Dissapointed in myself greatly!

I've always caught on quickly and have sold at least the goal of the companies I start to work at. It's been a month and I've only sold one new car and no used cars! It's so much information to take in at once (warranties, prices, models, aftermarket, rebates, technology, etc.). It's hard for me to absorb too much information at once. I'm over the nervousness with customers. I love my customers! I love building rapport, and seeing what vehicle fits them exactly. I seriously don't know what it is. It may be the fact that I'm not as knowledgeable as I should be when it comes to vehicles. And even when I say "I'm still new please bear with me..." they say they understand, but in the end I only have one net on the board. This sucks. I always come in (after my one Monster energy and my coffee) to work hype, ready to sale... But it's just closing the leads I guess.

And is it just me or do seniors (older people) not believe a word you say? Every sales job I've had, the seniors think they know everything, and don't want to hear anything I have to say... I don't know if it's because I'm young, or black, or a woman... But anyway, does ANYBODY have any advice, because I'm getting scared. Everyone else who's new also (about 1-2 wks more than me) have at least 3 cars out... HELP?!

Thank you

Hello Miss Jackson. Let's figure this out and get you rolling along. Are you getting an ample supply of leads and what is the source of your leads?

Miss J, you sound frustrated. Posting your question at S.P. is a positive step because there's lots of sales talent here in this forum.

One thing is for sure: there is a reason you're not selling, you just have to determine what the reason is so you can fix it, unless that reason is truly out of your control.

Here are a few questions to get the analytical juices flowing:

- Are you building trust with your prospects?

- Are you likable? Do they like you? If they don't trust you and like you, nothing else matters because they won't listen, or won't care, or both.

- At what step in the selling process do you feel things are falling apart? Is there a trend amongst all your prospects that points to an area of potential sales weakness?

- Are your prospects engaged? What does their body language tell you? How about their eyes? Do they look at you? Do they cross their arms? What are their bodies telling you?

- Are you getting an accurate and detailed understanding of your prospects' needs and desires? Early in the process, the vehicle doesn't matter: only their needs matter. Sometimes you have to show them a vehicle to get them to open up, but you must get them to open up. How's that going for you? Can you list the three hottest needs for each prospect you see? People buy to meet their hot needs, so if you can identify those hot needs, you've got a shot at filling those needs.

- You mention some challenges with older people. In my experience, older people are no different than younger people IF you've developed rapport with your prospect. If you haven't developed rapport with your older clientele, then that's a problem.

Most people who fail in sales fail because or their sales skills, not because of their lack of product and technical knowledge. P.K. is important, but assuming you're comfortable with the basics of P.K., it might be a selling behavior's that are hanging you up.

I just raise these issues to see if you can comment further, because maybe we can identify 1 or 2 things that you could change that would start making a big difference in your sales performance right away.

What are your thoughts, MissJackson?

I have been in vehicle sales for 5 years and have trained a number of succesfull salespeople and one of the biggest problems I see people having in vehicle sales is that they do not ask the customers to buy. yes they are nice and they try to give all the information they have but they do not ask the customers to buy. try to start simple and use the what if question.

next customer you get, after you demo your vehicle ask them this question. "Mr. Customer, IF we can come to your terms, not my bosses terms or my terms you would buy the car today right?"

If they say yes, bring them inside and get a manager involved. if they say no ask "why not?"and follow that up with a "what if I"

remember, your job as a salesperson is to get a commitment to buy a single vehicle you have today. and let price be the responsibility of your management team.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AZBroker

Hello Miss Jackson. Let's figure this out and get you rolling along. Are you getting an ample supply of leads and what is the source of your leads?

The source of my leads are basically whoever comes into my store... our location is right off of the highway, but we don't get a lot of traffic compared to in the cities... I have been downloading prospect lists from this site, and have sent out letters and coupons and business cards in the mail. Also we have a business department where all of the sales calls come to. When it's slow I go in there and work on my website I have, and update information on my leads.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skip Anderson

Miss J, you sound frustrated. Posting your question at S.P. is a positive step because there's lots of sales talent here in this forum.

One thing is for sure: there is a reason you're not selling, you just have to determine what the reason is so you can fix it, unless that reason is truly out of your control.

Here are a few questions to get the analytical juices flowing:

- Are you building trust with your prospects?

- Are you likable? Do they like you? If they don't trust you and like you, nothing else matters because they won't listen, or won't care, or both.

- At what step in the selling process do you feel things are falling apart? Is there a trend amongst all your prospects that points to an area of potential sales weakness?

- Are your prospects engaged? What does their body language tell you? How about their eyes? Do they look at you? Do they cross their arms? What are their bodies telling you?

- Are you getting an accurate and detailed understanding of your prospects' needs and desires? Early in the process, the vehicle doesn't matter: only their needs matter. Sometimes you have to show them a vehicle to get them to open up, but you must get them to open up. How's that going for you? Can you list the three hottest needs for each prospect you see? People buy to meet their hot needs, so if you can identify those hot needs, you've got a shot at filling those needs.

- You mention some challenges with older people. In my experience, older people are no different than younger people IF you've developed rapport with your prospect. If you haven't developed rapport with your older clientele, then that's a problem.

Most people who fail in sales fail because or their sales skills, not because of their lack of product and technical knowledge. P.K. is important, but assuming you're comfortable with the basics of P.K., it might be a selling behavior's that are hanging you up.

I just raise these issues to see if you can comment further, because maybe we can identify 1 or 2 things that you could change that would start making a big difference in your sales performance right away.

What are your thoughts, MissJackson?

-I believe I'm building trust with my customers... When the first come in I introduce myself and they let me know what they're looking for right up front. That's when I then lead them to my desk (first offering beverages or food from our snack bar) and figure out exactly what they want and need in a vehicle... Just yesterday after I posted this, they're was an older gentleman with his mother looking at our kia optimas, and he opened up to me after 5 minutes of speaking with me. He even said that most car salesman our liars and just want they're commission... But said I was different, because I let him know up front that the optima is my favorite model out of the kia's, but it has loud road noise. And he still wants it (since I exaggerated the noise... when we took it on a demo drive, he said it wasn't as loud as he thought it would be)...

-I hope they like me... I'm a very likable person. I always spark up conversation to build rapport. And I'm also funny, so I get most of them laughing quite a bit.

-I think it starts to fall apart when they ask a lot of questions, and a couple of them I don't know... So I'm usually saying "I don't know exactly, but I can find out right quick..." And that's when we're on the lot, so I'm usually running back and forth... I really don't know...

-The body language is cool the majority of the time. I've never had crossed arms (if I did I would ask them if I can do anything for them to make them more comfortable)... Everyone looks me in my eyes, because I'm always looking in the eyes. It's kind of hard to turn away from my charm

-I guess I could discover more of they're needs for the vehicle. I usually ask what will the vehicle be used for? And if they have kids it's even easier to discover they're wants and needs... But that's a good point... I could get into more detail on the needs.

- I can point out an average of 2 "hot needs"... 3 on a couple of customers... Mainly customers are just in and out to see the "deals" and to compare shop.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaron Watkins

I have been in vehicle sales for 5 years and have trained a number of succesfull salespeople and one of the biggest problems I see people having in vehicle sales is that they do not ask the customers to buy. yes they are nice and they try to give all the information they have but they do not ask the customers to buy. try to start simple and use the what if question.

next customer you get, after you demo your vehicle ask them this question. "Mr. Customer, IF we can come to your terms, not my bosses terms or my terms you would buy the car today right?"

If they say yes, bring them inside and get a manager involved. if they say no ask "why not?"and follow that up with a "what if I"

remember, your job as a salesperson is to get a commitment to buy a single vehicle you have today. and let price be the responsibility of your management team.

You're absolutely correct! I do hesitate toward the end when it's time to ask if they're going to buy today. I've learned to ask them the "On a scale of 1-10" question, and if it's low I ask "What can I do for you today to make that number rise?" And most of the time the answer is something I have no control over (ex. numbers).

But I really like that question you ask... I'm going to try that today!

Thanks for the input everyone and the future inputs!

Quote:

Originally Posted by MissJackson

-I believe I'm building trust with my customers... When the first come in I introduce myself and they let me know what they're looking for right up front. That's when I then lead them to my desk (first offering beverages or food from our snack bar) and figure out exactly what they want and need in a vehicle... Just yesterday after I posted this, they're was an older gentleman with his mother looking at our kia optimas, and he opened up to me after 5 minutes of speaking with me. He even said that most car salesman our liars and just want they're commission... But said I was different, because I let him know up front that the optima is my favorite model out of the kia's, but it has loud road noise. And he still wants it (since I exaggerated the noise... when we took it on a demo drive, he said it wasn't as loud as he thought it would be)...

-I hope they like me... I'm a very likable person. I always spark up conversation to build rapport. And I'm also funny, so I get most of them laughing quite a bit.

-I think it starts to fall apart when they ask a lot of questions, and a couple of them I don't know... So I'm usually saying "I don't know exactly, but I can find out right quick..." And that's when we're on the lot, so I'm usually running back and forth... I really don't know...

-The body language is cool the majority of the time. I've never had crossed arms (if I did I would ask them if I can do anything for them to make them more comfortable)... Everyone looks me in my eyes, because I'm always looking in the eyes. It's kind of hard to turn away from my charm

-I guess I could discover more of they're needs for the vehicle. I usually ask what will the vehicle be used for? And if they have kids it's even easier to discover they're wants and needs... But that's a good point... I could get into more detail on the needs.

- I can point out an average of 2 "hot needs"... 3 on a couple of customers... Mainly customers are just in and out to see the "deals" and to compare shop.

Maybe try not to walk away from the customers to go find out the answer to a question, ask them if they Want you to find that out right now...

"Thats an excellent question, I dont know that off the top of my head but i can find out for sure... would you like me to do that now or just make sure I get that answer for you before you make a buying decision?"

Another pointer, when trying to find out a customers needs and wants on a vehicle a good place to start is what they are driving now... some questions that helped me.

"what are you driving now?"
"what do you like about it?"
"what don't you like about it?"
"do you do the maintnence yourself?"
"have you done anything to increase the value of it?"

good ways to get a customer talking about their hot buttons. people love talking about their cars.......

This is an interesting call for help

Firstly I'd like to say forget about what you've previously done. I've seen the downfall to a lot of sales people because they clutch on to past achievements and when they fall behind the 8 ball, they pass the blame. Someone wise once told me "you're only as good as your last performance" and whilst he was a cynical ******* he brings a valid point. We need to keep for high results week after week but the good news is that as Skip said, you're here searching for help.

Something I've learnt is people like buying from people who are like them.. aka matching and mirroring. It's funny you say you have a problem with older people because I find them one of my easiest.

I (and probably most good salespeople) identify the values and wants of a customer in a discovery before reccomending and asking for the business. Remember your products BENIFITS and not their features. Relate the car to the individual and how they'll benifit.

Be genuine in your rapport building because very customer of yours has filters of perception they'll continually ask themselves;
- Do they like you?
- Do they respect you?
- Do they trust you?
- Do they believe you?

If they don't respect you, how can they trust you? If they don't like you, how will they believe you?

Instead of running off to find the information, perhaps have manuals close by with ear marked sections or perhaps a simple phone call on loud speaker to a manager would get the answers you are after yet maintain respect from the customer. After all, how can you respect a salesperson who keeps running off when they ask a question? Put yourself in a customers shoes and imagine what they are thinking/feeling.

Finally, I'd say DON'T tell a customer that you're new... they don't know that and people have preconceptions about new people. Pace your customers and if you build enough rapport, asking for information help won't negatively effect your presentation.

That's my 2 cents anyway

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrCharisma

Finally, I'd say DON'T tell a customer that you're new... they don't know that and people have preconceptions about new people. Pace your customers and if you build enough rapport, asking for information help won't negatively effect your presentation.

That's my 2 cents anyway

Thanks for the information... I've been told differently from my trainers and so forth... that I should say I'm new. A lot of people let off a little, if they know I'm new (since I'm not officially a "lying, untrustworthy, slime ball of a car salesman"...

I have figured mostly everything out though, from some of the information from everyone on here. And from our new general manager. He's straighforward, not quiet about telling you what you're doing wrong, and very pushy. I love pushy and straightforward, because then I can show my true colors. I also typed a lot of information up, and put it in a binder that I bring everywhere with me. So I haven't been running back and forth either...

I also found out that we were doing the whole sales process wrong. So now that we have it down pact, everyone has been selling more efficient... And I have a couple deals lined up...

Dissapointed in myself greatly!

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