I recently had to complete some legal matters, in two different countries, and experienced two very different approaches.

One firm had my initial discoveries handled by one lawyer and then once my needs were thoroughly understood and the ball was rolling I was turned over to another lawyer to conduct all of the details, documentation and registrations.

In contrast, the other firm told me they preferred to have all of our interactions, searches, registrations, questions and documentation handled by just one lawyer.

After our interaction I started to reflect on which one was more efficient and enjoyable?

Different parts of the process moved along at various speeds and ease. But both were equally professional and well handled.

While reflecting on this I was consulting with a dealership on the pros and cons of having one person deal with the client from initial contact all the way through to delivery as a hybrid role, or, if it would be best to segment out the experience along the way with specialists handling different parts of the transaction.

BDC’s will commonly handle the initial inquiry by phone, email or website inquiry, moving the client along through the process until further information is required by someone regarding inventory, pricing or an appointment and then turn it over to a salesperson.

Or the salesperson will deal with the client from inquiry to delivery, interacting with the sales manager at times and having the finance and insurance requirements reviewed by a business manager.

Some dealerships prefer to have a delivery coordinator handle the delivery. And some dealerships turn it back to the salesperson to handle the physical delivery, while finance and insurance completes the paperwork with the client.

I’ve also worked in dealerships where the sales process is broken into two large chunks where the salesperson “lines” up the client only to the point of completing the demonstration drive, and then the client is turned over to someone else who “closes” the sale and who also moves into the role of finance and insurance to fully complete the transaction.

And for various reasons, a “one person, one desk and one office” sales philosophy is emerging where the client is always with only one “hybrid” person.

At this point I’m sure you’re saying to yourself “Thanks Sherlock. Marino, I’m well aware of all of this, what’s your point?”

My point is this, having been in hundreds of dealerships, dozens of dealer groups and every brand on different continents, what matters most is the client experience.

And the client experience is determined by where your skills, process and attitude CONSISTENTLY meet.

In a sales transaction it is absolutely crucial that the customer is moved along in a smooth and professional way, with the goal of great customer service to always provide high quality information in a truthful and timely way.

A drastic example would be to compare how you feel when you are on Amazon’s website versus trying to navigate a government website.

Our perception of the customer journey is often very different than what the customer is experiencing along that journey themselves.

I have seen many changes in my decades in this business, and we are definitely moving through some extremely large changes in terms of product technology and consumer psychology.

Expertise and empathy for what’s happening on both sides of the transaction is absolutely crucial.

And then we get into the areas of practicality regarding hiring, training, compensation, shifts, profitability, complexity, efficiencies and time.

I have seen so many different things work. So what is the real differences that make the differences with this sort of thing?

It’s vision, leadership, strategy, management, commitment and daily execution that drives it.

So if you are considering changing how your sales process runs, who knows what, who does what, and how things are played out deal by deal and day to day, the number one thing to consider is how serious everyone is to making things “perfect”. And perfect really is the goal. If you just start out trying to make things better, you’ll end up just making things different.

Behavior never lies. And neither does data.

It’s very difficult to improve what you do not honestly measure and manage.

So before you make any changes, minor or major, reflect on how serious you are to making things perfect for your client and your team.

You want everyone who buys from you and works with you to say it was the best decision they ever made.

Accept no less.