 

Today, we live in a very strange world somewhere between the future and a post-pandemic environment. At the same time, though, we have dealerships who have evolve at normal rates, so they’re not quite up to par with technology standards or how to make the most of the tools they could be using to create the best customer experience.

Technology Solutions

Fortunately, as you can see, it’s all about taking the time to implement the right technology solutions to ensure that your team is capable of focusing on the experience as much as the sales funnel. You can’t use technology as a blaming tool or to berate people for things they’ve missed. You should be using it to coach and build accountability. When you do that, you will see an increase in sales, follow-up, and even customer retention because everyone is focused first and foremost on the customer experience, which is the best measuring stick for any sales team, any dealership and every customer all while making the processes more efficient.