I’m not your prototypical Car Guy

I wasn’t raised in the auto industry. I didn’t have any connections in the auto industry. I didn’t have a family to help set me up for life in the auto industry. So how does someone with no connections, no car knowledge, no sales or automotive background, even get into selling cars, and from there, quite rapidly, go from Sales to Ownership?

I don’t really care to know about the history of classic muscle cars, although I do respect those who have a passion for them. I won’t be the first person to jump out of my chair when a new hellcat comes into the dealership to take it for a test drive. I’m just not a car guy. But, what I’ve come to understand, is that I’m a people person. I genuinely want to help others, and see them either succeed or play a role in helping them get what they want.

Here are 4 proven concepts that anyone can use to succeed in any business. We must find ways to take the complexity out of success and simplify it with systems and processes from real life experience.

Intuition is the highest form of intelligence. Trust it!

On a hot summer July day, about this time of year in 2007, and with similar temperatures, I walked into a Chevy Dealership to get some service work done on my wife’s car. Still dirty from welding 400 barrel tanks in the oilfield, I go into a Salesmen’s office and we talk vehicles because we were thinking of upgrading Steph’s car. I knew I didn’t want to be a welder for the rest of my life, but I didn’t yet have clarity on what I wanted to do. Troy (the Salesman) and I seem to be getting along well, spending more of our time talking hockey than cars, and as that is going on, I noticed that 4 out of the 6 offices had their lights off. To this day, I couldn’t tell you why or where this came from, but that voice inside my head said “you should tell Troy that you could fill one of those offices for him, what’s the worst that could happen?” And so, I trusted my instincts, and blurted out to Troy that I could fill one of those offices for him, and to my surprise, he said “Great, we’re needing someone, I’ll go get my Sales Manager and we’ll do an interview right now!” As I’m sitting there sweating profusely in the comfortable air conditioned office, thinking to myself “What the hell did I just get myself into”, the Sales Manager comes over and starts the interview process. I don’t remember the whole conversation, but I do remember asking him who his best Salesman was, and he said between the two dealerships, that it was Troy. Having no clue how many vehicles would be considered good or not in a month, I asked him how many Troy sold on average, he replied with 15. That seemed astronomical to me. How could someone possibly sell 15 vehicles a month, every month! None the less, this voice came back into my head and said “tell him that if Troy can do it, then there is no reason why I couldn’t either!” And so I once again trusted my instincts, blurted out that if Troy could do it, then there’s no reason why I couldn’t either. I was hired on the spot and started my Sales Career the following Monday.

The harder you grind now, the easier life gets later

Being raised by a workaholic has its pros and cons. Thankfully, a strong work ethic and being used to working long manual labor hours is a pro. Whenever I heard, or still hear today, someone complaining about working a 9 hour day in their office, I have a silent chuckle to myself. Little did I know the time and effort it would take to get to 15 vehicles per month. To become successful and gain respect from your peers and clients, you must be willing to put the time in early on in your career. This speeds up the learning process, and although it may seem like you aren’t getting any monetary gain out of it, you’re going to down the road. In the Automotive Sales Industry, speaking from experience, your third year in is when you really start seeing massive benefits from the time and effort that you had put in years prior. It’s not that complicated, work hard, work smart, put your head down and go, get along with your peers, work on yourself every day, and the results will come. I figured out a bit of a chart for the Sales Consultant to review. When I get into Sales Coaching full time, this is what my goal will be with a New Sales Consultant for example.

Time                   Units         Hours/Week

3 Months            0-8             80 – Craziness
6 Months            8-11            70 – Overloaded
9 Months            11-14           60 – Full Time
12 Months          14-17           50 – Part Time
15 Months          17-20          40 – Free Time
18 Months          20+             Flexible

For anyone in the automotive industry, they may view these numbers as ambitious. But let me tell you from experience, I’ve gone from knowing nothing about Sales or cars to the #1 Sales Consultant in our Company to Sales Manager, to General Manager, to Owner, and was selected by Automotive News as one of North America’s top 40 Automotive Professionals in North America under the age of 40, and there is a system that can be taught to anyone that will lead them to generate these kinds of results. I’m confident in taking a 15 car guy to 20+ cars because I’ve been that guy, I’ve been there and done it myself. And have only gained more knowledge and credibility since then. To find out more, check out https://rethink-selling.teachable.com/

Care

It’s genuinely that simple. Unfortunately, this could be the key contributor to separating yourself from another Sales Consultant. And, it will be the key contributor to repeat/referral clients, which are by far the best kind. It requires genuine attention to your client when they are talking, holding doors for people as they are walking into the dealership at the same time as you, making sure you go over the entire vehicle after your detailing department is done with it to make sure it reaches your standards, say Hi to your peers every morning without exception, listening more than talking with any one, under-promising on something only to end up over-delivering so you can leave the client with that WOW feeling, etc. Caring more will never go out of style and is an intangible quality that follows you around wherever you go, and people love people who genuinely care.

Always be progressing

No matter what your definition of success is, it always comes down to having an obsession with everlasting self-development. If you aren’t progressing, you’re falling behind. You’re falling behind on your potential, you’re falling behind against your peers and other Sales Consultants, and you’re delaying your financial freedom goal. Self-development, like caring, will never go out of style and will always be a determining factor between a client falling in love with you rather than someone else. Often times, we’ve had situations occur where our prices may have been a bit higher, the product may not have been exactly what the client wanted, but yet, they start a relationship with us, and are more than happy to do so, because they fall in love with the experience they had. Once you understand that now more than ever, you’re not selling a tangible product, i.e.; a car, or truck, you’re selling an intangible product, i.e.; the clients’ experience, then at that point, you’ll be able to start separating yourself from other Sales Consultants who are caught up in memorizing scripts and providing every client with the same sales pitch, with the same closing questions, with little to no emotion, and so on. Keep in mind that this isn’t the Sales Consultants fault in most cases, it’s the culture of the dealership that creates that atmosphere and that’s on the Ownership or Management team.

So I encourage you to Trust your Instincts, grind it out, genuinely care, and have an obsession with everlasting self-development. Once you do this, you’ll push the fast-forward button on your success!