23 is a big number for any experienced Sales Consultant, so how did Logan get there in his first month?

Here’s a recap of what I believe contributed to his success;

He’s Adaptable, not acting, but Adaptable

Based on past experience, I’ve seen Sales Consultants struggle to take their game to the next level simply because they aren’t able to adapt to their client. Their body language, tone of voice, presentation start to finish will be the same with a 25 year old single male looking for a jacked up truck as it is with a retired couple looking for a luxury sedan. These are 2 completely different clients, yet they receive the same presentation that the Sales Consultant gives to every other client that walks through the door. Logan was able to immediately relate to every client that came his way, opening the door for easier rapport building and gaining trust. It was a more enjoyable experience for the client, which in most cases is the differentiating factor between purchasing or not. Having the ability to adapt to the client’s mood, body language, style of buying, etc., are all valuable factors that get overlooked at most dealerships because the Sales Consultants there are generally trained the same way with traditional sales training techniques that are becoming less relevant and effective.

Work Ethic

To have this level of success in your first month, you must be willing to put the work and time in. This doesn’t mean overexerting yourself, it means being as productive as possible with the time you have at the office and away from the office. Logan figured out quickly when the best time of day was to reach someone. He would email first thing in the morning, call during coffee break time and lunch hours, and text periodically throughout the day but also in the evening to show that he was still putting the time in to accommodate his clients even though he was at home with his family. There is a skill to time management, and Logan appears to have a clear understanding of how to incorporate that skill into the Automotive Industry.

Confident but Realistic

Having the ability to control your emotions is a challenging skill to perfect, perhaps one that may not be mastered. However, progressing toward mastery will lead you to more success. Logan understands that it’s a real possibility that not every month will be like his first, but he’s also well aware that he had a great first month and it’s something that he can build on. We’ll be able to set this as a benchmark for him now and as a competitive person by nature, it will challenge him to continuously develop so that one day, he will consistently have the level of success he had last month.

Proactive

This is perhaps the most important skill of all. “Knowledge is not power, it is only potential power, EXECUTION is Power!” – Tony Robbins. Taking initiative and not being afraid to make mistakes is what confident people do. It’s what Leaders do. It’s what any successful person does. Logan never had a real set goal in mind for June, but he knew that he wanted to prove to himself that he was capable of excelling in his new career. Having the tenacity, grit, and confidence to take action when it comes to making calls, asking for the sale, sending emails, showing up early, staying late, asking for help, all led to a successful first month and will contribute to more success moving forward.

Enthusiasm

I often laugh when I hear someone say “a new month, a fresh start, time to hit the reset button, I had a bad month but this month will be better, etc.” because I’d rather do that on a daily or even hourly basis instead of a monthly basis. As strong of a month as Logan had, there were times of struggle where we didn’t think we were going to be able to close a sale and we did lose a couple during the month for various reasons. The ability to not take it personally and to learn from each sale is what leads to development. Unfortunately, a lot of Sales Consultants, especially seasoned ones, tend to pass the blame onto the market, the other deal, the economy, the client themselves, etc. rather than analyzing and determining where they could have done better. Maybe it wasn’t meant to be and that’s ok. Logan was able to let go of those deals virtually immediately and move onto the next client without skipping a beat. We often hear that success is moving from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm, and this is the trait that Logan has which I’m confident will provide him with continued success.

The exciting part is that these are skills that can be developed with the proper guidance and training to any Sales Consultant. I’d encourage dealers to take a step back from their traditional sales training programs and focus on these types of skills if they want to see more success out of their Sales Team.