Decision-Brief The problem that is sought to be solved here is the rapid departure of sales staff from Tucci Toyota, a car dealer in Atlanta, Georgia. A new plan for development of suitable sales representatives is presented here.

Selling cars is no longer an act of salesmanship by those present at the shop and many think that buying a car is important enough for them to make a study of the deal that they are getting. Let us look at the experience of another dealer for Toyota -- Carson Toyota. Those dealers have five pages on the Internet about the satisfied purchasers and their comments. In all those comments there is the mention of the satisfaction that they had in dealing with individuals in the shop. Some of the purchasers had traveled some three hours and by using all types of transport to reach the shop -- Metrolink, light rail, the Red Line, and Green Line. (Happy Customer Recommendations)

Naturally they were very tired when they reached the shop and the best feelings that they got is that the salesperson concerned gave the buyer a lift from the station, a cold soda and ensured their convenience before even talking about the deal. This is the essence of salesmanship, of knowing when to talk and about what to talk. A salesman succeeds in making a sale as that is the measure of the capability of the salesman. There is not much point in haggling with a potential buyer as it ends up only irritating him -- the buyer knows what he wants and when the dealer keeps changing his price, it makes him feel that the salesperson is trying to cheat him. As one buyer from that organization mentioned "For me the purchase of a new car is second in financial stress only to the purchase of a home." (Happy Customer Recommendations) Thus the purchase of a car for a buyer is an expensive exercise and he would like to do his best to ensure that his money has been utilized the best.

In the case of Tucci Toyota, the salesmen were not trained and not experienced and this made them indifferent to the feelings of the customers. They also had a short period of stay within the organization and did not learn even by experience. Car buyers go through a lot of dealers before buying a car. Some of the people gave their experiences in buying cars as having gone through a dozen or 8 or nine dealers before deciding to buy the car from a particular dealer. As already mentioned it is an expensive purchase for the buyer, and he would like to ensure that he got the best value for his money. Sometimes, even for a particular brand, he would go through a number of dealers to ensure that he is getting the best possible deal. (Happy Customer Recommendations)

Experienced salesmen would have the patience and would continue repeating the same amount of clauses and prices. It is not similar to an immediate purchase like the case of retail products about which people may tend to buy and forget. The buyers would tend to appreciate as to when they are told regarding the same price by all the individuals concerned in the same organization. This would grant them more faith and confidence in the organization and its underlying principles. Thus even the organization would have to have fixed prices and that need to be repeated by each and every salesman in the organization. Otherwise, the chances are that the buyer is likely to hear the rate of different prices and would tend to feel that the organization is trying to flee him away. On top of that price differences would tend to evolve from additional charges when the buyer is actually trying to buy the car and to drive away. This would also make him have the feeling that he is being cheated upon by the organization. Thus it is very important that the question of prices is to be dealt with properly by the agency in a cautious manner. (DiPonzio-Ricci Group)

When the organization would develop a selling practice that is being appreciated by the customers, the dealer may even get purchases of its cars from the buyers who are at a long distance away as they are dependent on by the buyers. Since it is a purchase involving a higher value item, there has to be an amount of trust and mutual confidence between the buyer and the sellers concerned. The entire practice however, cannot be learnt in one day, and by being a good friend of the owner of the organization does not...

All the salesmen have to be properly trained to cater to the needs of the customers. This need not be done by the agency itself, as there are now many organizations in this field that are being devoted to the sole purpose of providing training. Irrespective of the manner in which it is done, and without taking into consideration the person who has been employed, it is important that a certain amount of training need to be provided. (DiPonzio-Ricci Group)
There are many organizations that spend their valuable providing time and effort in training to other individuals to be good salesmen in dealing with the customers. It is hence not enough to just think of only recruiting good salesmen for performing the job, but they have to be trained well. And for this purpose, they need to be, compared to other salesmen, and need to be measured up about their capacities and capabilities in various difficult situations, upgraded in terms of the remuneration being offered when they perform well in a difficult situation, and motivated and encouraged to be at their best all the time. The job of the manager in such a situation would be to do all this and also have control over the salesmen and also retain them as other organizations would like to pick them up from your staff.

However, this has not been done well and the salesmen are leaving their jobs continuously. The salesmen are not dedicated to perform their jobs, or in their services to the dealership or even capable and efficient salesmen. This has to be corrected and worked upon. The total evaluation of the situation has to take into account the following questions -- the total efficiency levels of the sales manager, the real capability and efficiency levels of the sales staff as they may not be selling the required amount even if they tend to be more capable, the strategy for sales that has been decided and taken up may not be the best strategy employed for that particular locality, the sales targets that have been fixed may not be realistic and workable, the manner of comparison in relation to other units may not be correct and relevant, the competency of the sales manager concerned and the competency levels of the entire group. (DiPonzio-Ricci Group)

There are different organizations who are involved in developing these capacities for many organizations, or even individual experts who are ready to help in this regard. It may be required that help is required from one of them for the organization to develop and reach its potential. The entire business of sales is competitive and a direct competition between different agencies. If one salesman or agency is not able to sell to a particular buyer, then the buyer will move to another agency or salesman, but the sale will certainly take place.

III. Demographics

There are good chances for success in sales of automobiles anywhere in United States, and Toyota has a good market in Atlanta, Georgia. Thus there are no fundamental problems with the market, and the problem is only with not being able to sell. Let us now look at the present position of car sales in United States.

a) Facts about the problem

The first point to be discussed about the problem is the market situation in Atlanta, Georgia about Toyota vehicles. Regarding this we note that there are nine dealers for Toyota in general Atlanta area. The names of the dealers are Toyota South, Team Toyota, Hank Aaron Toyota, Sandy Springs Toyota, World Toyota, Stone Mountain Toyota, Toyota of Roswell, Atlanta Toyota Inc. And Toyota Mall of Georgia. All these dealers are within 40 miles of Atlanta and are thus clearly in competition with each other. (Toyota Car Dealers in Atlanta) All these dealerships are in competition with each other as also in competition with Tucci Toyota. Thus it is clear that Atlanta is a good market for Toyota and it is not due to the problems with Toyota that the dealership is having difficulties.

The other question that may be raised is that the market is having some difficulties in the current year, and that is the reason why Tucci Toyota is having difficulties. The sales of automobiles have been increasing rapidly during the last few months and according to information available, the automobile manufacturers have sold a total of 1.8 million…