Boating Industry Intelligence You Can Profit From
ORLANDO, Fla. – Joe Verde kicked off the Marine Dealer Conference & Expo Sales & Marketing Track yesterday morning with advice on where dealers should place their focus in order to survive today’s difficult economic conditions. Verde is president of the Joe Verde Group, a dealer, management and sales training firm.
His presentation, titled “Recovery & Growth in Today’s Market,” outlined sales philosophies dealerships can embrace to create a better future for their business regardless of market conditions.
For one, Verde advised dealerships consider parting ways with employees “who aren’t any good and won’t learn on their own or when you teach them” in favor of some of the “bright intelligent people who have been laid off” during the economic downturn.
“You can’t recover if you don’t have the right people,” he said. “Those people that refuse to do their jobs, they are your anchors.”
He also recommended dealerships do a better job of educating their salespeople on selling, from how to execute the “warm-up” phase of the process where you build a rapport with dealers to how to properly build value, handle objections and close a sale.
“Ninety-three percent of sales is process and seven percent is product,” he commented. “You need to follow the steps to the sale.”
Ultimately, rebuilding these sales basics in your dealership during these challenging times will allow your company to rebuild its foundation, Verde argued.
“If that hurricane hits and knocks down your house, you have to start to rebuild it,” he said. “If your house blew down and you had to rebuild it, wouldn’t you rebuild it a little differently? Now is your chance to do it right.”
As part of his involvement in this year’s Marine Dealer Conference, Verde made free copies of his new 250-page book, “A Dealer’s Guide To Recovery & Growth,” available to all dealer attendees.
The Marine Dealer Conference & Expo runs Nov. 16-18 at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, Fla.
- Can’t get enough boating news? Subscribe to our blog’s RSS feed, follow us on Twitter or look for “Boating Industry” on Facebook and LinkedIn.
- For more of the latest news, click here.