In a perfect world, we could efficiently address customer breakpoints offering them a seamless experience. Whether that is changing the sales process, or creating a more streamlined omnichannel experience. However, before we can improve the customer's experience by addressing the breakpoints. We need to first address our own, that is, with our employees. If your employees are not engaged, or worse - not trained - how can you expect them to offer the customer a better experience? Here are the top two things to review with your team. 

Dealer Training. Do Your Sales Consultants Know the Process? 

While the OEM training is critical, so is instruction on how your dealer runs the sales process, which includes paperwork, delivery, etc. If your sales consultant is not familiar with your sales process, it can and will cause breakpoints during the process and disrupt the customer's experience. In which case, those breakpoints can affect the customer's overall experience. There is nothing worse than the customer's experience breaking down in the finance office because they are missing paperwork, the paperwork is wrong, etc. At which point, they are now delayed - causing everyone else ahead of them to also be delayed. If you have trained the sales consultant on what is expected for the paperwork, then it can decrease the chances of this occurring. 

When is the last time you went over the documents process with your sales consultants besides a little blurb on one of your sales meetings? Save yourselves a headache and put together a binder that has all of the commonly required paperwork. 

Deal Folders. Does Every Vehicle Have A Packet Made With All the Documents Needed? 

I cannot tell you how many times I have seen sales consultants running around creating new deal jacket copies. What's worse, though, is that they are from previous copies - making it nearly impossible for the customer to read them, let alone know where to sign the document. This could all be avoided if you had made deal packets for each vehicle. 

Those documents could include the following: 

- Sales to Service Handoff (if you give the customer oil changes, etc.)

- We-Owe's (accessories, or anything pertaining to the vehicle for after the sale)  

- Social Media Release Form 

- Lemon Law (for states it applies in)

- Privacy Notice 

The above are just some of the samples of documents you can include in the sales packets. Even better, most CRM's allow you to create printable documents for each deal, which would then include the customer's name, vehicle, and other relevant information. Not only does this make it easier for both the sales consultant and the customer, but it also looks more professional. And can ensure that you are not missing any documents that otherwise have to be completed. Doing something as simple as the above can have an immediate positive impact. 

Bottom Line: if your sales consultants are not sure of what the sales process is, how can they effectively assist the customer? And only mentioning items in the sales meeting is likely not going to address the top breakpoints in the customer's overall experience. Instead, take the time to make sure your sales consultants are aware of the required documents for purchasing a vehicle. By reviewing the required documents, it will offer the customer a better experience. This can also lessen the chances of the customers missing documents when they get into the Finance office, which can delay their deal getting completed. Not to mention, it pushes back everyone else who is behind them. 

How do you train your sales consultants on the sales process? Do you use your CRM to print out deal packets?