The year, 2002.  The dealership was a completely different place than it is today.  I remember my sales manager working with me one-on-one every day.  From around 9 in the morning to 3:30 we would go over closing techniques,  he would show me how he was going to pencil deals, he would teach me qualifying questions to ask, trial closes during the test drive.  
My first week at the dealership was an amazing experience, the manager pointed to the lot and told me to go drive every car out there.  I was 20 years old and had access to a lot of 350 cars, I grabbed the keys and hit the gas.  This was unfortunately before Subaru became known for its turbocharged cars but they did have the WRX and the most expensive car on the lot was an Isuzu Trooper, limited.  

I say those days were different because it was wildly a business-first mindset.  As opposed to a consumer first or customer service mindset.  We at the dealership put so much emphasis on steps to the sale because it was a complete mind game to increase gross profit on the deal.  The silent walk-around on a trade in works, if you go around and point and stare at all the imperfections of a car the owner will tell you about every scratch and ding on the car!  There were Autotrader and cars.com then but it wasn't used by many consumers to value their trade in.  Consumers would come in with their research written in notebooks.  Being at a Subaru dealership, we saw tons of engineers, scientists, MD's and professors.  Selling into this type of clientele was not hard, it was different.  We had to be on our A-game with product knowledge and understand that they were going to leave and come back, and then leave again and then come back to buy.  Consumer reports was still a thing and Edmunds was just popping onto the scene as an online research tool.

A few huge rules of being a salesperson, don't talk when your manager or someone is trying to close a deal.  After a closing question, don't say a word.

Our general manager, a gentleman by the name of Bill Breed was an incredible leader and knew the business in and out.  To the salespeople he would tell us three things, know know know your inventory, always have your D-tag in a safe place, and never lose keys.  Bill was also big on phone training and product knowledge.

I think those two things are still key today.  We were taught to perfect our walkarounds and always go on 30-minute test drives.  How many people work at a dealership today where the test drive route takes more than 10 minutes?  All of the Subaru salespeople were required to give walkarounds in front of the entire sales staff and maintain ongoing phone training to take phone calls. 

If you could do those two things properly, you would be successful selling cars, and in turn, the dealership would be successful.  We were doing around 220 cars in our prime, and that was a Subaru-Isuzu store in Olathe, KS. 

It was a privilege at the dealership to answer phones, every time the phones would ring, you would hear salespeople saying, "money's calling."  It's true too, when that phone rings, that's your money calling.  Most every salesperson had a phone script taped to their desk, we knew that it was there to help us make money, but also because if we were being secret shopped, we wanted that perfect score.  Our GM always told us, if you didn't set the appointment, don't count on them showing up and asking for you.   And he was right!  Not having an appointment, and telling them to come in and ask for you or setting a weak appointment never ended up with the customer asking for you.  Even if you had your upsheet with all of their info, you were still splitting the deal if they didn't come in and ask for you.

The strong appointment builds a solid rapport with the consumer before they even come in.  You know their name, they know yours (sometimes even have written it down), you have already validated that the vehicle they are calling in about is an excellent selection, you know about their trade-in, you have given them a couple of options on your availability to come into the dealership, and have given them directions to your store.

When people talk about getting back to basics when it comes to selling cars, these two things will make a significant impact on your dealerships monthly numbers.  Today in 2016 these two important skills have stood the test of time, they are always important and still in every great sales trainers curriculum. 

If your salespeople aren't trained on how to handle phone calls, they don't answer the phone, if they can't do a proper demo, the don't sell cars.

The year, 2002.  The dealership was a completely different place than it is today.  I remember my sales manager working with me one-on-one every day.  From around 9 in the morning to 3:30 we would go over closing techniques,  he would show me how he was going to pencil deals, he would teach me qualifying questions to ask, trial closes during the test drive.  
My first week at the dealership was an amazing experience, the manager pointed to the lot and told me to go drive every car out there.  I was 20 years old and had access to a lot of 350 cars, I grabbed the keys and hit the gas.  This was unfortunately before Subaru became known for its turbocharged cars but they did have the WRX and the most expensive car on the lot was an Isuzu Trooper, limited.  

I say those days were different because it was wildly a business-first mindset.  As opposed to a consumer first or customer service mindset.  We at the dealership put so much emphasis on steps to the sale because it was a complete mind game to increase gross profit on the deal.  The silent walk-around on a trade in works, if you go around and point and stare at all the imperfections of a car the owner will tell you about every scratch and ding on the car!  There were Autotrader and cars.com then but it wasn't used by many consumers to value their trade in.  Consumers would come in with their research written in notebooks.  Being at a Subaru dealership, we saw tons of engineers, scientists, MD's and professors.  Selling into this type of clientele was not hard, it was different.  We had to be on our A-game with product knowledge and understand that they were going to leave and come back, and then leave again and then come back to buy.  Consumer reports was still a thing and Edmunds was just popping onto the scene as an online research tool.

A few huge rules of being a salesperson, don't talk when your manager or someone is trying to close a deal.  After a closing question, don't say a word.

Our general manager, a gentleman by the name of Bill Breed was an incredible leader and knew the business in and out.  To the salespeople he would tell us three things, know know know your inventory, always have your D-tag in a safe place, and never lose keys.  Bill was also big on phone training and product knowledge.

I think those two things are still key today.  We were taught to perfect our walkarounds and always go on 30-minute test drives.  How many people work at a dealership today where the test drive route takes more than 10 minutes?  All of the Subaru salespeople were required to give walkarounds in front of the entire sales staff and maintain ongoing phone training to take phone calls. 

If you could do those two things properly, you would be successful selling cars, and in turn, the dealership would be successful.  We were doing around 220 cars in our prime, and that was a Subaru-Isuzu store in Olathe, KS. 

It was a privilege at the dealership to answer phones, every time the phones would ring, you would hear salespeople saying, "money's calling."  It's true too, when that phone rings, that's your money calling.  Most every salesperson had a phone script taped to their desk, we knew that it was there to help us make money, but also because if we were being secret shopped, we wanted that perfect score.  Our GM always told us, if you didn't set the appointment, don't count on them showing up and asking for you.   And he was right!  Not having an appointment, and telling them to come in and ask for you or setting a weak appointment never ended up with the customer asking for you.  Even if you had your upsheet with all of their info, you were still splitting the deal if they didn't come in and ask for you.

The strong appointment builds a solid rapport with the consumer before they even come in.  You know their name, they know yours (sometimes even have written it down), you have already validated that the vehicle they are calling in about is an excellent selection, you know about their trade-in, you have given them a couple of options on your availability to come into the dealership, and have given them directions to your store.

When people talk about getting back to basics when it comes to selling cars, these two things will make a significant impact on your dealerships monthly numbers.  Today in 2016 these two important skills have stood the test of time, they are always important and still in every great sales trainers curriculum. 

If your salespeople aren't trained on how to handle phone calls, they don't answer the phone, if they can't do a proper demo, the don't sell cars.