This is the final episode in our miniseries on customer types.
We finish on the snake, how to sell to them and what objection handling techniques work well.
The snake makes decisions based on facts and logic, so appeal to that and understand that establishing a relationship can take time.
Here are the highlights:
{02:13} Characteristics
{03:20} Check your honesty
{05:00} Salesperson is secondary
{10:52} How to close
{12:58} Objection Handling
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. Now, some of you probably are in home as skipping. I will start with saying thank you for taking the time to listen to this podcast. So this is the last in the series, Mastering the Four Customer Types. Now listen, if you're new to the Selling in the Motor Trade Podcast, firstly, I want to say thank you. Now you might want to go back and have a look at some of the other modules first because this one, you're kind of coming at it at the end of it. Now if you're just interested in dealing with Mastering, how to nail the four different types of customers. Just go back to the first one. It's called Mastering the Four Different Types of Customers. Or if you want to go back and listen to some of the interviews where we've interviewed top salespeople, where we've interviewed psychologists, dealer owners, we've interviewed managing contractors, the dealer groups. There's lots of different episodes there for you. But this one is all about the analytical snake. Now some of the tests you may have done in the past are psychometric profile. Discus, Myers-Briggs, A-V-A. There's so many of them out there. Insight, so I think so another one. These ones, they're called Analytical. They're the Clinical Customer. They might be the Blues. We call them the Snakes. Now they're not snakes because they're slimy, BTI-ed people. It makes me laugh. If someone's first come to this, what? They deal with snakes. Go back and have a look at Mastering the Four Different Types of Customers. Let's just talk about how to deal with that snake. Now firstly, the snake. This is the person that is not assertive and not responsive to people. They are precise, orderly and very business-like, very rational and cooperative, self-controlled and serious. They're motivated by logic and facts. They're not always quick to make a decision. This is the person that likes things in writing and in detail. They're security conscious, critical. They come across as a loose, skeptical sometimes. Really good problem solver. When you think about the customer that walks in, they have three or four pens in their top pocket. Their first question is, what are the dimensions of this car with one wing mirror folded in and the other one folded out? They don't have that on the online information. They should do really, shouldn't they? The analytical snake is the customer that asks the question. They know the answer to before they've asked it. In old money, what's the fuel consumption on this car? It's 46.9 miles per gallon. I think you're buying it at 46.7. Why did you ask me? The analytical snake is asking to at you to see if you're going to tell a lie. See if you really know your product knowledge possibly. The analytical snakes, they tend to walk slower. They tend to talk quieter. Their dress tends to be more conservative. The analytical snake, think about the electric vehicles, the EV customers with the early adopters about 15 years ago. I remember an in-nissant dealership, a leaf. The customer comes in and says, with the lithium-ion battery in this, is it lithium-ion six or lithium-ion seven? I bought a Nikon camera back in 2015. I took it at the temperature, dropped below set. You think, what the hell is he talking about? They know more about it because they've done so much research, as you'd expect, an analytical customer to do it. In fact, we talk about how much research the average customer has done. The last thing I see was 19 hours and 42 minutes of research. With an analytical customer, I often think they've doubled that at a minimum. The analytical customers there, how do we deal with them? Sometimes I personally find prayer might help because I find them the hardest ones there. Maybe it's my style of selling, but I find them the hardest ones for me personally to deal with because I'm secondary in the buying process. If they don't like you, the analytical customer will deal with you often, not all the time, obviously. That's the person who comes in with that spreadsheet with all the different cars on it there. Let's have a look at how to deal with the snake of the customer. With these people here, take action rather than words to demonstrate healthfulness and willingness. They're expecting salespeople to go down to over exaggerate, go down the BS route. What you want to do is take action rather than words. If you've told an analytical snake that you're going to call at three o'clock, make sure you call them at two. Actually, I'll argue you should do that with every customer because they think, wow, the customer has done what they said they would do. With the analytical snake, stick to specifics to what you say you're going to do. The analytical snake, tell them, set the agenda at the start of the process and tell them what we're going to do is go and have a look at your car. Tell me all the details about it. I'm going to take a few photographs of the car. I'm then going to give it to my boss, a man called Gareth. Even though it's a car, we'll probably end up selling ourselves. Gareth will contact a few independent buyers. That's going to take 20 minutes or so. Tell them exactly what to happen. Their decisions are based on facts and logic and overall they avoid risk. They can be very cooperative by establishing the relationship takes time. If you have wandered into this episode without listening to the other ones, why do we call them the analytical snakes? Actually, because an analytical snake analyzes its prey. It will only attack something. It knows it can win. I grew up in Australia and now living in the UK, I have lots of people saying, aren't there snakes everywhere there? I said, listen, honestly, in suburbia in Australia, you see them very, very occasionally. They're so rare. You know, I hear all the time people who are bitten by a snake so often when you have a listen to what's happened, they're trying to get a shovel to cut its head off or get rid of the snake or something like that. There's only a attack of human if it feels it has to. It doesn't want to waste its venom or its energy because it's a cold blooded creature. By attacking something it knows it can't win. You might have a regional director. You know the man, the lady that asked you the question, they know the answer to before they've asked it. I'm thinking about one finance director in a group. He does exactly that all the time. If he's asked that question, he knows the answer. He wants to make sure that that sales manager, whoever it is, the after sales manager, service parts manager doesn't go down the bullshit route there. That's that analytical snake. We'll be talking about suits and watches. Now this is not money. It's a mindset. Go down suits first. If we have a look at the lion, the lion might want the Savile Rose suit. It's been made for them. There's no labels in it. They're not trying to impress anyone else. It's just made for them. Tailored. The puppy dog wants that flash Versace Hugo boss suit. They say, it's hot in here. It's just me with all the labels flowing out everywhere. The amiable wants a quality suit, but we might go to a, I don't know, John Lewis suit, Martin Spencer's Italian fabric suit. But the analytics snake might say, well, hold on. I could go to Mataland and I could actually buy four suits for the same prize that suit and just throw them out when they actually look a bit tabby. They've analyzed it. The analytical snake, OK, might be when it comes to watches. OK, actually the lion, they want that braggy watch that protectfully watch. Someone else might know, know what it is, but they know it's the best money can buy. The puppy dog wants that flash watch with the orange bed or liner or something like that. Sorry, Chris. I love your watches in last week, but I'm a puppy dog and it's very bling and I'd have the bling strap on it as well. OK, they want that Rolex watch there. OK, the analytical though is kind of like, why do I want to watch? I've got the time on my phone. What do I need that for? They've analyzed it. OK, so with these analytical people, how do we sell to them? If they say what's the fuel consumption of that car? Don't just say, hey, listen, it's 48.9 miles per gallon. OK, go and turn around and say, oh, Mr. Analytical Snake, I'm pretty sure it's 48.9 miles per gallon. Let me just get the information here. Yeah, here it is. It's 48.9 miles per gallon as you're showing them. Now, please bear in mind, Mr. Customer, that's done in test conditions. Now with WLTP, it's a real world testing scenario. So you compare us to another manufacturer. You'll get a fair comparison. But actually, when we drive the cars around here, around Bolton, we might not get that. So when we take for the car for a drive, let's reset the trip computer and find out what you're achieving. The analytical snake, they'll know that, but they'll respect you for it anyway. Coming to the closing questions. OK, we might reiterate all the qualification you've found out from the analytical snake there, buying priorities or that they must have us. Here's how you might do it. Great news, Mr. Snake. Got some really good numbers here for you. Now the price of the car is 100,000. That's the Porsche Ticand, the 4S, which has got the X, the Y, the Z, you said you wanted it. Now the current market value in your car is 20,000, which works out at 80,000 balance. That works out at X amount over 36 months or comes right down to Y amount over the 48 months. Now, Mr. Snake, you did say you needed this before the school holidays. We have this on the 16th of next month and plenty of time for those holidays to go on that trip to France with it. You did say you wanted the car with the bigger battery. So you've actually got the range to get to Edinburgh just to see the in-laws when you need to. And you can do that in one stop, even in the middle of winter, when you get a little bit less range with the battery. You said you actually wanted with a panoramic roof in it because you grew up in a hot country and any sunshine that comes in the middle of winter, you can bring ends of the car to make you feel like you're at home. You said you wanted the adaptive cruise control on it and we've got the adaptive cruise control, which is standard across every Ticand, but you definitely has got that. You said you also wanted the flux capacitor in it. So when you hit 88 miles per hour, you can go back in time to the fish on the sea ball. You said you want to keep your payments around 1,250 a month and we're there and they're abouts if we do it over the 36 or 48 months. So that's what we've had in the right car for you, Mr Snake. Oh, I'm sorry. If you're under 20 years old, the flux capacitor, there was a documentary years ago by a guy called Doc Brown had it on a DeLorean and he could go back to 1955. I don't have a look at that great documentary back there, but anyway, the real point is with the analytical snake, can you see how there's lots of little yeses to get to the big yes, because you're dealing with the analytical approach and you'll let them know that we've metaphorically ticked off each one of their priorities, their concerns. Well, actually, this is a great one. David Martin, okay? Dave Martin, one of the best sales trainer in the motor trade I've ever seen. Okay? David, great fan of the show. People in news of the podcast, go and listen to David's episode on the Selen Motor Trade podcast. It really is good. But his technique, the one to 10, I find works brilliantly for the analytical snake who wants to think about it. Well, okay, that's definitely food for Vought. There's something for me to consider. I need to go and think about it. You might say, sure, I understand that, Mr. Snake. Buying the car is a big decision and shouldn't be taken lightly. Here's my business guard. Now, my only days off every second Thursday, if not, I'm pretty much here all the time. But listen, why are you here, Mr. Snake? Give me an indication on a scale of one to 10. 10 being, that's the car you really want to be driving in the next two or three years, and you'd love to secure it right now and start enjoying it as soon as you can. One being, it's not the right one view at all. Overall, how would you rate that Taycan? Guys, I got to tell you, the number is normally 7, 8 or 9. So when they say 7, great. Sounds like we'll track. Well, listen, what would have to change to make it a perfect 10? Well, what would have to alter to make it a perfect 10? Give me more money from my car. Make the payment lower. Make the less miles on the car. And now you've found the objection. Well, the mileage is reflected in the price, Mr. Customer. If it had less miles on it, we wouldn't be asking X amount. You know the hardest objection to overcome? The one you don't know what it is. Now, I'm in danger to going into a whole whole of objection handling techniques. Go and have a look at our sales fitness program for that one. That'll give you all the different ideas there. But on this series, I just want you to start thinking, when a customer comes in, are they a lion, a puppy dog, a snake, and a mouse? And actually, if you can start to identify your different core type of customer, you start dealing with them like that animal. OK, with the lion, dealing with like the lion tamer, the puppy dog, hat them. Metaphorically, make it feel special. The mouse gently, gently let them come to you. The analytical snake is analyzing things to deal with the analytical approach to life there. And adjust your closing questions. Adjust your trial, close questions. Address your qualification approach. And also all your objection handling techniques to the type of customer you got inside you. You know, too often we get salespeople's that all with when someone says, I want to think about, I just use this approach. But let's think it through. If there's four different types of customers and there's four different types of salespeople, we want to make sure we've got the right technique for the right customer at the right time. Because if you get the two together, that's funny enough where there's 25%. Flows you, motion often comes to you. The real key is finding out what your style is and then adjusting it to your customers there. Guys, listen, I hope this has helped for you to understand there's different types of customers got there. We've only touched on it. OK, we do a whole one day behavior. The awareness goes there and we can't do all of it in this podcast. But I thought we'd give you a bit of a flavor for yourselves meetings because we have so many people saying we love this content for our sales meetings. I really hope that helps. Hey, give me a favor. Let me know. For this on to other people there, I really do appreciate the feedback you guys give us. 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.
