Enter The “No-Commission Zone”
Tracy Myers, owner of Frank Myers Auto Maxx, loves to tell people that his sales force does not work on commissions. He tells them: “We are one of the only non-commissioned sales teams in the automotive industry. We are here to serve and to help customers solve problems.”
And based on my conversation with him, I’m betting he’s certain to toss in, with feeling, this statement: “Our purpose is, one, to serve God, two, to serve our guests, and three, to serve one another.”
Is Frank Myers Auto Maxx REALLY Different?
I’d heard about Myers from a story in our local paper who had written a story about his dealership being named #1 Small Business in North Carolina.
Even so, I was skeptical about separating sales from commissions, suspecting that Myers had created some euphemism to replace the word, leaving the monetary incentive in place.
However, when pressed on the subject, he responded that his sales team is “no different than his administrative department employees or the service technicians. While there is a small percentage of income that comes from bonuses, those dollars are tied to company wide goals, to profitability and costs and so on.”
When asked how he keeps his sales team motivated, he chuckled at my question the way one does when dealing with a slow learner. “We recognize the salespeople the same way you recognize normal people, the way you recognize any people for doing any job well.”
Salespeople as normal? Maybe the customers are ready to accept that, but are the salespeople? Myers replied: “The normal sales call has the customer mind-set of, ‘Tell me about your product, give me your lowest price and go away.’ We break down that wall. Once the customers understand that we really are there to serve, they start asking for our advice and our expertise. We become part of the solution instead of part of the problem.”
I wondered if top salespeople, the ones who’d succeeded under the old structure, would find this tedious or limiting.
For instance, does he have trouble hiring? “I’ve never seen it as a disadvantage,” he said, adding, “but we hire the right type of person – we don’t look for a cowboy who wants to do it his own way.” The result is very low turnover and surprisingly low costs. Myers says, “As a customer focused company, I can see my cost of sales, as compared with other dealers, and we’re in the lower half.”
How can you spend more time with customers and still keep your sales costs down?
No Games At Frank Myers Auto Maxx
“We don’t have to waste time on the games,” he said. “My peers spend 40 percent of their time on figuring out how and what to pay, on arguing who gets paid or what.” And it isn’t just sales managers’ time spent on the games, of course: Add in all the time typical salespeople spend calculating commissions, plotting how to get credit for sales and checking the reports from headquarters to make sure they got everything they were entitled to.
In fact, if you’ve been a salesperson, or worked around them, just think of the time spent daydreaming about commissions, sitting with the calculator and working out, “If I sold X person Y amount, that would mean I’d get Z.” Take that time, convert it to helping customers, and you’d see a transformation in the profession.
So that just leaves one last question: Why isn’t everyone doing away with commissions?
Myers reminded me he makes no secret of the strategy and its success: “I give a dozen talks a year, and some of my peers say, ‘I’d love to do it that way, but my management won’t try it.’ That’s because most management thinks that the only thing that motivates salespeople is greed, and if that doesn’t work, nothing will. They’re wrong.”
Then he laughed and added: “It’s a huge, huge advantage. I hope my competitors don’t figure it out.”
CONTACT
Frank Myers Auto Maxx
4200 North Patterson Avenue
Winston Salem, NC 27105
336-767-3432
https://www.FrankMyersAuto.com
