If there’s one common theme among dealership ads on job boards, it’s that most of them include some form of statement expressing that the candidate “must have dealership experience”. But what if they don’t actually need it?
Over the past 12 months, we have interviewed close to 2,000 candidates for vacancies listed with us. Quite a lot of those candidates did have existing dealership experience, but we did identify quite a few top quality non-dealership candidates with a great attitude, who could easily slip into a role and make it their own.
Sales Consultants are fast becoming the next in-demand role within a dealership. It’s hard to find a great Salesperson when dealerships in our niche industry only typically have on average 1 to 3 consultants at each branch. It’s a small pool!
Sure, it’d be great to get a Sales Consultant with previous brand experience or who has worked with your competitor, but what if you could get someone with a network of existing clients or exposure to the same type of customers you sell to?
In Tractor sales, you might consider a rural real-estate agent or someone from merchandising. These people would generally have already dealt with your customers before. They know how to talk with them, build rapport and sell.
For Truck sales, a candidate from a large transport operation, tyre shop or trailer business would certainly know how to deal with your client base. They may even bring in a new network of potential customers you’ve never had access to before.
“People do business with people they like”
People do business with people they like. And if these candidates already have or can easily build strong relationships with your customers, this surely has to be valuable to your bottom line.
Of course, they will require a bit of extra sales training and some product knowledge, but this is your chance to create a “Super Salesperson” with all the positives of relationship building coupled with YOUR specific sales methods.
In the Workshop, we’re also seeing increased interest from dealers looking to employ Mechanics, Electricians and Service Advisors from the automotive and non-franchised HV industry. With better wages and a much more interesting product to work on, this is generally a pretty easy sell to these candidates.
We often hear from our clients that Transport Fleet Managers don’t make great Service Managers because they haven’t been involved in as much of the sales/business side of running a profitable service department. But what about running Mechanics on the floor in a Workshop Controller type position? Some of these candidates have an amazing knowledge base of Trucks and would be able to think outside the square to get the job done.
So next time you’re hiring, why not include one extra candidate in your interviewing process that doesn’t quite tick ALL the boxes, but could have some potential. You just never know what they could become!
Teamrecruit is Australia’s most established recruitment agency specialising in truck, earthmoving and agricultural machinery dealerships in Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific and Southeast Asia. Find out more about Teamrecruit and how we support employers and candidates in the dealership industry.
