The job of a car salesperson is less about selling and more about helping the customer buy.
It’s a core truth of the sales profession. It is to help customers find the exact product and service that meets their needs, wants and desires – and give them a positive experience to remember.
The way to do this is to ensure you are in a position to do your job by setting measurable goals, garnering support, seeking training and education and focusing on the things that make you money. Knowledge is a powerful tool.
In doing this, think SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-Based.
Be sure every goal supports short-, mid- and long-term professional objectives, while supporting your work and your dealership’s objectives. Your professional goals may include:
- Follow up with everyone who didn’t buy within 24 hours. Don’t wait it out.
- Keep in touch with every customer who did purchase monthly, and provide relevant, personalized information. There is no reason not to.
- Read one motivational book each month (like mine, “Who Knew?”)
- Increase your paycheck by at least 15% -20% within the next 12 months.
Once goals are set, create and follow your daily action plan that includes progress measurements. These focus on priorities and on achieving goals.
Identify people in other organizations and professional groups, as well as community leaders, family and friends, who can support the efforts to achieving goals.
Networking groups and community leaders can bring leads and referrals and give salespeople a chance to hone their skills.
Professional organizations can provide ideas, education and training.
Family and friends can provide support and honest feedback, as well as potential opportunities and referrals.
Seek additional training that will help you do your job.
Salespeople who take the initiative and seek out education and training are developing skills that maximize ability and achieve results. They are self-motivated. They want to learn.
They are the people who, when told “no” or “you can’t do that,” prove others wrong. They take negativity as a challenge to succeed. In sales, you may get five or 10 or any number of “no’s” before getting a “yes.”
It’s what you learn from the people who say, “no,” and how you take the rejection and turn it into an opportunity that leads to success. Learn to make it work.
Most productive salespeople seek opportunities to learn all day, every day. They educate themselves and don’t wait to be taught by someone else.
They observe their surroundings, their interactions with others and how people engage with each other.
They take the initiative to learn more about their own business and the products they sell, as well as what the competition offers. This passion for continuous learning equips them with the knowledge needed to become valued resources to their clients.
Everybody is a salesperson empowered to help customers buy. An organization has an obligation to you to create a positive work environment and encourage you to act in empowered ways.
Unfortunately, too many salespeople wait to be told what to do, while their managers wonder why they aren’t doing their jobs.
Setting goals, leveraging support, taking the initiative to learn and focusing on your job will lead to a profitable and productive career in sales. Small successes and large achievements start the same way.
Richard F. Libin (photo above, left) is the author of two books “Who Knew? and “Who Stopped the Sale?” He is president of Automotive Profit Builders that aims to help clients through personnel development and technology. Contact him at [email protected] or 508-626-9200 or www.apb.cc.
