Every place I travel I keep getting asked the same question, “What is your best tip in Sales?”. There is one great answer, STOP SELLING.
I encourage all my graduates to give their new title as Sales and Service Liaison at ……
If you surveyed all your clients entering the Dealership and asked them to choose one of these two:
A) I want to be Sold a car.
B) I want to be assisted with my needs.
Any guesses on the answers? Of course, everyone is going to pick B. We have to trust our prospective clients to choose us, not rely on aggressiveness to force a decision. This puts a higher burden on our staff to exceed expectations, truly present real world value in our product, be there now and down the road for their clients, provide a clean maintained facility, and provide information in a straightforward manner.
Our staff have to stop worrying about whether or not they are selling a car right now, and focus on earning loyalty. It takes just a few minutes to drop a bored service client at the mall, no time to take the call from the guy that bought a car last year that wants to buy another set of floor mats, seconds out of our day to greet the folks wandering around at 9 in the morning like they are here to buy a car even though they may only be in for service.
Every kindness, each show of appreciation for every person in the facility is another step towards staying loyal to the Dealer in the buying cycle. Can all your Sales Staff look a prospective client in the eye and really say, “When you buy here, I will take care of you better than anyone else.”? When they can say it, mean it, and live it you start Serving
Comments
Excellent Post
Wonderful post that is full of wisdom. I have often said the same thing a different way --
Serve, don't sell! Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts
Thanks Sean and Ernie for the kudos! It is the simple things that tend to get us the big returns when we start to care about folks as people not a sale.
It is really no different then we would want for ourselves when we look to purchase a product or service. We need accurate information, we seek a fair price and expect service after the sell. At no point are we hoping for high pressure tactics or to be treated disrespectfully. Successful selling is well developed communication skills.
Great post!