But a general chat about what makes sales great, while it might be fascinating, misses the most important point a guy like Claudio Camera has to make.

He isn't just the sales director of a multinational company. He is the sales director of a multinational car company. That means that his direct reports are car salesmen. And we all know what we think of car salesmen. Fortunately, so does he, and naturally he believes the notion is fundamentally wrong although not entirely without substance.

The snag in the car business is that, at Camera's best guess, only 10% to 15% of the people selling cars are serious about it. Only that percentage are interested in seeing the customer get into the right car and will try to convince the customer to buy the right car for their needs.

Increasing Skills

Camera is adamant that percentage is too low, and speaks about establishing a Certificate of Proficiency (COP) similar to that used in the insurance industry, as a means of bringing the skills of sales staff on the dealership floor up to a minimum standard.

"Think of it this way," he says. "Just in terms of safety alone, Renault spends 100 million Euros per annum. You do that just on safety and then you have to develop the rest of the product and you come under immense pressure to develop a quality product in every respect, and then you do what? You give it to someone who has just decided that they are going to sell cars for a couple of years because they need the money? What an injustice you are doing to all those engineers, and designers and all the many, many people that have put in so much effort to create that car. How can you feel comfortable giving it to someone that hasn't been coached properly, that doesn't have the generic sales skills and that doesn't have a deep range of product information?"

COP approval in the motor industry, the way Camera sees it, would reassure the customer that any certified salesman knows how to calculate finance, how to do needs analysis and a six point sale and that they are undoubtedly in the sales field for the long haul.

Being in it for the long haul is unfortunately not particularly common in the sales field in South Africa, and that really gets Camera going. "Sales here is still not generally regarded as a profession. In Europe a guy will sell cars for 15 years and make a good living out of it. And you can do that here too, but too often salespeople don't see that potential. One of our competitors has a young guy who made up his mind that he wanted a career selling cars and he focused on building relationships. I can tell you now that as a result of that approach he sells 15 to 20 cars per month as an average."

And yet Camera's best advice for young people entering the sales field is somewhat paradoxical in light of the pressure on companies such as his to increase sales today.

Slow Things Down

His advice? Slow down. "You know, the world that young people live in today runs at a very fast pace. Young people often want it all and they want it right now and it isn't surprising considering the pace they set themselves in their ordinary lives. But you don't build successful relationships that bring repeat business and referrals from others unless you slow the pace and take the time to develop those relationships," he says.

That means focusing beyond the sale at hand. When the customer drives away, says Camera, the salesperson should know several things about them such as whether they are married, when their birthday is, how many children they have and so on. "Cars are big ticket items so building that relationship doesn't mean that the customer is going to come back and buy from you. This isn't like returning the next week to a restaurant you really enjoyed, it is possible that the customer isn't planning to buy another car at all for the next five years. But they each have a doctor and a lawyer and colleagues at work, and a spouse and children and they all have friends. Building a great experience and a great relationship might mean that the customer recommends you to all of them. Just selling a car almost certainly does not."

In fact, just selling a car does not only deny the possibility for great relationships, Camera believe it can throw the door wide open to bad ones.

"A car isn't just a car. You have to make sure that the customer is getting the right vehicle and that means asking questions. How old are you? Where do you drive? Are you a rep? What are you carrying? Big boxes? Small boxes? How much do you drive? Where? In the city or over long distances in the heat of the desert? You need to do a diagnostic of the customer or you run a very big risk of selling them the wrong car. Forget about what they asked for when they came in. Though that may be precisely what you sell them, you need to be absolutely sure it is right. The salesperson's job is to sell the customer exactly the right car and to make sure they don't make a R200,000 mistake."

The Long View

For Camera, it all comes down to how far ahead the salesperson is willing to look. No matter what you are selling, he says, you are ultimately selling the customer a peace of mind and a service. No matter what they are buying, they want to be looked after.

“There is a bundle of money to be made here, and though you might find a high level of earnings in the short term when you’re looking for a bunch of quick wins, it is only really sustainable if you make the decision to play a longer game,” says Camera.

“And make no mistake, compensation is a very big thing for salespeople. The potential for much higher earnings than they could get anywhere else is one of the major drivers for them to get into sales in the first place. It makes good sense, if they plan a long career for them to sacrifice some of those quick wins now in favour of a good reputation for honesty and integrity right now.”

And yet, at some fundamental level, that goes against the very grain of most common contemporary sales philosophy, which advocates turning over as many sales as possible, as quickly as you can.
That may work in other areas. It may even be the right thing to do. But you have to recognise the psyche of the customer relative to the grandness of the purchase they are about to make, Camera says. “I met a sales lady at a dealership recently and she would get to the point where she would do everything perfectly, brilliantly, and push you hard to close you, but if she got any indication that you weren't actually going to buy, she was done with you and onto the next person,” says Camera.

The pressure to be that way at Renault is of course driven by monthly targets, just as it is in other companies. Those targets are serious and your job depends on you hiting them. There is no ambiguity about that any more than there is any about the overall mission which is to put more Renault cars on the road. It is a tough game, but then Camera never told anyone it would be easy. But he is also adamant that for the right person, with the right attitude, selling cars is simply the best profession in the world.

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