For your auto dealership, first impressions are paramount. It’s utterly critical that you make your customers feel safe, welcome, and understood the moment they walk in the door. And a big part of that boils down to how you greet them.

You might be surprised by how many ways there are for sales reps to greet their customers—and of course, some methods are better than others. In this post, we’ll run down some of the right ways to greet the people who come through your door.

But first, we’re going to look at some of the wrong ways.

How Not to Greet Your    Customers

Here are a few of the bad greetings we’ve heard in used car dealerships.

• Hello, can I help you? Of course you can! You work at the dealership!
• Hi, do you need a salesperson? Again, a no-brainer; of course they do!
• Hello—how are you today? This one is friendly, but hardly steers the conversation toward making a sale.
• How can I be of service to you today? Don’t make the customer tell you how you can help them. You’re the one who should initiate the sales process! You tell them how you can be of service!
• Hello, are you looking for a new car? Of course they are! That’s why they’re at a dealership!

There are problems with all of these greetings—but the overriding problem? All of them leave the door open for the customer to give you a negative response, to turn you away, to say they’re “just looking.” And that’s not how you want these conversations to go.

Better Ways to Greet

So how should sales reps greet their customers? There are a few guidelines to keep in mind.

• First, always smile. Positivity is key.
• Say hello, state your name, and ask for theirs. Something like this: “Hello, welcome to Orange County Used Cars and Trucks. My name is James Erickson. And your name is?”
• If they only offer a first name, ask for their last name, too. Then write it down. Try to do this discreetly.
• Refer to the customer by their first name.
• Don’t offer your business card. Do that at the end of your conversation. At the beginning of the conversation, the card has no value to the customer.

This may all sound simple—but by directing the conversation and disallowing any opportunities for a negative response, you’ll be much better positioned to move your customer encounters forward, ultimately closing more of your sales.