“It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not.” ~ Author Unknown
I’d like to start out with a story that maybe some of us in the automotive industry can relate to. This deals with the number one obstacle of the sale. You! The demo is completed, they love the car, they love you, they love the ease of everything so far and now it has come to this. Your so-called friend now sits across from you and tells you that they will take delivery of their new vehicle if the numbers are right. The customer is sold and wants to drive the car home today. You are pumped up; full of confidence and the adrenaline begins to flow through your body. You go to the desk and you tell the GSM where they need to be in order for you to seal the deal. You explain everything word for word and as you are talking the GSM begins to pencil you the numbers. It’s as if he’s not even listening. You feel like Charlie Brown’s parents, “WAH WAH WAH WAH WAH WAH!” It’s like everything you say doesn’t even matter. You look down at the up sheet to see if you’re in the ballpark and you notice that the number is way higher than where the customer wants to be. Not only are you not in the ballpark, but you’re not even in the same state. You than see that the customers trade that was explained to be a gem has 2 car accidents on the Carfax and is coming in thousands less than what they want for it. The GSM finishes writing the numbers, turns the paper to you and slowly slides the up sheet back into your hands and with a smile softly says, “let’s make this deal!” You think, “Ok I will if you’d just do the customers numbers!”
By this point your heart is racing, you have fallen into a deep black hole and feel like you are miles apart from where the customer is and where the desk wants to be. Your confidence doesn’t slowly disappear, but it has been shattered, blown up and destroyed. You put your head into your hands, look at the paper and start to try and close the desk on where the customer wants to be. You think, “Maybe he didn’t hear me so I’ll explain it again.” You finally come to grips with the fact that the desk is not budging so you peek over your shoulder to see what your customers are doing. As you look they see you look their way and smile at you as if you’re gonna come back and not only give them what they asked for on their trade but exceed that and give them a thousand more than they asked. You look back at the paper huff and blow out a deep breath. You get up, grab your paper, look at the GSM as if he’s the devil himself and with your head down looking at the paper, dragging your feet, in total disbelief and defeat you begin to walk back towards your customer. You sit down and as you’re shaking your head back and forth you say, “ Well, I have bad news. I’m so sorry to say that I CAN’T BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!”
Don’t Lose Confidence in Yourself
As exaggerated as this story is I believe it speaks to us in one way or another. The point of this entire case study is that if you lose confidence in yourself to close the sale you’ll never close the sale. We are the number one obstacles that obstruct the path of buyers saying yes and driving home in their new vehicles. When we lose the confidence in our-selves to present the customer the numbers that we are given, the customer can pick up on that and pull back their confidence to say yes. When you are confident in your presentation, demo, walk around, product and competitive knowledge your customer feeds off of that. The more confidence you display the more confident they will feel in making a major decision to purchase. A lot of your success in closing is dependent on your ability to empower your customers with the confidence they need to make a decision. How you speak, how you stand, the body language you show, the inflections and tone of your voice all have to do with the success and failure of instilling confidence into your customer. It begins with you. Be confident in your ability to sell, present numbers, deflect stalls and overcome objections in the sale. Practice your transition points of one word to the next. The more fluent and articulate you are with your words the more at ease people feel. The more you stumble, sigh, and trip through your words the more hesitant people feel. Your words and how you say your words are your tools that you use to be successful in what you do. We should take the time to practice using these tools.
“Whether you think you can or think you can't - you are right.” ~ Henry Ford
Always Think You Can
An unknown author said, “Success comes in cans, not cant's.” That is so true. Think you can close every deal. Think you can overcome every objection. Think you can be salesman of the month every month. Think you can be more productive than you’ve ever been. Think you can do the impossible and you will. Think you can reach your goals and you will. The ones who say they can’t usually end up getting passed up by the ones who think they can and just did. It’s more than just thinking you can in your mind but also in your heart. Your heart is the core of your being. It is the center of your-self. As a mirror reflects your face so your heart reflects back to you your true self-image.
Proverbs 23:7 (Amplified Bible) For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.
Whatever you think you are in your heart that is what will eventually come out in your character and words. Allow your heart felt thoughts to help govern your actions and words. The more confident you are in your ability to believe that you can be successful and achieve outstanding accomplishments the more you will begin to experience what you already thought you can do.
Think big! Think success! Think on good things! Think on things that instill a positive outcome!
"Before you change your thinking, you have to change what goes into your mind."
Zig Ziglar
