Qualifying for your bonus is darn hard, right?!
If you are a sales team leader, achieving your monthly sales and profit
targets and qualifying for your bonus is darn hard, right?!
Reality check - Your customer
does not respond anymore to the advertising month end push.
Why? Because we
have educated them that it really doesn’t matter. They know the deal doesn’t
change whether it is the first of the month or the end of the month.
The factory
intervention in the RETAIL sales game has changed things. Zero interest rates,
huge factory cash rebates, go on and on and on and...... The incredible Internet information available
to your potential clients has reduced per vehicle profits because of transactional pricing. It is affecting your bottom-line, isn’t it?. It doesn’t have to be this way. You can sell more value-priced vehicles for a
fair and required profit. The problem is your sales consultants are not in
control of the sales process any more. It
is a fact. Your customers don't buy
cars the way your salespeople have been trained to sell them.
Fact - Your customers are more prepared to buy than your
salespeople are prepared to sell
Your
customers don’t show up until they are ready to do business. They arrive
focused on the latest program, your best incentive available but they don’t
have to come to your store to get this information, do they? They don’t need to come to your dealership
and go through the ‘sales’ presentation to discover the price, their payments,
downpayment their credit worthiness, approximate trade value and payout. They have already got this information.
The rules of the game have changed when
it comes to selling automobiles at your dealership today! Has it occurred to you that maybe "the old
basics" don't work anymore with the internet savvy buyer?
YOU
BET!! Your present customer is very different from what he/she was in the '60s
through the '90s. Selling approaches
that you and your sales team take for granted aren't working in 2012.
THE OLD BASICS AREN'T WORKING! So....Quit using them.
Here
is only one example.
\ Most
sales managers and most sales trainers still insist on the so-called basic 'meet and greet' for every
showroom walk-in. The old ideal was —meeting all prospects with a warm,
friendly smile, a warm, friendly greeting ,then take them to your warm,
friendly desk to counsel with them.
But,
this theory is fatally flawed for
many prospects coming to your showroom today. It would work, of course,
if all your customers were not
internet savvy, Mr. Nice Guys— warm, friendly, cuddly customers who are
delighted to meet your salesperson and can't wait for his/her highly
stimulating presentation.
Reality is—today, 85 % of your prospects
do not fit the classic 'meet and greet' model your salespeople have been
trained to use!
Most of your customers are graduates from the New
‘Internet Buyer’s School’.
These
people are 'in your face' type buyers. I call them the ' Don Cherry School of Buyer' .
"Rock' em, sock' em, take the salesperson to the boards quick,"
technique. They take control quickly. They open the conversation on price!
The
first thing these buyers say to your calm, pleasant, go-by-the book salesperson
is, "Do you work here? I' m
in a hurry and I just want your best price." Or the price
shopper, whose opening greeting is, "What' s
your ' best price' on that blue Wombat over there? If your
price is right, I' ll be-back."
Most
of your salespeople fail the grade when they are tested by these buyers. They don' t know
how to handle this ‘aggressive’ customer. They misread his aggressive
words and attitude as if he or she were not a buyer! Most often that is
just not true.
There
are good reasons why buyers show up at your doorstep and display aggressive
behaviour.
Buyers
are educated through the Internet, consumer reports and magazines, dealer
advertising, after hours visits. They don’t need or want a classic
interview at your sales consultant’s desk. They don’t need your bumper to
bumper ‘walk-a-round’ presentation the way you always have done. Move on. Most of your customers are impatient with this
process.
Bottom-line
If
you are depending on old sales ideas and factory training, you are not
competing well today. And it costs you and your salespeople. Too
many real buyers get walked, too many deals are a much lower profit than need
be, too many low commissions to make an honest living therefore too many
salespeople quit our business as a result.
Sales people need to be skilled, flexible
and professional in their sales process today. Or they fail. The
question then needs to be asked, "How prepared are your sales
consultants to handle your real life, honest to goodness 2012 customers?"
YOUR customers
could be/are dissatisfied with the buying process at your dealership in 2012. Let me help you deliver a better buying experience than your
competition. Let me work with you to provide a sales process that
is up to date with your customer’s preferred buying style. It will make you
more sales, more referral sales from satisfied clients and more repeat
business.
Soon you could look forward to the month end with
champagne in hand.
Great
Success, Dave.
