I’ll be honest, the title is a cheap rip-off of Dale Carnegie’s book, “How to Make Friends and Influence People”. The direct, no-nonsense strategies he uses for creating a circle of influence are rather obvious, yet they need to be said from time to time.

Whether you’re in new vehicle sales or an advisor at the service desk, the strategies translate from the bestseller to real-life quite well. Oversimplified, it breaks down to three main points.

Maintain Positive Communication

We’ve all been on either the giving or receiving end of negative communication in a sales process. In sales it can be, “Don’t buy a Lada – it’s a piece of junk.” (Lada used so as not to offend American retailers) In service, it could be a doom-and-gloom message like, “If you don’t have your transmission serviced today, it could blow up on you within weeks.”

Negativity breeds negativity. If you present a negative message, it can easily come back at you with a negative response. Changing those two messages might look like:

“Everyone has their own personal taste in vehicles. I believe the one I’m offering has industry-leading dependability.”

“A transmission service today will help ensure that your vehicle is as reliable next month as it has been so far.”

Carnegie offers that criticism, condemning speech, and complaints tend to build a wall between people rather than a bridge. Keep your message positive and it will be received better overall.

Stir Up a Want

Your customers need to want what you have for the sale to take place. In sales and service alike, that happens when you present the product or service as a feature-benefit presentation. Customers want the benefit that comes as the result of making a positive decision to obtain the feature.

It’s rather simple when selling vehicles. There’s a product you can go through feature by feature in a walkaround. In service, you have to use word pictures in many cases. Practice your sales techniques with (insert eye-roll response) role-playing to nail your strategy.

Show Sincere Appreciation

Perhaps you made the sale today, or maybe they’re going to schedule a second visit. Maybe they’re just going to think about it. In any case, they’ve given you the time to make your presentation, so thank them!

Sincere appreciation may have slight differences from person to person, but in general, certain things convey the point. A lighthearted smile. Eye contact. A handshake. Walking them to the door. Light conversation. And most of all, saying “Thank you for coming in to see me today. I appreciate it!”

Don’t take a single customer’s business for granted. Whether it’s a grind or a slam dunk matters not. How you interact can and does influence whether they’ll return, speak kindly of you, and even send their friends and family to see you.