Ask your customers to help YOU sell a car, not buy one...

Focus on ole Betsy and take the confrontation out of the sale:
Many Sales Managers across the country have grabbed onto the technique of focusing a walk-in customer’s attention back to the vehicle they are trading in very early in the meet and greet, I am a HUGE fan of this having learned it from my fav trainer Mark Tewart. Most of us see the value in getting to better know the customer and their wants and need by going straight to the thing that can give us the most info about them, their own car! While this is a very common practice for out on the lot, at least it very well SHOULD be(!), it can also be tremendously affective in other avenues of a car deal as well.

For instance how often does your Internet or BDC team have a customer that has a trade in? Probably quite often. It isn’t that difficult at all to train them to go for the trade early on in a phone or email conversation just they way a salesperson on the lot would and can by doing so take much of the defensiveness from the customer out of the equation. Have your Internet/BDC staff simply inject this into their word track; “by the way Mr/Mrs Customers are you going to be trading in your current vehicle or replacing it?” If they say trading then engage them to tell you more about it and follow up with; “That sounds like just the type of vehicle we are actually looking for. You see over the last week we have had a huge sale going on and there have been quite a few customers of ours that are looking for good quality recent model pre-owned vehicles like your _____. In order for us to assist them in their search we basically have two options, we could have our Used Car Manager go to the auction and take our chances OR, we can turn to our own customers and find nice vehicles that we can help our new customers into. Makes sense wouldn’t you agree? Now, would you be willing to bring your vehicle in for a no obligation full professional appraisal today? I’m sure we can make you a top dollar offer for it and that way we could help get some folks on the road in a nice car!” By turning the focus around it becomes less about selling THEM a car and more about them helping you sell someone ELSE a car, theirs! It’s a powerful way to bring the customer deeper into the sales process without the hairs on the back of their neck standing up for sure. Also, it’s a fantastic follow call for unsold showroom traffic, “Mr Customer we just had another customer stop in and he was looking for a ___ just like yours……” With some practice your staff can become lethal as they go on the hunt for trade ins!
​Until next time, Sell Something