I'm relatively new to the car business. There are certainly a lot of situations that are new to me and so much to learn about the pretty much every aspect of my job. Despite all of that, I have found that my inexperience is one of my biggest assets. Confused yet? Let me explain.
It is because of my inexperience that I am willing to take more risks and try more new ideas than my peers. I have no idea “how we've always done it”, so I am not limited in my beliefs. If I see a new approach to helping a customer solve their problem, or a process that can be improved upon, I don't have any old habits that keep me from taking that first step and trying something different. To me, it's all different.
My inexperience also allows me to make mistakes without fear. Hey, I'm the new guy...I'm supposed to make mistakes. That's how you learn. I have found that this allows me to move forward with my day without worrying about the optimum course of action. I don't have the paralysis that comes with knowing exactly how things should work and being afraid they won't work out that way. I do the best I can with whats in front of me every day, take the best actions that I can and learn from the results.
Speaking of learning, being inexperienced keeps me teachable. To my mind this is such a gift that every new, inexperienced person in any field gets. When you first begin learning a skill your mind is completely open. You don't know very much about what you're learning so you absorb as much as you can. It's only the voice of experience that tells you to say “Oh yeah, I know that already, I don't need to pay attention to that.”
I say that I'm relatively new to the business, but in reality, I've been selling cars for almost a year. I've been selling something for my entire adult life. Despite that, I keep myself in this inexperienced frame of mind because I believe it keeps me unafraid and teachable. When I remain teachable, my peers and mentors can help make me better today than I was yesterday. More importantly, when I remain teachable, my customers can teach me how to best help them. This changes our relationship into something much more personal and effective then the same old “Hi, can I help you, if I could, would you” junk that everyone else does.
Embrace the part of you that is entirely inexperienced. Try working today as if it is your very first day all over again. I think you might be surprised the insight you gain into your work habits and how you relate to your customer. You might even reclaim some of that beginners luck we all start with.
No matter what, have fun.
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