My first job immediately following college was a life and health insurance sales position with a major national brand. We sold solely through home visits with people in our assigned territory, and the premise was that people, especially the baby boomers we primarily worked with, did most of their personal business at the kitchen table and that that was the best place to get them to seriously discuss the financial side of subjects like future health problems and their mortality.
As automotive sales professionals, we are never going to get the chance to sit with a customer at their own kitchen table, but we have to bring that kind of feeling to our desk inside the dealership. Even if that means bring the scent of Fresh Baked Cookies to your desk. We have to understand that with the internet being such a big part of the buying process, customers are sitting down at their kitchen tables without us.
Today's average car shopper has more information than the average salesperson was 15 years ago, so the antiquated strategy of succeeding in sales by having more information than your customer is gone. Just because the customer HAS more information, however, does not mean they actually know what the information they have means. Our job is now to find out what the customer knows and help them in understand it in away that moves the deal a long. Here are a few ways I did just that during a recent sale.
A customer came in wanting to see a Chevrolet truck we had on our lot with 20-inch wheels with over-sized tires and a lift kit. It was not a truck he could find just anywhere, but it certainly wasn't one of a kind.
Because we are a Honda dealership, I knew he had not just stopped on our lot hoping to find a truck like this. One of my first strategies was to ask where he had seen the truck. By finding out he had seen the truck on Autotrader.com, I was immediately aware that he had likely seen other trucks similar to ours and surely some that were closer to his home, which was nearly 2 hours away.
There had to be something he liked about ours more than those others so I knew that I had some significant advantages when it came time to negotiate. My job, then, became to find out what those advantages are while also helping him to find a few other benefits during the demonstration and test drive of the vehicle.
The big advantages in the eyes of the customer were the truck's color (black) and its price.
By knowing the customer was partial to black, meaning he would probably pay more for it, I knew that the volume of the competition was probably cut down by at least 75% from an already small percentage of trucks with similar wheels, tires, and lift kit.
The customer's only objection after driving the truck was that the lift kit (a 6-inch lift) was higher than he was wanting and that he preferred a shorter one for a little better ride quality.
Because I had taken the time to find out where he had gotten his information about trucks (where my competition lived) and that price was an important factor in his coming to see ours, the close became very easy.
I simply got on Autotrader.com WITH THE CUSTOMER and we found that there was only one other truck in the color and equipment package he preferred with wheels and tires that he liked. That particular truck was priced nearly $1,400 higher than the one that I had to sell and after doing a little research we discovered that he could install a lower lift to our truck for less than the $1,400 difference in price.
TRUCK SOLD! It's that easy. Don't forget to find out what brought YOUR customer to YOUR dealership to look at YOUR inventory. Knowing those advantages that the customer created in their own mind before even meeting you can be great ammo when it is time to close.
As automotive sales professionals, we are never going to get the chance to sit with a customer at their own kitchen table, but we have to bring that kind of feeling to our desk inside the dealership. Even if that means bring the scent of Fresh Baked Cookies to your desk. We have to understand that with the internet being such a big part of the buying process, customers are sitting down at their kitchen tables without us.
Today's average car shopper has more information than the average salesperson was 15 years ago, so the antiquated strategy of succeeding in sales by having more information than your customer is gone. Just because the customer HAS more information, however, does not mean they actually know what the information they have means. Our job is now to find out what the customer knows and help them in understand it in away that moves the deal a long. Here are a few ways I did just that during a recent sale.
A customer came in wanting to see a Chevrolet truck we had on our lot with 20-inch wheels with over-sized tires and a lift kit. It was not a truck he could find just anywhere, but it certainly wasn't one of a kind.
Because we are a Honda dealership, I knew he had not just stopped on our lot hoping to find a truck like this. One of my first strategies was to ask where he had seen the truck. By finding out he had seen the truck on Autotrader.com, I was immediately aware that he had likely seen other trucks similar to ours and surely some that were closer to his home, which was nearly 2 hours away.
There had to be something he liked about ours more than those others so I knew that I had some significant advantages when it came time to negotiate. My job, then, became to find out what those advantages are while also helping him to find a few other benefits during the demonstration and test drive of the vehicle.
The big advantages in the eyes of the customer were the truck's color (black) and its price.
By knowing the customer was partial to black, meaning he would probably pay more for it, I knew that the volume of the competition was probably cut down by at least 75% from an already small percentage of trucks with similar wheels, tires, and lift kit.
The customer's only objection after driving the truck was that the lift kit (a 6-inch lift) was higher than he was wanting and that he preferred a shorter one for a little better ride quality.
Because I had taken the time to find out where he had gotten his information about trucks (where my competition lived) and that price was an important factor in his coming to see ours, the close became very easy.
I simply got on Autotrader.com WITH THE CUSTOMER and we found that there was only one other truck in the color and equipment package he preferred with wheels and tires that he liked. That particular truck was priced nearly $1,400 higher than the one that I had to sell and after doing a little research we discovered that he could install a lower lift to our truck for less than the $1,400 difference in price.
TRUCK SOLD! It's that easy. Don't forget to find out what brought YOUR customer to YOUR dealership to look at YOUR inventory. Knowing those advantages that the customer created in their own mind before even meeting you can be great ammo when it is time to close.