How To Keep Salespeople: Ask Land Rover - Brief Article

Automotive Industries,  August, 1999  by Lindsay Brooke

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Land Rover has quietly slipped into the industry's No. 1 spot in retail sales staff retention, long a frustrating subject for automakers. When it comes to holding on to salespeople, the tiny British SUV maker is now fled with Mercedes-Benz, with a retail personnel turnover rate of about 18%. And it probably has the most physically-fit retail sales network in the industry.

A key to keeping sales and service people has been the company's so-called TReK program Begun in 1996, TReK pits small teams from each of Land Rover's North American dealers against each other in a 12-hour endurance contest aimed at challenging each person's mental and physical abilities. The competition, held at a different remote location each year, includes running, canoe racing, orienteering and numerous off-roading skill tests using Land Rovers in plenty of mud and rock.

"Sales retention is a hidden cost for the industry, and it would be wrong of me to convince you that this program is the only satisfier for us. It's not," says Jim Newell, vice president of Land Rover University, the automakers retail training organization. "Most of our sales staff am on salary, for example. But Trek is proving itself to keep retailer staff highly enthused--a dedicated team focused on being the 4x4 authority".

Newell admits that the capabilities of the product give it a bit more appeal to outdoorsy sales people than, say, a Buick would. "But not many people have the chance to feel they can go across Africa with the folks they work with every day. It's a great team- and pride-building experience,"

COPYRIGHT 1999 Cahners Publishing Company
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group