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This might be a bit controversial but, in a way, servicing a car is free. Indeed, when someone first told me that I thought they must be mad. We’re here to make a profit after all, and part of that – a big part – comes from servicing. But think it through. If you had […]
Here’s an old one, but the message remains very relevant! Let’s go through some numbers. How many people a day do you speak to as a car salesperson? Two or three is about average, in which case you are probably speaking to between 700 and 1,000 prospects over the course of a year. Now let’s […]
Ask yourself a simple question. Who is doing all the talking at the start of the sales process? If it’s you, the chances are you are not getting to know the customer. You are probably spending too much time talking about the deal instead, which makes it much harder to open your customers up and […]
What do you do when you get into a stalemate with a customer? You’ve offered them a balance to change of, say, £8,000 but they are digging their heels in for £7,500 and you really don’t have anywhere else to go. Let’s take the new car customer first. Try this simple three-step process the next […]
In my experience, it’s at the handover. That’s often when the customer finds out for the first time about some of the amazing things the technology in their brand new car can do for them. Why aren’t we doing this earlier on in the sales process? In fact, it’s one of the biggest things I […]
How do you handle customers who tell you they want to go away and think about it but will be back? Experience suggests that they rarely come back, and that you have to do everything you can to close them on the day – including getting your sales manager out to second face the customer. […]
One of the UK’s largest retail automotive groups has tackled the issue of high turnover of sales staff with an innovative induction programme for new recruits. “If staff don’t develop in the first three months, they never will and we don’t want them” says John Clark Motor Group Whilst some franchised car dealers grapple with […]
Tips for service advisors: Service advisors can use the credibility of their technicians when trying to upsell a customer. Every year, Reader’s Digest publishes a Trust Survey. It ranks 45 different professions, in order of public opinion. In the last one I saw, No 1 was firefighters, followed by ambulance drivers and pilots. Car salespeople […]
Customers need to feel a sense of urgency before they decide to buy. Here’s an example of the power Urgency can bring to a situation: How much would you pay for a one-litre bottle of water? Less than £1? Well, imagine you’d been lost in the desert for several days and were dying of thirst. […]
Do you make sure you have enough time to manage the sales? I’m sure your dealership, dealer group or manufacturer will have given you a job description. But I actually think that your best job description is just what it says on your business card. Your job title is Sales Manager. That means you need […]