There has been more and more discussion lately on the power of story telling when selling a vehicle or through marketing and advertising.  For those who hone the skill of story telling give themselves an advantage over the competition because it draws emotion out of their prospective clients and we all know that emotion is a massive contributor to the buying decision.  

What we've been doing at our dealership now for the better part of 2 years is share our "Why" and story tell through Radio Ads primarily.  It seems counter intuitive to avoid price through advertising but by doing so, we've increased our sales volume by 39% in the last 2 years.  

Here's the latest example of the 100+ thirty second Radio Ads I've wrote and voiced for our Dealership over the last 2 years to give you an idea of how we structure our Radio Advertisements;

Experiencing exceptional growth, year over year, with any company is a good thing.  But what separates Woodworth Dodge is that we spend a fraction of the cost on advertising than our competitors.  What does that mean to you?  It means that we’ve had that growth through word of mouth advertising.  It means that our valued clients have enjoyed their experience enough to share it with their friends and family.  We hold ourselves accountable because we depend on word of mouth advertising more than any other form.  Thank you for sharing your positive experience with those closest to you.  Remember, @ Woodworth Dodge, we always make it worth your drive.  Visit us online 24/7 @ woodworth dodge dot ca

This may work or may not work for your dealership.  It may only work occasionally or it may work all the time the way it does for us.  It's a difficult structure to initiate because we didn't see a quick sale the way we would have by promoting prices and discounts the way every one else does.  But, what it has done, is create a culture and reputation for us that's unmatched in our area, and it completely separates our ads from every other dealer that's on the radio.  The radio is flooded with car ads, this is our way of standing out.

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!

Here is my take on 10 things that will never change in Sales.  When you have a clear understanding of how these 10 things work, you'll undoubtedly have consistent growth and success based on personal experience. 

#1. Prospecting.  Your reservoir must always be full of client names.  In order to fill the reservoir early on in your career, you must learn how to market, advertise, leverage social media, email cold leads with a strategic system, etc.  Always be on the offensive.  Know the appropriate times to contact clients to ensure the most productivity.  Example being, send a text message primarily early in the morning before you get to work, plus periodically throughout the day, send emails at night because unfortunately most people check their emails first thing in the morning when they wake up or while they're sitting on the couch at home after supper, so this ensures they receive your information before their busy day gets started, and call during coffee breaks and lunch hour.

#2. Repeat/Referral is King.  Over time, you will gain a loyal following which will lead to repeat/referral clients.  This makes life much easier because new clients are expensive and time consuming.  To ease the stress on your sales career, your last client experience must be the best one in order for your next relationship to start and be effective.

#3. Begin with the end in mind.  The closing process starts when you meet your new client.  It’s important to ask high quality questions throughout the sales process in order to get both you and the client to the end goal in a respectable amount of time.  There is a saying in Sales that goes ‘5 No’s before they go!” indicating that the client doesn’t really mean no until you ask them 5 times.  This is not the right approach.  If you have to ask them 5 times for the sale, you haven’t qualified properly.  The best sales consultants know what the clients answer is going to be before they even ask it. 

#4. Listening will always trump talking skills.  The more intently you listen, the more effective you’ll be at building relationships, and having the client wanting to buy your product.  Talking more than listening results in you trying to sell the client your product which is never a good thing, you want them to buy your product or service.  The best way to accomplish this is by listening to their needs and wants, and creating a solution for them.

#5. Human relationships will never die.  With the volatile change in technology, and the advancement in automation, human relationships becomes that much more valuable and it’s something that will never go away.  This is why it’s crucial to be in a peak state on a daily basis.  You want to make an everlasting good first impression with a client, and build a relationship off of that.  No matter how far technology advances in the future, human relationships will always matter.

#6. You will always be the difference.  There’s always going to be competition in sales, which is a good thing because it holds you accountable to your development.  Quite honestly, the last thing you want is a monopoly because you’ll become content and lazy.  Having competition keeps you sharp and forces you to stay on top of your game.  If you’re up against the competition that has an equal amount of training and ability as you, and offers the same product for the same price, then you’re the difference maker to the client.  You’re the difference between the client choosing you or your competition.

#7. Physiology matters.  This often gets overlooked but the way you physically approach a new client in particular, can often times be the difference between a yes or a no.  They can make a buying decision before you even speak based on how you walk or shake their hand. Pay attention to the pace of your walk, your posture, the way you shake someone’s hand, your hygiene, etc. because it all matters and always will matter.

#8. Embrace the emotional roller coaster.  As you’ve likely already discovered, there are an incredible amount of highs and lows in sales.  What matters is that we anticipate them.  Embrace the fact that they are going to occur and that it’s how you respond to them that matters.  Knowing this ahead of time and preparing for it will help keep your stress level under control.

#9. Logic based selling wins.  Being genuine and honest can often times be the determining factor between the client choosing you over your competition.  Clients are becoming smarter and can see through the typical sales script pitches that are poured onto them.  When you use logic to prove that you have their best interest in mind, you’ll earn their loyalty.  And once you have their loyalty, it’s quite difficult to lose it.

#10. Follow up is critical.  Having a follow up system for contacting clients on a regular basis after their purchase is critical to your success.  How do you think a client feels when you treat them like your best friend during the sales process but neglect to follow up on a regular basis after the sale?  You’ve lost any respect or trust gained during the sales process.  Be their friend, ask about their family, interests and hobbies.  Show a genuine interest in their personal life and believe me, you’ll stand out from the crowd.

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.

Imagine allocating only 15% of your marketing budget to newspaper, print, online, and radio. And not advertising any payments or price on those ads. Not only that, you encourage people to shop your number and give them a “Car Buying Guide” explaining the best way to approach an auto dealership. Now invest the other 85% spent on sponsorships, donations, and gifting. Do you think your traffic would increase or decrease? Do you think the quality of that traffic would be stronger or weaker?

In the fall of 2016, we modeled this approach and are on our way to the strongest retail sales year that we’ve had in the 32-year history of the company. What we’ve done is simply invested 85% of our advertising and marketing budget back into the very people that came here to experience our dealership and purchase our product. We re-invest the money into buying their 4H Steers, sponsoring their curling bonspiels, hockey and baseball tournaments, donating to important causes in the area, and the biggest change was we started sending personalized gifts to our clients after they purchased. We paid close attention to what their hobbies were and based our gift off of that information. We also sent hand written custom thank you notes. Here’s an example of one that we did recently.

A client of ours needed a pre-owned SUV, and we happened to have what he was looking for in stock. You couldn’t help but notice the San Jose Sharks Hoodie, Key Chain and hat he was wearing, clearly a fan. At this time, the Sharks were on their way to the NHL Playoffs. After he picked up his vehicle, I immediately went online and ordered him a new Sharks Hoodie and Hat. The way we customized it for him was we put his nickname on his hat and hoodie, “Casper”. When he received it in the mail, he was beside himself. It was completely unexpected but it made him feel important and valued. No matter how big your budget is on marketing, that feeling can’t be bought. We felt great for doing it, and he felt great for receiving it. A win/win. We don’t have our logo on our gifts anywhere at all. We focus on gifts that the client will value and ideally see every day. We do gifts like custom cutting boards where we get the family name engraved on them and the clients will love them so much, they’ll have them set up in their kitchen on display which leads to a great conversation piece at dinner with friends and family. People are often shocked that a dealership would pay this much attention to detail. In an automated society, now more than ever, it’s important to have a personal touch because people will value the extra little effort you put in.

Running cheesy gimmicks in an attempt to get clients in the door is easy and requires virtually no skill set. Plus, the vast majority of dealers are constantly promoting some sort of gimmick ad to get their floor traffic up, so if you’re doing your advertising this way, how are you separating yourself from the competition? From what I’ve experienced in the past, free hot tubs, big screen TV’s, “free” trips (they usually require the client paying a registration fee that they weren’t informed about), may have got us some people in the door but the quality of the client was low and thus our profits were low as well. The end result being, a lot of work and money for a low R.O.I. and retention rate.

We asked ourselves, what if we approached advertising from a completely different perspective. What if we encouraged clients to shop our numbers and gave them a guideline on how to purchase our product? I’ll give you an example. We ran a full page color ad in a few newspapers and advertised on our local radio stations about a “Car Buying Guide” which gave a guideline for clients on how to purchase a vehicle. The ad included shopping our number with 2 other competitive dealerships, asking the right questions when at the dealership and on the test drive, and helping the client be as prepared as possible before they got to the dealership or even made first contact with their Salesperson. The response to this ad was exceptional. In what should have been our slowest 2 months of the year (January and February), we exceeded expectations and crushed our goals by 68%. Clients are going to shop you anyway, we all know that, but the majority of businesses seem to be naïve and would rather blow a bunch of money and hope that people come in the door with speculative marketing. What we found the result by changing our approach to advertising is higher traffic, higher quality clients, higher retention rate, and the referrals were starting to flood in. Ultimately, the client respected our honest approach and started telling friends and family about our company.

When you see an ad in the newspaper for a vehicle, what do you typically see? Low Payments, Huge Savings, Payments as low as, Prices have been slashed, etc. The information is the same with every dealership but with different colors or pictures, the message is the exact same. We found that by creating an image for our dealership and promoting why we are in business completely separated us from the competition and made people take notice. Although I believe there is certainly a time and place, it’s now extremely rare for us to advertise prices in print or radio. Our focus has shifted to informing the public about why we come to work every day and creating a culture that they would want to be a part of. People don’t buy initially based off price, they buy off emotion, connection with your business, the overall experience, the product and then the price.

By focusing on our core values and advertising them freely, it has undoubtedly been the driving factor behind our company’s success as of late and will continue to be moving forward. Our advertising budget has decreased but our business has increased and we have the numbers to prove it. We’ve increased our new Retail Sales Volume from 134 in 2013 to 216 by the end of our fiscal year in 2016. The client acquisition cost at our dealership is an estimated 75% lower than our direct competitors.

I would encourage you to take a serious look at taking a different approach with your advertising moving forward. You tell your employees about your vision and what type of culture you want within the dealership, so why not tell that to the public rather than simulating what the vast majority of other dealerships are advertising which is “the lowest price”. Price became less of an objection after we stopped advertising it. Weird eh?

Have you ever made a decision that made sense to you, but seemed completely backward or even controversial to friends, family, and the public? When you live in a small community, this seems to get amplified 100x. I wanted to take this opportunity to explain my situation in hopes that if anyone out there is going through a similar situation, or feels like they are holding themselves back from making a move that they need not worry or stress. We must transfer that negative energy into positive energy so we can inspire others to make these traditionally unconventional “brave” and “ballsy” moves.

First of all, I’m extremely grateful and blessed to have the opportunity to not only Partner into a multi-million dollar Auto Dealership by the age of 28, but to also have owned the Majority of the company at age 31. That’s all with spending a little over 9 years in the industry to that point. Some people aspire to be in that situation their whole life and never get there, others get a smaller piece of the pie while some buy into the dealership quicker and at a younger age than I did. Perhaps the part that I’m most proud of is the fact that I never grew up in the industry, I’m not a “Car guy”, and my parents never owned a dealership. My mom still works at a grocery store in our small hometown. It was their work ethic, support, and love that really structured my character into what helped me get to where I am today. However, the largest contributor to my success is undoubtedly my best friend and wife of 9 years, along with our 2 kids. They are what give me purpose, and they are who I want to leave a lasting legacy for.

Most people out there who know my situation with Woodworth question the move from Kenton, Manitoba to Kelowna, BC. And I can understand why, after all, I’m moving in a month and will be buying out the rest of the company on October 1st. They ask questions like How? Why? I don’t understand? What I’ve come to find is that it’s not my job to explain it to them in detail, it’s my job to explain it in detail to our team because if they understand, then that’s ultimately what matters. They trust the decision, they trust the process, our systems, and our culture. If they understand, the clients coming through the door will soon understand to that depth as well, it may take time, but they will come to understand.

From a Business perspective, we’ve made progress in our systems that will help control a lot of what “micro-managers” like to oversee. For example, instead of paying our Service and Parts Managers on a Salary, we’ve adjusted their pay so that they are incentivized on the performance of their departments. What’s great about this structure is that we must all work together in order for every department to have success. What’ I’ve noticed thus far is morale has increased, stress has decreased, the relationships have become stronger and sales have increased. Our vision is to be the dealership that clients drive 100 miles to come and deal with which we currently have on a regular basis. It’s a matter of maintaining and growing that database. We spend a fraction of the money our “competitors” do on advertising, and yet we’ve had 18% year over year Sales Volume growth over the last 4 years. Our customer acquisition costs are extremely low and our retention rate is through the roof. We have employees that have been with us for anywhere from 4 years to 32 years and have virtually no turnover.

When you structure your business around the people, vision, and systems, my job becomes less relevant to physically be there. What I’m able to do now that is extremely valuable is look at the company from the outside in. I was listening to a Less Brown Audiobook the other day on the plane and he said “You can’t see the frame by being in the picture”, and that resonated so much with me. Having the ability now to look at Woodworth from the outside in will help us elevate our game to another level. I’ll be able to focus more in depth on Tracking and Measuring, Advertising and Marketing, Systems, Ideas, Culture, etc.

By putting my ego aside and giving our employees more freedom, time, money, opportunity, and ownership has led to more of all of that for me and my family. It’s a win/win. If you’ve ever read Stephen R. Covey’s – 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, you’ll understand the value in Win/Win situations and that’s what we’ve created. It wasn’t an easy decision at first, having majority shares in a multi-million dollar company with multiple locations, but it’s proving to be a great business decision.

Now my family and I are able to enjoy a warmer climate, nicer views, hiking, biking, skiing, etc., on a daily basis because I’ll have the flexibility to do so, whereas if I stayed here, I’d feel physically obligated to be at the dealership every day.

If you’re in a similar situation, I hope you can come up with a strategy that will allow you to have the flexibility on time the way that I have now. After all, as you know, time is our most valuable asset.

The problem with most sales training is that it teaches the same tactics for the most part and tends to focus on the transactional sales techniques when the future of sales is going to be based on the client experience. We’re headed in a direction where experiences won’t just sell the products, the experience will be the product to which we’re selling. Clients are walking into the door more prepared to buy now more than ever. It’s up to us to create the experience they’re wanting. We don’t sell cars, we sell ourselves and the experience. 

In order to sell ourselves effectively, build a quality relationship with your client, and truly separate yourself from the competition, it starts with being in the right place mentally. If you don't have the right first impression with your client, or don't come across as genuine, you're fighting a losing battle. Things brings to question, should Dealerships be setting up their Sales Team with Life Coaches more than Sales Trainers? Or is it possible to have both? As Managers and Owners know, a top Sales Consultant is invaluable to the company. We must invest in them so they can reach their full potential. Plus, the more we invest in them, the more they'll willingly give back. A return on investment that is everlasting and contagious throughout the dealership. 

I believe that the majority of dealerships overlook this area.  Remember, the better questions you ask yourself, the better answers you get and the better you become in all areas of your life.