How to go from an average salesperson to a great salesperson

We’ve all had the experience of going to a dealership to buy a vehicle and getting a salesperson who just seems to make the process even more grueling than it already is. I’ve often noticed that certain salespeople always have happy customers who seem to be enjoying themselves throughout the process whereas other sales people seem to have unhappy and unengaged customers. As a General Manager I would always sit back and observe and try to figure out exactly what the differences were between these two individuals. Over the last 6 years, I have only bought vehicles from one person. The reason is simple, he is a great salesperson and I trust in him to take care of myself and my family. From my years of training salespeople (and buying countless vehicles), I realized how crucial it is to have salespeople that take care of the customer and transform their experience in the dealership. I have since identified 4 main differences between an average salesperson and a great salesperson. These 4 things will have your customers singing your praises and coming back to your dealership for years.

Number 1. Attitude

I believe that if you don’t start here you will not do well at any of what follows. Attitude is one of the most important parts of being a salesperson. We all know that sales is a grueling game that takes countless hours of our time. You’re going to get told “no” A LOT. If you’re REALLY good, you’re going to go through 100 no’s to get 15-20 yesses. That can be very discouraging if you're not in the right frame of mind and have a bad attitude. If our attitude is not in check, we will simply not be successful. If you’re not successful as a salesperson, you will not stick with it for the long term and if you don’t stick with it for the long run you will not build the base of customers you need to truly be able to take care of yourself and your family. A bad attitude is the number 1 way to lose a deal.. The way you present yourself in the meet and greet is one of the most crucial moments in the sales process. You have about 30 seconds to make an impression on a person. If your attitude is bad, then you are immediately at a disadvantage and are playing catch up the rest of the time. I could go into a slew of things that you can do to make sure you have a good attitude but it would take up the rest of this article. If you need help with this, reach out to me and I can give you some things to do to improve your attitude.

 Number 2. Relationship Building

This is one of the main things you want to focus on as a salesperson. I once was told that the only difference between the words contact and contract is the letter R, and that R stands for relationship. So, if you want to turn a contact into a contract, you MUST build the R - the relationship. You may think that price is the most important thing (or at least that’s what most of your customers are telling you), but in today’s world people actually care more about being taken care of rather than getting the best price. They revert to price only because it gives them a sense of control when it comes time to purchase. If you are transactional and have no interest in the customer’s wants and needs, then that’s all you have given them to base their decision on. Building the relationship starts in the greeting, you must be genuinely interested in trying to take care of the customer. 80% of customers calling in and walking into the dealership are on the wrong unit from the start. By asking them questions about what their true intentions are or what problem they are trying to solve, you are initiating conversation and allowing them to talk about what they truly care about the most – themselves. By allowing a customer to talk to you about themself, you are in the beginning stages of building a relationship. If you have ever read the book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” you know that one of the ways in which you do this is by being genuinely interested in other people. At the end of the day, the customer doesn’t care how much you know about a unit, they care about how much you care. Be willing to do whatever it takes to get the deal done, stay late, come in early, go above and beyond what any other salesperson would do to earn that deal. Customers want to be taken care of, they want to be treated fairly and they want to get what is perceived as a “good deal”. By building this relationship you are perhaps setting the stage for what could be a number of referrals by one customer or it could be the first of many vehicles that person buys from you because you took the time to take care of them and build the relationship with them. 

Number 3. Preparation/Training

The true mark of a great salesperson is a well-trained salesperson. Now I’m not talking about product knowledge here; I’m talking about training on the sales process, how to handle objections, how to know if you are or are not on the right unit, how to close a deal, how to handle the price objection, how to handle a phone call or an internet lead, how to make the best first impression, etc. There are so many facets to sales. I’m talking about a professional salesperson who knows that if they want to make professional money, they have to give a professional experience. In order to give a professional experience, they have to train like a professional. Even the best athletes like Lebron and Tiger train every single day. They train on the basics and they train on advanced strategies. Know that to be the best, you have to be well prepared and well trained. Now, here’s where the advantage comes in to anyone who is willing to put in the work. 95% of salespeople don’t train. They think they know it all already and no one or nothing can teach them anything. They may as well put a sign on their desk that says “I’m done” or “I quit learning a long time ago”. These same people will blame the marketplace, the economy, or even the customer when the world decides to come beating down on them during hard times. You know who will relish in these moments? People that are well prepared and well trained. A well trained salesperson will oftentimes sell 2-3X more than any other salesperson in the dealership and in return they will make for themselves and for the dealership 2-3X more than any other salesperson. Success loves preparation.

Number 4. Follow Up

I've talked about follow up before and it cannot be overstated how important it is. 80% of all sales happen between the 5th and 12th contact with a customer. Some internet leads take 5-8 contacts just to get them on the phone the first time and then take another 5-8 contacts to close the deal. 25% of all sales people never make a second contact and 48% of all salespeople never follow up a prospect. Sounds ridiculous right? By following up, you are standing out from the crowd, you are putting yourself ahead of the majority of salespeople out there. I have often been told by customers that I was the only dealer out of 4-5 they contacted that even called them back. That showed the customer that we cared, and we ended up getting the business because of it. The gold is in the follow up. You can get all these other things right and fail to follow up and end up losing a deal. If 80% of deals are closed between the 5-12th contact then that means if you're not touching that prospect AT LEAST that many times you are losing out on 80% of the deals you could have had! This is also a part of training, knowing how and when to follow up is an art in itself. You must have a list of follow ups you can use so you're not continually reaching out to the prospect and saying “Hey man, just following up!” LOL I wrote a blog post particularly on follow up that gives you 10 different ways to follow up. Find it here https://www.bprokupek.com/blog/follow-up-and-why-it-is-so-important-in-todays-enviornment

Now, in a fantasy world (or should I say COVID 2020-2022), you would have an abundance of customers who would be willing to pay you any price for any unit just to get out on the trail and you wouldn’t have to do any of these things, but that’s not reality anymore. That was a blip in time that we were all lucky enough to participate in. It’s time to revisit the basics of selling; dust off the training manuals and get our butts in gear to make sure we sustain what we have gained over the last 3 years. There is plenty of opportunity out there if you are willing to put in the work. There is no lack of unmotivated and untrained salespeople in the dealership. We all sell the same metal. What makes us stand out is our ability to give the best experience. Master these four things and I guarantee you will be the number one salesperson in your organization and more than likely in the top 10% in the industry. Have a great attitude, get good at building relationships, continue training and learn to follow up.