When Money Is the Prime Motivation: Next Level Impacts CEO Keith Roher on the Art of Wooing Sales Reps change careers to avoid being mired in the same position and stagnating. How do we, as dealers, keep our employees inspired and challenged?
the latitude and flexibility. The reward threshold could be a number, a revenue or profit gate, or a gate for the number of appointments they set for the month.
ROHER: I’m torn. There’s no option: you have to have millennials, and in the next two years they’re supposed to represent about 70% of the workforce. Number one, you can accept that in this industry—and no one wants to hear it—you’re going anywhere from an 18-24-month period where you’ll have a turn. It’s just a natural evolution. Yes, there are some people you will be able to promote and get them into the management ranks. But those roles are few and far between, and some of them aren’t ready for it. They’ll be looking for the shiny next object, and then they will bounce on you. It goes back to the cultural standpoint—keeping it fresh
In your opinion, what aspect of a dealer’s hiring process most commonly needs to be revisited? ROHER: The assessment testing slows down the process. Not that you want to hire fast, but some of these dealers are hard-core maniacal when it comes to assessment tests. I believe there’s some value to them, but to drag out an interview process and go back and forth because of a test…I’m just not sold on it. I did it for a long time, and there are pros and cons. They’re great coaching tools that all dealers should use posthiring, but not in making the decision. I can see if you’re on the fence about a candidate and they score just horribly.
I THINK THE INDUSTRY’S ENTIRE COMPENSATION PLAN NEEDS TO BE OVERHAULED. EVERYONE’S STILL USING A SIMILAR PLAYBOOK FROM 10 YEARS AGO. IT’S DEFINITELY A BUYER’S MARKET. – Keith Roher and fun, and maybe exercise a little less micromanaging. I had a rep who was with me for 25 years at Zeno, and she would write $1 million a year in business. When I was building Zeno, I was a stickler for everybody having to be in the office. I had to see them every day. Over time, after maturing some as a manager, I realized that we obviously can’t treat every rep the same. When I got this person to come over from a competitor, her big thing was working from home. She said she’d be in the office, but she liked working from home and got more done on the phone. I said prove yourself, and once you’re consistent, I don’t care. That was it. The moral of the story is, give reps gates, then reward with little things like the ability to work remotely. They value not having to come into the office the first thing every morning for a meeting that could have easily been handled in an email. Reps enjoy 44
•
www.enxmag.com | February 2020
That’s a good sign not to hire the person. But I have dealers who will interview youngsters and love them. But a week later, when the candidate doesn’t score well on the assessment, the dealer will say, “Oh, we can’t hire him.” I put more weight on a field test, where the manager goes out in the field with the candidate. Too often, they’ll do an assessment test and not a field test, which I feel is a mistake. Let’s say the test comes back and the candidate’s closing skills are below the industry benchmark. My question is, what’s the closing-skill ratio of the manager in charge of that rep, based on the benchmark? If it’s low, then how is he going to develop the sales rep you end up hiring? If they base their decision on the assessment, then I feel they need to rethink and be retrained on how to use it. As we are well aware, salespeople are generally driven by income potential.
With other industries offering higher salaries, how can we sweeten the overall compensation package? ROHER: I think the industry’s entire compensation plan needs to be overhauled. Everyone’s still using a similar playbook from 10 years ago. It’s definitely a buyer’s market. Let’s say I have a client that needs to place five reps in different markets, and like many dealers today, they’re open to going outside of the industry to find them. When you start going after ADT, Cintas, SaaS or managed services reps, these salespeople are getting between $45,000 and $65,000 in salary. Meanwhile, I’ve got dealer clients with salaries still starting at $36,000 or $40,000, and that factors in a car allowance. Some dealers are gravitating toward paying a higher salary with less on the gross profit, which is more competitive. When dealers budget going forward, I think they would have more success in getting a betterquality candidate if the salaries were higher. What I usually see out there is $50,000 for entry level, maybe less in the Carolinas. But when you hit Florida, Texas, California and the Northeast, it becomes more difficult to poach away reps from another industry. When they hear $40,000 to $45,000 for salary, the answer is “no way.” We’re walking them through the commission piece, the upside and why it’s more aggressive. That’s easy for us because we know the business. But when you’re asking a 25-year-old from another industry to come on board at a starting base of $45,000 when he already has a $62,000 base, it doesn’t resonate. Social media, particularly LinkedIn, has bolstered our ability to find candidates, but it also ushered in the age of résumé saturation bombing. At what point does it become most advisable to enlist the services of a recruiter? ROHER: Look at your EBIT line and your year-over-year performance for the last three years. Even if you are flat, then you’re doing well. But we know
We Saw It In ENX Magazine