Consistently the top salesperson of the month at Marlboro Nissan, Todd Weinberg has double-digit deliveries to take care of on some days. Case in point, on the first day of April 2010, he sold 11 cars. While not every day can be a double-digit sales day for Weinberg, he’s averaging about 30 vehicles per month.
For the first quarter of 2010, he sold 89 vehicles. He hopes to finish the year with 360 sales; his goal is to average 30 sales per month (so far, so good). Considering he’d already exceeded the 30-car mark for April with four days left in the month, he was well on his way to achieving his goal.
Weinberg has been a solid performer throughout his career at the dealership, which began in 2002 while pursuing a degree in communications from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He chuckled telling the story of how he came to be a Marlboro Nissan employee: “I was in college working for a Web site [company] that my buddies and I tried to start up, and I came into the dealership and tried to sell them on that. But the guy who was the head of the Internet department at the time did the Web site himself, and he said, ‘Well, if you’re ever looking for a job, come on back.’ … I had a couple classes to take to get my degree, came in worked here for the dealership for about a year. Then I went off into hardware and software sales, hated it, came back, and I’ve been here ever since.”
As one of nine salespeople at Marlboro Nissan, Weinberg is responsible for a good chunk of the dealership’s sales, which range from 150 to 200 a month. His main focus for the last three years has been Internet sales, which turned out to be his niche. Timothy Martell, digital marketing and customer relations director at Marlboro Nissan, said Weinberg was selling 12 to 15 vehicles per month before transferring to Internet sales. Martell said, “In his first month as an ‘Internet salesperson,’ he sold 33 cars! He hasn’t stopped since.”
Comparing Internet sales to floor sales, Weinberg said, “You get an opportunity with a lot more people than you would with just regular walk-though traffic. A lot of the Internet customers seem to be more narrowly focused and know what they want. They’re a little better informed; they’re not asking for crazy money for their trade.”
However, there is one aspect of floor sales he misses somewhat. When asked if he prefers Internet to floor sales, he said, “Yes and no. The people that come in on a walk-through basis, it gets a little more personal. So sometimes it can be a better experience.” He added, though, that sometimes he has similar experiences through phone conversations with Internet customers. “Sometimes it’s kind of a roll of the dice.”
Motivation is key to Weinberg’s success because selling 30 cars a month isn’t done without hard work, and his philosophy is if he’s at work, he’s working. “If you’re here, you might as well work. You might as well make the best of it, sell as many [vehicles] as you can, as fast as you can … If you’re going to be at work, you might as well do something with your time, as compared to just messing on the Internet.”
According to Martell, Weinberg is also a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to keeping his customers happy, which keeps them coming back (approximately 40 percent of his customers are repeat or referral). Martell said, “He is one of the hardest working salespeople I have ever encountered, and he is obsessed with making sure everything goes perfectly for his clients.”
Weinberg, who is humble about his knack for taking care of customers, said it’s all about making good on promises. “[You] work hard, work smart and just follow-up on everything you say you’re going to do. Don’t make any promises that you’re not going to keep. Just schedule your time properly, schedule your activities properly and move as quickly as you can. That’s really all that I do.”
As far as free time is concerned, he doesn’t have a ton of it, considering he works 50 to 70 hours a week and has two daughters (ages 8 and 9) keeping him busy. However, he does find time to unwind and watch the Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots, and he also enjoys the occasional weekend trip to Las Vegas with his wife.
Congratulations to Todd Weinberg, sales professional of the month, and thank you to Timothy Martell for bringing him to our attention.
Nominate Your Sales Pro Now
Vol 7, Issue 6
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