Price cutting is a self-inflicted wound. Nobody holds a gun to your head and makes you cut your price. I know that many of you are thinking right now: "There is so much competition today that you can't maintain profits," "Everybody is giving everything away," "The salespeople can't negotiate," and "Everybody knows our pricing from the Internet..." Blah, Blah, Blah. Stop whining about price!

Only about ten percent of buyers buy on price alone. For that ten percent, you can decide to lower your prices or let your customers buy elsewhere. Every person who has ever sold anything knows that the happiest customers are the ones that pay you profit, whereas the unhappiest customers are the ones that you gave everything away to. Here's a news flash: You don't have to do business with them. It's your choice.

All things being equal, money will be the customer's final decision. It is your job to make everything unequal. Customers consider the 3 M's: Money, Machine, and Me. What are you doing to elevate the "me" part of the equation? The "me" part of the 3M's stands for you: your process, the dealership, the service, and the reputation. It's the easiest part of the equation to change. Your dealership is unique and your customers need to know why. You have to believe that you are the best and that you are worth more. Many salespeople and sales managers have a flawed, weak belief system. If you don't believe you are outstanding, you will make yourself a replaceable commodity.

Every day you must work as hard on yourself as you do on sales. When you get better, your customers will get better. Do you work on yourself every day in the area of attitude, education, motivation, sales skills, customer follow-up, and marketing? Let's be brutally honest and forget about being politically correct...most sales people stink at their profession. The majority of salespeople never work on the above skills. Can you really tell me that those unmotivated and uneducated idiots are the tough competition? Your only competition is in your own mind.

Recently, while in Las Vegas, I shopped for shoes at Caesar's Palace. At the first store I went to, I noticed the salesperson looked agitated to have to hang up the phone to wait on me. He was extremely rude and did nothing to add value to his store or differentiate himself from other run-of-the-mill salespeople.

The second store I went to, I encountered a sensational salesperson that created rapport, sold value, and quality. He knew his product and made a high price seem like a bargain.

The first store lost two sales and the second gained from the first salesperson's stupidity.

Is the first salesperson and his inadequacies the norm, or was it an aberration? My experience says that unfortunately, he's the norm. My hunch is that your experiences are the same as mine.

Work every day to get better and show it to your customers. Work on your belief system.

Don't be a commodity, and stop whining about price. Price is the easiest problem to solve in the sale.

For your free special report “10 Ways to Overcome the Best Price Questions”, email me at info@tewart.com with Best Price in the subject line.

Price cutting is a self-inflicted wound. Nobody holds a gun to your head and makes you cut your price. I know that many of you are thinking right now: "There is so much competition today that you can't maintain profits," "Everybody is giving everything away," "The salespeople can't negotiate," and "Everybody knows our pricing from the Internet..." Blah, Blah, Blah. Stop whining about price!

Only about ten percent of buyers buy on price alone. For that ten percent, you can decide to lower your prices or let your customers buy elsewhere. Every person who has ever sold anything knows that the happiest customers are the ones that pay you profit, whereas the unhappiest customers are the ones that you gave everything away to. Here's a news flash: You don't have to do business with them. It's your choice.

All things being equal, money will be the customer's final decision. It is your job to make everything unequal. Customers consider the 3 M's: Money, Machine, and Me. What are you doing to elevate the "me" part of the equation? The "me" part of the 3M's stands for you: your process, the dealership, the service, and the reputation. It's the easiest part of the equation to change. Your dealership is unique and your customers need to know why. You have to believe that you are the best and that you are worth more. Many salespeople and sales managers have a flawed, weak belief system. If you don't believe you are outstanding, you will make yourself a replaceable commodity.

Every day you must work as hard on yourself as you do on sales. When you get better, your customers will get better. Do you work on yourself every day in the area of attitude, education, motivation, sales skills, customer follow-up, and marketing? Let's be brutally honest and forget about being politically correct...most sales people stink at their profession. The majority of salespeople never work on the above skills. Can you really tell me that those unmotivated and uneducated idiots are the tough competition? Your only competition is in your own mind.

Recently, while in Las Vegas, I shopped for shoes at Caesar's Palace. At the first store I went to, I noticed the salesperson looked agitated to have to hang up the phone to wait on me. He was extremely rude and did nothing to add value to his store or differentiate himself from other run-of-the-mill salespeople.

The second store I went to, I encountered a sensational salesperson that created rapport, sold value, and quality. He knew his product and made a high price seem like a bargain.

The first store lost two sales and the second gained from the first salesperson's stupidity.

Is the first salesperson and his inadequacies the norm, or was it an aberration? My experience says that unfortunately, he's the norm. My hunch is that your experiences are the same as mine.

Work every day to get better and show it to your customers. Work on your belief system.

Don't be a commodity, and stop whining about price. Price is the easiest problem to solve in the sale.

For your free special report “10 Ways to Overcome the Best Price Questions”, email me at info@tewart.com with Best Price in the subject line.

Do you feel like you are missing out on something? Are you confused as to what the next step is in making your dealership successful? It’s a different ballgame than it was even just a few years ago. The traditional dealership is dead and you must bury it to prosper in the future.

            For years the car business could be a very forgiving business. There was room for a lot of error in a dealership and yet a dealership could still be profitable. Those days are gone. Dealerships cannot be run in only a “seat of the pants”, entrepreneurial fashion anymore. To be successful dealerships have to be measured intensely in four areas – People, Process, Product and Positioning.

People – You must choose a path that works for your dealership philosophy. You must recruit people on a full time basis based upon want, not need. The leadership of a dealership must have a written and executed game plan for recruiting that utilizes online services, job fairs, colleges, tech schools, high schools, web sites, micro-sites, social media, newspaper, mass media and more.

Each dealership needs a detailed plan that includes a) interview questions, b) number of interviews c) personnel trained to interview d) testing methods for potential job skill match e) screening methods f) follow up methods g) initial and ongoing training methods for new hires

Process – Each dealership should have a written and executed process for every part of the dealership – sales process, internet lead process, marketing process, service process, parts process, manager process, used car inventory process etc. As an example, the selling process must be reviewed to make sure it is up to date and matches today’s marketplace. Most sales processes being used today were created in the 50’s and 60’s and have changed only slightly. Meanwhile, for the customer, everything has changed. Information gathering, overall knowledge, shopping process, volume of choices, expectations, value perceptions, lessening of brand loyalty are all things that have changed dramatically.

Every dealership needs to review their process based upon TLC – Think Like a Customer. What are you currently doing in your dealership process that lessens customer trust or ease of shopping/buying. Most dealerships are living in the stone-age when it comes to something as simple as the meeting and greeting of the customer. Nothing in your current process is sacred and the mantra for many things should be “just let it go.”

Product – The days of “Stack’em deep and sell them cheap” are over. Your new and used inventory must be monitored daily using analytic systems and technology that measures not only your inventory but others and market conditions. Many dealers have fought using any type of turn system even though simple mathematics proved you would be better off doing so. Well, the tide has turned again. Turn systems by themselves are now outdated and can even lower your dealerships ROI without other factors involved. Each vehicle is an investment just like a stock or mutual fund and must be analyzed, bought, priced, marketed, sold and eliminated using several conditions. Just saying that you have a 45 day turn system is not good enough anymore.

Positioning – Gone are the days of running display newspaper ads and waiting for traffic to arrive. Your dealership must have a dealership strategy that combines market positioning. Selling vehicles based upon price only will not create long term success. Successful dealers will no longer be able to delegate all of their marketing to an advertising strategy without educating themselves on the marketing and positioning aspects of their dealership.

Dealers will have to massively educate themselves on things such as, direct response marketing methods, copyrighting, multi-step campaigns, integration of on-line and off-line methods, social media, continual customer relationship building strategies, and sales to service continuity programs and retention. Dealers will learn that many advertising agencies do not understand any of these things and simply create lousy to mediocre production and buy the media. Without a well thought strategy using intentional congruence with all of the above mentioned factors you cannot be successful in this and future marketplace.

In the last year, I have asked hundreds of dealers the following questions:

#1 - What are your overall sales to service retention numbers and percentages beyond a first free oil change?

#2 - What are your number of inactive customers and what percentage is that to your overall customer base?

#3 – What is your planned and executed strategy for a continuity program to keep your customers for sales and service?

Here is the sad result. Out of hundreds of dealers, only one knew the answer to these questions. I continually find that dealers and managers do not really know what is going on in their own dealerships and are not doing anything to educate them to change that.

The reality is that the future belongs to dealers who educate themselves more, execute better and understand the value of speed in today’s marketplace. The marketplace of today and the future will continue to be very unforgiving with little room for margin of error, inattention or being slothful. The traditional dealership is dead but the exciting news is your new dealership is waiting to be born.

For a free special report titled “10 Things You Must Do At Your Dealership To Be Successful” email me at info@tewart.com with 10 things in the subject line.

Do you feel like you are missing out on something? Are you confused as to what the next step is in making your dealership successful? It’s a different ballgame than it was even just a few years ago. The traditional dealership is dead and you must bury it to prosper in the future.

            For years the car business could be a very forgiving business. There was room for a lot of error in a dealership and yet a dealership could still be profitable. Those days are gone. Dealerships cannot be run in only a “seat of the pants”, entrepreneurial fashion anymore. To be successful dealerships have to be measured intensely in four areas – People, Process, Product and Positioning.

People – You must choose a path that works for your dealership philosophy. You must recruit people on a full time basis based upon want, not need. The leadership of a dealership must have a written and executed game plan for recruiting that utilizes online services, job fairs, colleges, tech schools, high schools, web sites, micro-sites, social media, newspaper, mass media and more.

Each dealership needs a detailed plan that includes a) interview questions, b) number of interviews c) personnel trained to interview d) testing methods for potential job skill match e) screening methods f) follow up methods g) initial and ongoing training methods for new hires

Process – Each dealership should have a written and executed process for every part of the dealership – sales process, internet lead process, marketing process, service process, parts process, manager process, used car inventory process etc. As an example, the selling process must be reviewed to make sure it is up to date and matches today’s marketplace. Most sales processes being used today were created in the 50’s and 60’s and have changed only slightly. Meanwhile, for the customer, everything has changed. Information gathering, overall knowledge, shopping process, volume of choices, expectations, value perceptions, lessening of brand loyalty are all things that have changed dramatically.

Every dealership needs to review their process based upon TLC – Think Like a Customer. What are you currently doing in your dealership process that lessens customer trust or ease of shopping/buying. Most dealerships are living in the stone-age when it comes to something as simple as the meeting and greeting of the customer. Nothing in your current process is sacred and the mantra for many things should be “just let it go.”

Product – The days of “Stack’em deep and sell them cheap” are over. Your new and used inventory must be monitored daily using analytic systems and technology that measures not only your inventory but others and market conditions. Many dealers have fought using any type of turn system even though simple mathematics proved you would be better off doing so. Well, the tide has turned again. Turn systems by themselves are now outdated and can even lower your dealerships ROI without other factors involved. Each vehicle is an investment just like a stock or mutual fund and must be analyzed, bought, priced, marketed, sold and eliminated using several conditions. Just saying that you have a 45 day turn system is not good enough anymore.

Positioning – Gone are the days of running display newspaper ads and waiting for traffic to arrive. Your dealership must have a dealership strategy that combines market positioning. Selling vehicles based upon price only will not create long term success. Successful dealers will no longer be able to delegate all of their marketing to an advertising strategy without educating themselves on the marketing and positioning aspects of their dealership.

Dealers will have to massively educate themselves on things such as, direct response marketing methods, copyrighting, multi-step campaigns, integration of on-line and off-line methods, social media, continual customer relationship building strategies, and sales to service continuity programs and retention. Dealers will learn that many advertising agencies do not understand any of these things and simply create lousy to mediocre production and buy the media. Without a well thought strategy using intentional congruence with all of the above mentioned factors you cannot be successful in this and future marketplace.

In the last year, I have asked hundreds of dealers the following questions:

#1 - What are your overall sales to service retention numbers and percentages beyond a first free oil change?

#2 - What are your number of inactive customers and what percentage is that to your overall customer base?

#3 – What is your planned and executed strategy for a continuity program to keep your customers for sales and service?

Here is the sad result. Out of hundreds of dealers, only one knew the answer to these questions. I continually find that dealers and managers do not really know what is going on in their own dealerships and are not doing anything to educate them to change that.

The reality is that the future belongs to dealers who educate themselves more, execute better and understand the value of speed in today’s marketplace. The marketplace of today and the future will continue to be very unforgiving with little room for margin of error, inattention or being slothful. The traditional dealership is dead but the exciting news is your new dealership is waiting to be born.

For a free special report titled “10 Things You Must Do At Your Dealership To Be Successful” email me at info@tewart.com with 10 things in the subject line.

 Death of The Traditional Salesperson– Part 2

                A recent article I wrote titled “Death of Traditional Salespeople” received more response than any article I have ever written.  Judging from the massive response, I struck a nerve with salespeople, managers, business owners and just about everyone who read the article. Based upon the overwhelming response and the huge amount of requests for more information on this theme, I am providing the following article.

                For as long as I can remember traditional sales training has focused highly on certain sales skills such as cold calling, presentation-demonstration, objection handling and closing. This model is outdated and out of touch. The traditional model taught to salespeople has an adversarial tone and combative tone that goes against the grain of basic human communication.

                Selling is not something you do to someone. By my definition, selling is assisting people in finding and understanding a solution to their problem(s). Every buyer has a problem whether it is a want or need problem and it’s the job of the salesperson to guide the buyer to the solution instead of force feeding him with product or services. It’s much easier to practice what I call the “slippery-slide method of selling.”

                If you were at a pool and it had one of those slippery-slides, you would start at the top and slide effortless to the bottom.  In sales, it’s usually the salesperson that puts obstacles in the way of the customer from flowing effortlessly to their destination. The obstacles start in the form of an outdated mindset of “control” and coercive techniques.

                If instead of concentrating so much on outdated word tracks to overpower people, why not concentrate on understanding basic human emotion and thought in assisting the customer rather than fighting him. Let’s start with the most abused skill in selling which is listening. So much of selling is actually just listening. It is a proven part of communication that when most people listen they listen intently for about the first ten seconds and then quickly shift into thinking about what their response  will be. A quick shift occurs in the salesperson that is now self-focused and control oriented.

                To truly listen is to seek to understand based upon complete focus of the customer and their perspective. Perception of the customer is the only reality that matters. It’s not about right or wrong or overcoming objections but about truly understanding the customer and their thoughts and feelings.  From understanding comes a shared goal achieving process with the customer. You and the customer share a destiny rather than acting as opposing players.

 Traditional objection handling techniques stress changing a customer’s thoughts and emotions rather than understanding them and then utilizing those thoughts and emotions to come a winning solution for the customer. I call this paradigm shift “selling form the heart.” Some old school types will read this and think it’s a bunch of psycho-babble and feel good mumbo-jumbo.  To those of you locked in that vein of thought, understand that it’s not my mission to change you, as most adults do not change.  As Jesus said to his disciples, “Don’t tarry too long with the non believers.”

To find out more about this topic and  receive some FREE bonuses go to www.superstarbookvideo.com

 Death of The Traditional Salesperson– Part 2

                A recent article I wrote titled “Death of Traditional Salespeople” received more response than any article I have ever written.  Judging from the massive response, I struck a nerve with salespeople, managers, business owners and just about everyone who read the article. Based upon the overwhelming response and the huge amount of requests for more information on this theme, I am providing the following article.

                For as long as I can remember traditional sales training has focused highly on certain sales skills such as cold calling, presentation-demonstration, objection handling and closing. This model is outdated and out of touch. The traditional model taught to salespeople has an adversarial tone and combative tone that goes against the grain of basic human communication.

                Selling is not something you do to someone. By my definition, selling is assisting people in finding and understanding a solution to their problem(s). Every buyer has a problem whether it is a want or need problem and it’s the job of the salesperson to guide the buyer to the solution instead of force feeding him with product or services. It’s much easier to practice what I call the “slippery-slide method of selling.”

                If you were at a pool and it had one of those slippery-slides, you would start at the top and slide effortless to the bottom.  In sales, it’s usually the salesperson that puts obstacles in the way of the customer from flowing effortlessly to their destination. The obstacles start in the form of an outdated mindset of “control” and coercive techniques.

                If instead of concentrating so much on outdated word tracks to overpower people, why not concentrate on understanding basic human emotion and thought in assisting the customer rather than fighting him. Let’s start with the most abused skill in selling which is listening. So much of selling is actually just listening. It is a proven part of communication that when most people listen they listen intently for about the first ten seconds and then quickly shift into thinking about what their response  will be. A quick shift occurs in the salesperson that is now self-focused and control oriented.

                To truly listen is to seek to understand based upon complete focus of the customer and their perspective. Perception of the customer is the only reality that matters. It’s not about right or wrong or overcoming objections but about truly understanding the customer and their thoughts and feelings.  From understanding comes a shared goal achieving process with the customer. You and the customer share a destiny rather than acting as opposing players.

 Traditional objection handling techniques stress changing a customer’s thoughts and emotions rather than understanding them and then utilizing those thoughts and emotions to come a winning solution for the customer. I call this paradigm shift “selling form the heart.” Some old school types will read this and think it’s a bunch of psycho-babble and feel good mumbo-jumbo.  To those of you locked in that vein of thought, understand that it’s not my mission to change you, as most adults do not change.  As Jesus said to his disciples, “Don’t tarry too long with the non believers.”

To find out more about this topic and  receive some FREE bonuses go to www.superstarbookvideo.com

The traditional dealership is dead but some have not had their funeral yet. It seems as though as much as some things change in the auto industry, as many things stay the same. Every week our trainers observe things in dealerships that look and feel like the 1960's.

Let's take a look at some things still commonly observed in dealerships that are outdated and should be changed.

1) Manager towers - High towers built for managers where salespeople go to get their proposal figures. The common reason for these towers is to create a good observation point of the inventory for managers. What these towers signify is demeaning to salespeople and adversarial to customers. These towers create a manager haven for never moving and an air of supremacy.

Solution: Tear down the towers. Look around your dealership and ask yourself the following question. "What do I see that looks like it's from the 60's?" Please tear it down.

2) The big green sharpie deal proposals. These proposals scream of adversarial "you vs. me" negotiations. The figures seem less real and more of just a thought.

Solution: Use printed or screen proposals with full disclosure

3) Manager TO's at the end of a sales attempt - For those of you who may be new to the auto business, a TO means a turnover. Old school selling means the salesperson turns over the customer to a manager when he/she cannot CLOSE a deal. Often, the new salesperson is berated for not turning the customer to the manager. The reason is the new salesperson feels as uncomfortable as the customer with this process.

Solution: Manager/Coach/ Team Leader is actively involved in the sales process from the greeting of the customer. The new focus is to OPEN the relationship so the sale can be closed. The days of sitting behind a desk and screaming at salespeople to bring a deal are dead. Managers will be hybrid sales coaches, assistants and information providers that involve the sales process, deal process, F&I assistance. No longer will the manager be expected to save a lost deal but will be involved throughout the process with the emphasis on creating not on saving. You manage things but you lead people.

4) Seat of the pants used car inventory management. - The days of the guru used car manager who knows all the hot cars, market figures for every car on the market, what the correct appraisal is on every trade at and what every other dealership is doing and managing the used inventory strictly by feel, is dead. The truth is that person never really existed. It was a myth and a fairy tale. Nobody and I mean nobody is that good at what they do.

Solution: If you do not have a used inventory philosophy, system and technology to assist you then you will forever be making mistakes that are in today's market very unforgiving. You must use your learned knowledge combined with inventory technology and up to date market data to be relevant in the market. The shocking truth is that the 90, 60, 45 or whatever day turn systems used strictly by themselves are also outdated models that not only do not work, they create problems. Your goals are high sales, profit, ROI and yield, not just turns. (More on that subject in future articles)

5) A staff full of professional "Do it all, salespeople" - This one can actually still be accomplished but very, very few dealers actually do the things to recruit, hire and train the right people to make this happen. If you have never done this before, you will probably not do this in the future. Don't kid yourself. Running a help wanted ad in the newspaper, interviewing candidates without a pre-thought out plan for recruiting, interviewing, testing, screening, training and ongoing development is not trying to develop a staff of professional salespeople.

Solution: The solution for many is something most do not want to hear. For most dealerships, you will never put the amount of time, money and energy to set up a high level approach to getting and keeping great people. It's just a fact. The solution is to create a process that involves heavy involvement with team leaders, assistants and technology that narrows the scope of your sales staff. Most dealerships are hiring average to below average people and expecting them to do a myriad of things they are not only not doing, but not capable of doing. Worse yet the managers are not showing these people or inspecting the process to make sure it happens. If you are honest with yourself and this description fits your dealership, then you must try something different. The long term health of your customer base and dealership depends on this.

I invite you to take a moment today and before you get busy with the everyday tasks to take a strong look at your dealership and what is being accomplished or not. Be honest. Are you fighting battle you have never won? Do your salespeople, managers, processes and dealership reek of the 60's and 70's? It may just be time for a funeral.

For a FREE Special Report and more information on this subject email me at info@tewart.com with the term New Generation in the subject line

 

The traditional dealership is dead but some have not had their funeral yet. It seems as though as much as some things change in the auto industry, as many things stay the same. Every week our trainers observe things in dealerships that look and feel like the 1960's.

Let's take a look at some things still commonly observed in dealerships that are outdated and should be changed.

1) Manager towers - High towers built for managers where salespeople go to get their proposal figures. The common reason for these towers is to create a good observation point of the inventory for managers. What these towers signify is demeaning to salespeople and adversarial to customers. These towers create a manager haven for never moving and an air of supremacy.

Solution: Tear down the towers. Look around your dealership and ask yourself the following question. "What do I see that looks like it's from the 60's?" Please tear it down.

2) The big green sharpie deal proposals. These proposals scream of adversarial "you vs. me" negotiations. The figures seem less real and more of just a thought.

Solution: Use printed or screen proposals with full disclosure

3) Manager TO's at the end of a sales attempt - For those of you who may be new to the auto business, a TO means a turnover. Old school selling means the salesperson turns over the customer to a manager when he/she cannot CLOSE a deal. Often, the new salesperson is berated for not turning the customer to the manager. The reason is the new salesperson feels as uncomfortable as the customer with this process.

Solution: Manager/Coach/ Team Leader is actively involved in the sales process from the greeting of the customer. The new focus is to OPEN the relationship so the sale can be closed. The days of sitting behind a desk and screaming at salespeople to bring a deal are dead. Managers will be hybrid sales coaches, assistants and information providers that involve the sales process, deal process, F&I assistance. No longer will the manager be expected to save a lost deal but will be involved throughout the process with the emphasis on creating not on saving. You manage things but you lead people.

4) Seat of the pants used car inventory management. - The days of the guru used car manager who knows all the hot cars, market figures for every car on the market, what the correct appraisal is on every trade at and what every other dealership is doing and managing the used inventory strictly by feel, is dead. The truth is that person never really existed. It was a myth and a fairy tale. Nobody and I mean nobody is that good at what they do.

Solution: If you do not have a used inventory philosophy, system and technology to assist you then you will forever be making mistakes that are in today's market very unforgiving. You must use your learned knowledge combined with inventory technology and up to date market data to be relevant in the market. The shocking truth is that the 90, 60, 45 or whatever day turn systems used strictly by themselves are also outdated models that not only do not work, they create problems. Your goals are high sales, profit, ROI and yield, not just turns. (More on that subject in future articles)

5) A staff full of professional "Do it all, salespeople" - This one can actually still be accomplished but very, very few dealers actually do the things to recruit, hire and train the right people to make this happen. If you have never done this before, you will probably not do this in the future. Don't kid yourself. Running a help wanted ad in the newspaper, interviewing candidates without a pre-thought out plan for recruiting, interviewing, testing, screening, training and ongoing development is not trying to develop a staff of professional salespeople.

Solution: The solution for many is something most do not want to hear. For most dealerships, you will never put the amount of time, money and energy to set up a high level approach to getting and keeping great people. It's just a fact. The solution is to create a process that involves heavy involvement with team leaders, assistants and technology that narrows the scope of your sales staff. Most dealerships are hiring average to below average people and expecting them to do a myriad of things they are not only not doing, but not capable of doing. Worse yet the managers are not showing these people or inspecting the process to make sure it happens. If you are honest with yourself and this description fits your dealership, then you must try something different. The long term health of your customer base and dealership depends on this.

I invite you to take a moment today and before you get busy with the everyday tasks to take a strong look at your dealership and what is being accomplished or not. Be honest. Are you fighting battle you have never won? Do your salespeople, managers, processes and dealership reek of the 60's and 70's? It may just be time for a funeral.

For a FREE Special Report and more information on this subject email me at info@tewart.com with the term New Generation in the subject line