Establishing clear sales goals is essential for driving performance and accountability in auto repair shops, advised a shop coach.
Bill Haas, president of auto shop business coaching firm Auto Ignite Management, noted during the Midwest Auto Care Alliance Hi-Tech Training & Expo in Kansas City that setting clear, data-driven sales goals and regularly sharing performance metrics can enhance the productivity and motivation of their service advisors, ultimately driving business success.
“People perform better when they know that they are measured. It happens every time,” he said.
By comparing current sales to where they should be and reporting these figures to service advisors and front-line staff, shops can significantly improve performance.
“They perform better. That’s why you have sales goals — so that we don’t just settle for ‘that was good enough’ or ‘that was close enough’ or ‘I’m sorry, boss, that was the best I could do,’“ Haas explained.
Setting realistic and achievable sales goals is crucial. Haas warned against setting goals based on arbitrary figures or comparisons with other shops. Just because one shop said they’re doing a certain number in sales doesn’t mean that’s the right foal for you, he noted.
“We can’t just pull numbers out of the air. We can’t just make up numbers,” Haas said.
Instead, goals should be based on data.
“When we have the data, we will set goals that are realistic and achievable,” he explained. “What do you think happens to people when you give them sales goals that are not realistic and not achievable? You’ve defeated them. It’s discouraging.”
Haas recommended setting sales goals annually, starting the process in November to prepare for the upcoming year.
“By the time we hit the New Year, everybody knows what’s expected in this business: This is how much we need to sell; this is how that’s going to be accomplished,” he said, adding that this approach ensures that all team members are aware of their targets and understand how to achieve them.
Tracking and measuring sales is essential for understanding performance, Haas added. He highlighted the importance of knowing sales per technician, which helps set expectations when hiring additional staff.
“You should already have an expectation that that additional staff, increasing that capacity, is going to add at least ‘this’ to my sales because I know what my sales are per technician,” he said.
Sharing sales data with the team is vital for maintaining accountability and motivation. “If you don’t share, they don’t care. They know they’re being measured. They know that somebody is looking at how much are they selling. They know that somebody’s looking at average hours per repair, somebody’s looking at average sales per repair, somebody’s looking at all this data,” Haas said.
Image credit: Depositphotos.com
Leave a Reply