Car Sales Training Basics
Posted by admin
Auto sales, any sales really, is about helping people get what they want! You need to identify a customer’s needs and wants, and tailor your product / offer to them.
This requires a great level of flexibility on the part of the sales person because you have to adjust what you say and how you say it to each and every customer you talk with. This is what separates the “order takers’ from the salespeople!
I read an article recently that stated “Over 70% of customers purchase something different than what they had in mind when they went to purchase a car’. This does not surproise me. During the days I was in B2B selling I had a similar experience. I’d often walk into a prospect’s office with an intention to sell “X” but wind up some weeks or months later with an order for “Y”.
Great salespeople who have had car sales training always sell what is available and what’s inline with the customer’s wants and needs. When the two align perfectly the selling job can be very fast and easy.
Often during a sales interaction (a good one) a prospect will realsie that there are things they wanted in a car that they hadn’t thought about before the meeting. When this happens, even if you do not make the sale there and then the customer will leave happy, because they have found a better alternative and better understand their own desires.
So, the idea is selling well benefits both the salesperson and the customer. The sales person gets happy customers, more money, and more referrals. The customer benefits because they will not spend an additional time getting confused, and wasting their valuable time trying to find that perfect car! They find something better than they had imagined.
People buy cars once every 2 to 7 years, but we sell them every day. You should be the product expert. The customer expert, and the sales expert. One way to be sure you get the highest percentage of sales possible is to get some car sales training and stop winging it!
Since you need to ask questions to determine where your customer is at and stay in control of the sales process I’m going to offer you the simplest process I know for starting a sales interaction.
You simply ask the prospect what are they after in a car, and make sure they answer this question fully.
Do not ask what they “need”, no time to go into reasoning here just trust me that there is a difference.
You could also ask for what they are looking for but that presupposes that they are a person who processes visually.
So, the prospect replies to your question with “I need a car that’s economical” and stops talking.
You respond with ” anything else?” or just raise you eyebrows and say “and?” if you still have trouble getting answers you may have to start asking about size or color or the number of people that will be in the car.
You will likely end up with a series of statements like the following:
I need a car that’s economical and can seat four people comfortably and has 4 doors.
I want one that brakes and accelerates really well.
I’d like one that looks cool and has a long warranty,
OK, now here’s what you do.
Repeat that back to them in EXACTLY the words they gave you.
“So let me see if I’ve got this right, you need a car that X, you want it to Y and you’d like it to be Z”
Watch their reaction when you say this. It will often be one of relief or joy that a salesp[erson finally gets it. You will have established rapport with them and they’ll be willing to talk further.
You then need to go on to defining what they mean by some of the words they use e.g. what is “economical”, “accelerates well” and “cool”.
When you don’t have an exact car to the customer’s request, show them what you do have, and how it may accomplish the same thing, or even why it may be better. Never ever, focus on what your vehicle does not have that the shopper wants, always focus on what it does have, and how it will benefit them. Understand though, that it very hard to negotiate around a “need” it is much easier to negotiate “wants” and easier still to negotiate “likes”.
Assuming, this goes well you then run across the hard part for the average winging it car salesman; convincing customers that now is the time to buy!
But that will have to wait until another post.
