Internet Sales 20 Group
XI
Seek first to understand, then to be understood. This
eight word statement can mean the difference between a sale and a blown
opportunity. The No. 1 reason why prospects don’t buy a car is because they are
landed on the wrong vehicle. And whose fault is this? The salesperson’s. The
salesperson didn’t take the time to do due diligence and properly qualify the
prospect. We are taught as salespeople to take and keep control of the
conversation and lead the customer, rather than listening.
We prepare responses even before the customer is through
speaking. We portray ourselves to care about what the customer is saying by
nodding our heads, when, in reality, we are waiting for the customer to stop
speaking so we can implement a closing statement (“Want to take it for a
spin?”). The main objective of any successful business is to exceed a prospect’s
expectation(s). But how can anyone meet or exceed the “unknown”? If a
salesperson does not take the time to first establish the customer’s wants,
wishes and expectations, how on earth are you ever going to exceed them?
For the past 10 years, I have been building Internet
Departments and BDC’s all across the United States and have come across the same
misinformed assumption — “The only thing people are looking for on the Internet
is price.” In fact, statistics show that only 20 percent of people who shop
online are solely price motivated. So what are the other 80 percent looking for?
Availability
Convenience
Research
Hate car salesman / Looking for a
different way to do business.
Dealers are consumed with the inaccurate fact of price
being the sole reason why people are going online, and the result is that
dealers don’t qualify their prospects properly. The dealer assumes he or she
knows what their prospects want, and that means low grosses.
Let me give you an example. Let’s take the most
competitive market in the United States — Detroit. One of my client’s, Dick
Genthe Chevrolet averages $1,800 a copy on the Internet. There are over 42 other
Chevrolet dealerships within a 20-mile radius of their store. If that wasn’t
amazing enough, they make more gross on the
Internet with their used car initiatives. They broke the negative paradigm of
assuming
all people were looking for was price. They also stopped stressing the 40 +
dealerships
around their store and what they were doing. They began focusing on their own
prospects and the factors they actually have control over — “circle of
influence” versus “circle of concern.” They focused on taking the appropriate
steps to “qualify” their prospects.
To be the best, it isn’t enough to just meet your
customer’s expectations; you must exceed them. You must supply them with some
validity as to why they should buy a vehicle from you rather than your
competitor. This is done with their dealership’s value package proposition. This
means they sell the “sizzle” of why the prospect should do business at their
dealership. Specifically, what is their differentiator from all of those other
40+
surrounding Chevrolet dealerships. Here is a simple qualifying question you can
ask your prospect: “Have you ever purchased a vehicle online?” If they say
“Yes,” follow with, “Great, where did you purchase that vehicle, and what did
you like about that experience?”Whatever they respond with, make sure your
dealership does that too. Then you transition to your value package proposition.
If the customer says “no” to your question “Have you ever purchased a vehicle
online?” then you would ask the “true” qualifying question: “What were you
looking to accomplish by going online?” They will tell you exactly what they
were looking to accomplish and what their expectations are. Remember the top
five reasons why the customer is going online to begin with: price,
availability, convenience, hate car salesman/looking for
a different way to do business and research. Think about it: If you ask someone
what they were looking to accomplish by going online and they respond with
“convenience,” it really doesn’t make much sense to jump to price (and with most
dealers, that means invoice).
It would make more sense to structure your presentation to sell all of the
convenience you and your
dealership can provide, such as filling out most of the qualification paperwork
via fax before the customer arrives or taking a demo over to them for a test
drive during the customer’s lunch break and so on.
Seek first to understand, then to be understood. In sales, it makes no
difference whether you are on the showroom floor or in the Internet department.
Salespeople are too quick to splurge information to a
prospect and they do not spend enough time qualifying them by trying to identify
their wants, wishes and expectations. In reality, a customer will sell themselves
if you listen hard enough. I strongly suggest that if you
want to sell more cars, more profitably and more often, you practice your
listening and qualifying skills. Don’t just hear your prospect; understand your
prospect.
Sean V. Bradley
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