Regardless of which industry we are discussing most sales & service jobs (if not all) have a commission based pay plan. The purpose, of course, in having a performance-based pay plan is to ensure that the employee only earns based on what s/he produces. While there is nothing wrong with this concept. There is a problem, however, when the employee does not have the opportunities available at hand to secure the higher level of income proposed within their pay plan.

For example, when hiring an advisor you want to put your best foot forward. However, showing them your best year (which was two or so years ago) only for them to find out there are

Infrastructural problems that have not enabled the advisors to hit or beat that level is not the way to win someone over. This state of mind will undoubtedly cause the turnover!

That is not to say that offering and/or showing an employee the future potential is a bad thing. But setting them up to fail with unrealistic expectations is also ridiculous. Where the objectives are double the amount of volume your current best advisor is doing.

One of the best ways to sell yourself to a potential employee - one whose talent could very well pull your store ahead - is to offer them an opportunity. Showing what is working what is not working. This is not to bash current employees, but rather to offer what the real deal is - giving them an inside view of what will be expected of them should they accept your offer.

That said, here are some of the best ways to explain an offer without scaring away potential employees!

Don’t Hide Your Problems - We All Have Them

The last thing you want to do is lie or mislead a potential hire by not addressing current issues. As the employee will find out when they are hired hearing it from the employee, not the hiring manager. All of which can make the new hire feel that the management is out of touch and that there are far more problems than they realize.

Some of the problems could be good, too! Such as growing pains. Where your service lane is expanding and your needing to add an additional advisor. Explaining to them areas in which you are struggling to upsell. Outlining how that can impact their pay plan.

Offer Reasonable Expectations

Given that many dealers do not offer or provide an onboarding program - which by itself causes for massive turn-over - they do not have realistic expectations for the new hire. Where just because they were an advisor at ABC Motors does not mean they can immediately hit the ground running at ABCD Motors. There will be a learning curve especially if it is an OEM in which they have not yet worked for! One of the best ways to combat this issue is to offer a guarantee for the first month or so, which gives them enough time to learn the OEM. As well as the way you handle things internally.

Offer Training That is Relevant to Their Job 

Believe it or not, more often than not new hires want training. They want to feel valued. Part of feeling valued is to be invested in. Where if you have the ability to send them to training, do it! The better understanding they have of your systems and processes the better off they will be. Not to mention, it would only be beneficial to the company! And as far as their pay plans go - if they are paid commission on upsells the better product knowledge they have the more sales they will get. As they are confident in the product.

Bottom Line:

Be open and honest with the potential new hire. It does not mean that you need to offer up every issue that is happening. What it does, however, suggest is that in order to ensure them a successful start it is beneficial to offer realistic expectations. In turn, it affords the employee a means of starting their new role with a better chance of being successful in upselling!

How do you handle job offers? Do you only show your best years? Do you ever get questions on Turnover?