Daphne, AL — September 23, 2019 — The Mar-Kee Group relaunches markeegroup.com with a completely new design to make sales training resources easier to navigate and faster to access for automotive dealerships, boat dealerships, and recreational vehicle dealerships worldwide.

Web design partner, Jay Friday, owner and senior marketing analyst of Mobile Web Design has helped develop a cleaner, mobile-friendly website experience. Visitors can easily find exactly what they are looking for. Users have the ability to view relatable product testimonials, upload and share photo and video testimonials, and filtering blog posts by specific needs and interests.  

The makeover provides managers and retail dealership leaders with more insight into the power of The Mar-Kee Group’s sales training platforms. Registered users have the opportunity to check training progress in real-time using the Report Center, and print customized Certificates of Completion earned from eAutotraining, eRVtraining, or the award-winning eBoatTraining programs.

David Martin, President of The Mar-Kee Group explains, "As a value-add to our customers, we provide free access to a variety of brief demo videos that can be used to improve sales and service selling skills.” 

“We are dedicated to providing dealers and managers with a modern approach to essential sales training resources while offering the best customer experience possible."

The Mar-Kee Group’s flagship product offering is eAutotraining, a premier sales training program for automotive dealerships sales, service, and management teams. “2019 has been an exciting time with the rollout of a RV Service Advisor version of 90-Day Online Boot Camp Training. It’s the training they need, uniquely delivered with accountability built-in. In addition, the new website provides increased opportunities for RV dealerships and boat dealerships to request information and tools needed for success”, said co-founder Richard Keeney.

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About The Mar-Kee Group:

David Martin and Richard Keeney of The Mar-Kee Group are honored to celebrate 23 years as one of the nation’s leading sales training companies. They have over 70 years of combined sales, management, and training experience, with over 4700 dealerships served in the US, Canada, Europe and Australia. The Mar-Kee Group provides multiple online training options as well as customized in-dealership training.

Press Contact:

Staci Hazeur

Marketing Manager

staci@markeegroup.com

888-300-4629

Does your Desk Manager's or Manager’s body language work for the cause?  Or is it counter-productive and negatively alter the confidence and self-esteem of some Salespeople?

Back in the day, when you were selling, do you remember approaching the desk with a deal?

How were you received? You immediately knew if your timing was good or not.  Did the Desk Manager act as if they were excited to see you?  Did the Desk Manager hang up on their Sea-Doo mechanic or did they hold up a finger (index) and physically swing in their chair to finish their important chat?  

If they were on the phone, did they ask the other party to forgive them, that they had somebody important that needed quick assistance? Saying, “I’ve got to go.  I’ll call you back”?  Did they “shoo” the people (not working a deal) away from the desk because someone with a deal took priority over anything else?

Does the Desk Manager seize the opportunity to prove to everyone that there is nothing more important than a vehicle deal? Or does their body language say, “Dang it. Alright, come on...what do you have?”

Sure, it can be taxing to desk deal after deal, multiple deals at a time, or trying to engineer dismal stuff into viable stuff.  Sometimes, Desk Managers forget what it’s like to fight those battles on the pavement.  They may forget about dealing with stand-offish, distrusting, and sometimes rude customers.

(Somewhat) jokingly, we used to say newer Salespeople have to hang tough because they’re going to get beat up by everybody. Beat up by the customer, beat up at the desk and beat up at home for the long hours and uncertain income. Pardon the melodramatic rant, but try to be empathetic with their situation.

When you find the same Salespeople frequently wrestling with a lack of deal control, making little progress with the sales process, or struggling with the back-to-back “best price” customers, you have to reassess exactly what they may need.

I’m not saying to kid-glove your Salespeople, but avoid the mentality that you need to be tougher.  Remember, one of your roles is to develop human beings into strong, confident sales professionals. Have they had enough quality training or do they even belong in the position? The best place to determine training needs is STILL at the desk.  Now is not the time to quit on them because that would be the quick and easy thing to do. 

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Whether called Product Specialists or Salespeople, how would yours do selling popsicles? Let me share a recent experience. I was so ready for a chocolate dessert the other afternoon and I was looking for the Yes, We’re Open sign at the ultimate popsicle store in town. Hallelujah, they were open! They sell nothing but popsicles and these are very, very special popsicles. They are $3.50 special and in my opinion worth every penny.

Well, they only had 1 chocolate in stock and they don’t do dealer trades. I felt fortunate that they had the one.  Glad they had many others to choose from, since I was already planning to get more than the one. Right behind the young Salesman was the board, the cheat sheet with inventory options.

The young gentleman was super nice and a great representation for the place.  Yet, he was not aware of just how much power he had to increase the stores sales.

As nice as he was, he lacked guidance from someone on how to sell, not just fill a specific request. He was literally going to let me leave with the 1 chocolate popsicle. I made him sell me 3 more of the other flavors. This so I could have some in the freezer for my daughter in preparation for her upcoming visit from New York where this store does not exist—she loves these.

Ok, I’ll move on with it. The appealing options behind him had me thinking about how fun it is to increase sales all while making people happy. I thought, I’d love to get behind the counter for a few hours just to see how many I could sell.

Well, I exited with my purchase and my mind kicked into gear as I rode down the road. I was thinking this is how I may have handled a similar situation:

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The T.O. strategy has been around for quite some time, yet at some dealerships it’s not an “all the time” thing.  Some salespeople view it as a friction point with management.  Some handle it very well.   They are grateful for the opportunity to get additional support as a final effort to close a sale.

It is highly recommended that management revisits the T.O process with the team.   Make certain there is a clear understanding of everyone’s role, the reasons why and how to handle it smoothly.

It is important to communicate to salespeople that management needs to have the option of speaking with customers 100% of the time before they leave.  They also need to work with their people to smooth out the transition to management.  

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Your objectives in the interviewing and screening process are plentiful.  The old school “hit them hard, right between the eyes and see if they can take it” approach may not be the best method in today’s climate.

Testing people to see if they’re “tough enough” for their role, in my opinion can be unnecessarily intimidating and will turn off some well qualified job candidates.

The kind of representation needed today may not match up perfectly with the type of super-strong closer you may have sought out decades ago.   Sure, having the ability to close a deal is important, and of course you want good salesmanship, yet the average buyer and hiring methods may have changed a good bit.  Therefore, the type of candidate you need has probably changed as well.   Fortunately, many dealerships have transitioned to an even more professional screening and recruiting process which includes the list of pre-determined interview questions.

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Salespeople, Managers and Dealers:  Stop losing time and money because it’s easier to say “yes.”

Scenario:

Customer:   “Do you think they’ll paint the back bumper and put two new tires on it?”

Salesperson:  (Treats the question as an objection and takes path of least resistance) – “I’ll go ask.”

The Salesperson has pretty much validated the request as doable. At this point, to not fulfill the request gives the appearance of being uncooperative.  Of course, the Salesperson wants the deal and feels the customer’s request will not keep management from putting it to bed.  After all, they do this all the time, right?

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Dealer and Manager, do you feel frustrated by costly expenses needed to get customers through the door?  Salespeople who build something really significant, by flexing their own marketing arm, understand the importance of personalization.

Many dealers have a few sales professionals that really get it; “Build it and they will come” concept. 

I believe the old school way of marketing is the best way to create trust and loyalty.  The result is repeat and referral business that pays big dividends for the long haul. The current generation coming into workforce were born with an electronic device in their hand, may need a bit more convincing of the impact of personalization.


Hopefully you are already doing this to some degree, yet imagine every salesperson...

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Desk managers everywhere have experienced salespeople who would prefer them to just “OK” the customer's offer and put the deal to bed.

Face it, when the salesperson is ready to close the deal, they have already overcome a good bit to get the deal to this point. The last thing they want to do is risk changing the mood and intentions of a customer who just made an offer to purchase under their terms. 

Many salespeople fear if they make another pass at raising the customer, the deal could go sideways. This could cause the customer to completely disconnect. (Ouch!) 

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Pick a number and live it every day, with every deal. The target could be a volume number, gross number or both. Sure, you will have other targets such as CSI or occasional targets set by the manufacturer for incentive purposes, but I’m talking about a number that simplifies your expectations and your agreement with all on the team.

You may very well be thinking, we already do this. Let me share what the difference is. Say that your volume number is 100 new vehicles and 100 pre-owned vehicles. No longer will it be a "hope" number, an aspiration, or a something you expect all to simply work hard and long hours to achieve.

People's actions and attitudes affect others on the team. It’s about responsibility and accountability.

Things that once may have been tolerated or fell into the "let it slide for now” category, well, not anymore.

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It is my belief that these two questions need to be asked every time before leaving the customer to get a proposal from management.

Next to the last question to ask the customer before getting up to go for desk assistance:

“Is there any additional equipment you want me to factor into your proposal?”

You have given the customer a chance to share the other equipment they may be considering.  These are items they ask you to throw in if you want them to sign up. Often times it’s when you can least afford it; after you have already made previous deal concessions.

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