Be more effective with every opportunity
If a slow day produces one customer, the selling process has to be airtight. Gardner advises salespeople to audit their own work. Ask questions like “Are they getting stuck on price out on the lot, at the close or in negotiations? Do they need better tools for buying objections?” The bigger mistake, however, is pre-qualifying. He says that salespeople who size up a shopper by the trade-in and a few quick questions cut their own productivity, because eight out of 10 customers can and do buy, according to Joe Verde’s research. Those buyers purchase from you or from the direct competition.
"You're gonna put yourself in a position to do 20-plus a month regardless if it's super busy or if it's super slow."
What a shopper says on the lot also throws salespeople off. A customer who claims to be just looking can push a salesperson into shortcutting the steps that walk a buyer through the purchase. “What a customer says isn’t necessarily what they mean,” Gardner said.
Turn leads and calls into shows
Internet leads bring their own trap. A customer 60 miles away asks for a best price, the salesperson sends it, and the shopper uses that number to keep the local dealer honest. Gardner believes salespeople should lead the conversation instead, giving the customer compelling reasons to visit and working through objections about time and distance. The alternative is what he calls mind deals, activity that lives in a salesperson’s head and puts nothing on the board.
Price handling remains the biggest conversion gap on leads and phone-ups, a theme he has mentioned on a pervious CBT News interview.
Work your hot unsold prospects
The customer who just left without buying ranks above the internet lead, the phone-up and the fresh-up, Gardner said that shopper already spent 45 minutes to an hour at the store, often with a manager stopping by. Getting them back takes creativity and urgency, and the payoff, he said, is at least three to five extra sales a month per salesperson.
Additionally, the best customer is the one already in the CRM under a salesperson’s name, because that person knows who you are and where you work. Each will own 12 cars over a lifetime and has an average family of three, which makes every name a 36-car account. Orphan owners, people who have bought from your dealership but whose salesperson is no longer with you, count too, Gardner said. He pointed to a top 10 Chevrolet dealer his group works with that has more than 140,000 orphan owners after 50-plus years in business. Consistent marketing to that list changes who walks through the door.
The right mindset brings it all together
All four plays focus on mindset. Gardner recalled a quote often attributed to Henry Ford: whether you believe you can or can’t, you’re correct. He mentioned that if you think the day is slow, it likely will be. “If it’s slow … it doesn’t have to be slow for me,” Gardner said. Ultimately, Gardner believes that by approaching all four with this mindset, a slow floor won’t limit you. As he put it, “If it’s to be, it’s up to me.”
