Mind Readers in 2013
Many salespeople today are gambling on being mind readers of new clients coming into the dealership. For me, they do not need to visit Vegas on a holiday excursion, due to rolling the dice on handling these clients every day….
The mind reading part has been a tragic happening throughout my visits to dealerships in many states. The client or clients come into the store, have numbers from a competitor, and the sales consultant assumes they need to go right to the numbers instead of giving them the following:
- A world class presentation on the vehicle with setting themselves apart from any other sales consultant they had met
- Asking questions to engage the client during the walk around
- Insuring the client has a “Full Picture” of the benefits of this car due to their walk around
- Making sure the client regardless of other test drives, takes time to persuade the client to go on one with them
- Introduce the client to the service department after the test drive with introductions to other teammates in service building value in the entire dealership.
The Sales Consultant runs into the following comments from clients and takes the short cut instead. I believe this is more prevalent than ever before. The client is left to consider the salesperson’s value now only in the negotiation part after the greeting.
Recently, while with one of my clients, I asked the Accounting Department if any of them had a high school daughter or son who came by the dealership on a regular basis. One of the ladies said her daughter picks her up every day. I asked if I could work with her daughter on a project when she gets to the store, and would buy them dinner for her help.
I created a 4 square presentation just like what was given to each client and discussed how to present this to the lady’s 17 year old daughter a senior in high school. She picked up pretty well.
The GM called a meeting at 4:30 pm that day, and I introduced the young lady to the entire staff. We set up two chairs and a desk in front of the crowd and I asked her to present the 4 square presentation. Once she was done, I had the group clap to congratulate her efforts and one of the staff led her out the door.
Once she was gone, I challenged the team on what they were doing with clients and reminded them that if all they are going to do is present numbers, there are many high school seniors out there that could do the job fairly well. People are looking for a professional who does all the things a great salesperson should do……
On my continued journey to find a “Hero” in the dealership, I struggle with some of the things I am seeing & hearing. I anguish over each salesperson who tells me of their struggles, and how the ups are not there or the sales are a little slow this month. I think about what I tried to do to help them, and was there anything else I could have said or provided them tool wise to improve their professional life. The plane ride or car ride is a quick reprocess of why some things are happening to these great people who are putting in the hours in this very hard job.
In 2013, my hope is that salespeople will commit themselves to doing a presentation worthy of getting a client’s attention, and from that the salesperson builds on successfully giving the client something they did not have at the other dealerships they visited today………a professional salesperson……a “Hero” I can smile about while I am riding away.