Keyes Hyundai dealership finds success hiring salespeople from non-automotive backgrounds

The new hires typically start in sales and go through a month’s worth of training. The first two weeks happen in a classroom setting using a training manual developed by Grant and Lowry. Trainees then shadow a veteran sales rep for two weeks.

Two outside hires have been promoted to the store’s finance department, and another was promoted to a sales manager role, Grant said.

Given the training, the outsider strategy does take longer than hiring experienced sales reps, Grant said, but he’s OK with that.

“You can go out, hire a bunch of veterans, if you can hire them, and maybe they will perform better in the first 30 or 60 days,” Grant said. “But when you raise your own sales staff and team, they seem to bond. And sooner or later, they’re going to take over and be a lot better than those veterans.”