Gallup says 70% of Americans negative about their jobs...

[ryan.leslie]

A friend alerted me to this article about a recent Gallup poll that I frankly found alarming.

CHALLENGE:

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Step into the tower for just a minute, have a seat, and take a look at the workstations of 10 salespeople on your floor. According to this study:

• 7 of the 10 either "hate their job or are completely disengaged."
• 5 of the 10 are "disengaged." They show up for work each day, but they are not "inspired by their managers." They do enough to get by but never enough to truly succeed.
• 2 of the 10 are "actively disengaged." They are holding their own meetings in the corner to complain and likely spend several hours of their day looking for the right opportunity to fire you.

Surprised? We aren't done so you may want to keep your seat! There is a great likelihood that your salespeople are skewing the number lower due to the nature of their job responsibilities. "Service Workers"-those workers who are often on the front line serving customers-"are among the lowest of any occupation Gallup measured and have declined in recent years, while engagement for every other job category increased." In other words, the front lines of your business, the most crucial players in customer service and satisfaction, are more likely to be disengaged than the rest of your team. YIKES!
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Thanks for the lead balloon Ryan, now what?

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I have all the time in the world:

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Here is a link to download the study in its entirety. (WARNING: This is 68 pages of statistical analysis and not a quick read. I will come back to this topic as I digest this information and try to share some practical application.) The best advice I can give is to read it and really think through these issues as they pertain to your organization. The study talks about management's specific role in the job satisfaction of their direct reports. I think every manager in every industry would benefit from taking the time to read through this.

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I'm in the car business, I have exactly 5 minutes to devote to this right now:

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Okay, here are the 12 questions that Gallup based this study from. Read them from the tower while you are looking at those same 10 salespeople. Challenge yourself to step into their shoes and take this survey as they would take this survey. BE HONEST! Better yet, plan to replicate this survey anonymously with your teams. Understand that you may not like the feedback you get and it may cause you to think really hard about some of your process and procedures from hiring to development, but at the end of the day, your customers interact with your salespeople. Your customer's experience with your brand is a direct reflection of the engagement of your staff. Is it worth it to ask the tough questions and receive some tough to hear answers if it improves your customer's experience? I think we'd all agree that the answer to that question must be YES...


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[ddavis]

Here is a decades old fact: 87% of people that attempt car sales are out of the industry in a year. That was published by NADA thirty years ago and I doubt that it has changed.

I am amused to hear managers complaining that they can't hire salespeople. I was talking to the new car manager at a Lexus store. Their top salesperson, last year, made $44K. This store requires that salespeople work bell to bell on Saturdays and the last week of the month. A General Manager told me that salespeople should make $4500/month at the most.

The only reason someone should want to be in the car business is for the money. In the absence of that, they need to go into the trades.