SALES TRAINING IS MORE THAN JUST “GO SELL CARS”
To be honest, “One Size Fits All” is a load of unvarnished malarkey even in the clothing business. But we are here to talk cars, not clothes, so I am referring to your sales presentation, not your suit. We talked before about outfits. (In this previous post).
Sales training is great, and I wholeheartedly support it. A problem develops with those people who train a person to do it only one way. Some of them aren’t flexible enough to flow with the situation, and lose sales because the customer isn’t following the script.
Introduce yourself in keeping with your customer. Professional people expect a professional introduction, and blue collar people tend to be more comfortable with a friendlier intro.
Keep your manner of speaking professional, saying Yes or No instead of Yeah or Naw, even for the blue-collar crowd. Use Sir or Ma’am when referring to them. People love respect. People also love the sound of their name. Learn it, and use it. Before you call them by first name, ask if it’s ok. If the person has a title, such as Doctor or Judge or even Officer, use it. It shows respect for their position.
As for those objections you may hear, don’t jump straight to the defense, or even mention that you heard them. Include in your intro and presentations words or phrases that defuse objections. Learn to listen to whats being said, and learn to HEAR what is being communicated. People usually tell you (more often than not, indirectly) what they want, and how they want it. You have to glean the information from the chatter.
As for defusing, be positive in defending and explaining. People do not like to be called liars, nor do they want what they may consider a trusted source being called that, either. If your company made a mistake, but fixed it, own it. Something along the line of “Well, yes, that was an unfortunate situation, but I am glad that we were able to address that problem.” (Or “And that we are addressing it, hopefully, to everyone’s benefit.”)
If you trash or insult another customer in front of this one, they wonder when they are next on that list, and may decide not to get on it at all by buying somewhere else. We’ll talk more about customer interaction in a later visit.
Lastly, never be afraid to ASK the customer if everything is going to their satisfaction. Take those little hesitations and pick up on what you need to fix to keep them happy. Pro tip of the week: If a customer spends a lot of time looking at their watch, save the waiting games for someone else, this person is not the one for that. They will respect you a lot more that you interpreted that, and sped the process up for them.