This episode has been requested by one of our loyal listeners. His sales team were struggling to meet and greet customers that walk in, as so many initial contacts are made digitally or over the phone.
Simon explains that we should treat meeting a customer like an interview. They are interviewing you to be their sales person. Now, that’s a scary thought!
We then explore some straight forward techniques that can help get over the initial barriers and start a conversation.
It’s important to be yourself, and introduce yourself to everyone in the buying party.
Here are the highlights:
{01:48} Remember your interview conduct
{03:17} Starting a conversation
{07:34} Introduce yourself within a few minutes
{09:26} The used car meanderer
{11:18} When you can smell ‘just looking’
{17:28} Introduce yourself to everyone
About Symco Training:
Symco Training was founded in 2000 by Simon Bowkett and it was his belief that the business had to offer its clients something different. That difference was clear to Simon from his days in the dealership when he experienced many sales trainers who had all the answers, but were unable, unwilling or both to actually show the delegate how they could be implemented. It remains the ethos of the business today. You see, Symco only employ trainers that are committed to delivering not only inspiring and insightful training, but are equally as happy to demonstrate these skills and techniques with real customers in your own showroom. We believe in order for sales training to be effective and in Simon’s words ‘real world’, it needs to be tried and tested in the only place it matters the showroom floor. There is no room for theory when your goals are for your team to sell more cars, hours or parts and retain more profit. In dealerships around the world the focus applied by many of the sales executives is to try and sell a deal. Symco specialise in getting your teams to focus on selling themselves, the product and then supporting this with the deal.
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Time, welcome to the Selling and the Motor Trade podcast in Association of Car Without. The online car-changing destination. Together we share tips and ideas on how to sell more cars, improve your service department, and generally put more profit into your department, dealership or dealer group. I'm your host, Simon Bowkett, or some of you might already know me as Skippy. Firstly, I just want to say thank you for taking the time to listen to this podcast. Hi, welcome to another episode of Selling and the Motor Trade. We have a request this time. So often we talk about negotiation and closing and on these educational episodes. And I've had a request to talk about good old-fashioned meeting and greeting a customer.
I said, go on, why? And Andy, the guy's name was, said, well, actually, it's one of the bits that I'm struggling with my sales team on, because everything is email nowadays or phone calls. When someone actually walks in, are they still doing things the right way? I said, OK, that makes sense. I still think it's always been part of a process because reality, you meet and greetings physically or digitally or over the phone, there's lots of things you're still going to be doing anyway. But let's have a look at when someone walks into a showroom. And more importantly, some of the objections you get at that meet and greet stage. So firstly, I'm not going to talk about presentation, retails in the detail.
I still believe the best advice is what David Martin talked about on this podcast. He said for a brand new sounds people, if you want to know what your presentation should be like when you go and speak through a customer physically, just think about your interview. When you turned up via interview, did you make sure you had your best suit on? Of course you did. Was the shirt ironed? Yes, it was. Was the shoes nice and polished? Were you attentive to everything the interviewer asked? Did you laugh at their little jokes that weren't that funny? Of course you did. Did you pay attention to the person? Really simple. Always remember that the customer is interviewing you to see if they want you to be their salesperson.
Coffee drinkers, I'm a coffee drinker. Make sure you get some gum in your mouth afterwards, get the smell of coffee, breath off you. Just make sure retails in the detail. Again, someone walks into the dealership. Are you going to turn around and say good morning, good afternoon. You threw to Simcoe Audi. How can it help you? Do you might walk out with a handshake out there and go straight out to shake the customer's hands? If that's what you've been asked to do, fine. I'm not going to knock it. I will say there's different cultures around the world. Whilst that might work very well in Miami, I've got to say sometimes I find it struggles in Cook Island.
What I want to do is I want to start a bit of a conversation and start with. The first one, customer walk in, I might say good morning, good afternoon. What brings you here today? First one, what brings you here today? I'm the first to admit that sometimes customers might say, oh, it's actually my Q5. Is that really a problem though? No, of course it's not. Hey, what are you looking to replace your Q5 with? Something bigger or smaller? Good morning, good afternoon. What brings you here today? Now, do me a favor. Never get hung up on my words. I'm a foreigner to lots of you people in the UK and Ireland and Canada. In Australia, you might even say, hold on.
That sounds cheesy for me as well. Now, I'm a Queenslander. Maybe us Queenslanders do different things to people down in Victoria. But with that one, if don't get hung up on the actual word, it's the idea behind it is more important than the word. Good morning, good afternoon. Oh, what brings you here today? Oh, I want to go and have a look at a, I don't know whatever the car is. It's a, we'll stick to that out here. It's an Audi Q5. Great. There's three or four different models out of Q5. Which one are you being researching online? I just love that phrase. There's three or four different models of Q5. Which one you've been researching online?
Ah, it's the S-line model. How great was about the S-line model that put it on your shopping list? Or what was about the S-line model that caught your attention? Well, what was it specifically about that S-line model that caught your attention? Or caught your eye maybe? Okay. Now, don't get hung up with shopping list if that's too cheesy for you. But maybe try it before you dismiss it. Because you can find out what's selling a customer's done to themselves before they've actually got you. So again, with that one, good morning, good afternoon. Oh, what brings you here today? Oh, one look at the Audi Q5. Great. There's three or four different models of Q5. And which one you've been researching online?
Okay. Now, if you get the odd customer who's not been researching online, okay, then you can go through the whole range. Well, here's the SE model, which is what we have actually called the poverty pack model. Here's the working class model. Here's a full bling bling model. Whatever it is in your range there. Okay. But like I said, they're probably few and far between. But if they turn around and say, I had the SE model, the TLS, okay, the GTS. All right, great. What's about the GTS model that caught your attention? Hey, what's about the GTS model that put it on your shopping list? And let them tell you that. Ah, well, with the GTS model, I still got the performance I really wanted, but it's a little bit more comfortable because I want to do a trip to the Alps in this car.
And I wanted something a little bit more comfortable for the motorway journeys, but still something fun when I get there. Again, with that, who's selling to who? They're selling to themselves, okay. Now, if someone says, it wasn't specifically about that particular model put on your shopping list, okay? Oh, I like the idea of it's got the panoramic roof on it, the adaptive cruise control, the active lane departure warning system, whatever function they mention, gently take it away from them. Okay, so if they say they really wanted the adaptive cruise control, don't you say, well, great. Well, it has got the adaptive cruise control. If you know that car's got it, gently take it away from them.
Well, the adaptive cruise control, why is that so important to you? Is that something you must have? And let the customer start selling it for themselves. Oh, I got out the adaptive cruise control simply because I'm traveling to London all the time with work and there's too much traffic on the motorway over here. And without the adaptive cruise, it's on and off, on and off. Oh, no, no, no, I've got to have that. Again, who's selling to? They're selling to themselves. Has there something you haven't got in your car that you'd like in the UK? Yeah, I really want the panoramic roof. Okay. Really? Why is that some book? Is that something you must have?
Oh, I really want the panoramic roof on it because I grew up in Australia and it's a hot country. And you know what? In the middle of winter, living in the UK on the odd day, we have a bit of sunshine. I wanted to come into the car and remind me of home. That's where your customer's selling to themselves. So the first one is, hey, listen, what was about that car that put it on your shopping list? Okay. Now, within a minute, I am still going to say, oh, I'm sorry. I didn't introduce myself. I'm Simon and you are. So don't get wrong. Of course, I'm going to introduce myself. And I'm going to find out everyone in the buying party.
I personally just won't lead with it. Okay. I do that within a minute. Here's how I like to look at it. Let's say you're on a holiday. You're on a beach in Spain somewhere at Gran Canaria and you're on the beach. Okay. And some people pull up beside you there and they put the beach sale down or whatever. Are you going to turn around and say, hey, how are you? I'm Simon. This is my wife, Emma. And two boys, James and Sean. And what's your name? I'm like a freak. Leave us alone. Doesn't start with some small talk first sometimes. Maybe your son or daughter kicked the ball over to where they are. Sorry about that.
This is James. Okay. As James come and say, hi to a little boy, blah, blah, blah. It's small talk first before you get into hi. How are you? There's like, hi, how are you today? Yeah. How long you here for? We're here for two weeks. Oh, we just got a week to go. Where you staying? Oh, we're staying at Village Cockroach down the road there or Villa Cockroach. And then it's a, oh, I'm sorry. This is Emma. And Simon, you are a billion, James, whatever. Okay. Start with small talk first. It's something that I would like. Now, don't take it the wrong way. If the customer's already gone to reception, and the reception said, this is Mr.
and Mrs. Casey, of course you're going to come out and say, hi, Mr. Casey, I'm Simon and you are Mrs. Casey, because someone's introduced you to these people. But if you haven't, I personally just don't go straight for the handshake and the names I start with. Okay. So listen, that's one group we might look at. Here's another one. I stole this from a guy called Mike Thompson. And Mike likes to use this for the used car, meandra. This is people walking around the used car forecourt or the pitch where whatever country you are in. Okay. And when you walk up to those people, Michael just say, good morning, good afternoon. Have you found what you're looking for?
What are the answers? Yes. Oh, no. Now, if you say, yes, I have great, which one could you I? That's this lovely Q5 here. Great. What's about that Q5 that put it on your shopping list? Or what was about that Q5 that caught your attention? Or what was about that particular Q5 that caught your eye? Oh, I just like the idea that this one's got the XYZ on it. Okay. The active lane departure warning system. Gently take it away from them. All right. So the active lane departure warning system is that something that somebody is that something you must have? Oh, we've got to have the active lane departure warning system. We hired a car recently in Florida and had it on it.
And thank goodness it did because I got distracted looking for the theme parks. And I looked up because the car started staring back in the middle of the lane. Thank goodness it did because it's a big truck right beside me. I said to my wife, didn't I? Thank goodness it got that on. Otherwise, we wouldn't be here. Who's selling to who now? The customers are selling to them cells. Now, if you say, have you found what you're looking for? And the customer says, no, I haven't. Naturally, you're going to say something along the lines of, hey, what are you looking for? I'm looking for a Q5. Great. There's three or four different models of Q5.
Which one you've been researching online? That's the S line model. Great. What's about the S line model that put it on your shopping list? There's two meet and greets you might want to try. Okay. First one, have you found what you're looking for? Next one, what brings you here today? But here's one I love for someone that you can smell is a just looking customer. Now, what I mean by that, you know this one, they have their hands deep in the pockets, the boundary rise. They walk right around the dealership as far away as possible. When you walk over from, they say something like here it comes. Here comes a car salesperson. Before you walk up to them, the hand comes out and they go, just looking, just started the process.
First place we've been. Okay. With those people, you know, no matter what you say, they're probably going to say, I'm just looking. So what you might want to do is nip that reaction in the bud before they actually say it. Okay. Something along the lines of when you get not too close to the people, about sort of three meters away, maybe even four meters. As you walk them up to them, you might turn around, stick your hands up in the surrender format for the people listening for this and say, other than just having a good look around, what car? Can I get you some details on why you're here today? So other than just having a good look around, how else can I help you why you're here today?
Other than just having a good look around, what car can I open up for you? What car can I get you some more information on? Now, if that one there, okay, knows how you're almost saying, I know you're just looking to start with, I like that one. Other than just having a good look around, just let you know, okay, other than just having a good look around, what car can I get you some information on? Okay. Or what car could you like? Hey, what car can I open up for you? Not is there a car I can open up? Can I get you some information? So you've got three meet and greets we've done there.
Okay. Oh, then you've got what I've actually called a Joe Beckett. Now, as the sales manager, Miss and Dillorship and Hi, Wickham, and Joe Beckett used to do this all the time. He'd acknowledge people within the first minute. He'd walk past him a thousand miles an hour and say, Oh, sorry, just with you, be with you in a second there, and you go and get a brochure, super guard brochure or something like that, and put it on a car, and walk back and then say, Oh, I'm sorry, which is really busy here at the moment. How can I help? Okay. So that's the Joe Beckett. He'd almost acknowledge them. Okay, walk and pass them a thousand miles an hour.
Now, that's what some of you are thinking at this stage might be, well, can you not just say, can I help you? How can I help you? Is someone looking after you? Are you okay there? You know, all those things you've heard in Dillorship all the time. And as fact, it's probably what you heard your colleagues doing. I always like to be different to what every other car salesperson does, or whatever other car salesperson says. The reason why I like to do that, what's our average customer think of car salespeople still in 2024? Now, of course, it's getting better all the time, but isn't there still that image that, Oh, I don't know if I can trust the car salesperson.
Okay, I don't know if I'm going to get the right information from the car salesperson that's still out there sometimes. So actually, if you do whatever the car salesperson does, you might just reinforce the stereotype that the customer has in their head. So again, a boy saying, can I help you? In fact, think about every other retail environment. If you went into curries or Harvey Norman or John Lewis, one of these retailers and little boy, little girl comes over and says, can I help you? How often we say, no, and just looking? No, no, no, we're just looking. If you go out and say to a customer, can I help you? No, I'm just looking.
Now, some of you now are saying, Oh, yes, you shouldn't say that because it's a closed question. Okay, can I help you? No, it's a yes or no. And you'd be right doing that. So some people say, Oh, change around to say, how can I help you? Even that I still find lots of people say, Oh, no, no, I'm just looking. It's almost a predictable response. In fact, has you done the same thing I've done? I remember a couple of years ago, I was trying to buy a new laptop. I went into Chester, Curries. It's a big superstar that's got lots of different laptops, all under one roof. Little guy come over to me very quickly and said, can I help you?
I said, no, I'm just looking. It was just a knee jerk reaction. It was a predictable response. He left turn those heels. One of my let me look. But then I spent the next 20 minutes, half now trying to find someone to help me. Okay. So be careful that predictable response. I'd have always say, can I help you? How can I help you? Okay, is someone looking after you? It's still going to be a yes or no. But more importantly, it's what every other car salesperson does. Listen, what we'll do is we're going to talk about the future and another one of these episodes, okay, about the objections at the meet and greet stage. So objections you tend to get is, I'm just looking, or what's my car worth within the first two minutes, or what's your best price on that car?
And what we need to do is slow those people down. Now objections is probably the wrong word there, but we need to slow those people down to get into our process. And we're going to talk about certainly agenda and how we can slow that customer down to get back into the three sales and any sale. Never forget, we talk about this all the time on the podcast. Have to sell yourself first, the product second, and then the deal. They're the three sales and any sale. So listen, I hope that gives you some ideas. And that's for you, Andy, okay, on the meet and greet stage. Okay, three simple ones. I want you guys to try.
What brings you here today? Or have you found what you're looking for? Or for the one that you can smell is the just looking customer. Hey, other than just having a good look around, what car can get you some information while you're here today? Oh, by the way, before I finish this off, though, make sure please that you introduce yourself to everyone in the buying party, husband and wife, okay, father and son, business partner, business partner, okay, too often I still see this in 2024. We'll go out and we'll shake as a man, the man's hand. And I see this weird nodding sort of situation at the wife. Hold on. If you shake the man, the husband's hand, shake the wife's hand as well.
In fact, shake everyone's hand in the buying party. Even if someone turns up with that stinking, manging muck of a dog, you might not be a dog lover, but a heartbeat, make a fuss over the dog. Because if they've turned up with that dog, isn't it part of the buying process? Of course it is. Oh, in fact, another one you've got to be careful at the meet and greet is Eddie. That's Eddie expert. Now Eddie expert is the 25 year old guy's bought his mate along. And his mate is Eddie expert. You've got to be so careful of Eddie expert because he's driven by an emotion. So often that emotion is one of jealousy. He's mates getting a lovely new car and he's driven by jealousy.
He wants to make sure that he's getting the best deal for his mate or he'll throw his weight around that. Oh, no, no, no. Listen, with this car here, you should be able to get 30% discount on it. I'll listen with the API should be minus 5% APR at the moment on that finance rate or something silly. Don't you love the Eddie expert turns up when electric vehicles were fresh to the market. And then experts open up the bonnet having a look at whatever he has no idea what he's looking at. Okay, but that's Eddie expert. Be careful of Eddie because if you make Eddie look silly, erect the deal on you. So make sure you introduce it after every single person at that meet and greet stage.
And you know what? The meet and greet stage is just where you're selling yourself. Remember the three sales and any sale. So yourself first, the product second, and then the deal. In a future episode, let's talk about some of the objections that you might get at that meet and greet stage. Anyway, that about does look for now. Thanks again for taking the time to listen to the podcast. That just leaves me to say that all details of this episode and other episodes on the selling in the motor trade can be found on our website simcotraining.co.uk. Go there to get a copy of our book, Words That Sell Cars. Go there to sign up to a free trial of our sales fitness online sales training program.
Easiest way to get hold of me is Simon Bowkett, who linked in. Thank you.
