Car dealerships rethink recruiting, job roles as digital sales expand

When people apply for sales positions at Germain Motor Co. dealerships, having auto retail experience on their resume doesn't make them a shoo-in.

That may have been an advantage in the past, when it was more common for sales consultants to display more dominant, extroverted personalities and the ability to close a sale, said John Malishenko, COO of the 19-store group, with dealerships in Ohio, Michigan, Florida and Arizona. But a shifting vehicle-sales landscape, with more reliance on digital retailing since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, has changed the equation for Germain and other dealership groups.

Today, Germain recruits from other industries, such as hospitality, and seeks prospective hires who are more adept at quickly building rapport with customers and communicating electronically.

"In my mind — and this isn't always popular — previous experience is a liability. Because we're not doing business that way anymore," Malishenko said. "And it's harder to deprogram and reprogram than it is just to program."

Selling cars and trucks today is, in many ways, a different job than even a few years ago, before the pandemic accelerated dealerships' adoption of transaction-enabling technology. Dealers who used to value a firm handshake and the ability to close now are looking for softer skills and a focus on customer service. That's in part a response to a generation of more-educated online consumers who don't want hard-sell tactics and often have made up their mind on a vehicle before initiating contact with a store.

Dealers also face stiff competition from used- vehicle giant CarMax and online used-vehicle upstarts such as Carvana and Vroom, which market themselves as easier and more convenient alternatives to traditional dealerships.

In addition, the convergence of the pandemic, now entering its third year, and supply chain logjams that have sent dealerships deep into their order banks to sell vehicles not yet built is prompting some retailers to rethink what they need in their sales teams.

For instance, it takes different skills to sell a vehicle that might arrive in weeks than one a buyer can drive off the lot that day, Malishenko said. The conversation around digital retailing is evolving into a discussion largely about customer experience and the changes to dealership processes needed to provide that experience.

Those changes include everything from how employees are compensated and the skills sales employees should have to succeed in this new environment to how job titles and responsibilities are structured.

"Sales is overstating it. It's not selling," said Adam Robinson, CEO of dealership recruitment technology company Hireology. "Sales implies I'm having to convince you to do something. I think the majority of consumers have decided to buy a vehicle. If you have it and it's priced the right way, I will buy it from you. That's not selling; that's guidance. That's curating a customer journey. It's more like a customer experience role than it is a selling role."

Nearly 4 in 10 dealership managers who responded to a survey Hireology conducted in September 2021 said they have changed job descriptions to recruit candidates with different skills and backgrounds, Robinson said. Being knowledgeable about technology is near the top of the list of sought-after skills, he said, along with being a good communicator and aligning with the dealership's culture. Past auto retail experience is no longer a prerequisite.

"The desire to serve is really the competency that matters," Robinson said. "Do I enjoy providing service to others? Do I enjoy providing value to others? Do I enjoy driving satisfaction through happy customer transactions? All of those things are far more important today than the ability to move a unit and negotiate a price. We really aren't doing that anymore."

The responsibilities of sales employees increasingly resemble those of product specialists, Robinson said.

At Del Grande Dealer Group in California, which made the shift from traditional sales roles to noncommissioned product specialists in 2015, the job requires more consultative skills than hard-sales techniques, CEO Jeremy Beaver said.

The group employs some product specialists dedicated solely to online inquiries and others who handle walk-in or phone leads, Beaver said. The two groups of specialists receive slightly different training on communicating with customers. About 18 to 24 months ago, Del Grande also equipped product specialists with iPads to use in every deal, regardless of whether a customer initially inquired online or in the store, Beaver said.

"We joke around here: We're not trying to sell cars; we're just trying to help people buy cars," he said.

The group's location, near Silicon Valley, puts it up against software companies such as Google, Facebook and Adobe for hiring talent, Beaver said. The product specialist roles resemble job descriptions at an Apple or Tesla retail location, he said, which can be a recruiting advantage.

Yet Del Grande's leaders are also mindful that the group's culture of experimentation and process improvement can produce major changes, Beaver said.

"We're really, really thoughtful around, whenever we launch new things, that we share, collaborate, communicate," he said. "There's no surprises around here."

Germain has placed more vehicle orders during the inventory shortage, Malishenko said. But selling into a production pipeline requires a different mindset, since it doesn't provide immediate gratification.

"That was hard for traditional people. They didn't see it as selling anything, even though they were," Malishenko said. "Once you build the order bank, you start every month with 10 car deals. So it's a really good thing. It takes a lot of the stress off once you do it. But that conversion was hard for people that have been doing it a different way for a long time."

To ease the transition, dealership staffing consultants say retailers should adjust the skills they're looking for and provide training to help employees succeed in a digital sales environment.

Dealerships do a good job of teaching the steps to the sale, and employees do a good job of collecting the facts needed to complete a car deal — valuing a trade, what vehicle the customer wants, monthly payment, said Fleming Ford, chief strategy officer of dealership skills training provider Quantum5. But consumers can manage obtaining those facts in an online transaction without a dealership's help, she said, so dealerships need to focus on building trust and connection.

"To build an experience and make it fun to buy cars again, we've got to build up people skills around every point, every type of person that comes in the store, no matter where they're at — if they're on the phone, via email," Ford said. "I have dealers who say, 'I can't let them email my customer,' and I'm like, 'Well, why are they on your team?' "

Dealerships for too long have relied on word tracks and scripts that emphasize getting a customer to come into the store, Ford said. Instead, dealerships should focus on coaching sales employees on how to ask questions to determine a customer's needs.

"Those are real skill sets that can be learned," Ford said. "We just haven't always spent the time to do it."

A dealership that can make a good first impression with a customer, respond quickly and directly to an inquiry and offer a positive experience from the start is more likely to win that customer's business, said Randy Harman, talent acquisition manager for Lou Fusz Automotive Network in St. Louis.

Over the past couple years, the Lou Fusz group has placed greater emphasis on its digital sales process, including sending customers videos of vehicle walkarounds or introductory greetings, as more customers have preferred to communicate virtually, Harman said.

As a result, a different set of skills are needed in today's sales employees than even a decade ago. Even the jobs have changed: Lou Fusz no longer advertises for salespeople, but for customer sales consultants, he said. What may sound like a slight change in title actually reflects a culture shift toward consultations, rather than closers, he said.

When he's recruiting candidates, Harman said he seeks a positive attitude, a focus on customer service and proper spelling and punctuation on applications. He said he is open to prospects who have worked in food service, hotels or casinos.

"I'll take those people any day of the week over a salesperson that's got 10 years of experience selling cars," he said.