I love Saturdays in the car business, don’t you?

There is no doubt about it, in our industry, Saturday is the money day. Saturday is the day that separates the good salesmen from the great salesmen and the good dealerships from the great dealerships. On Saturdays, the balloons fly just a little higher and the rows are a little straighter than they are on other days. Saturdays have a higher intensity level that can be felt throughout the dealership even before the doors open.

How a dealership executes on Saturdays will determine the company’s yearly P&L.

But, this raises a very serious question. When is the best time to have your store’s sales meetings? Every dealership wants their sales force educated, prepared, and motivated to make the most out of Saturdays, which usually means a meeting early Saturday morning, which can take valuable time away from Saturday preparation and sales time.

Some dealerships have their weekend meetings on Friday morning, some on Saturday morning, and some who meet on Sunday mornings. I have worked at each kind of dealership, and can report that each approach can be beneficial if used properly.

If your meeting is on Friday morning, the GM, GSM, or used car manager has an excellent opportunity to adequately prepare their sales force for the entire weekend. This is a great time to cover all of the vehicles that have large spiffs associated with them or any vehicles that have had price reductions. Remember, a faster rotating inventory leads to higher car profit. Unfortunately, a Friday morning meeting can make it difficult to keep your sales force’s level of intensity and motivation high through Saturday and Sunday.

If your weekend meeting is Sunday morning, managers should take advantage of this time to stress following up with sales leads from Saturday. It is also an excellent opportunity to” remotivate” the sales teams for another weekend day.

My preference is for Saturday morning meetings. Of course this makes Saturdays even longer for the sales staff and the managers. But it’s Saturday. It’s game day. It’s the day that will have the largest impact on your yearly P&L. In other words, the extra time is spent when it is needed most and when the fruits of that worked can be most easily harvested.

Saturday morning meetings are a very common practice. Managers feel their motivational powers can have maximum impact on Saturday morning. Unfortunately, not all managers are motivational. In fact, some can actually unmotivate an excited and revved up sales force. But dealerships that can consistently provide a motivational and impactful meeting on Saturdays will eventually outperform their competition.

For the individual salesman, Saturdays are a great time to be in attack mode.

The first customer through the door early Saturday morning is either very interested in purchasing a vehicle or they have other business at the dealership (e.g. service, title issues, etc). If they are interested in buying a car, great. If they have other business at the dealership, it is an excellent time to warm up your customer service muscles. We all know that it can be difficult to be sharp in the morning, especially Saturday mornings after a much too late Friday night. Hitting the first customer at full steam on Saturdays is extremely important. The reason is simple, as we all know, Saturdays is purely a numbers game. For some dealerships with low foot traffic, it might be the only day that sales people can see enough customers to let the law of numbers work for them.

Yes, Saturdays in the used car industry can be long and exhausting. But, they can also be extremely profitable. So, always be at your best. To use a sports cliché, Saturday is the day you want to leave it all out on the field.

I love Saturdays in the car business, don’t you?

Good Luck this Saturday and every Saturday!