1) 4S dealerships must pay close attention to workflow management like customer development, needs analysis, and contract signing to ensure sales procedures are followed correctly. A competent sales supervisor is needed to train, motivate, and supervise each sales consultant. 2) Simply promoting the top salesperson to a supervisor role could result in bad management and loss of major salespeople. Other sales consultants may feel unfair and lose motivation or change brands. 3) To select a sales supervisor, the dealership should make the job duties clear, set transparent selection criteria, and assess candidates on both theory and practical skills in operating a team through a business competition. This process will identify the most competent leader while maintaining team morale.

1. How to select a Supervisor from the Sales Team
by Wuyi Jiao
“Weekly events and daily appointments” has become one of the operating
strategies employed by many major auto brands, from which the high intensity of
market competition could be noticed. In such a severe business environment, 4S
dealerships are forced to pay more attention to the management of work flow, e.g.
customer development, invitation, reception, needs analysis, product presentation,
test drive, procedure illustration, contract signing, vehicle delivery and follow-up
visit. To ensure all of the foregoing procedures are carried out exactly as per the
process, scripts and standards, a competent leader is needed to train, supervise
and motivate every sales consultant.
In many 4S stores, Sales Supervisors are elected among the sales team. This
approach may cause opposite effects if not detail-oriented, e.g.
1. Motivated by the belief that a good salesman makes a good leader, dealers
promote their top salesman to a management position, but it will probably end up
with bad management and loss of major sales force;
2. If the above circumstances happen, in order not to be disgraced the sales elite
will probably choose to leave instead of resuming their previous sales position;
3. Additionally, other Sales Consultants may become slack in work or even leave
for competitive brands because they feel unfair about the promotion.
Everything matters in terms of personnel- How can we avoid the above
risks? Maybe it is the time to make the selection procedure
transparent.
The following is the basic principles we should follow to implement specific
actions:
l First of all, make the job duties and responsibilities of Sales Supervisor known
to all. Both the Sales Consultants and Supervisors should know the value of a
Sales Supervisor to the whole dealership; Shared direction will increase tacit
agreement and reduce obstacles for team cooperation.

2. l Secondly, make the selection criteria known to all. “A good salesman does not
have to be a good leader.” Thus the candidates for Sales Supervisor don’t
have to be the best at sales (certainly not the worst). We may as well set a
starting line, e. g. all the employees whose sales volume is above average in
the last 6 months are eligible to apply.
l Thirdly, to make the selection process motivational, we must make sure all the
candidates are willing to apply for this position instead of being forced to. To
ensure that, we can add in the application notice that all the employees who
both meet the above criteria and intend to be one of the management team
can apply. But meanwhile all the candidates should be pre-warned the risk of
failure in selection.
l Then, set rational assessment content (Theory is the base of practice). As the
new supervisor will face many unprecedented difficulties and problems such
as task decomposition, process monitoring, training & coaching, meeting
arrangement, team motivation and more. To ensure the smooth assumption
of duty, all the candidates should be provided with related training and support
before the selection. These subjects could also be included as part of the
theory assessment.
l Finally, take their practical operating capability as the ultimate selection
criteria. As the old saying goes “Practice makes perfect”, the candidates who
have passed the theory assessment now can lead their own team for the last
business competition. The plan for business assessment can be
pre-announced. Taking the accidental factors into account, it is suggested to
use the KPI indicators in the past 2-3 months for selecting the final winner.
The core of the above principles is to make selection & promotion process
transparent, public and specific after all, thus ensuring to select the most
competent leader while guaranteeing the sustainment & enhancement of team
morale & competitiveness.