Good morning busy automotive sales professionals…  Have you ever stopped to think why some advertisements work and yet the salespeople who see those resulting clients usually fail? There is a correlation worth examination.

When the factory advertises a vehicle, they usually display one with all the options (that’s even in the small print) but the advertised price or payment is from a vehicle without the options shown in the advert. It’s also the same when a dealer advertises as well but even worse. So keep this in-mind and I’ll get back to this in a moment.

Have you ever wondered why a brand new (greenpea) salesperson can out-sell an experienced & well trained veteran? Think about it for a second… The brand new salesperson has no idea what he/she is doing.  He or she is polite and hungry and probably just happy to have the job.  I’d like to take a moment and examine the effects of that “hopeful” attitude… Read more…

For Managers, For Salespeople, Sales Process attitude, automotive advertising, factory, hiring, sales training, salespeople

What have you done today?

When I visit dealerships to train new hires on techniques and software, I can tell that many of these dealerships could do so much better if they just did a few minutes of training everyday. Just yesterday, I was at a store with a new sales manager… I was there to get him up to speed on their desking software. He was using the “smile face sharpie” technique of desking deals.  Because he was new, I cut him some slack.   

After he finished an advertisement and other “busy” work, we finally sat down 2 hours after I arrived.  I don’t make this point to say my time is more important than his, but instead to illustrate that training wasn’t anywhere near the top of his list! As usual, he became very excited about this software and made the same comment everyone else does… Something about how much more money he would have made last month if I had arrived earlier.  No disrespect to that dealership, but if training were a key part of the store’s culture, said new manager would have been properly trained on day 1.  Not doing so cost them money. Read more…

For Salespeople daily, managers, sales training

With the economy getting better (sorry Toyota), it appears customers are still the same. They still just want a good deal! Who would blame them?  We would too if the roles were reversed.  In fact, you could say it’s the most natural part of every day in the dealership.

If it’s expected and a “natural” occurrence, why then do salespeople get all messed up when an aggressive customer asks about price, invoice, rate, trade-in values, down payment and monthly payments??

Perhaps it is that we all know if these questions are answered with a “number”, then it is very possible the number given may be too high.  However, if we ask what “number” they have in mind, we look like the same sleazy salesperson that caused them to walk out of the last dealership they visited, plus we have now mentally locked them in and only a very long negotiation process might be successful.  I said “might”.  It would have to depend on how you define the word “successful”. Read more…

For Salespeople, Sales Process best price, down payment, fender trading, monthly payment, numbers on the lot, salespeople, toyota

Call it book smart vs. street smart, theory vs. practice, analytical vs. creative thinking, or right brain vs. left brain… Testing or quizzing salespeople has always been an exercise in futility. Largely because the methods used to test and score a car salesperson share little in common with reality.

Salespeople don’t close real deals with essay or multiple-choice answers.  What looks great on paper, might not play well with a real customer.  Traditional testing can test a salesperson’s knowledge, but reveals little about how he or she will react, in certain situations, with real customers.  Testing may have its place, but roleplaying and practicing is the key to the automotive sales professional’s confidence and competence.  A comfortable and confident salesperson will put customers at ease and will sell more cars. Read more…

For Managers, For Salespeople automotive sales training, role play, roleplay, sales practice, sales training accountability, salespeople, salesperson testing