Jeff sterns's Posts - DealerELITE.net2024-03-29T12:12:46Zjeff sternshttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/jeffsternshttps://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2535893564?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1https://www.dealerelite.net/profiles/blog/feed?user=1cdofiejsbgph&xn_auth=noChat and Phone Leads Start with a Helping Handtag:www.dealerelite.net,2015-03-30:5283893:BlogPost:4508282015-03-30T13:50:08.000Zjeff sternshttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/jeffsterns
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<p>One of the biggest lessons I learned when working at the dealership was that you can't do the same things on the phone or in chat that you would do when you're talking to a person face-to-face. We often discuss controlling the transaction and leading our customers down the right path, but if they're not in front of you, the control-factor is often limited.</p>
<p>This…</p>
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<p>One of the biggest lessons I learned when working at the dealership was that you can't do the same things on the phone or in chat that you would do when you're talking to a person face-to-face. We often discuss controlling the transaction and leading our customers down the right path, but if they're not in front of you, the control-factor is often limited.</p>
<p>This is why it's so important to be more helpful on the phone or on website chat. They are controlling the direction of the conversation in most situations. We've probably all heard phone call recordings where an opportunity gets missed because a salesperson pushes too hard to set the appointment. That's not to say that you shouldn't try to get the appointment; there's probably more instances where a salesperson is not aggressive enough on the phone.</p>
<p>The same things happen in chat. Finding that perfect middle ground on phone or chat where the customer feels like they're getting their questions answered while still being driven down the path to set the sales appointment is critical.</p>
<p>There's something else that we see happening in chat specifically that we talk about on our <a href="http://www.carchat24.com/blog/leads-often-side-effect-helpful/" target="_blank">blog post</a>. When a chat comes in that isn't sales-related, we sometimes see the chat operator at the dealership trying to push business their way. Someone gets on chat, starts asking about parts or service, and then the salesperson handling chat throws out the good ol', "That's an expensive service. Why not just trade it in? I can get you more money than it's worth!"</p>
<p>On the surface, this might seem like a great idea, but it's usually not. There is a time and a place to discuss trading rather than repairing, but that time and place is not on the phone or through chat where the control-factor is limited. Get them in to do the service. Make sure they ask for you so you can help them in service. Face-to-face, now you have an opportunity to go over other options.</p>
<p>A helping hand is not the most aggressive way to get people into the dealership, but it's usually the most effective.</p>Why 24/7 is the Name of the Game for Dealer Chattag:www.dealerelite.net,2015-03-18:5283893:BlogPost:4497642015-03-18T07:45:03.000Zjeff sternshttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/jeffsterns
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<p>As website communication tools go, chat has grown at the fastest rate of adoption on car dealer websites for years. It’s not new, but more dealers are embracing what chat can do for them to engage with people visiting their website.</p>
<p>There are two primary reasons that it wasn’t a fad that died away like so many other website addons over the years. First, it is…</p>
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<p>As website communication tools go, chat has grown at the fastest rate of adoption on car dealer websites for years. It’s not new, but more dealers are embracing what chat can do for them to engage with people visiting their website.</p>
<p>There are two primary reasons that it wasn’t a fad that died away like so many other website addons over the years. First, it is an ideal method of communication for the expanding number of people who prefer to use their phones for texting rather than calls. Our society is shifting towards testing as more people embrace it and chat is the closest thing to that type of communication available on a dealer’s website.</p>
<p>Forms and emails do not have the real-time dialogue abilities that text and chat have. Scientific research has shown that many people avoid calling a dealership (or any business) as much as possible because they no longer possess the pacing control. With chat or texting, they determine when and how they reply. On the phone, it’s more direct. In essence, website visitors have more control over chats and texts than they do with phone calls.</p>
<p>The second reason that chat continues to grow is because in most cases and with some providers like <a href="http://carchat24.com" target="_blank">CarChat24</a>, chat is the only way for dealers to have a conversation with a website visitor late at night or early in the morning. Despite what some would have you believe, today’s consumers do their research and shopping at all hours of the day or night.</p>
<p>One of the best things about the internet is that it has empowered us to not be restricted based upon time of day. For many, the best time to get online and do serious research like shopping for a car is off business hours. The idea that people only shop for cars during daytime hours is incorrect. The number show that there are plenty of people visiting and chatting even after midnight. You can see this for yourself by checking your analytics and breaking down visitors to your website by hour.</p>
<p>With these two pieces of information, let’s now discuss why 24/7 is so important.</p>
<h2>The Power of Being Always Open</h2>
<p>It all comes down to differentiation. For most dealers, they either have no method of communication on their website late at night or the communication is not working properly. That’s how you should look at it. If your chat says “Offline” at night, then it’s not working properly. It’s not accomplishing what your website visitors expect from a chat box.</p>
<p>Late night visitors are not “weird” or any less likely to buy. They aren’t visiting for fun. If anything, the fact that they’re up late at night investigating your dealership is a sign that they’re truly serious about it.</p>
<p>Chat offers the only way for your website visitors to get answers immediately. Through managed chat with CarChat24, you’ll have an “always open” presence that your competitors are missing.</p>
<p>If you’re selling the same vehicles at approximately the same price, you have to differentiate yourself. Sometimes, the ability to contact you is all of the differentiation you’ll need to start to earn their business.</p>A Logical Connection Between Texting and Website Chattag:www.dealerelite.net,2015-01-02:5283893:BlogPost:4405802015-01-02T19:54:24.000Zjeff sternshttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/jeffsterns
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<p>When we look at texting as it pertains to the car business, it's easy to see that the mobile revolution has people letting their fingers do the talking. It's a method of communication that is becoming the primary way for millions of people in North America. How does a dealership translate this trend into lead generation on their website?</p>
<p>We're already seeing…</p>
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<p>When we look at texting as it pertains to the car business, it's easy to see that the mobile revolution has people letting their fingers do the talking. It's a method of communication that is becoming the primary way for millions of people in North America. How does a dealership translate this trend into lead generation on their website?</p>
<p>We're already seeing many dealers take advantage of it when it comes to working with leads, but generating leads through texting is tough. It runs into many roadblocks, so an alternative is needed. This is where the similarities with website chat come into play.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.carchat24.com/blog/chat-mimics-texting-dealer-websites/" target="_blank">Chat is like texting</a> in many ways. It's real-time communication that uses typed words rather than voice and mimics the same type of conversational interface that people get with texting. It's a method that is becoming more popular on websites; our clients are seeing more chat interactions now than every before. The numbers are growing faster than the growth in website traffic itself.</p>
<p>Everyone from the millennials entering into the car buying market to the older generations who are starting to embrace texting are finding that chat is a great way to "text" with businesses like car dealers.</p>
<p>If you are a believer in the benefits of texting as a communication tool with prospects, you should view chat as a communication tool that transitions website visitors into prospects. We have seen the shift and tremendous growth in our segment of the industry. We encourage dealers to see what it can do for them.</p>
<p>It isn't just logical to see the similarities between chat and texting. Dealers that take advantage of these similarities can get an edge over their competitors as a result.</p>Do You Know How Many Website Visitors You Get Late at Night?tag:www.dealerelite.net,2014-10-22:5283893:BlogPost:4355512014-10-22T04:56:58.000Zjeff sternshttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/jeffsterns
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<p>It's the quiet time. Just about everyone has it. Whether it's late at night when everyone's in bed or early in the morning before everyone wakes up, a good chunk of people do much of their important website surfing when there are fewer distractions of life to prevent them from their task at hand.</p>
<p>Buying a car or getting it serviced are two of those important…</p>
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<p>It's the quiet time. Just about everyone has it. Whether it's late at night when everyone's in bed or early in the morning before everyone wakes up, a good chunk of people do much of their important website surfing when there are fewer distractions of life to prevent them from their task at hand.</p>
<p>Buying a car or getting it serviced are two of those important aspects of life that require distraction-free time for some people. What's the percentage? How many people visit your dealership website at times when some companies claim that nobody shops for cars? Take a look at your analytics for the answer.</p>
<p>Whether you're using your website's own analytics program or a third-party application like Google Analytics, there is likely a way to check visitors by hour. On GA, it's in the top right corner of your dashboard.</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2545177453?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="400" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2545177453?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="400" style="padding: 3px;" class="align-right"/></a>In the example to the right, you'll see a dealership that has had 477 unique visitors in the last day. While many say that people are only on your website right before, during, or right after business hours, we can see that 37 people visited between 7pm and 9pm while 42 visited between 10pm and midnight. Then between midnight and 2 am, another 15 people hit the website. That means that nearly 12% of the website's visitors yesterday came in between 10pm and 2am.</p>
<p>Would you be happy if 88% of your showroom visitors were engaged by someone at the dealership? If not, why would you allow 12% or more (I've seen it as high as 25% during "non-peak-times") to be on your virtual showroom, your website, without a way to talk to anyone directly?</p>
<p>In an <a href="http://www.carchat24.com/blog/protect-customers-24-hour-chat/" target="_blank">article posted on our blog</a>, we discussed this issue and why it's so important to defend your customers 24-hours per day. If they're on your website, there's a good chance they want to consider buying a car or having their vehicle serviced at your dealership. You need to be available to them at all times throughout the day and night. This is a position from which we will never back down.</p>Are You Available When Your Customers Are?tag:www.dealerelite.net,2014-09-15:5283893:BlogPost:4319392014-09-15T20:56:21.000Zjeff sternshttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/jeffsterns
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<p>The internet has changed our world. The concept of "business hours" has been turned on its head. People are buying things online at 2 in the morning. They're researching vehicles after the kids are in bed. They're planning out how to drop off their vehicle in your service department and still get to work on time at 4am.</p>
<p>When they have questions, are you there…</p>
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<p>The internet has changed our world. The concept of "business hours" has been turned on its head. People are buying things online at 2 in the morning. They're researching vehicles after the kids are in bed. They're planning out how to drop off their vehicle in your service department and still get to work on time at 4am.</p>
<p>When they have questions, are you there for them? Chances are that you do not have a receptionist there to answer questions by phone overnight. A contact form or email simply won't fulfill all of their needs in the timely manner they expect. This is where 24-hour chat comes into play.</p>
<p>In the example above, we described the person who wants to know about your service department and how she'll get to work. This isn't a hypothetical. It actually happens. We see chats all the time inquiring about hours and transportation. If you're not there to answer their questions, you're missing out on potential business. She can't wait until 7am to decide where to drop off her car if she has to be at work at 8am. Answering her questions at 4am when she's inquiring is the key to getting that business secured.</p>
<p>Many people like to do the majority of their web surfing at night when there are no distractions or responsibilities. Those who do not have 24-hour chat miss those opportunities when people are surfing their website late at night or early in the morning and they have questions that they need answered.</p>
<p>There's a reason that many companies do not offer 24-hour chat. It's not easy to maintain a properly trained chat operator staff that can be there at all hours of the day or night, so they talk about how "real" buyers only inquire during business hours. We've seen that the exact opposite is true, that people who are researching during off hours are often easier to convert into a lead than someone who is researching during the day.</p>
<p>When your customers come knocking at your virtual door, are you making your dealership available to answer their questions?</p>Don't Just Capture Leads Differently. Get More.tag:www.dealerelite.net,2014-08-24:5283893:BlogPost:4303452014-08-24T20:45:17.000Zjeff sternshttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/jeffsterns
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<p>Website chat is viewed by many dealers to be an alternative method of communication, as it should be. There are some who view it as a lead generation tool and they can look at numbers to show that they're getting more leads, but to truly test their results that must take a closer look.<br></br><br></br>Properly positioned and managed chat on dealer websites can definitely be…</p>
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<p>Website chat is viewed by many dealers to be an alternative method of communication, as it should be. There are some who view it as a lead generation tool and they can look at numbers to show that they're getting more leads, but to truly test their results that must take a closer look.<br/><br/>Properly positioned and managed chat on dealer websites can definitely be great for getting more leads. However, there are passive services out there, the ones that are pretty much contact forms with different branding, that are not generating more leads. They're simply capturing the leads from people who would have used a different method of contact whether there was chat on the website or not.<br/><br/>As we detailed on a post we titled, "A Great Automotive Chat Solution Will Increase Leads", one of the primary goals of website chat should be to give more of your website visitors a reason to make contact with you and become a lead as a result.<br/><br/>Reports from any chat provider will show you how many leads they're able to capture. You then have to compare that to the other lead-generating tools on your website. Are you getting more leads or are you simply replacing leads from other sources with chat leads? If your total number of leads is not going up, as is the case so often when we're talking to potential customers, then your chat is not positioned properly.<br/><br/>Analyze all of your reports together. Don't simply take what your chat provider shows in their report and assume that things are going well. What you may find is that your chat leads are present but that your other lead sources from your website went down once you installed chat. The goal is to get more, not replace pre-existing ones.</p>Fill the Gaps in Lead Generation with Chattag:www.dealerelite.net,2014-07-25:5283893:BlogPost:4281372014-07-25T06:00:00.000Zjeff sternshttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/jeffsterns
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<p>One of the most disturbing trends we're seeing on dealer websites is when they use chat areas as another contact form. It's true that chat is a way to generate leads, but when collecting contact information is the primary goal, the whole point of chat is missed.</p>
<p>Here are some things that we have found to be true with chat that dealers should keep in mind when…</p>
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<p>One of the most disturbing trends we're seeing on dealer websites is when they use chat areas as another contact form. It's true that chat is a way to generate leads, but when collecting contact information is the primary goal, the whole point of chat is missed.</p>
<p>Here are some things that we have found to be true with chat that dealers should keep in mind when they determine how to position chat in their digital marketing.</p>
<h2>1. Stop Asking for Contact Information Up Front</h2>
<p>A few months ago I saw an analogy in a blog post that positioned this statement in the right context. To paraphrase: You wouldn't have your receptionist answer the phone by saying, "Thank you for calling, may I have your name, phone number, and email address, please?"</p>
<p>Help first. Answer their questions and earn the right to get their contact information. When you put up a gate that requires them to give you contact information, you're pushing people who want to talk to you away. There are plenty of contact forms on your website. If they wanted to fill one out, they would have. Instead, they wanted to talk to you. The lead form gates might seem to inflate leads, but they actually decrease the quality <strong>and</strong> quantity of leads that you receive.</p>
<h2>2. Don't let Chat be a Passive Part of Your Website</h2>
<p>I've heard a couple of sales pitches from chat companies that talk about the way that chat cannibalizes leads if it's proactive. In other words, they're saying that your chat should be a discreet button that people have to hunt down if they want to use it. The theory is that if they really want to chat, they'll find a way to do it. No need to be proactive.</p>
<p>This is a con. I hate calling out competitors but here is a clear and demonstrable fact: proactive chat increases the total number of leads that your website generates while passive chat does not. With this being the case and something that is common knowledge amongst those of is in the chat industry, one might wonder why a company would promote the idea of passive chat. The answer is simple. It's more profitable for them. With managed chat services, the more chats you get, the less profits they make because they need people to operate the chat. When the total number of chats per dealership is reduced, managed chat companies make more money.</p>
<p>We look at things through a longer-term lens. Even though we won't make as much profit per month with proactive chat, we realize that serving your website visitors appropriately and generating more leads for the dealership will keep our clients on board for longer. Less profit per month, more profit over the life of the client. It's about aligning goals.</p>
<h2>3. Stop Turning Chat Off</h2>
<p>This is the biggest gap that chat fills. Most dealers do not have a receptionist manning the phones 24 hours per day. You might hear chat providers say that "serious buyers" are not online late at night or early in the morning.</p>
<p>This is clearly a falsehood. People are on the internet at all hours of the night and morning. Shame on the chat providers who promote this concept. As a dealer and someone who likely uses the internet, you should not fall for this.</p>
<p>Chat fills the gap of instant communication. Many people will call. When calling is not an option and they want answers immediately, they know that a live chat service is their best bet to get their questions answered at that moment. Don't fall for the idea that people only chat during business hours. It's simply not true.</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>Chat is an amazing part of the communication apparatus available to today's savvy car buyers. Many of them use it for various reasons to contact dealers. Having the right chat strategy is something that dealers today need to take seriously. If you want to learn more about the benefits of <a href="http://www.showroomchat.com/" target="_blank">managed chat</a>, please contact me.</p>The Absolute Importance of Accountability When Running a Dealershiptag:www.dealerelite.net,2014-06-30:5283893:BlogPost:4260972014-06-30T01:16:11.000Zjeff sternshttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/jeffsterns
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<p>It’s amazing. And I’ve seen it a hundred times. They don’t realize they’re doing it but they still do it. That’s for sure. I heard a salesman with his chest puffed out (as it should be) reliving the story of a terrific job done with the happy new owner of a car. The salesman DID do a great job. These people were cold to begin with and initially he could barely get…</p>
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<p>It’s amazing. And I’ve seen it a hundred times. They don’t realize they’re doing it but they still do it. That’s for sure. I heard a salesman with his chest puffed out (as it should be) reliving the story of a terrific job done with the happy new owner of a car. The salesman DID do a great job. These people were cold to begin with and initially he could barely get them to part with their names. They wanted a price only (no need to see a car today) to compare with the countless quotes the husband had tucked away behind his pocket protector.</p>
<p>They didn’t like or trust car salespeople and were happy to share this point with him. He then found a seed of common ground and built on that, getting them to open up a bit. They agreed to a test drive. He went twice as far as normal to use the time to get further related to them. He asked them things that created fantasies of what the friends and neighbors and their kids would think and how the first road trip would be in their new car. He showed them every button and everything under the hood. He physically got into the trunk and lay down to show off all the space. He created a story to put each benefit into their realm of understanding. They would now feel almost incomplete without those benefits. He sold the dealership and service department. He created a relationship.</p>
<p>He ignited desire and the price fell into line because they had places to go in this car! They left happy and will be his for life. He was damn proud and deserved to be. He accepted full accountability for this result. Makes sense, yes?</p>
<p>Two days later, he’s complaining. Very thin traffic. The people he’s been waiting on just aren’t getting excited. Morale is down. Another salesman quit today. “That’s how bad it’s getting around here.” He’s going to have a weak paycheck.</p>
<p>Management, inventory, advertising and the giveaway competitor up the street are all on his nerves. This man is a good salesman from a closing standpoint. He’s good. Not stellar. Good. He did a stellar job with a couple a few days ago but he’s still just good. Why? Accountability. Just a tweak and he’s great</p>
<p>With an accountable attitude, his thinking would be more like: “Man, I used to be weak on my prospecting and follow up but now that I’m stronger with it, it’s really going to pay off! I won’t be in this position this time next year!” And, “I’m not doing well with the customers I’m getting. I should review what happened and see where I can improve so I don’t keep losing them.” Sound corny? Maybe. It just makes you more money, that’s all.</p>
<p>In my mind you don’t get to take credit for victories if you don’t take credit for negative outcomes. — Jeff Sterns</p>
<p>I believe that if you don’t take accountability for EVERYTHING (and I mean everything), you can’t be a master at your craft. This is a craft. Sure there’s some luck in selling, but no amount of luck will get it done for you month after month, year after year.</p>
<p>Here’s another line to highlight: You have to make a decision now. There’s going to be a lot of making decisions “now,” along the way, while reading this book. You can’t wait until you’ve finished the book to get your career started! Plus some of the things we talk about, if you can “believe it before you see it,” will begin to work BEFORE you understand it. One of my favorite authors, Dr. Wayne Dyer, says, “You’ll see it when you believe it.” I’ve seen this proven right a thousand times. First choose your beliefs and then the evidence to support that belief will appear.</p>
<p>Remember, it’s now 18 years since I built that house. It took me a long time to break down and analyze what had actually occurred. Things will come together for a long time after you’ve completed this book. Understanding it completely is NOT key to it working. Starting something NOW for damn sure is!</p>
<p>The decision you have to make is to be accountable for everything. Wins and losses.</p>
<p>“The event is not important, but the response to the event is everything.” — I Ching</p>
<p>This is where you get to CHOOSE how you feel. Below are some ways to look more deeply at an issue. (Excellent idea to repeat verbatim where applicable. We still have to talk about the subconscious. The following alone, when faithfully used, has made tremendous differences for people.)</p>
<ul>
<li>“I did a great job with those people.” (“Man, no one else would have gotten that deal! They weren’t doing anything and just wanted a price. I didn’t lose hope, as it was almost impossible to get their name. I’ll use this as a reference point to remember for self encouragement if I ever lose hope during a future deal.”)</li>
<li>“Traffic is thin.” (“If only I was on the “stay in touch” program a year ago that I’m on now. I’d have a steady stream of clients coming through. At least I’m already causing a good year next year.”)</li>
<li>“The ones I did wait on just aren’t getting excited.” (“I need to work on my skills. Where can I improve? Why am I not impressing these people?”)</li>
<li>“Morale is down.” (“I’ve fallen off listening to my motivational/training CDs on the way to work lately. I’ve been a bit weak on reading, too. I can decide to feel good now in this instant, as I am fully accountable for how I feel. Like I’m gonna put my morale in someone else’s hands? I’m going to go effect a boss and a co-worker in a positive way before I leave today.”)</li>
<li>“A salesman quit today.” (“I will never ignore another new or struggling person again. I could have helped that guy. How must he have felt with the other salespeople letting him die? I’m as accountable as anyone around here for turnover. Turnover is a black eye to the whole store and hurts my image too.”)</li>
<li>“Problems with management.” (“At least I have a job that will have me coming and going as I please soon enough. A manager can never hope for that! I’ve never seen a manager having a problem with an employee who was getting the job done, bringing him deals to sign with no upset customers. I guess I had better get back to being one of those favored, productive employees. What have I done to make his day?”)</li>
<li>“Inventory problems.” (“Some salespeople sell whatever they have. What if I had a cart full of bananas? What would I be really good at selling? Bananas! As long as there is a car left on the asphalt and a customer, I can do something. It is what it is and it’s just something that happened. No one’s happy about it but I can take the next customer, get related and sell a new or a used vehicle or get a deposit on a non-existent car and make my boss go buy it!”)</li>
<li>“Advertising isn’t very effective.” (“Well I guess I have only myself to thank for my past couple of years’ actions that have me even caring at all about the advertising. I’ll be creating my own traffic soon.”)</li>
<li>“Giveaway competitor up the street.” (“Why do I let that crap into my head? The dealership up the street is really just a person at that dealership who has to do a better job than me. I don’t know of another person who can get related as I can. Sheesh! It’s not like a ‘dealership’ can wait on someone!”)</li>
</ul>
<p>Now, the good news is that you don’t have to say this stuff out loud. It’s called self-talk. It may sound a bit corny but I’m tellin’ ya, don’t let anything out of your mouth that you don’t want to come true. It may sound a bit too easy on the house but what the heck? What’s the object here?</p>
<p>You need to make a decision to accept accountability for EVERYTHING as it relates to your career. I know that it works in the rest of your life too but I can best attest to how it affects salespeople. Stay out of the blackout gang (complaining co-workers). Are those other guys and gals who are standing around complaining going to get you to your specific and pointed goals?</p>
<p>If coworkers sit down for a visit, are you politely asking them to let you work, or are you allowing your day to be spent by them? More on that soon. What are you using your life for? Only you know what money means to you. If you love it at your store and never want to retire, that’s FINE. Are there others (known to you or not) you’d like to help out? Would you simply like to use your time more wisely? A customer who takes hours to close and turns into a deal is ALWAYS easier than one that doesn’t take long, but walks.</p>
<p>What if you waited on the same amount or less people but sold many more of them? This isn’t more work, it’s less! Plus, you’ll be building that many more relationships as there are very few deals without them. There is no downside and it has nothing to do with greed. Giving to charities or directly to needy families or your church or temple feels good, and it is good. I’ve given more since retiring than some salespeople earn. I like to have that ability and I like that it’s happening. If I could work the same hours and not retire, keeping all things equal but earning more to donate, it would be worth it.</p>
<p>Maybe a waterfront house with a boat and a convertible and the time to enjoy it sounds great to you. Maybe “things” don’t flip your switch at all. It’s not all about “stuff.” Supporting charities is a priority to my wife and I. Also, we have a special needs son who has been very expensive for over four years now.</p>
<p>My wife and I have been to an alternative medicine doctor in Hawaii, to Johns Hopkins in Maryland and everywhere in between talking to doctors and trying many things that insurance doesn’t cover. We even considered moving to Poland to be near a clinic for six months! Thank God for the money to pursue every avenue for my son. Like Forrest Gump said, “Money isn’t everything, but it is one less thing.”</p>
<p>I can assure you that the decisions and attitudes discussed above will make a tremendous difference in your income and life enjoyment. If it’s not fun, what’s the point?</p>
<p><strong>Keys to Success</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Do everything on purpose.</li>
<li>Make everything a choice. You never have to do anything. You get to.</li>
<li>(Even when the choice is “pay taxes or go to jail.” When you choose, it affects you differently than “having to” do something.)</li>
<li>Even choose how you feel.</li>
<li>Take accountability for everything including your morale.</li>
<li>Donate or tithe regularly. Important as any of the above.</li>
</ul>Everything on Purposetag:www.dealerelite.net,2014-06-23:5283893:BlogPost:4255402014-06-23T07:59:15.000Zjeff sternshttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/jeffsterns
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<p><em>“Ah, to come to the end of one’s life and realize one has never lived.”</em> — Henry David Thoreau</p>
<p>Is life just happening to you or are you living it on purpose? Does your life and income depend upon the direction of the wind? Is it fate? Or will you pull it? You can decide what you want, add some character (doing something you committed to long…</p>
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<p><em>“Ah, to come to the end of one’s life and realize one has never lived.”</em> — Henry David Thoreau</p>
<p>Is life just happening to you or are you living it on purpose? Does your life and income depend upon the direction of the wind? Is it fate? Or will you pull it? You can decide what you want, add some character (doing something you committed to long after the feeling that had you originally commit wore off), follow some rules for success and start ticking off your goals as you achieve them.</p>
<p>When I was in my early teens, I moved to Florida with my family. I had just moved from the town I was born in and was a bit lonely, but had a few pen pals. One was a girl named Lisa, whom I grew up with. Well, I was a bit of an artist and was excited about Florida and all that it represented to me in contrast to Detroit, and drew a picture of a house I was going to live in one day. It was on stilts and the water was behind it with a boat anchored and a convertible car in the garage underneath. There were palm trees and the sun and sea gulls. I think I was trying to make her feel bad for being stuck just beneath the Arctic Circle in the Midwest and said she should move here when she grows up, as if to say, “look how great life will be.” I was too stupid to know that I was supposed to be older to do it!</p>
<p>We stayed in touch and nine or 10 years later when I was about 23 years old she decided to come to Florida for a few days of R&R. She was a law student needing a break. I picked her up at Tampa International Airport. We threw her bags into the trunk of my ‘67 Ford Galaxie convertible (yes, it had a 428 under the hood!). Man what a car and what a day to show off Florida to my “stuck in the north” friend! We drove over a land bridge, crossing Tampa Bay with the top down, watching the pelicans dive for fish as we sped along. We explored the beach and stopped at a waterfront restaurant for lunch. We then drove along Clearwater Bay, heading to the house to drop her stuff and get to relaxing. When we pulled up to my one-year-old house, she said, “That’s the house!” I said, “Yea, that is the house.” “No,” she said. “It’s thee house, the one in the picture.”</p>
<p>I had always known what I wanted as part of my picture of paradise. I never forgot. It would have been like trying to forget being hungry. I did however forget the drawing I’d sent her approximately 10 years earlier. She had it, still. We looked at it. It was the house. It was a stilt house on the water. It had the old Ford backed in underneath, along with a collectable Corvette. There was a boat out back hanging in a lift. The drawing was not the statement. It was a thing I did as a manifestation of my dream. My goal. My decision. It couldn’t not be.</p>
<p>Many other things happened over that decade. I noticed houses and convertibles and boats. I felt incomplete without them. They were Florida to me. I honestly never considered NOT having this life. Same as never considering whether I’ll eat today or not. It just was. It was real every time I spoke of it or doodled a picture. I got envious whenever exposed to anything close to my ideal. “I WILL HAVE THAT.” And it became real as the words went out.</p>
<p>Some other things happened along the way. I was not one of those workaholic schoolboys. I had a buddy who was, and he turned out fine too, owning the restaurant he worked in after school by the time we graduated high school. Soon I got faced with choices. Mow lawns or no gas. Wash windows or no party money. Detail cars or no dates or movies or mall…you get the picture. Some might say, wow what a disciplined kid. Man, was he motivated. It was never that I was wrestling with lying around vs. hustling. It was all about choices. In my mind, I never had to do anything. My Dad always said, “You don’t have to do anything but die and pay taxes.”</p>
<p>I’ve expanded on that. I say all you have to do is die. You don’t have to pay taxes. You CAN go to jail, an obvious choice but still a choice. I didn’t think of it as work. I thought of it as, “I choose to have this life. Money in and of itself is worthless. It’s not like you can eat it. It does take money however to finance whatever pulls you.” So I did indeed choose to have some money. That was it. Further, I was committed to a convertible, a boat and a waterfront house. I also knew that when I was someday married with kids I’d want my children and their friends jumping off a dock into the saltwater — for me, that’s the only way for kids to grow up. Please hear this: In my own private mind I thought this was the only possible way to have a life.</p>
<p>I was so focused that there was simply no alternative. Sure I’ve worked hard, but not as hard as the family living in subsidized housing with a constantly breaking car and very little pleasure. Look close: Working hard is easier than struggling. And finally, again, it was my only future because (this is key) it was my PRESENT for almost a decade. Most of my financial choices were driven by my desire to end the discomfort associated with my outside (no house yet) not matching my inside (I already have all this stuff).</p>
<p>Highlight this line: When you explain things to yourself as a choice, and you choose based upon a previous decision, circumstances feel better and you know you’re moving toward something. If you see something as “no choice,” be careful as this way of thinking can lead to becoming a victim. Once this occurs you get in the mode of things happening to you. Next, you feel powerless and give up a key ingredient to success: Accountability.</p>Self-Talk, Affirmations & Your Ability to Change Beliefstag:www.dealerelite.net,2014-06-08:5283893:BlogPost:4236032014-06-08T09:47:26.000Zjeff sternshttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/jeffsterns
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<p>Now, sometimes during a class or seminar I’m conducting I’ll get asked “Jeff, can’t you just share the secrets to selling? The tricks, shortcuts, or just some really good closes?” The answer is, “Sure.” I’ve done it thousands of times. I’ve even trained competing dealers while I was employed by one of them! I’ve trained literally hundreds of competitors (at factory…</p>
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<p>Now, sometimes during a class or seminar I’m conducting I’ll get asked “Jeff, can’t you just share the secrets to selling? The tricks, shortcuts, or just some really good closes?” The answer is, “Sure.” I’ve done it thousands of times. I’ve even trained competing dealers while I was employed by one of them! I’ve trained literally hundreds of competitors (at factory request or even the competitor’s request) in the mechanics and philosophy of what I was doing to make my own dealership number one in the nation in sales or customer satisfaction or leasing or service volume. I’d ask my owner, who allowed our secrets to get out (drove me CRAZY ‘til I understood the harmlessness of it), “Boss, why do you allow me to train the competition and not hold anything back?” He would repeatedly reply, “It makes us good sports. AND they won’t do it.”</p>
<p>“What? Everything I know, whether I refined it or not, I learned from someone else. Why wouldn’t they…”</p>
<p>“Jeff, listen. They won’t do it. They’ll hear it all and even take notes, won’t change on the inside and go home and say that they already do all the stuff we do. They don’t realize that who they are being speaks louder than what gets said to their staff and customers. Also, they wait for proof (more proof than the fact that we’re already dominating the market with these attitudes and systems) to come to them before they fully commit to the program. Life happens to them before the new way ever becomes a habit, which would allow them to realize their potential for success. They just plain won’t do it. Don’t hold back out there. Give ‘em a great show!”</p>
<p>So for years at two different dealerships, I continuously conducted facility tours and classes on what we do. I gave the participants all the answers, yet I haven’t seen enough of them change and implement anything to ever get concerned about helping the competition.</p>
<p> I got to witness another distinction on another level. For the years that I ran sales departments, I did the training. I did the “green pea” class, the “remedial” class for the guys who once had it but had somehow temporarily (or worse) lost it, and I did the general training and motivation. In working with so many people over so many years, I got to watch my systems work and fail simultaneously on my sales floor. I realized that applying the medicine of selling system training to a salesperson covered in the “Teflon” of being the same person with the same beliefs had nowhere near the success rate of a salesperson ready to absorb and transform by first making some decisions. Further, I’ve seen many who become the “right person” have large sales success well before they get the mechanics of the system down. As a hard-to-avoid benefit of personal transformation, they also experienced and shared a greatly improved feeling of happiness, better marriages or other relationships, more interest in charity, their spirituality, reduced used of alcohol or other numbing substance or activity, and physical benefits ranging from losing weight or quitting smoking to just plain not getting sick as often. This combined with a mastery of the selling system has produced incomes beyond the salesperson’s actual goal.</p>
<p>During a management stint at a dealership where I spent nine years, I had one gentleman working for me who had been there for 16. He’d achieved tremendous growth after his first full year on my team’s program. Remember, he earned a very similar amount each year for 16 years, and prior to his “buy in” his income was naturally declining as he was within five years of retiring and he was just not “killing himself” anymore. He certainly deserved to enjoy this part of his career. I think that when he proudly showed me his pay stub’s YTD compared to last year (up 300%!), he was enjoying himself pretty well! It still makes me feel good to think that I participated in a more luxurious and travel-filled retirement for him. Another fellow in that same dealership’s used car department, with similar tenure, was already the dealership’s top money earner year after year with Salesman of the Month plaques literally covering every inch of his walls. He gladly reported that in his 1st year under my systems, he had the largest money year of his life with an approximately $50k increase over his previous best. He said that he still regrets not getting more serious about my prospecting/referral program as he would liked to have stopped being on the dealership’s rotation schedule and taking “ups” off the floor. He deserves proper credit though, as with such a successful history some would be closed to being coached. I had yet another fellow whose income grew, but not as dramatically.</p>
<p>He did however leave the floor to come and go as he pleased on his own schedule. To him, the extra income was nice but what turned him on was time on the golf course. This occurred after 2 1/2 years of him buying into “The System.”</p>
<p>So how did these people as well as thousands of others improve their lives, make hundreds of thousands of dollars more per year and actually have a life? They started with a decision. When you think of it, everything does. How does the woman in the weight loss ad go from being too heavy to 150 pounds lighter and bikini-proud? A lot of things happened but the first one was a decision. The decision was not to deprive herself of one of life’s pleasures like eating can be for any of us. Her decision was to feel good and look good. After that, she didn’t have to use will power or “white knuckle” her way through having only one bite of dessert. It was clear to her. She made a decision. She set a goal. She pictured the end result. She was specific in her end result (size 1, 120 lbs, be able to run 5 miles by Jun 5, etc. etc.). We’ll get into affirmations a bit later.</p>
<p>She DID NOT just say, “Give me a diet and tell me what to do in the gym; thanks, bye!” If she did, she’d have the “system” but she’d also have a 99% chance of failing because of the way she would have been talking to herself and because she wouldn’t have had a CLEAR and SPECIFIC end result stated and written and perhaps shared. When the dessert was in front of her, her willpower would only be able to do so much for her. Plus she would have been miserable at best with all of that deprivation. She would not have been trained to stay focused on her goal. She would not have realized that it’s ALL a decision, a choice. Plus, her subconscious would have been working against her. More on that later, too.</p>
<p>By stating her goal and picturing the end result, she did not have to fight off her dessert urges! She simply chose her “new” vitality and body! She was not saying no to a second bite, but she was saying yes to the bikini or health or that happier marriage or whatever personal reason she originally decided. There is a pointed and specific way to do this and anything else you want in life. We are about to dig into it. This above example is also why I’m not just throwing a selling system at you. I don’t want you to fall off of your diet and exercise program in the middle of it. When you do this stuff and do it right, coming from and going to the right place, it can make you a millionaire and it will be easier than your lowest paycheck months have ever been! To just give you the diet and gym instructions without the groundwork laid out will not do the trick. If you are willing to pay the small price and follow these instructions to a “T” you will never believe it isn’t part of every school’s curriculum. You are about to make a choice right this very minute. This can be the moment (RIGHT NOW) that causes the rest of your life to be what it will be. You get to decide what you want to use your life for. You get to be a victim or accountable for what happens next. You are about to do everything on purpose.</p>
<p>Good thing those competitive dealers that I toured over the decades didn’t get this part first! My owner’s dealerships may have fallen to #2 under my watch!</p>Relatedness-Based Selling™tag:www.dealerelite.net,2014-05-22:5283893:BlogPost:4219762014-05-22T17:00:00.000Zjeff sternshttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/jeffsterns
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<blockquote><p>“You have to decide to love it first. Then the reasons to love it will appear.”</p>
<p>— Jeff Sterns</p>
</blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>Let me open with this: you have every reason to feel proud of yourself. First, you are open to looking at yourself and this shows accountability. Second, when you get really good at this and make terrific money and tons of…</p>
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<blockquote><p>“You have to decide to love it first. Then the reasons to love it will appear.”</p>
<p>— Jeff Sterns</p>
</blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>Let me open with this: you have every reason to feel proud of yourself. First, you are open to looking at yourself and this shows accountability. Second, when you get really good at this and make terrific money and tons of friends over the years, you’ll fall into a special group. Less than 3% of people who go into the car business last an entire year. You are special. Literally. By definition. Another thing. You could be a lawyer or even a doctor. All those professions take is studying and, POOF you’re a professional! But most doctors and lawyers can’t do what we do!</p>
<p></p>
<p>You have the talent to persuade already. What’s the point? Virtually no walk of life can just saunter in and do this. And, the top salespeople earn with top doctors anyway. I don’t know many doctors who have done as well as I have. At 39, I could sit on a park bench if I felt like it. Don’t let the doctors fool you. You and I have sold many of them. A lot of liens going on! Another point: not a thing in this world happens until someone sells something! Do you know how many people worldwide would be out of work within weeks if all salespeople stopped selling? We are the single greatest influence in the world economy. Be proud and know this about you and your chosen profession.</p>
<p></p>
<p>So here we are. Finally the sales secrets! Well, I hate to let you down but there IS no secret. You’re going to know all of this stuff. I’ve rarely run into anyone that when asked if they do one of the steps, doesn’t say “I DO THAT.” Well, that doesn’t surprise me. Fact is you wouldn’t sell anything if you didn’t do these things. Here’s the point; I’ll ask, “Do you ever NOT (insert step)?” “Well there ARE times that I don’t do that. I’m sure I forget or cut a corner or the customer convinces me this situation is different.” The devil is in the exceptions that we make.</p>
<p></p>
<blockquote><p>A Sale is Made Every Time. Someone Always Buys. It Will Be Either the Client or You.</p>
</blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>When it’s you, guess what, you take shortcuts. You get sold on cutting corners because you think, “Why bother?” Then, you look for evidence to justify your decision to shortcut. I’ve even heard salespeople excuse themselves from the fact that they never found out where the client lives or what they do for a living. I’ve witnessed test-drives skipped. The excuse is, “They were a hard price shopper. What’s that stuff have to do with his price limit?” Why are we waiting for them to give a buying sign before we give them a reason to buy? I’d like to offer that if a salesperson waited on 100 people who were all hard price shoppers, they would get motion, whether it would be price or type of car those people would consider or switch to. The difference is simply that the level of relatedness was higher and the effort was put in. The human connection. You know this. Heck, you could teach it. I’ve managed and worked with hundreds of salespeople. The rare few do it. Every time, I mean. If it’s not done every time then you can’t come up with a control or cross-section to know if the step is a waste of time. If it is, then you discard it on purpose, as a business decision. Unfortunately you aren’t capable (as a human) to make that decision while in action with a client. Actually you become rather incompetent. So do I. So let’s quit thinking and commit things to habit.</p>
<p></p>
<p>In Vegas, a blackjack dealer always takes a hit when she has a 16, and always stands on 17. This is not a decision. She doesn’t take a hit with 17 and explain to the pit boss later that there were all big cards on the table so it was guaranteed she’d pull a small one. What’s worse is if she does it “wrong” (hits 17) and indeed pulls a small card, this reinforces the move to her as “right” (like lucking into a deal without a test-drive, letting the customer leave at full list and having them show back up to take it) and makes coaching her back to the right way of dealing blackjack more difficult.</p>
<p></p>
<p>We as salespeople usually worry so much about being right, looking good and not looking bad that we miss the point of odds and statistics. I mean, what is the point here? I firmly believe that if you do everything from a “what would work most often” standpoint that a lot of thinking becomes unnecessary. And being “right” becomes irrelevant. It’s what works that’s relevant, and it’s not personal. I’m not even close to recommending that you become some kind of robot. I am saying that there are plenty of things to use your brain for — like digging for relatedness, the core issue or the “only objection left,” and committing the proper steps to memory along with getting the client to cooperate with the system. The proven tools don’t need to be wrestled with.</p>
<p></p>
<p>In Vegas, a blackjack dealer always takes a hit when she has a 16, and always stands on 17. This is not a decision. She doesn’t take a hit with 17 and explain to the pit boss later that there were all big cards on the table so it was guaranteed she’d pull a small one. What’s worse is if she does it “wrong” (hits 17) and indeed pulls a small card, this reinforces the move to her as “right” (like lucking into a deal without a test-drive, letting the customer leave at full list and having them show back up to take it) and makes coaching her back to the right way of dealing blackjack more difficult.</p>
<p></p>
<p>We as salespeople usually worry so much about being right, looking good and not looking bad that we miss the point of odds and statistics. I mean, what is the point here? I firmly believe that if you do everything from a “what would work most often” standpoint that a lot of thinking becomes unnecessary. And being “right” becomes irrelevant. It’s what works that’s relevant, and it’s not personal. I’m not even close to recommending that you become some kind of robot. I am saying that there are plenty of things to use your brain for — like digging for relatedness, the core issue or the “only objection left,” and committing the proper steps to memory along with getting the client to cooperate with the system. The proven tools don’t need to be wrestled with.</p>
<p></p>
<blockquote><p>“The elevator is broken, you have to use the steps.”</p>
<p>— Bill W.</p>
</blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>The secret to success is, There is No Secret. AND that’s the secret. There is no “get rich quick.” There IS, however, “Do better quicker.” And, “Enjoy it more now.” AND there is a way to get to taking no fresh-ups, working your own schedule and becoming financially comfortable. Very comfortable.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Someday, someday will be there. Just like it’s here right now. Someday what you did in your past will allow what you can do with your life, when someday again becomes today. <br/> <br/> Let’s get into the steps. Remember this (highlight it): A big sell, where they’re sold. I mean really sold on you, the company, the team and the product, where if the selling was done right the close will be near effortless. Like a 1-ft. golf putt. The sell determines where you’re putting from. So don’t be in such a hurry for all the magic closes.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Another way to look at it is this: imagine you were in a situation where you could not negotiate. Adjusting the price or terms is not an option. You still needed to sell the product today. How would you present? How much relatedness would you develop? When you ask for the sale that would be it. A second close that will get a yes or no and that’s it. All you can do if you get a no or a hesitation is resell, recount, rehash all you have gone over together and draw on how badly the client wants to deal with you. How interested are they in you getting a commission? Would you do anything any differently than you do now? Now, that’s how to feel. That’s where to be coming from each time you come in contact with a person who can buy from you someday, or today. Price will become a small detail when you come from this place and know, I mean know to the core that the relatedness you develop is what will have that client hang through wherever you may take them. </p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2545136797?profile=original" target="_self"> </a></p>Jeff's steps to the sales- Step 2.B. More on "Relatedness"tag:www.dealerelite.net,2013-11-30:5283893:BlogPost:4007482013-11-30T19:25:03.000Zjeff sternshttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/jeffsterns
<p>Do it on Purpose!!</p>
<p><br></br>Another part of relatedness and trust is the signals you send out about your<br></br>similarities (trustworthiness). This is real documented stuff. Pick up any book on<br></br>NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming). You can get even better relatedness<br></br>through matching the clients’ breathing, posture and speech tempo. You can<br></br>listen for cues about how they get information, which will ensure that yours goes<br></br>“in.” For instance when they are a slow talker and use a…</p>
<p>Do it on Purpose!!</p>
<p><br/>Another part of relatedness and trust is the signals you send out about your<br/>similarities (trustworthiness). This is real documented stuff. Pick up any book on<br/>NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming). You can get even better relatedness<br/>through matching the clients’ breathing, posture and speech tempo. You can<br/>listen for cues about how they get information, which will ensure that yours goes<br/>“in.” For instance when they are a slow talker and use a lot of feelings words,<br/>make sure you use feelings in your descriptions. I mean physical feeling like<br/>having them rub the leather and smell it, or run their hand down the door and<br/>fender to feel the finish and body seams.</p>
<p><br/>A visual person is bit quicker moving and you’ll see it in their clothes or jewelry or even<br/>in the looks of their significant other. Men tend to be more visual than women,<br/>generally speaking. They react better to seeing things in person, and to well painted<br/>verbal pictures (“Man, can you picture everyone at the valet stand<br/>watching this car pull up and seeing you and your date get out? What fun that<br/>will be. Half the guys will secretly wish it was them pulling up.” Or, “Can you<br/>see your kids’ faces when you pull up for the first time in this SUV? I can see<br/>them running out of the house now, all excited. Those are the memories we carry<br/>for life. Remember when your dad pulled up in a new car? What was it?”)</p>
<p><br/>An auditory person needs to hear it. And it may take a few iterations to get it in. Because<br/>it’s dangerous to think we have someone’s type “pegged,” it’s good to fold all of<br/>these styles into our conversations. Later, during "the negotiation process" we’ll<br/>revisit this.</p>
<p><br/>Building rapport or relatedness is not defined as “getting along fine.” It’s, “I’d<br/>have dinner with them. And they with me.”</p>
<p>(note: I have asked a few ask me why I focus so much on this with this "old school selling" when I am a vendor in the digital space (my job is: I partner with you in creating sales opportunities) and I should know that "today it's all about price and quoting through emails properly...." I only roll my eyes. There is a mammoth difference in closing ration and gross... YES GROSS that you can effect if you really want to know how to sell and practice it!)<br/> </p>Jeff's steps to the sale...Step 2 - Get Relatednesstag:www.dealerelite.net,2013-11-19:5283893:BlogPost:3970062013-11-19T01:37:36.000Zjeff sternshttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/jeffsterns
<p>Get Relatedness</p>
<p><br></br>Finding connected-ness through sameness.</p>
<p><br></br>This step overlaps Steps 1 through infinity. One thing that frustrates me more<br></br>than just about anything when coaching a salesperson is this: We’ll be into the<br></br>deal and something is going wrong. The customer all of the sudden wants to bolt<br></br>just before or a few minutes after we serve figures. I ask where the client is and<br></br>get, “Oh she left already.” The first thing I’ll do is to ask about how the…</p>
<p>Get Relatedness</p>
<p><br/>Finding connected-ness through sameness.</p>
<p><br/>This step overlaps Steps 1 through infinity. One thing that frustrates me more<br/>than just about anything when coaching a salesperson is this: We’ll be into the<br/>deal and something is going wrong. The customer all of the sudden wants to bolt<br/>just before or a few minutes after we serve figures. I ask where the client is and<br/>get, “Oh she left already.” The first thing I’ll do is to ask about how the rapport<br/>or “relatedness” was. Here’s the response that breaks my heart: “Oh, we got<br/>along fine.” (Does this mean fine like my kids not stealing toys away from each<br/>other or pulling each other’s hair at the moment?) I’ll then ask some basics like,where were they from originally, where do they work? Kids? How old? In school? Are they proud of anything particular about them? And I’ll get, “Well we didn't get in to all that. They were just a price shopper (I wonder why?) but we got on good.”</p>
<p></p>
<p>I’m not saying relatedness makes every deal. I am saying that statistically, lack of<br/>it kills deals or at least profit. I say profit because if you never morph into a<br/>connected human to the buyer, price is the only thing. It’s your job to make it<br/>about a lot more than price.</p>
<p><br/>Remember during “introduce” where we talked about arm’s length and how<br/>that’s done to allow the client to carry out their “price and outta’ here with no<br/>obligation strategy?” This is a lot easier to do to a salesperson or institution than<br/>to “Jeff.” When I become “Jeff,” everything changes.</p>
<p><br/>Point: someone honest might get aggressive on their tax return to get a bigger<br/>refund because they attach it to no person. Nothing wrong with that. If it was<br/>“Jeff the person” writing the refund check, they may still want their due but will<br/>they grab for every penny? Less likely, I think. Another example would be: let’s<br/>say your house was struck by lightning, and all appliances and electronics blew<br/>out. When you’re doing business with an insurance company — an institution —<br/>you aren’t being crooked when you hurry up and buy your replacement items<br/>and get your insurance reimbursement check. However if you were friends with<br/>your insurance agent and the money came out of Suzy, your agent, the human,<br/>then you would still be entitled to replace your stuff but you might look harder<br/>for sales and not just go on a mindless shopping spree. You would probably try<br/>not to damage Suzy (the person) any more than necessary.<br/>What if you became (your name), the person? What else could go easier? The other<br/>steps of the process from product presentation to the client listening to finance<br/>options that they swore they wouldn't do (before you explained the loan<br/>program or lease idea)? How about reconsidering the numbers they came in<br/>thinking would work (which are miles away). I’ll tell you one thing, it’s “free<br/>deal insurance” to develop relatedness. What’s it cost? What could it cost if you<br/>did not bother or figure out how to obtain it?</p>
<p><br/>A good buddy of mine who was a phenomenal salesman and a horrible closer<br/>(thank heaven he sold so well that he never needed to “close” much), and who<br/>retired young, told me a story. He was in the real estate business years ago. He<br/>did so well that a major developer hired him to do a feasibility study of a huge<br/>development that was not selling. There were two competing developers. One<br/>owned all the land on the side of the project that fronted water. The other had all<br/>the inland property. The puzzling part was that the less desirable non-waterfront<br/>property was selling briskly and the prime waterfront was moving slower than<br/>molasses in January. My buddy was called in to study things like population<br/>trends, marketing, economic factors, etc.</p>
<p><br/>It took him about a month. <strong>His solution? Hire the inland property’s salesman!</strong></p>
<p><br/>My buddy went in posing as a prospective client and by the time they made it<br/>around the project in the car, and through the model home, the salesman knew<br/>every little thing about my buddy’s life. He barely ever mentioned the actual<br/>product. He tailed the guy with other clients, as a “tire-kicker,” and it was<br/>always the same. Further, this fellow sold about 80% of the property of a five person<br/>office. My buddy shopped and followed the others around, and they<br/>were fine. Focused on product and price. And got along “just fine” (yuck) with<br/>the customers. The top-producing salesman’s <em>relatedness</em> was the economic factor,<br/>not outside forces. That offices’ production would drop most of 80% without this<br/>one person. He also negotiated the least on selling price.<br/>He developed relatedness at the deepest level with the clients he ended up<br/>having meals with, playing golf with, etc. He got relatedness FIRST. He was<br/>someone the client wanted to socialize with (trusted) and he made them someone<br/>he genuinely wanted the same with.</p>
<p><br/>One more thing. If the questions asked of the client invoke pleasure (as they<br/>think of their answers), the pleasure will be linked to you from a neurological<br/>standpoint. You and your product will be anchored in as associated with<br/>pleasure. This is important to remember!</p>
<p><br/><em>How to Get Relatedness</em></p>
<p><br/>This is interesting to me to explain as we all do it to some degree. We all<br/>inherently know that we need to do it. So what’s the issue? First, we all don’t do it<br/>every time. I mean without exception. Second we don’t all do it on purpose. Some<br/>of us wait for the client to give us a reason to put in the effort (which, when you<br/>think of it, really leads to less effort) before we “turn it on.” The point is this: we<br/>have to begin our job by getting involved with the client, by giving them a reason<br/>to listen to and trust us (to get relatedness) and to buy LONG before they give us<br/>a reason to “turn it on.” We in general won’t deliver the best version of ourselves<br/>until we get some hint that we won’t be wasting our time. That point of view<br/>needs to end NOW in your case.</p>
<p><br/>Of course it begins with how well you took care of the step “introduce.” Using<br/>our golf example, this was the tee shot. So now here you are, based on that shot,<br/>either in the wide-open short grass or still grappling with it and getting ready to<br/>take your next shot from behind some tree. Either way you have to pick a club<br/>and you have to swing.</p>
<p><br/>So what are you picking up in your observations? A religious “fish” bumper<br/>sticker on the car they pulled up in? A “Phish” rock band sticker? A baby seat<br/>strapped in? Is it some sort of enthusiast car that could lead to a “car nut”<br/>conversation? Does the car they pulled up in remind you of one that a relative or<br/>friend drives? Say that. Ask them not to take too much advantage of the fact that<br/>they remind you of “so and so.” Let this be authentic. Use if applies. “Where are<br/>you from? Local? How many generations? What had you move here? (And<br/>welcome to town, if new.) Do you need any recommendations for restaurants,<br/>barber, lawn service, things to do?”<br/><br/>Every time you ask something, allow them to reply. Then once they have, just<br/>say “really?” Or repeat their last few words, e.g., if they say, “Yeah my son is a<br/>manager at that big new market on main,” you say, “That new market on Main,<br/>hmm” (and shut up). The client will elaborate more. Then you follow up with,<br/>“You must be proud of him. [“I’m a father too”] or [“I never got the chance to<br/>have kids, man I’d be proud”].</p>
<p><br/><em>Be what you are saying.</em> If you are saying something that makes you sound<br/>interested in them, be genuinely interested. If you say something as a<br/>compliment, be genuinely complimentary. If you say something that shows<br/>enthusiasm in something, be genuinely enthusiastic. Words are only 30% of<br/>human communication. The client’s subconscious is making a decision to<br/>develop relatedness with and to trust you the whole time, whether they even<br/>realize this fact or not. So, finding common ground matters, that’s for sure. I can’t<br/>tell you how many times I’ve called in a manager for a T.O. when I had<br/>“nothing” and once they discovered they were from the same city or state, or<br/>their wives worked for the same airline as my wife once did, the whole deal<br/>came together.</p>
<p><br/>Here’s a true story. I was working at a dealership during a consult and desked a<br/>deal with the dealership’s manager present. The salesperson I worked with was<br/>by far the volume leader of the house. He was a true car dog. Couldn’t knock<br/>him. His CSI was terrific, his repeat was respectable and the customers he<br/>worked that didn’t close were very loyal upon their return. He also worked<br/>“open to close” all the time. So selling a lot of cars is a bit more feasible when you<br/>work two jobs, hours wise. This isn’t to take away from the job he did month in<br/>and month out.</p>
<p><br/>The salesperson came to the desk and said he had a hard price shopper that he’d<br/>met toward the end of the day on Saturday (now it was Monday). My antenna<br/>went up when I heard that the client was both “a hard price shopper” and got<br/>worked “end of Saturday.” I’m not trying to overstate the obvious here, but it<br/>seemed to me that if ever there was a chance of rushing things and skipping the<br/>“get relatedness” step, it would be when a salesperson (understandably) wants<br/>to leave if he “has nothing” with a customer on a Saturday night.</p>
<p><br/>Now, I’m in no way implying that the salesman intentionally skipped or didn’t<br/>nail down a step. This is a normal time for the “show me a reason to sell” gene to<br/>kick in. Takes a lot of purposeful, pointed and specific behavior to not have this<br/>happen. Stated another way, if it were early in the day and one unit from a big<br/>bonus, he might have dug deeper looking for relatedness and earning trust. The<br/>client may have remained a hard price shopper but simply ask yourself:<br/>statistically, if you waited on 100 of these type people, would you get more or<br/>less clients willing to pay a little more, perhaps making the difference between<br/>the boss being able to say yes or move you into more gross?</p>
<p><br/>I know I’m a stickler on this “every time” thing. Again, I’ll do a salesperson’s<br/>class or lecture 40 car dealers and they’ll usually say: “We do that.” Of course<br/>you do. You’d be bankrupt if this wasn’t something you did. The lost money is in<br/>the question, “Do you ever not?” I’m here selling you what you already know so<br/>that you do not ever “not” do it.</p>
<p><br/>So, the salesman leaves me the client’s phone number to see if I could (first<br/>priority) get him back in or (if necessary) raise him and sell the car on the phone.<br/>Now remember, I’m all set up that the guy’s a hard shopper who would barely<br/>give up his name. Also remember that this info comes from a reliable source, the<br/>top salesman. So as I pick up the phone to call the client, the dealership owner<br/>gets up and says, “I need to go do something. I saw how you desked the<br/>salesman, I know you know how to talk to a customer (I was training him and<br/>his staff), so I’ll let you do this on your own. Let me know how it goes.” I set the<br/>phone back down into its cradle and explained that I wasn’t doing this job to<br/>make one car deal but to get processes in place and mindsets right. “If you want<br/>to listen,” I told him, “I’ll call the guy.” So the “almost too busy for this stuff”<br/>dealer slumped down in his seat and had me call. Here’s how it went:<br/><br/>“Hi, this is Jeff Sterns from XYZ Motors, is Mr. Smith home?”<br/>(Woman) “I’m sorry, he’s at the store but won’t be long as we’re getting ready to<br/>travel. Want to leave a message?”</p>
<p><br/>“Yeah, I hope I’m not blowing some surprise, do you know that Mr. Smith was<br/>in our store on Saturday?”</p>
<p><br/>“Yeah, he’s looking at that Miata. I’m not crazy about it but, y’know he’s going to<br/>be 50 this year!”</p>
<p><br/>“So you’re not thrilled but you have no problem having him get this out of his<br/>system? I’ll make it a really bad deal if you want me to throw him off the<br/>trail!”</p>
<p><br/>“No, he really wants one and deserves it.”</p>
<p><br/>“Good, I’ll look forward to his return call. I heard you mention traveling, where<br/>ya headed?”</p>
<p><br/>“Virginia, our daughter is graduating Harvard.”</p>
<p><br/>“Harvard? Oh-my-God, I have a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old. That would be the<br/>greatest thing I could ever dream of saying about one of them. Imagine.<br/>Harvard.”</p>
<p><br/>“Heck, that’s our second kid through there. Our son graduated a couple years<br/>ago.”</p>
<p><br/>“You must be bursting with pride.”</p>
<p><br/>“Yeah, we’re proud.”</p>
<p><br/>“I’m surprised you can still buy anything with your kids going to schools like<br/>that! Any money left?”</p>
<p><br/>“Thank heaven, they both had academic scholarships.”</p>
<p><br/>“I was going to ask if you were a billionaire!”</p>
<p><br/>“Nope, my husband’s just a pilot.”</p>
<p><br/>“Really? Who with? My father-in-law retired from TWA a few years ago and my<br/>wife was a flight attendant for a short time with US Airways!”</p>
<p><br/>“He’s with Continental.”</p>
<p><br/>“Well my wife would have never been a good pilot, she threw up on every<br/>landing. Sometimes three times in one day! That’s why she did it for only<br/>a short time.”</p>
<p><br/>“Sheesh, poor girl! Well, I’d better get your phone number.”</p>
<p></p>
<p>“Sure, it’s 555-5555. By the way, your voice reminds me of someone I know,<br/>where ya from? Not around here…?”</p>
<p><br/>“Hawaii.”</p>
<p><br/>“OK, that’s what I thought. Now I HATE your family! You’re from the only place<br/>I want to live, your husband has the job every guy dreams of, you have<br/>TWO kids that graduated Harvard AND you’re probably going to have a<br/>cool sports car that the kids will always want to borrow when in town.”<br/>“Oh, hang on, my husband’s just arrived home. I’ll get him…”</p>
<p><br/>The conversation went just as well with the “hard-shopper” husband. I won’t<br/>bore you with the dialog. The issue turned into that they could not come in as<br/>their flight was in a few hours. He also had now found another possible car<br/>online that he would drive home if he liked both the car and the deal. I told him<br/>that the door would remain open here and that if he decides to come in, we’d<br/>love to have him as a client. I also offered a free oil change if he bought elsewhere<br/>“to at least get acquainted with our great service” and that we’d love to see his<br/>new car regardless of where he bought it. I knew that had we gotten this related<br/>to these people when they were here, after meeting our staff on a tour and after a<br/>mind blowing test drive, we’d have had better odds of getting the $500 it took to<br/>roll the unit and maybe even the $1000 that would have made it a nice<br/>commission. Statistically, I’d bet on it.</p>
<p><br/>A sale was made that fateful Saturday night —the customer sold the salesman on<br/>why it was only a price issue, and sold the salesman on not “getting into the<br/>process.” Which left me on the phone a few days later trying to make something<br/>happen, as they were frantic, trying to leave town for the graduation. I felt like I<br/>was swinging my club from the weeds. Imagine if the salesman had developed<br/>this level of relatedness that Saturday, wrote the client then and our next golf<br/>shot was from that part of “the course.” I’m never talking about a 100% closing<br/>ratio, I’m talking about a clear shot at the green and how the odds improve as we<br/>put everyone including ourselves through a specific process. I always demand<br/>from others and myself the discipline of following our dealership’s processes<br/>100%, even if the boss doesn't enforce it. It’s your paycheck!<br/><br/>The dealer was glad he stayed in the office for the call. He is a terrific guy and<br/>everyone likes him. He said, “I get a great level of rapport with clients and have<br/>always prided myself on it. BUT, you got to know the client’s wife while leaving<br/>a message better than I try to get with customers I’m working with in person! I<br/>have so much to do that I just don’t go that deep. Heck, I didn’t know that deep<br/>was possible!” I replied, “You don’t have time?” He said, “No, I do the wholesale<br/>and the books, etc.” “Well,” I said, “That IS the sale in my opinion. The rapport<br/>that took 10 minutes can take hours off the negotiation and close. I don’t even<br/>consider any other aspect of the deal unless it’s going that well. Now, some deals<br/>get “too far” before I’m satisfied that I have true relatedness, but I won’t ever get<br/>my mind off the fact that I’m not ‘there’ in the relatedness department. It’s not an<br/>option in my opinion. It’s not fluff. It’s the beginning of a lifelong connection<br/>with another human that will lead to more sales from them and ferocious<br/>referring. WAY cheaper and easier than advertising and easier on the heart and<br/>mind!”</p>
<p><br/>The customer came back after his vacation and bought the car. He ended up<br/>paying more. The dealer said that his rapport was terrific on that visit. So much<br/>for the “hard price shopper.”</p>
<p> </p>Jeff's Steps to the sale ..STEP 1- Generate a Clienttag:www.dealerelite.net,2013-11-10:5283893:BlogPost:3956792013-11-10T03:16:36.000Zjeff sternshttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/jeffsterns
<p>STEP 1)<br></br>Generate a Client<br></br>When I started selling at a little mulch lot after school, I read everything I could get my<br></br>hands on. One of the first books I picked up was Joe Girard’s “How To Sell Anything To<br></br>Anybody.” Boy was I excited! I was 17 and I was going to somehow magically be able to<br></br>select any object, pick out a random person and sell it to them! Well, although there were<br></br>some good philosophical points in the book, unfortunately I didn’t ever get the…</p>
<p>STEP 1)<br/>Generate a Client<br/>When I started selling at a little mulch lot after school, I read everything I could get my<br/>hands on. One of the first books I picked up was Joe Girard’s “How To Sell Anything To<br/>Anybody.” Boy was I excited! I was 17 and I was going to somehow magically be able to<br/>select any object, pick out a random person and sell it to them! Well, although there were<br/>some good philosophical points in the book, unfortunately I didn’t ever get the specific<br/>recipe for selling anything to anybody. I did however remember Joe’s “Rule of 250.” At<br/>the average funeral or wedding there are 250 attendees. This is how many people the<br/>average person influences over their lifetime. It didn’t sink in for a few years but I learned<br/>to eventually turn getting referrals into a science. Same goes for sold-customer loyalty. If<br/>you close, say, 15% of the people you meet in your showroom or while out doing business<br/>(dry cleaner, barber, restaurant) that means that you don’t sell five of six people you<br/>meet. This is average. What if you got as interested (this is really all it takes) in causing<br/>loyalty with this segment of people? What if you got referrals from all of your unsolds or<br/>bought elsewhere’s? What if they referred half as many people per capita than your sold<br/>customers? There are five times more of them! If you got a half of a referral out of each<br/>unsold for every one referral from a sold customer, that’s 2.5 referrals added to the one<br/>the sold customer gave you. Fact is I never did get less referrals from unsolds and bought<br/>elsewhere’s. I got more. More per person! What would this little stat, if worked properly,<br/>do for your business? Double it overnight? Don’t think so small! I see this as a marketing<br/>job where selling something actually interrupts your work plan.<br/>You are responsible for your traffic and opportunities. Not the store. It’s their job<br/>to bring in enough traffic for you to make a sub-standard living. It’s your job to<br/>build upon that and grow your pipeline of clients. Don’t be upset by this. Think<br/>about it, if “they” provided you with enough traffic to get rich, what would be<br/>your incentive to develop your relationship with your clients and their circle of<br/>influence? It’s your job to get up, get going and off the floor so they can hire<br/>another green pea to wait on the fresh-ups (that you will eventually want no part<br/>of, trust me). Believe me, you want to grow your business with the building<br/>blocks (the customers) each cemented properly into place, not just tossed to the<br/>side while you look for — or worse, <em>wait</em> for the next to come along.</p>I am a chat vendor. My product is opportunities. In a dealership, the REAL product is the salesperson. Not the vehicle and not price.tag:www.dealerelite.net,2013-11-02:5283893:BlogPost:3946182013-11-02T22:00:00.000Zjeff sternshttps://www.dealerelite.net/profile/jeffsterns
<p>Hi I'm a vendor....in the digital space. That's my job. And I love it. I love it because I'm a 27 year retail car guy who's Father was a dealer, Grandfather was a designer for Ford and Step Father designed assembly line equipment. Yes I'm from Detroit... and I love dealing with car guys and gals. Sure I like it when they buy my product. I like making a difference and I like making sure my company is healthy and our staff can take care of their families. But what I love about the job, really…</p>
<p>Hi I'm a vendor....in the digital space. That's my job. And I love it. I love it because I'm a 27 year retail car guy who's Father was a dealer, Grandfather was a designer for Ford and Step Father designed assembly line equipment. Yes I'm from Detroit... and I love dealing with car guys and gals. Sure I like it when they buy my product. I like making a difference and I like making sure my company is healthy and our staff can take care of their families. But what I love about the job, really love, is making dealers the victims of my unsolicited advice on selling.... :)</p>
<p></p>
<p>My opinions:</p>
<p></p>
<p>First of all, let’s get clear that there is nothing new in selling, nor will there ever<br/> be. Selling is causing someone to feel and then to act (miss ya, Jackie Cooper!). All things sold to a human<br/> being have always been and always will be grounded in base human emotions,<br/> logic and even chemical changes. You’re giving your prospect far too much<br/> credit if you think that all the available information out there, from consumer<br/> reports to the Internet, has him reacting any differently to outside stimuli than<br/> our ancestors of over six thousand years of recorded history. From a DNA<br/> standpoint, do you really think that the Internet has already changed human<br/> beings’ involuntary neurological and chemical functions?</p>
<p>Sure, the consumer can select which product to look into based upon published<br/> quality charts and get a price idea (which is wrong half the time anyway). We all<br/> love an informed consumer. At least they understand the reality of what’s<br/> possible. Nowadays with the Internet, some clients try to find the one car for sale<br/> like yours out of 1,000 across the nation that happens to be five grand less than<br/> yours (with the other 999 just a hair lower or higher priced). But they neglect to<br/> find out (or at least, disclose) that the chosen “market indicator” vehicle has had<br/> major frame or flood damage or has a bad odometer, resulting in misinformed<br/> clients feeling or at least acting “educated.”</p>
<p>My point again is that these things have nothing to do with selling. Selling is<br/> causing a feeling in another person. It’s not as much about an intellectual<br/> argument. And a sale is made upon every encounter, whether the client buys or<br/> you buy (their story). Someone always moves or sells the other.<br/> <br/> <em>If</em> your are an automotive salesperson, <strong>YOU</strong> are the product. Survey after survey has shown that the #1 reason a person decides to buy or not to buy is based on the salesperson. Retailers don’t offer<br/> products — they <em>hire</em> the product. YOU! If you get nothing else out of this blog,<br/> get this one point: you are the product. In times of down economies, slow sales,<br/> high interest rates, weak incentives, weak quality ratings, union strikes, or<br/> whatever the outside conditions, there is always someone or some organization<br/> that is thriving and unaware of all of these problems. These salespeople (coaches,<br/> athletes, business leaders, etc.) see themselves as the product. They know that if<br/> things are good, they get to take the credit. Based on this, if things are off a bit,<br/> they work on themselves individually or as an organization and, wow! Things start<br/> moving again! You are what people buy. The rest are all just props in your movie<br/> — the building or facility where you work and the product that you sell are just<br/> props. Props to lend credibility to the star of the show: YOU.<br/> YOU make the difference, period. This becomes painfully obvious when you<br/> look at any sales force offering the same product mix to the same market in the<br/> same environment and the same salespeople consistently perform in a stellar,<br/> average or substandard way.</p>
<p><br/> The most important and key factor in being the product is in your relationships<br/> with people. This is the absolute #1 factor that causes someone to want to buy<br/> from us. A great salesman I used to work with who was a butcher from New<br/> York once said to me, “If you get them to laugh, you have a sale.” Sounds<br/> simplistic but I believe that if we made “getting the client to laugh” a step to the<br/> sale, sales would rise. Actually, I’m not as worried about those deals as you’re<br/> hopefully closing most of those. It’s the ones where they don’t laugh…<br/> It does take work to obtain personal and professional success. Once that work is<br/> done you have the opportunity to affect another person. Now, likability is the<br/> key. When others link feeling good to you, they gravitate to you.</p>
<p>Gaining likability means finding a way to get related to someone or to create <em>relatedness</em>.<br/> A University of California study states that this has significant consequences. For<br/> instance, in hospitals, a likable person gets more attention from doctors.</p>
<p><br/> How do we develop relationships with people? Through questions. Questions<br/> that are seeking sameness. You could be standing next to a complete stranger<br/> anywhere and hear them make a comment about a city that happens to be your<br/> hometown. It would be next to impossible not to comment upon overhearing<br/> this, and from there a conversation would begin. Usually it would lead to whom<br/> you both might know or where you went to school or worked. You would like<br/> this person and they would like you at this moment. This is based on what?<br/> Geographical coincidence? It’s really based on nothing other than a common<br/> ground. You now suddenly have rapport due to sameness. People like familiarity.<br/> Find it with everyone. </p>
<p>I call it <em>Relatedness. Relatedness</em> will not guarantee more sales. <em>Lack of it</em> will<br/> definitely guarantee less. However, if you do develop a deep relatedness with all<br/> of your clients and don’t sell more, you may want to change businesses!<br/> We generally get so sold by the customer on his idea of how price or deal is so<br/> paramount that we lose sight of what really creates a sale. Some of us do this for<br/> 20, 30, even 50 years, and still we continue to “know” that we lost a deal over<br/> price.</p>
<p><br/> If this were true, why do some of my clients earn triple the national average<br/> gross profit per car while doing top volume and spending the most on used car<br/> reconditioning? Thank goodness they haven’t yet figured out that price is the real<br/> issue…!</p>
<p><br/> When I was new to this business, I learned a valuable lesson that really stuck. I<br/> can’t count how many sales this lesson made and saved for me. We’ve all<br/> witnessed it. But we don’t all register the actual value. I had just spent a couple of<br/> hours with a nice couple looking at a used Mercury. Nothing went particularly<br/> wrong during the visit, nor did it go so well that we were we going to have a<br/> sleepover party together that weekend. It was fine. <em>Just</em> fine, nothing more. We<br/> were about $5,000 apart on the deal. Nothing unusual. It was just how that deal<br/> went. I’d stay in touch and hope that I could eventually move them into reality.<br/> As I was walking them out I called to my boss to meet the customers for the<br/> TO.</p>
<p><br/> Turned out that after about two minutes of “where ya from and where do you<br/> work,” he discovered that the woman was a pharmacist at a local drug store. My<br/> boss’s wife was a pharmacist at another location of the same chain. They<br/> established whom they knew in common in the company along with making<br/> some friendly small talk. Soon enough they were asking him what a fair deal<br/> should look like. He gave them a reason to act on that car right then and there,<br/> and the $5k was no longer the deal breaker. Had my boss not met them, my floor<br/> traffic report would have said “$5k apart” and I would have been “right.”<br/> What happened? Did the car suddenly get a better book value? Did their budget<br/> change? For all they knew my boss could have been an ax murderer whose wife<br/> worked at the same company, but something as irrelevant as a commonality in<br/> profession made them trust him. What did he do that I obviously didn't?</p>
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<p>He became trusted.</p>
<p>Why? He became related to them through discovering sameness.</p>
<p>Does this have a damn thing to do with car values? Nope. Does this close every<br/> customer? Nope. Do I want to miss those deals as long as I’m waiting on them<br/> anyway? Heck no! When you cut corners — skip a tour of your facility, an intro<br/> to a manager, a benefits presentation, an ownership drive, or use a golf cart to<br/> speed things up instead of walking with your customers — you are missing<br/> chances to do the only part of your job that a robot can’t do. You are the product!<br/> They buy you! The other stuff doesn't take a person with the skills you have. You<br/> have them. You’re going to leave your fate to how numbers or price ends up?</p>
<p>We are always selling. It’s happening when the gang you hang out with is<br/> arguing about which restaurant to go to or which movie to see, and you end up<br/> at your selection. Or if not, you let them win this time. Perhaps it’s when we<br/> convince a friend or lover that we are truly sorry for a stupid or selfish action. At<br/> times like this we are moving another person and causing feelings in them that we<br/> build upon. When we are selling on purpose, with relatedness, we consciously<br/> influence someone’s conscious and subconscious awareness. Whether we realize<br/> it or not we actually do this every time someone becomes aware of us just being<br/> there.</p>
<p><br/> Here’s what I mean: When we are in a place as common as say, a grocery isle,<br/> people who pass by us are sizing us up on a subconscious level — whether they<br/> realize it or not. Their subconscious makes assessments every time they walk<br/> toward and past random people, without a thought…UNTIL someone they<br/> classify as “relevant” (“familiar” or “interesting looking” or “scary,” etc.) heads<br/> their way. Let’s say that a “relevant” category is a person who is “scary.”<br/> Everyone they’d seen was scanned, filtered, categorized and judged. They also<br/> went by unnoticed. They just weren't alerted until one that matched their relevant<br/> criteria came into view. This same mechanism (in reverse) is what you’ll be able<br/> to use to improve all of your relationships. You will become “relevant” as a<br/> trustworthy, likable person.</p>
<p>People will buy from you because of this.</p>
<p><br/> You can go from “not trusted” or even “unnoticed” to <em>noticed, liked and trusted</em>.</p>
<p>Make all of the actions in your life and business purposeful.</p>
<p>Become an “on purpose” person! You will see a significant increase in your sales volume, not to<br/> mention your likability your overall happiness.</p>
<p>And use the digital tools just to bring more people into your theater. Not to sell for you. Certainly not to make money for you (more important than selling something, right?).</p>
<p>It's fun for me when someone buys my product and me. And I feel good that I give them more swings.</p>
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<p>But I really love it we a professional is really capitalizing with intention!</p>