You are sitting in a sales meeting and your fearless leader is in front and writes this question on the whiteboard: "What is the most important thing to success in sales?"  

JD has a 8-5 job at ABC Data and starts his day off bad by fussing with his wife and then spills coffee on his fresh shirt as he walks out the door.  That's just great - what a way to start his day.  Needless to say, his attitude is in the tank.  But does JD have any concerns about his ability to enter data in the computer for 8 hours today?  What he does is start with the end in mind and watch the clock until 5 and leave without ever giving a thought to his performance over the last 8 hours.  He also collects his paycheck on Friday and there is no column that says "bad attitude day" with a reduction in pay. 

Contrast this with TJ who is a sales consultant at XYZ Motors. She depends on your ability to get people or companies to purchase her product to get paid, there is absolutely no possibility that she can perform at a high level if she starts and continues her day as JD did.  It is like the star running back on the University football team.  His speed, toughness and instincts are unbelievable he is truly a superstar.  But, he steps on the side of his offensive guard's foot and seriously twists and sprains his ankle.  Does his speed still make him uncatchable? Does his toughness make him untackleable and do his instincts matter if he can't cut and run? The answer is a resounding no, in fact we are going to replace him until he recovers from this injury.  When your attitude is bad, your mindset is not set on course for success what happens?  If you aren't smiling when you interact with your customer are they open to you? If you aren't sharp do you have the answers and rebuttals to their questions and objections?  If you aren't focused are you able to push through the nos to get to the yeses? We know the answer, we need to replace you in the lineup till you recover from your injury.

 I spent a few days with an early 30s manager recently.  He is a great process and deal counsel guy.  He has no idea about leading.  His manager was the same way, and is now doing time in jail for cutting corners.  He tackles most situations with intimidation being his motivating approach and that approach doesn't produce results and also defeats a positive and powerful attitude.  His response to that is "those damn salesmen".

1. Wake up & smile - when you look in the mirror, be sure you see a smile on your face. 
2. Write down at least 5 things that you are grateful for today.
3. Read a minimum of 15 minutes of a good, powerful and positive book.
4. Say this affirmation "I expect to win today because
   • I have (or) will create a great opportunity to serve and prosper.
   • I love to serve others
   • I am very good at what I do everyday
   • People need me and they know it
   • Financial reward comes to me in abundance
   • I am positive and thankful to God for all of my many blessings."

Auto dealers are facing the dilemma or at least heavily involved in a popular topic for discussion revolving around the Business Development Center. So many questions - 

Do you need a BDC?  Do I want a BDC or a BD culture?  How do I structure it?  I heard that compensation is the key. I heard that you have to have 1 agent per 200 leads and on and on. - My big concern is that all of the questions have led to so much analysis that we are paralyzed by the complexity of the discussion.  The fact is that it is very simple.

We have complicated what is basically the process(es) of creating and then taking business opportunities and maximizing them.  That is simplistic but that is the definition of the Business Development Center.  The way that is gets accomplished depends upon the (P) eople you have in place.  The (P)eople are what drives the (P) rocess to success.  If your sales staff isn't, and most sales staffs aren't, disciplined enough to consistently maximize ALL business opportunities, then what's next?

Simply put here is what our sales managers and sales people must commit to:

Our disciplined and dedicated staff puts out maximum effort to establish a dedicated approach to product knowledge and skill development and add that to a new business creation, customer loyalty, sales, follow-up and customer service process.  The staff is disciplined to follow the process 100% of the time.  This process leads them to create rapport, close deals on the spot or systematically be involved in their prospect's buying cycle by being creatively persistent and getting the unsold showroom opportunity to return and purchase from them.  After the sale, they pro-actively follow-up to earn loyalty from their customers which results in a consistent and growing repeat and referral customer base.

Yeah, I know that is a very formal description of what we expect from a salesperson in the car business.  That's because I wrote it for a client in the Financial Services Industry.  The "Salespeople" in that industry have Insurance and securities licenses. They are not required to have college degrees, but in order to have great success, they must have discipline, dedication and effort.  But, the majority rarely get involved in transactions as large as the cost of a New Tahoe.  Customers look at them as a professional and deserving of respect.  Are they more educated than the salespeople on the showroom floor of dealerships across this country.  The answer is no.  Then why do customers look at them differently?  Let's go back to the "formal" description of what we expect.  Maybe their view of what they do is at a higher level than our view of what we do. Maybe their sales managers / leaders expectations of their teams is higher than that of the car business' sales managers / leaders are of their teams?

How do sales managers/ leaders approach what they do each day? 

1. What percentage of sales managers / leaders could print out what their process is to create and maximize business opportunities? 
2. Do you have have your processes displayed in conference and break rooms?
3. Do our sales managers/ leaders and their salespeople even know what those processes are or what they should look like?
4. Do we train the new salespeople on our processes?

Because dealers, in general, have had low expectations of the sales managers/ leaders and their ability to carry out simple processes to create and maximize business opportunities.  The sales managers/ leaders, who are products of the showroom floor, aren't accountable for knowing, following or training proven processes.  Which in turn leaves us with a sales staff that is not equipped, in many cases, of carrying out what is described above. Because that process requires a disciplined and dedicated sales staff to be committed to it everyday.  

As a result 2 things have happened. 

1. The manufacturers have shown up with a smile and the scary statement "I am with the car company and I am here to help".  They have come in and suggested, that's BS - they didn't suggest anything - they forced dealers to establish a BDC because they don't expect the current process to succeed or they don't have confidence that the dealers will figure it out on their own.
2. Proactive dealers have said that with marketing, advertising and how we engage with our customers changing quickly and often and the speed of communication being very important they are going to establish a BDC to maximize all opportunities coming from the Internet and phone.  

So we fast forward a few years and here we are.  I am imploring you - don't let anyone complicate it for you. It is as simple as PPP:

1. Design Processes that systematically create business opportunities and maximize those opportunities.  There are several very good people & companies out their with the credibility of having done it over and over successfully that can help you with this.
2. Assess your People - one problem is see is that the cookie cutter approach is used to often.  The decision to either have a BDC Director with a call center or a BDC Manager and the sales staff is involving in making calls (there are many more options of how to structure) is dependent on your people.  If someone comes in your store and tries to cram their one size fits all concept down your throat, send them packing immediately.  Assess the skills and talent of your people.  There are consultants that can help you with this.  It is a vital step to your success.
3. Its about the Product - The product, the service and the experience.  Continuous and never ending improvement should be applied to our service and experience part of the Product we offer.