There are many different approaches to keeping our names in front of our clientele. Here are just some of my quick suggestions;

1) ONE school of thought is not to ask for referrals at the time of delivery. It’s their magic moment, not ours. Besides our customers won’t care enough to send us referrals until they know how much we care about them. Remember, in the long…

“There are two things you must do to get anything in life you want,” my father would tell me. After turning 15 1/2, it became time to test this strategy out.

The first part of the deal, I had already nailed; maintaining an A average throughout junior high school. This first condition, I must admit, was pretty easy to do. For years learning, and learning of any kind,…

How do I keep productive at work? What should I do when there’s no floor traffic? Who should I spend time calling? I hear these questions all the time from my new clients.

Although most of us do need a little down time to stay sharp, it should never be more than a very small percentage of our day in sales. Once we accept the fact that we are in control of our own pay…

How far should a salesperson take the transaction before they get someone else involved? When is the right time to make a "turn over"? What is the best way to make a turn? Should turns even be made?

These are questions common to virtually every car training event I've been involved in. My colleagues and I (in the training field) each have our own experiences,…

Performing these regularly occurring sales manager activities will insure we are investing enough in our dealership’s most valuable appreciating assets – our people.

● Have a notepad when desking deals 

– Take notes for debriefing our sales associates, don’t rely on memory alone.

● Debrief each deal 

– During a deal is…

I was asked to share with sales managers some of the common desking best practices I’ve encountered across the country. These are things that, when adopted, should help you help your sales people be more effective. I know that most of these things are already being done in your store but it’ll still be a useful review and you may even pick up one or two new ideas.

I…

How much would your professional life improve if the majority of your new customers were trusting and easy to work with? What would you be able to achieve if you could significantly increase the effectiveness of each and every one of the techniques you currently use? And what would you think if I were to tell you that it’s “easy” to accomplish all of this?

Well,…

Occasionally at our workshops, someone will bring up the subject of “power closing phrases”. The discussions that follow are very lively, quite humorous at times, loads of fun, and they include everyone sharing their own power phrases, their ideas about closing on the final objection, and experiences when using them.

What I thought I’d do is share with you what I…

These days, for most of us at least, the term “phone call” is now synonymous with “voicemail”. If we are having difficulty getting our prospects to call us back, it’s probably because our voicemail skills suck. Here’s a few quick guidelines to suck less. A lot less.

The basic voicemail structure is: 1) Introduce…

Can you guess what the most common complaint about sales people is, from both customers and sales managers alike?

It's this; sales people simply talk too much. And since many of us do indeed talk too much, what do you think the second most frequent complaint we hear about sales people would be? It's this; we don't listen. In light of the first, this second complaint…

As far as defining moments go, what’s the difference between meeting someone new, interesting, and exciting and getting someone to read our work? The answer is...not a thing!



A good personal introduction will establish interest, expectations, and a direction that the initial conversation can go. Likewise, a good written introduction will establish the direction…

Would you like to know how to control most any argument?

First and foremost, we have to understand that two of the most basic of all human needs are to be valued and understood. Virtually every one of us have these needs in common. Then we must understand what an argument actually is. An argument is simply two people trying to be valued and…

What would it mean to you if you were to pick up a skill that enabled you to quickly build rapport and credibility with your customers and help you earn more of their trust? Would it be worth a little bit of effort and time to master it? And how excited would you be if you could start using this skill with your very next customer?

Then pay close attention to this…

Each month, I get one or two requests similar to the one I received from a salesperson named Phil who works at a dealership in the northwest. I thought it would be a good idea to share with you his particular e-mail and my response.

Phil wrote:

In my sales meeting today we were told that getting cash down is our biggest problem. I understand that cash down…

In order to effectively overcome objections, we must first understand the three different types of objections and how to effectively handle each one.

The most common type of objection (by a ton) are simply knee jerk reactions or things customers have been conditioned or programmed to say to sales people. These are commonly referred to as "smoke screen" or “reflexive”…

What is it that each and every customer wants, actually needs, from us? And no...it's not $500 below invoice!

Since the dominant buying motives differ from customer to customer, what could the common need be? It's this:

Two of the most basic of all human needs are to be valued and understood.

It's what our spouses want when they…

I want to take a couple of minutes to discuss with you the phenomenon affectionately known as "The 90 Day Wonder". For those of us unfamiliar with this phenomenon, let me 'splain it to you.

The 90 day wonder is the sales associate, brand new to the business, who starts out like gang-busters. Who, for the first couple of months, lead the field. Then,…

Have you ever had a salesperson tell you they’re having trouble asking for the sale between the demo and the write up? If you’re a salesperson, is this problem one you’re familiar with?

First let me reassure you that this is a common challenge for car salespeople today and a fairly simple one to remedy. This challenge is due in no small part to the fact that the way…