In the previous episode in our mini series on customer types we looked at the different customer types and the history behind it.
It really helps in the sales process if we can identify which one a customer is portraying. The first type we discuss today is the Lion.
This can also be helpful to sales managers too, when it comes to second closing and negotiation.
Here are the highlights:
{01:59} How to identify a lion
{04:27} Easy to sell to
{08:05} Be a lion tamer
{11:13} Closing
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 in spiring 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.
To find out more visit
www.symcotraining.co.uk
Welcome to the Selling in the Motor Trade Podcast, an association with Symco Training. This is the weekly podcast where we share best practice tips and ideas on how to sell more cards, improve your service department and generally put more profit into your dealership or dealer group. I'm your host, Simon Bowkett. As some of you probably worry, no me as skipping. I will start with saying thank you for taking the time to listen to this podcast. Hi and welcome back to another episode of Selling in the Motor Trade. First I go and say thank you again. We just keep on hitting milestone after milestone after milestone. And this series about mastering the four customer types has just got such good feedback. So again, if you're one of the people who have said that, we really do appreciate all your comments that you send through. So let's have a look at how to master the four different customer types. Now if you've just come into this episode, just go back to mastering the four customer types and it talks about the four main customer types and where it comes from, so I can make sure profiling, the history of it. That's probably a good place for your start because today we're just going to be talking about the Lions. So again, if you haven't watched our other one or listened to that one, this might not make much sense. But the Lions is the customer who comes straight in and it's a bit of a boy. Best prize what you can do right now. Some of the tests you've done in the past, they call them the Reds. It might be called the drivers on some of the tests you've done. If you don't discuss, it's the dominance. Now we haven't got time to give the customer computer program and say can you answer these 24 questions and tell us what you're most like and what you least like. So our salespeople need to identify what that customer is when they first come into the business. So let's start there with these Lions. Do they tend to walk fast or slow? You know what, most of the time it tends to be fast. Okay. However, it might be quite slow and pacing around, sizing up the whole place. Are they dressed sharp or sloppy? You know what, tends to be sharp. Okay. But not flashy. We'll leave that for the puppy dogs. Okay. This might be the lion. Okay. It might be the darker suits, the sharper suit. Okay. Not the lighter gray. Okay. Now, of course we've got to be careful on generalizing here. The Lions, do they tend to talk loud or soft? Are you right? Hence, be loud. They tend to be direct and to the point. Okay. The Lions, your secondary in the buying process to the Lions, if you say things like, hey, we're one of the biggest dealer groups in the area and we don't get that way without looking after people. The Lion might start thinking, I don't care what you've done for other people. What are you going to do for me? Okay. With a Lion, it tends to be direct to the point. Okay. Best price right now. Actually, this got nothing to do with money, but it's a mind set. If it comes down to a suit, the Lion might be the Savile Rose suit. No one else knows what it is, but they know it's the best money can buy. If it comes down to watches, they might want a very flash watch. Now the Lion, again, nothing to do with money. It's a mindset. Might want to buy a protect Philippe, a Brage, a Fishean Constantine, something that maybe someone else doesn't know what it is, but they know it's one of the three grand ladies or the four grand ladies of the Swiss watchmaking world, that AP, they know it's one of the best they can get. Because you see, the Lion is not trying to impress other people. Some of the other profiles here, the Lion tends to be trying to impress themselves. Not other people. Okay. It's not money. It's a mindset with the Lion. With the Lion there, are they quick or slow to make a decision? Well let me rephrase that. Easy or hard to sell to. You know what? The Lion, they might beat you up in the price. Okay. But once they made the decision, guess what? It's done. It's in place. It's there. I can think of two or three distinctive Lions I've dealt with in the motor trade. Okay. There's one particular person I often say to his dealer group, how long do you think I had a conversation with your boss before we agreed this training program? And they often say, oh I don't know, it was an hour and a half, an hour or something like that. Some people say 15 minutes. Okay. I said, no, no, it's probably about 45, maybe 48 seconds. Now listen, this person didn't know me from the past. Okay. But I started talking about, oh we're doing this with this group. We're doing that for this group. Straight away, this person said, I don't care what you've done with them. What are you going to do for me? Okay. Actually, I don't mind telling you. This person said, okay, we're going to do this, this, this and this. How do I know it's going to work? I'll tell you what, do me a favor. If it doesn't work, just don't pay the bill. I'll hold you to that Simon. And you know what, I have no doubt he would have. Okay. But that person there, they made the decision. It's done. It's in place. We're still working with them now because once they've made a decision, they very rarely renege on their decision there. Okay. So that's the line. So let's have a look at some of these different people. Okay. And some of their character traits, they tend to be task rather than people orientated. They're decisive and determined. They're called emotion, sorry, I shouldn't say that. They're set on efficiency and effectiveness. They like control, they're often in a hurry. These people tend to be firm, stable relationships with people. They come across stubborn often because I think they made up their mind. They come across as tough. Okay. They're impatient. I want everything yesterday. They're inflexible. And of course, they're a poor listener because they've made up their own mind. Now please never forget from the last episode, we said this is an over simplification. It's not fair just to put people into one box. In the real world, we all get a percentage of each one of the four different personality styles on what we portray at work. We have how we, the internal and external. You might remember from the last episode, you see me as a puppy dog if you're ever on any one of my training courses. But deep down the side, I'm actually this lion there. Now you've got to be careful because on a trek course, the lion can be ugly sometimes. The lion wants to have an argument with someone else on the training course. I've got to watch the lion because it might not be the best to open that person's minds up and listen. Okay. Oh, some people just say, well, all done. In any business owner or director, wouldn't they all be lions? You know what? No, there's no right and wrong in this. People can achieve success in lots of different ways. They just do it in a different way. So you might say, well, hold on, when the customer comes in, how do I deal with what they really like on the inside or the outside? I would actually deal with who you see there. And we call them a lion because when you think of a customer comes in who's acting like the lion, best price, best price, best price, give me that deal right now. Okay. Deal with them like a lion tamer will deal with the lion. Does the lion tamer go out and fight the lion? Oh, they're going to get eat up and spat out the lion tamer. Does the lion tamer say, well, here's a nice little putty cat. Here you go. Now, of course they're going to get eat up and spat out. The lion tamer is firm. Chair with the whip. Oh, okay. Tell you another person I can tell you about. We have a sales fitness online training program and we charge it for two nine nine a month. And this particular person said, that's great. But what are you going to do for me? It's two nine nine a month. That's what we do for everyone. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. But what are you going to do for me? Well, it's two nine nine a month. We do that for everyone. Yeah, I know. But I'm one of your biggest clients. Actually, we work with lots of other people, but it wouldn't be fair to other people. If I did for you, the less I won't tell anyone, what are you going to do for me? So listen, we made the decision two nine nine. That really is. I think what you asked me is that good value. It's one extra paint and fabric protection sold that sells for us to do to pay for it. It actually works out less than a hundred pounds a month over the next three months of training. This particular person said, no, no, no, you need to do something less. So, okay, no problem. We went on with the rest of the conversation as we were leaving. He said, all right, well, do your bloody videos. I had to be firm with this lion because I said, wait, do we need to be? What do you think? Wouldn't the lion have eat me up and spat me out? That's how you want to deal with that lion there be firm with them. Okay. In fact, another way to do it plan to ask questions about and discuss specifics, actions, results. But these lions use facts and logic with these people. When necessary, these people disagree with the facts rather than the opinion. If you're thinking of a lion now, can you imagine turning around and saying to your lion, you're wrong. Tell me I'm wrong. I'll show you. Okay. But actually your customers are like, they're going to be wrong sometimes. Okay. So if a customer says, no, no, no, it's wrong. It's this. You might say, go and get the information. I'm Mr. Customer. I think it was this here. Let me go and have a look. Ah, I can see what it is. Here's the number there. Show them that, I don't know, the fuel consumption figure, the range of that EV vehicle there and show them exactly what it is with facts. And you know what? You'll get the best of an apology from them because they understand, all right, I'll get the wrong. Fair play. Okay. Keep it business like, efficient and to the point. Sometimes if you've got a lion and you see a child sitting in the back of the car, okay, with some of the other profiles, you say, ah, what age? Boy, a girl with a lion, they might say, what's that good to do with anything? Okay. So sometimes building personal rapport is almost the worst thing you could do with those people. Okay. Don't invade their personal space. Make them feel almost a little bit more special there. That's that lion. Now let's have a look at some of the closing questions we might use. If the lion's going to make a decision and they'll go for it, when we put a deal in front of people, we might just use a direct close. Okay. Now again, there's lots of different closes on ourselves fitness program there, but you might just turn around and say, great news, Mr. Lion. The price of that car is 100,000. That's the car that's got the X, the Y, the Z on it. The current market value in your car is 20,000, which has an 80,000 balance. That works out at X amount over the 36 months or comes down to Y amount over the 48. Should we secure that for you? Should we go ahead with that? Should we get that ordered for you? You see, that's just quite blunt because you know what? The lion will go and make that decision, not all the time. At least you're going to uncover the objection you're going to get. Now we haven't got time to talk about the different closing strategies, but you might use that direct blunt close with the lion. If it comes to the lion, who says they want to think about it, okay? We're not just going to say, what do you want to think about it? We might say, okay, Mr. Lion, I understand that. Bina car is a big decision and should be taken lightly. But when we took the car for a drive, you did say, if we get the numbers right, that's the car you'd like to be driving next two or three years. So it sounds like one of these numbers isn't exactly right for you. Which number here you're not 100% sure about? Was it the 100,000 for that Porsche Taycan? Was it 20,000 for X4? Or was it that monthly figure you're not 100% sure about? It's quite blunt again, but you can do that with a lion. In fact, I've got to tell you, most of the time, though, a lion's not going to tell you they want to think about it. They're going to tell you that 1,200 month was more than that they wanted to spend. Okay? So that's the lion's there. So what I want you to do is, next time you out speak in the customer, you're going to ask customers, sales managers, listen to this, you might want to ask your salespeople, what type of customer are you dealing with to your salesperson? Are they a lion, a puppy dog, a snake, or a mouse? And that's just the way we deal with that person based on their personality style. Adjust the closing question, you might ask. Adjust the objection handling technique. Hey, on our sales training courses, we even adjust the trial closed question. We would ask a different type of customer. But firstly, you're going to identify who they are. Anyway, that about does it for now. Next time, we're going to be talking about the Expressives, the yellows or the puppy dogs. I'll see you then. 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, food linked in. Thank you.
