The third part of our customer types series, focuses on the characteristics, and how to sell to the puppy dog.
We look at how to identify a puppy dog, how to make them feel special and also what not to do.
The puppy dog can be easy to sell too, but it can take time and patience.
Here are the highlights:
{01:44} Characteristics
{02:56} Walk and Style
{05:17} How to sell to them
{07:22} The sale after the sale
{10:55} What Close to use
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, welcome back to another episode of Selling in the Motor Trade. At the moment, we're right in the middle of our series about mastering the four different customer types. Now, if you come right in here and you're new to the podcast, listen, we've got over 160 different episodes for you to go and have a look at. But if this bit here, the title got your attention, I usually go back and look at the first one in this little part. It's mastering the four customer types. We talk about the psychometric profiles and where they come from, the history and what really drives people. You probably really need to start there because today we're just going to be talking about one and that's the Expressives or the yellows on some of the tests you've done or at Symco training, we call them the puppy dogs. Now, firstly, why do you think we call these people the puppy dogs, the socializer, some of these psychometric companies call them? Okay. Well, listen, with the puppy dogs, what's a puppy dog actually looking for? You're right, the attention, the pad on the back. So, here's some of the character traits that customer might display. The Expressives, they're assertive and responsive to people. They're reactive and impulsive. Their decisions are sometimes almost spontaneous, almost intuitive. They place more importance on the relationships than the task. They'll buy you as a salesperson first, more than the product sometimes. They're emotionally very, very expressive. These people can sometimes be dramatic, flexible agenda. They suffer from a short attention span. Now, I'm one of these, so I know that myself. It's definitely a short attention span. Easily loved, enthusiastic, tend to have strong persuasive skills. Very talkative, gregarious, optimistic, take risks and can be very, very creative. So, these are the yellows. These are the Expressives there. Okay. These people, again, there's so many tests out there from Myers Briggs and Discus and whichever one you've done. Okay. But let's identify the customer when they first walk in. Now, the puppy dogs, they tend to walk fast or slow. Tend to be fast. Okay. Their conversations are directed to the point or more wishy-washy. Actually, they tend to be a little bit more wishy-washy. Okay. The puppy dog, someone might almost introduce themselves to you. Hi, how are you? I'm Simon and this is Emma and we want to have a look at that blah, blah, blah. Okay. These people here, they're dress. They tend to be sharp, but sometimes a bit more flashy. Okay. It might be more about the labels because remember, they're looking for the attention. Okay. If it comes down to suits or a watch, and I'll use that example, all of these, actually. It's quite a good example, I think. It's got nothing to do with money, but it's a mind set. Actually, the lion, he might want the several rows suit. No one else knows what it is, but he knows it's one of the best you can get. But the puppy dog, he wants the Hugo Bossu, the Versace suit. He might be the person in terms of, is it right in here? Is it just me? And they open up their suit with the label there. In fact, I worked with one guy, an extreme puppy dog. He used to say, yeah, it's not in here. He'd take his suit off, turn it inside out with the label of the badge there. Oh, I've got a good friend of mine, extreme puppy dog. He's actually been on the show. This guy here, he'll shake my hands. He'll always pick up the tie, turn it around and see what brand of tie it is. Okay. If it's watches, the lion, they might want the AP watch the, if you know your watches, okay, they might want to protect flip watch or braggy or something that maybe not ever knows, but hey, they know it's one of the best you can get. Whereas the puppy dog, they want the Rolex watch. They want the Pepsi Cola or whatever they call it, the Hulk watch. Okay. They want to know that's the, that's the, is that the time of year or, and they point their time out there, somehow makes these people sound shallow and on one of them. So I can pick on myself here. Okay. But they're looking for that attention. Okay. So these people here, the puppy dogs. Why do we sell to them? You know what, the puppy dog, you got to make them feel special. Your puppy dog is the person that wants that car with the, I don't know, the ceramic breaks on it. Not because they want their stopping power on it. It's just because they've got the blue calipers on it. When they pop car up, it looks so much better with those blue calipers. Okay. It's the image of it that floats these people boats more. Make them feel special. If you had a business owner who's clearly a puppy dog, you might turn around and say, Hey, how did it get started? Oh, Simon, let me tell you when we started, we just had one transit van. This was all fields. And they want to tell you about the struggle. Well, they went through. Okay. The puppy dog, okay. Again, it's the attention, the attention they're looking for puppy dog. Do you think they're easy or hard to sell to? You know what? Overall, the puppy dog can be easy, but they take time. You see, the puppy dog is the customer comes in on a busy Saturday morning. You got customers everywhere and they introduce themselves to you. Hi, how are you? I'm Simon and Emma and we wouldn't have a look at the hyunel on the side of the song because, you know, we're going down the corner. Have you been down there this time of year? Oh, you should go. It's lovely. Oh, the tourist aren't there. Anyway, we're going down that in this car past us. Oh, he was doing some speed, mind. Oh, I don't know how he didn't get caught with those speed cameras. Anyway, he's going down there. I said to my wife, that's the new Honda. She said it's not. I said it is. She said it's not. Said this has got a h on the back of it. You know what, Mr. Salsers? Oh, we had to chase that car. Oh, it took a while because the speed is doing. Anyway, I've got up beyond it. There was a h on it, but it wasn't a Honda. Guess what it was? And he thinks, shut the fuck up and let me get on with it. But if you cut the puppy dog off, how do they feel? Unloved. Okay. So puppy dog, they could be easy, but they take time. Puppy dogs also have another trait. They suffer from buyer's remorse. They'll buy the car. They'll be happy. That's the person that looks at that see it now video. 18 times after they bought the car to make sure it's right. Have I done the right thing? Even when it's in their driveway, they're still not sure. They have more of the people that fall out of bed afterwards than, oh, those are the mouse to be fair because they're unsure. They're looking for that reassurance all the time, the love, the attention with a puppy dog. I always say to a salesperson, continue to sell after they bought it. The sale after the sale is so important. These people and the sale after the sale is where they bought it. It's there. And they're more likely to agree everything that you've talked about because they've got a field special. So with these puppy dogs, some of the things I want you to remember. Metaphorically, hats these people. So seek opinions and areas that you wish to develop and achieve mutual understanding. And Mr. Puppy Dog, what do you think of that? How does that one work? You see the child sitting in the back of the car. You should be saying, oh boy, a girl, what age? Congratulations. Do you know who the father is? Maybe a gone too far there. But you should talk about their children because they'll be proud of their children. Okay. And you want to acknowledge that. Sorry. That's a silly thing to say. The parents of the room, we're all proud of our children. Okay. But actually the puppy dog acknowledged their children. Make sure you do. The puppy dog turns up with a real dog. Okay. That thing's really important to them. Okay. Make a fuss about that dog. Keep summarizing with these puppy dogs because they have a very short attention span. You need to work out specifics on a point of agreement because they tend to wander all over the time. They tend to be bloop to do. In fact, my son last night said to me, Dan, how does your brain work sometimes? You're all over the place because they get an idea of go, oh, let's go and do this. Oh, oh, let's go and do that there. Your customers are exactly the same. So try short, fast, moving experience stories. Little ownership questions work brilliantly for the puppy dog. Okay. Hey, Mr. Puppy dog. Yes. Said you traveled to Edinburgh regularly to see in-laws. How long does it take you to get to Edinburgh? When they say, oh, I'm about three and a half hours and they're mind. They drive into Edinburgh. They're off to see the in-laws. That bitch. I'll be in my lovely new car. Said I'd never be good enough for a daughter. Oh, show her that whole mental ownership thing is kicking in there. Okay. So pin these people down, but let's do it in a friendly way. And also these people tend to be very, very optimistic people. Okay. So discuss the future as well as the present of the now. Now let's have a look at a closing question. Okay. With a closing question, you might want to try an alternative close for these puppy dogs there, make them feel special. Okay. So Mr. Mrs. customer, that tie can, the forest, the one that's got the X, the Y, the Z on that you said you wanted. Okay. Make them pigeons of driving the car too. I know their local golf course or the next time they're going down to Cornwall or the business meeting, do all that stuff, reiterate them using the car. Okay. Mental ownership questions work well. But then the closing question, a great alternative close. Now Mr. customer, that tie can forest is going to work at a hundred thousand. The current market value in your car is 20,000, which is an 80,000 balance. That works out at X amount over the 36 months or Y amount over the 48. So Mr. puppy dog, did you want to do that over the 36 months? Or is it more comfortable for you over the 48? Hey, Mr. puppy dog, did you want water that car in the iridescent snowflake? Well, that dog really red. Okay. Now that's not a new color I think Porsche coming up with. Okay. So you don't care which one it is because you see the puppy dog feels like they're in control steel. Okay. So you might try one of those. Oh, when it comes to they want to go and think about it. The one I use for that objection. Now again, there's lots of different objections and we talk about this on our road to sell training course. Okay. But we might turn around and say, sure, understand that, Mr. puppy dog. Buy the cars a big decision and shouldn't be taken lightly. Is my business card only days off at every second Thursday? If not, I'm pretty much here all the time. Something so they think they're leaving. And then we might turn around say, have a Mr. puppy dog. I'd hate to think you leave here. You get to the traffic lights. You turn around to one another and you say, you know what? If only he'd done such and such, we would have gone ahead with that. If only he'd done x, y, z, we would have gone ahead with that. Just so you don't have to have that conversation. Why are you here? What would that such and such be? Anyway, that about does it for the puppy dog. Next time we're going to talk about the mouse. These are the customers that are the greens or the amiable. Again, we're going to talk about how to identify that specific type of customer and importantly, how to deal with them, how to ask for the business and the objection handling with them. And 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 through LinkedIn. Thank you.
