Opportunity #1 – Bring your own business
To be successful for a long period of time you must create lead generation marketing. Lead generation equals dollar creation. Many dealerships are not effective at advertising and marketing. If you wait for your dealership to provide your leads and you blame them for poor results you are playing the blame game and sealing your fate. Sales tip – Ask yourself this question, “Who does business with whom I want to do business with?” Utilize the relationships and good will that is already built up by others and have them introduce you to their customers. Offer a strong inducement that rewards not only the customer but also the introducing party. Write down every possible way you can potentially bring business. Keep expanding this “wheel of business” and deepen each way as well. Begin a 10,10,10,10 program. If you make 10 calls, send 10 emails and or texts, send 10 letters, 10 postcards and talk to 10 people a day, it is almost impossible not to sell 15 cars a month. These numbers are minimum. You can do much more.
Opportunity #2 – Maximize every opportunity
Salespeople often look for ways to eliminate rather than create customers. It’s easy to get into bad habits of disqualifying every potential customer. If every customer was perfect, the business would not need you. Dealerships would have order takers – It’s called sales.
Sales Tip – Ask yourself how you can, rather than how you can’t. Be a matcher not a mis-matcher. Find what adds up to a sell instead of focusing on finding the one thing that does not and then finding a way to get rid of the opportunity. Practice what I call, “commitment and consistency” in the sales process. Ask simple, easy- -to-answer questions of the customer in the beginning. Build a foundation first. Too many salespeople violate this by wanting to get to money questions or buying questions too fast. Deeper questions asked too fast, do not allow time to build commitments and consistency in the process or relationship. When you do this, it’s like you are practicing speed dating.
Opportunity #3 – Utilize your CRM and follow up system to create repeats and referrals
Most salespeople churn and burn. The salesperson sells a customer and moves to the next for a living. Taking a little extra time and effort and designing a unique and personal follow up system will increase your business exponentially. You will build a business within a business. Your customer base is the single business asset you will ever own including bricks and mortar. Sales Tip – Make your follow-up personal. Use multiple media (Letters, postcards, text, email, phone calls, in person visits, emails, video email, email and snail mail newsletters). Think of making every opportunity pay you many times instead of once. When you sell a customer, utilize a delivery sheet. On this sheet, ask for information such as, all the vehicles in the household, all the drivers in the household, birthdays, anniversaries and to whom you might sell their trade-in. Say to the customer, “When you buy today, two things happen. One is great and the other is not so good. One is, I gain you as a customer but two is, I lose my best prospect. Because I live by repeats and referrals, I need your help. I need a referral. Out of your friends, family, neighbors or co-workers, who would be the most likely to buy a vehicle in the next six months?”
Opportunity #4 – Create better positioning and leverage
Don’t be a beggar– If you do not have a marketing system and a follow-up system and you also have a traditional sales approach, you will be a beggar. Leverage, power and position are powerful in sales. If a customer is referred to you, or if the customer asks for you because of your marketing, or if your sales approach has a unique tone, or a take-a-way value to it, you will close sales at a much higher rate. Positioning tip #1 – As mentioned in Opportunity #2, get referrals and repeats. You not only will increase your sales opportunities, but you will change the relationship dynamic. You will close at a much higher percentage and make better money because of better positioning. Always strive to be in a position of expertise and not that of a beggar. You will sell more as a trusted source than as a salesperson with zero positioning before meeting the customer. Positioning influences your influence and sales is all about the ability to influence. Positioning tip #2 – Find the customer’s keywords and dominant buying motives. Find out what will make them take action and move only towards those factors. Don’t be afraid to ask the benefit-driven questions. Do not utilize what I call a “Spray and Pray Method of Sales.” Customers are not driven to buy because of 50 factors. There are often one or two things that provide the necessary leverage for the sale. Discover the leverage point by asking pointed questions such as, “What is the most important thing to you in buying a vehicle?” Positioning tip #3 – Look for buying patterns. The trade-in is the window to the customer’s soul. Discover how they bought their last vehicle, repeat the pattern and add “HFG – Hope for Gain.” Nobody buys anything without believing it will improve their situation. Customers also tend to follow certain buying patterns. People follow what is called “The Law of Familiarity.” In other words, people tend to do what they have done in the past because it makes them comfortable. Just repeat what has made them comfortable in their buying patterns for the past and add in the HFG. Now, you have a winning formula. “Big doors swing on small hinges.” Slight changes can make a very big impact on your sales. Implement changes in these four areas of opportunities and you will increase your productivity and sales. Sales is a fantastic career because every single day you have unlimited opportunities. You can only be limited by your mindset, actions or approach. Start on the path to becoming unlimited by making these opportunities work for you.
