By Mark Tewart
Ask for the business like you mean it. “I love the old quote, “Timid salespeople raise skinny kids.” As a salesperson you can create rapport, find the customers problem, rev up the emotion and still not get the business if you don’t ask for it and ask for it like you deserve it.
In the beginning of the sales process, it’s beneficial to tell customers what you can do for them. If at the end of the sale, you have demonstrated that you have done what you said you would do, you should have no problem in reminding them of that and then asking them for their business.
Practice TLC – Thinking Like a Customer – Focus on what the customer is trying to accomplish. Find out what their problem is. All customers have a problem or they wouldn’t be a potential customer. If there is not a want or need there is no problem. Remember, Ask Questions - Define Problem – Agitate – Solve – Get the Business.
People either have wants problems that push them towards pleasure or needs problems that push them away from pain. Most vehicle buyers are wants buyers. Wants buyers will often jump over mountains for what they want when needs buyers sometimes won’t walk across the street to solve their needs. Wants and needs buyers are very different in how they can be sold. Focus on the pleasure and pain principle.
Listen for three things as you profile your customer. 1) What they are saying 2) What they are trying to say? 3) What they really mean. Often when a customer is communicating with you, those three things can be dramatically different. Laser in on what a customer is trying to accomplish and how they are trying to accomplish it.
Define your customer’s pattern of buying. How did the customer buy their last vehicle? People abide by the law of familiarity – People tend to do what they have done in the past. Don’t violate human nature. Give them information and options that allows them to do what’s comfortable to them so it will lessen the natural discomfort that is caused when you ask them to buy. “Let people roll down hill to a decision rather than trying to shove them up hill to buy.”
Once you have established the customers profile, wants, needs, pleasure, pain, patterns, personality and everything else you acquire in your road to the sale, you must now ask yourself two questions – 1) Does the customer have HFG – Hope for Gain 2) How can I create Risk Reversal or Aversion? Hope for gain should be easily identifiable at this point. If it is not, go back to the earlier steps and start all over again because you walking into a minefield. Next, think about the customer potential fears. At the close, fear is usually the customer’s biggest reason for not completing a sale with you. Search for the fear, solve the fear and get the sale. Take the right steps, ask for the business, ask for the business like the customer and you both deserve it and you both will win.
About the Author...
Mark is a well known keynote speaker and author with regularly featured articles in Automotive Dealer Magazine, Automotive Training Monthly Magazine and was a contributing author to a book to be released in 1998 titled GenderSell. Mark has been featured in several ASTN programs such as Start Smart: The Beginners Guide To Selling Automobile, Perspective and Incredible Customer Service.
Mark Tewart, President
Tewart Enterprises Inc.
1999 Kirby Rd. #100
Lebanon, OH. 45036
mtewart@tewart.com
www.tewart.com
888 2TEWART / 513 932-9526
FAX 513 934-4588
Ask For the Business