One of the biggest problems that I and most sales managers face is turnover with salespeople.  The cycle of a sales floor is pretty consistent and predictable at most dealerships year in and year out. Generally most dealerships have a core of 3-5 great salespeople that do what they are supposed to, 3-5 guys that are your average salespeople that don't do a lot right or wrong, and 3-5 guys that are your "newbies" that don't get it and realistically will probably never get it.

     I actually have it pretty good at the dealership that I manage and can confidently say that we have an above average sales floor.  The group that I want to focus this post on is the group that all dealerships care the most about, which is your 3-5 "top dawgs".  We actually have a group of about 6 people that all have the talent and ability to be our top dawg on any given month.  So, what should a manager or GM do to keep their top dawgs happy and more importantly, keep them at their dealership? 

    The reason I am throwing this topic out there for discussion is that we have had a couple of issues with our top guys in the last month.  Salesperson # 1 has all the talent in the world, will do anything you ask of him, and if he committed himself every single month would probably lead our board at least half of the year.  He accepted a new job and was supposed to start last week because felt like the grass would be greener on the other side and "wanted to try something new".  Luckily we slapped some sense in to him and we were able to convince him to stay here.  Salesperson # 2 used to be our 2nd best guy for about 3 years but has struggled big time lately due to family obligations and having to be more available to his kids.  He actually ended up quitting last week despite our attempts to keep him here.

    So...... Should a manager give special treatment or do something special with regard to compensation to keep your core group of top dawgs at the dealership?  Is it fair to throw them extra spiffs or regular commissions to ensure that they don't leave?  Is that fair to the rest of the sales crew that doesn't produce at the level that they produce at? Let me know what you guys think. Any input or previous experiences would be great to hear.

    One of the biggest problems that I and most sales managers face is turnover with salespeople.  The cycle of a sales floor is pretty consistent and predictable at most dealerships year in and year out. Generally most dealerships have a core of 3-5 great salespeople that do what they are supposed to, 3-5 guys that are your average salespeople that don't do a lot right or wrong, and 3-5 guys that are your "newbies" that don't get it and realistically will probably never get it.

     I actually have it pretty good at the dealership that I manage and can confidently say that we have an above average sales floor.  The group that I want to focus this post on is the group that all dealerships care the most about, which is your 3-5 "top dawgs".  We actually have a group of about 6 people that all have the talent and ability to be our top dawg on any given month.  So, what should a manager or GM do to keep their top dawgs happy and more importantly, keep them at their dealership? 

    The reason I am throwing this topic out there for discussion is that we have had a couple of issues with our top guys in the last month.  Salesperson # 1 has all the talent in the world, will do anything you ask of him, and if he committed himself every single month would probably lead our board at least half of the year.  He accepted a new job and was supposed to start last week because felt like the grass would be greener on the other side and "wanted to try something new".  Luckily we slapped some sense in to him and we were able to convince him to stay here.  Salesperson # 2 used to be our 2nd best guy for about 3 years but has struggled big time lately due to family obligations and having to be more available to his kids.  He actually ended up quitting last week despite our attempts to keep him here.

    So...... Should a manager give special treatment or do something special with regard to compensation to keep your core group of top dawgs at the dealership?  Is it fair to throw them extra spiffs or regular commissions to ensure that they don't leave?  Is that fair to the rest of the sales crew that doesn't produce at the level that they produce at? Let me know what you guys think. Any input or previous experiences would be great to hear.