If I ask you what is your profession?  What do you do?   What will you say ... Are you prepared?

Do you just come out and say I sell cars! How hard is it to chase them down after that?  Is it reasonable to assume that if you meet someone that you have never met before and they ask you what is your profession?  First of all, do you consider what you do to be a profession?  Either way, the best answer to the question is not "I sell cars"?  Your would-be customer's wall will rise.  Then their quick exit is next.

Face it, the public perception of car salespeople is tied to the professions of lawyers and politicians.  In case it needs clarification, that tie is not at the top of the list of professions, the tie is for the very b0ttom of the list. I could talk for hours about why that is not fair, but that perception is our reality.  So ... Mr. Carguy ... What is your profession?

Can you tell me in a concise, direct and clear way? And by concise I mean 30 seconds.

3 Principles That Lead To An Effective Initial Contact 

1) Clearly, understand how important a 1st impression is to the initial contact being effective. Ultimately, effective would mean that this contact would eventually lead to gaining a new customer.

2) Create a strong and effective 30-second introduction of you and your product.   Remember the public perception of our profession while doing this.

3) You must have the confidence of a professional that comes from the expert knowledge of your product and how it benefits your customers.

A good exercise is to ask yourself:

1. What do YOU think about what you do?
2. What is your opinion of the value YOU bring to your clientele?
3. People have many choices, why should they choose you, your dealership and your product?
4. What excites you about what you do?

As the Business Development Director at a car dealership, I have a team of Business Development Coordinators and Sales Consultants. We talk to many people every day that knows what we do and while some appreciate us.  There are some that are absolutely shameful in the way they treat people they don't know other than that they work for a car dealership.   So we are very familiar with of the public perception of auto salespeople.  The commitment, dedication, and tenacity of auto sales professionals are incredible because of this negativity that they fight through every day to assist people.

So when asked, "What do you do?" What if this was our response:

"I am a sales consultant at Tom Light Chevrolet and I do whatever it takes every day to create the best, easiest and "no games" purchasing experience for the individuals, families, and businesses I assist in getting their next new or pre-owned vehicle.  The next time you or someone you know are in the market  give me a call and let me prove that to you."

That is less than 30 seconds and is straightforward, brings curiosity because everyone wants to avoid the games and have an easy experience.  This also does a great job of describing what a professional in the retail auto industry does every day.  When you are approached away from your place of business this is an example of introducing what you do as a profession and in a positive way - touching on the difference in the way you handle the areas of concern of 90% of your market.

Many salespeople have found that this is the missing piece of their puzzle to success.  Becoming intentional about and perfecting how they interact with prospects and what they say in the very beginning is that missing piece.  It's fundamental to all professional's success and that is the ability to describe what they do, in a concise way, that a stranger can relate to and understand.

What is your plan? What do you want the outcome to be from these encounters? An appointment for a test drive or product demonstration?  Are you going to meet at their home or office?  Is sending them some information an acceptable outcome?  This takes planning and practice to be ready.  A very successful 40 year veteran of the retail car business, engaged people everywhere he went and his plan was to gather their information and get them into his "Happy Birthday System".  When someone asked him, "How are you?" he would respond with "I would be much better if I knew someone that was needing a new or used vehicle, who do you know?"   This planning and intentional approach done consistently turned into 30 plus units sold per month for many years.

If you are satisfied with sitting and waiting for business to come to you, then ignore this post. However, if you want to become a massive success with a 6 figure + income, then perfect your answer to the question "what is your profession" or "what do you do for a living"?  This is vital and you must master it!

Think about this question - How many of these opportunities are you avoiding or blowing each month? 10, 20, 100?

Be Ready - it could be the difference in $75,000 income this year and $150,000 or more!

Expect to Win!

I am always searching for ideas and best practices.  They only way to prevent wasting time on mistakes is to learn from others that have already made the journey and made and corrected the mistakes on the way to creating a best practice.  I find these ideas and best practices from meetings, webinars, videos and reading articles.  

We all go to meetings.  Most of us in the car business attend at least 1 sales meeting per week.  We attend webinars and watch videos. We have access to ideas from people that are killing it in what they do.  Don't waste that time.  

Here are 5 things to do to make sure that your ideas are put into actionL

1. Find the idea and best practice.  Watch a minimum of 15 minutes per day of good video instruction or read 15 minutes of good written material.  You are looking for ways to improve your skills in all areas  - building relationships, marketing, prospecting, product knowledge etc.
2. Always have a notepad (electronic or written) with you.  Take it to every meeting you attend, video or webinar you watch or article you read.  Take all notes - anything that is interesting, get it down for later reference.
3. Always have post-it notes in addition to the notepad.  Seperate from your notes on your notepad - put your action items on a post-it note.  As you are taking notes, there will no doubt be ideas and best practices that you want to implement - take action on.  You want to get to work on these things ASAG.  These are things from the meeting or video or article that you JUST CAN'T AFFORD TO FORGET!                      
4. Immediately after the meeting, video or reading time - file the notes - I use Evernote as my electronic filing cabinet.  
5. The most important Action Step is to take the Post-It notes and get them on your calendar - Make the Plan to take action NOW!

Expect To Win!

--Jim

Do you think that "lifers" in the car business love or hate the down time?  

Because it just doesn't matter where you go - Standing Around or Sitting Around is an acquired habit in most dealerships throughout the country.  Dealers do it, Managers do it, Technicians do it and Salespeople excel in it.  

I guess that I have always been a little different - ok, not a little, a whole lot different.  Down time drives me bat - s#%t CRAZY!!!!  

What would happen, if we embraced this in the car business.                         

When you look at your day, whether proactive by filling your schedule or reflective my looking at what you did  -  what do you see?  Here is what you should remember always.

“There is no return on wasted time.”

• What % of the activities on your schedule are income producing? (IPA)
• How much white space or blank spots are on your schedule?
• Do you plan your day ahead of time?
• Do you take control of your day or does your day control you?

Again, our time is our most important investment. Focus on that when you ask these 4 questions

Wasted Time - Never Let It Happen.  

Teach it, Coach it, Lead it - make it the culture.  Make it count.

We just witnessed perhaps the best Super Bowl every played.  We watched 2 teams battle to the end.  What we saw was players on both sides "leave it all on the field".   When we come to work and look back at the end of the day, did we "leave it all on the field" or did we have a lot of wasted time that we will get no ROI on and we can't get it back?  NEVER LET IT HAPPEN!  Leave it all on the field!

You are sitting in a sales meeting and your fearless leader is in front and writes this question on the whiteboard: "What is the most important thing to success in sales?"  

JD has a 8-5 job at ABC Data and starts his day off bad by fussing with his wife and then spills coffee on his fresh shirt as he walks out the door.  That's just great - what a way to start his day.  Needless to say, his attitude is in the tank.  But does JD have any concerns about his ability to enter data in the computer for 8 hours today?  What he does is start with the end in mind and watch the clock until 5 and leave without ever giving a thought to his performance over the last 8 hours.  He also collects his paycheck on Friday and there is no column that says "bad attitude day" with a reduction in pay. 

Contrast this with TJ who is a sales consultant at XYZ Motors. She depends on your ability to get people or companies to purchase her product to get paid, there is absolutely no possibility that she can perform at a high level if she starts and continues her day as JD did.  It is like the star running back on the University football team.  His speed, toughness and instincts are unbelievable he is truly a superstar.  But, he steps on the side of his offensive guard's foot and seriously twists and sprains his ankle.  Does his speed still make him uncatchable? Does his toughness make him untackleable and do his instincts matter if he can't cut and run? The answer is a resounding no, in fact we are going to replace him until he recovers from this injury.  When your attitude is bad, your mindset is not set on course for success what happens?  If you aren't smiling when you interact with your customer are they open to you? If you aren't sharp do you have the answers and rebuttals to their questions and objections?  If you aren't focused are you able to push through the nos to get to the yeses? We know the answer, we need to replace you in the lineup till you recover from your injury.

 I spent a few days with an early 30s manager recently.  He is a great process and deal counsel guy.  He has no idea about leading.  His manager was the same way, and is now doing time in jail for cutting corners.  He tackles most situations with intimidation being his motivating approach and that approach doesn't produce results and also defeats a positive and powerful attitude.  His response to that is "those damn salesmen".

1. Wake up & smile - when you look in the mirror, be sure you see a smile on your face. 
2. Write down at least 5 things that you are grateful for today.
3. Read a minimum of 15 minutes of a good, powerful and positive book.
4. Say this affirmation "I expect to win today because
   • I have (or) will create a great opportunity to serve and prosper.
   • I love to serve others
   • I am very good at what I do everyday
   • People need me and they know it
   • Financial reward comes to me in abundance
   • I am positive and thankful to God for all of my many blessings."

Auto dealers are facing the dilemma or at least heavily involved in a popular topic for discussion revolving around the Business Development Center. So many questions - 

Do you need a BDC?  Do I want a BDC or a BD culture?  How do I structure it?  I heard that compensation is the key. I heard that you have to have 1 agent per 200 leads and on and on. - My big concern is that all of the questions have led to so much analysis that we are paralyzed by the complexity of the discussion.  The fact is that it is very simple.

We have complicated what is basically the process(es) of creating and then taking business opportunities and maximizing them.  That is simplistic but that is the definition of the Business Development Center.  The way that is gets accomplished depends upon the (P) eople you have in place.  The (P)eople are what drives the (P) rocess to success.  If your sales staff isn't, and most sales staffs aren't, disciplined enough to consistently maximize ALL business opportunities, then what's next?

Simply put here is what our sales managers and sales people must commit to:

Our disciplined and dedicated staff puts out maximum effort to establish a dedicated approach to product knowledge and skill development and add that to a new business creation, customer loyalty, sales, follow-up and customer service process.  The staff is disciplined to follow the process 100% of the time.  This process leads them to create rapport, close deals on the spot or systematically be involved in their prospect's buying cycle by being creatively persistent and getting the unsold showroom opportunity to return and purchase from them.  After the sale, they pro-actively follow-up to earn loyalty from their customers which results in a consistent and growing repeat and referral customer base.

Yeah, I know that is a very formal description of what we expect from a salesperson in the car business.  That's because I wrote it for a client in the Financial Services Industry.  The "Salespeople" in that industry have Insurance and securities licenses. They are not required to have college degrees, but in order to have great success, they must have discipline, dedication and effort.  But, the majority rarely get involved in transactions as large as the cost of a New Tahoe.  Customers look at them as a professional and deserving of respect.  Are they more educated than the salespeople on the showroom floor of dealerships across this country.  The answer is no.  Then why do customers look at them differently?  Let's go back to the "formal" description of what we expect.  Maybe their view of what they do is at a higher level than our view of what we do. Maybe their sales managers / leaders expectations of their teams is higher than that of the car business' sales managers / leaders are of their teams?

How do sales managers/ leaders approach what they do each day? 

1. What percentage of sales managers / leaders could print out what their process is to create and maximize business opportunities? 
2. Do you have have your processes displayed in conference and break rooms?
3. Do our sales managers/ leaders and their salespeople even know what those processes are or what they should look like?
4. Do we train the new salespeople on our processes?

Because dealers, in general, have had low expectations of the sales managers/ leaders and their ability to carry out simple processes to create and maximize business opportunities.  The sales managers/ leaders, who are products of the showroom floor, aren't accountable for knowing, following or training proven processes.  Which in turn leaves us with a sales staff that is not equipped, in many cases, of carrying out what is described above. Because that process requires a disciplined and dedicated sales staff to be committed to it everyday.  

As a result 2 things have happened. 

1. The manufacturers have shown up with a smile and the scary statement "I am with the car company and I am here to help".  They have come in and suggested, that's BS - they didn't suggest anything - they forced dealers to establish a BDC because they don't expect the current process to succeed or they don't have confidence that the dealers will figure it out on their own.
2. Proactive dealers have said that with marketing, advertising and how we engage with our customers changing quickly and often and the speed of communication being very important they are going to establish a BDC to maximize all opportunities coming from the Internet and phone.  

So we fast forward a few years and here we are.  I am imploring you - don't let anyone complicate it for you. It is as simple as PPP:

1. Design Processes that systematically create business opportunities and maximize those opportunities.  There are several very good people & companies out their with the credibility of having done it over and over successfully that can help you with this.
2. Assess your People - one problem is see is that the cookie cutter approach is used to often.  The decision to either have a BDC Director with a call center or a BDC Manager and the sales staff is involving in making calls (there are many more options of how to structure) is dependent on your people.  If someone comes in your store and tries to cram their one size fits all concept down your throat, send them packing immediately.  Assess the skills and talent of your people.  There are consultants that can help you with this.  It is a vital step to your success.
3. Its about the Product - The product, the service and the experience.  Continuous and never ending improvement should be applied to our service and experience part of the Product we offer.