Relationship Selling’s New School

Relationships

I remember my freshman year of college a Lincoln Mercury salesmen in Charleston SC who did very well. I think in the mid 1970’s he was just getting started, however by my senior year he was doing his own TV commercials, and they were awful.

He would start out talking next to a dark, long, elegant Lincoln in a formal suit and tie. Then while he was talking he would lung into the back seat and come out the other side in a sombrero hat, leotards and a cape calling himself The Man in the Hat.

As bad as that may sound, he did very well. What impressed me most was he invested in himself, hired and paid his own staff to work a manual data system to follow and develop a relationship with all of his customers. In the 1970’s this was a big exception. The door swung good. We only had three major manufactures (we didn’t count AMC) and they maintained about a 89% share of the market. Relationships were not a priority.

Times have changed…

In today’s market, we have lots of competition and probably more coming our way. Margins are not what they used to be and neither is cash flow. Dealer’s will not be able to continue spending large budgets on advertising to recreate the wheel every month and make the door swing. At some point, we have to start developing relationships with our customers to build a loyal retention base. This is, by itself, is going to be the biggest difference between the old school and the new school way of thinking. The commodity approach of order taking will not last. However, watching the burden of market share and marketing shift to the manufacture will be fun to watch since they know nothing about selling one car at a time.

This is where you, the sales professional comes in. You and your dealer are in charge of this industry. You go out every day, press flesh, meet new people and earn the business at some percentage. You are in front of the customer and a biggest part of the value quotient. As long as you are in front of the customer you are in charge of where this goes. So, if you earn it with your customer – hold on to them!!! What is it worth if you can control 20%, 30% or 40% of your annual unit sales to come back in 3 to 5 years and by another one? Don’t guess – make a spreadsheet and figure it out for yourself.

In the old school days “the closer” was king. Now it is going to be the sales person who does the best job in retention. The sales person who builds a long-term annuity by working and managing his relationships with a customer. The pros are already doing it. There are sales people in this town who have been in the business 15 plus years making over $200,000 a year. How much of that income would you guess comes from repeat – referral?

Dealers have CRM software available, but I don’t see many sales people really leveraging it into relationships for repeat business. Get into the software and figure out how to skin it. Unlike the Man in the Hat you don’t need to hire staff. Figure out the touches or prompts you need to make a relationship and set it up. Then post and forget it until the software prompts you for action.

2200 Trained and Placed

2200 Trained and Placed in a New Career

We started Start Recruiting and Training in 2010 with the idea of teaching people how to fish. Unemployment was high coming off the crash and many good people found out the safe salary job – wasn’t so safe. It was the perfect time to teach people how to be in charge of their own destiny and get paid exactly what they were worth.
Since that time, we have met many great people that decided to change career paths and give auto sales a try. For many this has been life changing. Not everyone stuck around but those who did saw the benefit of injecting their results right into the bottom line of the company, making themselves a recognized value. For many this meant job security, good annual incomes and advancement into management. I like to say “if your good at this, anything can happen, you just have to be good”.

To the 2200 who gave this a try, I would like to say thank you. I like to think we are raising the quality of the profession – one professional sales person at a time.

Shameless Self Promotion

Shameless Self Promotion

Most salespeople come to work and recreate the same wheel day after day. Come in, hang on the door and hope it swings well today. It does – good day. It doesn’t- Bitch.

If you want to be a victims of circumstances outside your control that can effect the door swing, keep doing what your doing. Recreate that same wheel day after day and just come in and hang on the door. Just know 20 to 30 years from now you’ll be doing the same thing your doing today. Your skill-set will be no more developed than the 25 year old new hire standing beside you.

If you want to be a pro that one day doesn’t have to rely on the door swing, you have to cover your bet and make some appointments on your own. The combination of shameless self promotion and creating lasting long term relationships with your owners is what makes you less dependent on the success of the door swing and grows your income.

Shameless self promotion:

The good news is today’s tools are much easier for reach and targeting. The old days of cold calling people from the phone book with the same last name or working grocery store parking lots are no longer necessary.

Today you have a vast market of narcissist on social media. Websites and forums for specific interest, Craig’s list for an immediate market on lower end used cars and sites where you can buy list drilled down by any criteria you can think of. There really is no excuse not to try some type of self promotion for 2 hours a day.

Do you have time for shameless self promotion?

As a salesperson I was taught that my job description was:

Either I was in front of a customer or preparing to be in front of a customer or I wasn’t doing my job!

Love that… How did we complicate something so simple and pure?

The average salesperson sees 40 to 55 people (counting everyone – yes I am Talking to you) a month. This means your seeing approx 2 people a day on average. If one customer goes all through the process you have 2 to 3 hours invested. If the second customer stops in the process around demo drive, you might have another hour invested. That means on an average day with two customers you have 4 hours in job description work.

The bad news is you have 4 to 8 more hours more scheduled today. Just invest 2 of those hours doing something to get 2 people to say **“Yes I’ll come see you.” **

Raises are effective when you are

Do the Math:

1. If you make 2 appoints a day – how many in a month?
2. How many actually show up?
3. How many of those can you sell?
4. Extra unit sales times your average commission?
5. Times 12 for increase in yearly income

I am asking for 10 hours a week to generate this increase in your annual income. Imagine I post an ad on the job boards that said:

Hiring Shameless Self Promoters

You will work 2 hours a day.

You will be doing:

• Internet Marking
• Direct Mail
• Cold calls.

Paying (Line 5 Above)

How many sales people give themselves this job? Just the pros.

If your bad at self promotion – keep going!. You will figure out the formula that works for you. If you remain bad at this, it is stil worth doing. Cut the Math in line 5 above in half and imagine going to to your boss at your old job and asking for that amount in an annual raise. In sales you don’t have to ask for a raise. Raises are effective when you are!

The Little red Book of Selling

My daughter is starting a new career in sales with AT&T. As part of the four month long training course in Atlanta, she had assigned reading of the Little Red Book of Selling by Jeffrey Gitomer.

I picked up a copy and found it a great mix of selling/prospecting techniques along with some attitude adjustment for sales people. I really enjoyed his attitude about being a sales person vs the corperate job.

You probably have heard the “ABC” line (always be closing) however as a professional sales person one needs to “ABL” (Always be learning). Books like Little Red Book of Selling are great thought starts and can help unlock hidden potential. Even One or two well executed ideas found in this book can make a big difference.

Eat the Bear

The first time I heard the expression “some days you eat the bear and some days the bear eats you” was on a showroom floor in the car business, listening to a salesperson give himself permission for a tough day. I always loved the highs of a busy productive day where I left the store that night beating on my chest and howling at the moon, however that wasn’t every day. I also had many days when I couldn’t close an open face steak sandwich.

What is unique about the car business is every day can be a reset. More customers and chances for sales will show up again today. The good news is that not a bad day or week does a month make. If one can shake off the slings and arrows, get the attitude right and show up the next morning ready to go, it can happen today. Every day is a new race.

“Failure Cannot Cope With Persistence”
― Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich

Persistence is the key. When I interview candidates I am looking for those that demonstrate the character to experience the challenges of a bad day or week and keep moving forward. After all, if I could guarantee everyone that they could come into this business and sell one car every day, there would be a line around the building to take the job.

This isn’t easy but it isn’t hard. The hardest part is getting out of your own way. Just for today, get the attitude right and figure out how you are going to get in front of three customers. If it works – great. If it doesn’t – rinse and repeat.

Life’s battles, don’t always go to the stronger or faster man, but soon or later the man who wins
Is the man WHO THINKS HE CAN!”
― Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich

New Year.. New You..

It is a new year and time to make plans for a growth year. Rather than accept what comes and leave the end result to chance, lets get in front of this for the new year. Make 2016 a stretch year. The softer easier way is to watch a few motivational videos and that can work for the short term, however I find nothing works to motivate and keep one motivated like results. Tangible, ongoing results, and that doesn’t happen by accident. One has to paint a firm picture of the end result and then decide on the effort it takes to achieve that result. Now the hard part! One has to consistently execute that effort on a daily basis. Once the plan is in place and you work it on a daily basis, it will become obvious what one has to do to improve the skill set (effort).

This all begins with three simple questions:

• Where are you at now?
• Where do you want to go?
• How are you going to get there?

Where are you now.. What Happened Last Year?:

This is not hard, just take your W2 and divide that by the number of units you sold last year. Determine your average commission per unit.

Where do you want to go?

Take your time on this one and paint the picture.. Ask yourself what another $20,000 a year would mean to you and your family and then paint that picture.
It really isn’t that much extra money on a monthly basis. I am only talking about another $1,600 a month. If you do 10 units a month, this is only $160 more per sale. If you want to move the units, we are only talking about 3 to 4 more sold units a month (1 a week). All of this CAN HAPPEN!

Complete this work sheet and it will show you how.

1. Start with what you want your W2 to look like at the end of this year.
2. Decide what you want to happen on your Average Commission.
   • Is it possible using better value building techniques to achieve a higher commission average?
3. Divide your annual income goal by what you decided on for the average commission.
   • Now you know how many units you have to sell this year.
4. Divide the total units by 12 months to figure out an average month.
   • Now you have your Monthly goal.

How are you going to get there?

Sales don’t just happen. It takes so many customers, demonstration drives, and write ups to make a sale. The perfect salesperson who sells them all may be out there, but I haven’t met one yet..

So if you are like me, we have to plan for some rejection. After tracking these numbers for years I found the rule of 4,3,2,1 to be true. People go hot or cold on a daily or weekly basis but on a monthly average it stays pretty true.

I am saying it will take 4 times as many customers as you want to sell (counting everyone – You know who you are!)

I am saying of your total customers – 75% need to go from the introduction to demonstration drive.

I am saying of the total customers – 50% need to go all the way through the sales process to a write up.

I am saying you should sell – 50% of your writes – 25% of your total.

Break the effort down to a week and a day and it will look very achievable. Once you start measuring you will see where you need help or training. If you are serious about your picture – get the help or training. If you miss your goal, you will make more trying..

At Start Recruiting and Training we do hundreds of interviews a month and candidates always ask what they can make in the car business. My answer always is ”It is not my job to decide your potential. My job is to tell you the effort it takes to make the money you want to make, and if you can execute the effort, it can happen.”

What I find refreshing is more and more people are all in on the idea of being in charge of their own income. More and more people like the idea of getting paid exactly what they are worth and like the idea of not having to ask for a raise.

Raises Are Effective When You Are!!

1600 Trained and Placed

1600 Placed!

At Start Recruiting and Training we just hit the 1600 mark. That is 1600 great people selected, trained and placed in a new career in automotive sales
.

We started Start Recruiting and Training in 2010 to demonstrate to those with the propensity for sales what a great opportunity automotive sales can be. How, if this the right career, one can make more than anyone is going to
offer as a salary. You get to decide what your worth and raises are effective when you are, you don’t have to ask for one. If one can move the needle, anything is possible.

In the last five years we have recruited and trained a great and diverse group of people. People from all walks of life with different education levels and backgrounds. For many this has been life changing with greater income and promotions into management. Others gave this a good try and it wasn’t for them. We respect and appreciate the try.

The automotive business is starved for professional talent. Professional Sales is challenged by the softer easier way of “order taking”. Price over value. We need people who can prove to the consumer, the manufacturer, and sometimes the dealer that a great salesperson who can build and demonstrate value for themselves, the car and the dealer, wins – that is what makes the salesperson the most important person in the business.
Thank You to everyone that understands the value of Start recruiting and Training.

Excuses…

I liked this article. See what you think.

New York Times bestselling author Eric Greitens.

Greitens, who is presently considering running for Missouri Governor, is a Rhodes scholar, graduated with a Ph.D. from Oxford, and is the founder of The Mission Continues, a philanthropy that empowers veterans to apply their hard-won training and skills in their local communities.

We present the following book excerpt on the power of overcoming excuses with permission from publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
———————
How do excuses take hold? An excuse starts as a protective measure. It shields us from pain, saves our pride, keeps our ego from being punc​tured, allows us to obscure the brutal truth. That feels like a relief at first. We avoided the pain.

Then we lay another excuse on top of the first. Then another. Excuses make us feel safe. So, we think, why not add another? Soon enough, you’re wearing excuses like a knight wearing armor.

Well, what’s the harm in that? How fast do you think you’d be able to run wearing a suit of armor? How well could you climb a mountain? How well could you swim across a lake? How well could you hug your kids?

Excuses protect you, but they exact a heavy cost. You can’t live a full life while you wear them.

You can take away someone’s house. You can take their food, their money. You can take their clothes, their freedom, even their children. But you can’t take away someone else’s excuse.

We give up our excuses ourselves, or not at all.

And here’s what’s really difficult about excuses. You’re the only one who can let them go, but other people offer them to you all the time. Ex​cuses don’t just tempt those who make them, they tempt those who hear them. Sometimes the world can’t wait to give you an excuse.

Why? Because an excuse often frees everyone from responsibility.

If you grab an excuse, it can almost look generous. It can look as if you’re giving not just yourself but everyone around you a break, and that makes it even more tempting.

A few weeks ago, I was talking with a group of eighty-some veterans in St. Louis who’d flown in from around the country. They were enlisted and officer, soldier and sailor, marine and airman. Many had been in combat. Most had been diagnosed with a disability.

I told them that one of the greatest dangers facing a veteran coming home is an onslaught of misdirected sympathy.

That’s partly because, along with gratitude, the veteran is offered a raft of excuses. The world says: “Because of your injury (or your stress, or the friends you lost), you don’t have to . . .

“Be there for your family.” “Show up for work on time.” “Treat your friends well.” “Serve anymore.”

Excuses are usually offered with the best intentions. People want to be kind to those who are suffering. People want to reach out and do what they can — even when what they choose to do is worse than noth​ing.

They offer you an excuse because they don’t want to add to your suffering. Or maybe they want to connect and don’t know how. Maybe they want to express thanks, and think that letting you off the hook is a way to do that. (That happens more and more in a country in which soldiers and civilians are increasingly strangers to one another.) It comes from a place of kindness.

But it’s kind poison. Don’t drink it.

People who think you weak will offer you an excuse. People who respect you will offer you a challenge.

In truth, it’s not the trauma that’s most harmful. The harm comes when we make trauma an excuse to avoid the activities, the relation​ships, and the purpose that are its only lasting cure. Diabolos is the ancient Greek word for devil. The literal translation is “one who throws an obstacle in the path.”

It’s often easier to imagine that a guy with horns and a pitchfork has harmed us than to realize how we have harmed ourselves. Yet we are usually our own worst enemy. We throw obstacles

in our own path.

If we had an external enemy who consistently forced us to make bad choices, to engage in self-destructive behavior, to be less than we are capable of, we’d declare war. Why should we act any differently when the enemy is inside?

You have to master the one who throws obstacles in your way. Mas​ter yourself.

Over the long term, you are responsible for your happiness. I don’t say this to blame you for how you feel. I say it because in taking responsibility you will find freedom and power.

The Uncontrollable Customer

Everyone wants to talk about the uncontrollable customer – the customer that displays boorish and rude behavior, all in an effort to stay in control of the process. I am sure you have met this guy. He is the customer you see on the lot and, as you head toward him, he tries to wave you off. Once you approach him and extend your hand, he ignores it and says “give me your best price on this car or I will disappear into a puff of smoke.”

There are tons of cute little lines out in the world to address this issue, but few work. The best line I have used was taught to me by Key Royal back in the 70’s. “What besides price is important to you?” This line might work one out of twenty times. It is still a long shot.

My concern is why everyone seems so focused on this customer. In my experience if you sell three from every ten customers (counting all of them), you did a good job. That means seven customers say “no” for now. Of the seven “no’s” one perhaps two may be uncontrollable. So you have two of ten and they had no affect on the three buyers, UNLESS YOU LET IT…. My concern comes from watching salespeople approach all ten customers like they might be one of the two uncontrollables. I watch salespeople tip toe on egg shells trying to avoid any possible negative reaction. All control is lost, and in the process of emasculating yourself you don’t sell a car.

One of two outcomes will happen with the uncontrollable:

1. YOU WILL NOT SELL THE CAR – and emasculate yourself in the process.
2. YOU WILL SELL THE CAR – and not make any money.

Both of these outcomes suck.

Focus on the three buying customers. Treat all of your customers like they are one of these three buyers, willing to pay you a decent profit. Then, make them prove to you they are not. If in the process you run into an uncontrollable – MOVE ON – they have been coming in forever and will always come in. DO NOT paint all of your customers with this uncontrollable brush. Paint them with the BUYER brush and make them prove you wrong.

Getting Paid EXACTLY What Your Worth

This is all about adding value.

In a market where the perception of the middleman is nothing but an added layer of cost, is wrong in the car business. In a time where the Internet is supposed to be the answer we have to create more value in:

1. Ourselves
2. The Car
3. The dealership

Two of these are unique – you and your dealership. The car, a customer can probably buy at 4 different places inside 20 miles. So that means we work on the unique value that you and your dealership create.

• What makes you a special experience for the customer?
• Do you demonstrate pride in your dealership?
• Do you like a good Value?
• Are you offering all your customers the complete sales process to build all the value possible?
• Do your customers enjoy the experience?

What makes this business great is that you are in charge of your pay. No-one gets to judge you and say your worth is “X” a year. In our business you decide what your willing to accept. Raises are effective when you are… Some people cannot handle being responsible for their own pay, and the car business is not for them. What makes you unique is – you can.

Tune up on your value and have fun. Customers are waiting to pay for Value..