While the shortage of skilled diesel technicians in New Zealand is well reported, a leading industry insider has told DIESELtalk that a shortage of talented and skilled truck sales people may become the next issue.
John Keenan, general manager of Truck Investments Group which represents multiple truck brands, believes that the skills required to sell a truck are different to that of the car salesperson.
He tells DIESELtalk: “In truck and capital equipment sales, customers generally know their requirements so the primary requisite calls for good, honest, open and intelligent people who are happy to work diligently with customers and steer them through the configurations and sale process.”
For Keenan, the need to build and sustain long-term trust-based relationships is paramount. “Trucking is a straight-up and relatively small market where people know each other. Buyers tend to remember any sharp sales practices and repeat business is crucial.”
Many truck sales people have come from diesel mechanical backgrounds, auguring well for in-depth product knowledge, less so for the technical skills shortfall. “Knowledge of vehicles is always beneficial,” says Keenan, “but in truck sales, transparency and openness goes a long way.”
Keenan welcomes experience, maturity and a traditional hard-work ethic required to create a rewarding career in truck sales, but he voices concern that the average age of the truck sales person is getting older. “The industry needs to attract younger people to replace the older guys when they retire; and we don’t see them coming through in sufficient numbers at the present time.”
For many truck sales professionals, it is a highly rewarding career operating in a specialised area of the vehicle sales market, with highly informed customers, pre-qualified to some extent. Retail values are high and the opportunity exists to carve out a good income.
“We have a number of sales opportunities across the country which we want to fill, and while we address technical skills shortages through apprenticeship schemes and overseas recruitment, for example, on the sales side we should be mindful as an industry, of the need to develop new sales talent, moving forward” says Keenan.
