new to sales

[mustangsally]

Hi all
I am new to auto sales any advice??? It's alot harder than I thought it would be. I love it but it is a struggle. Any advice would be greatly apprieciated!

:)

[mchastek]

Welcome to the forum, Deb!

I'm not a salesperson, but just from a consumer's standpoint, I recommend being as honest and as genuine as you can!

If you do some searching here on the forum, you'll find someone who suggests making regular contact with all of your prospects. Basically until they've purchased a vehicle, keep contacting them. I don't know if I agree with this advice, but it seems to be working for them.

Good luck!
-Mark

[UpBus.com]

Hi Deb,

A few thoughts for you. In all my time in the business I came to realize there were two types of salespeople. The gifted and everybody else. Unfortunately for most of us, the gifted number represented less than 2% of the salespeople. These were the people who could consistently knock out 30 (+/-) cars per month and made it look easy. They typically had very little product knowledge and bad follow-up skills but customers liked them and they just have this natural ability to move the metal.

The other 98% are made up of people who shouldn't be in the business, people who don't want to be in the business, people who are new to the business, and people wanting to get out of the business...with a smattering of people who like the lifestyle, the money, and/or the game.

So the magic bullet for the rest of us who made/make a good living is...hard work. Yep, the car business is hard work. If you follow the blueprint below you should have a pretty good shot of long-term success.

1) Go to work to work. Think about those 5 words every day and live it.

2) Make friends but stay out of the dope rings. They sap your time, your energy, and are usually frequented by at least one poison pill.

3) Always ASK for the business. There are 101 ways to do this. Become a master of asking by using strong closing questions that feel natural in your conversation. Don't force it..but ask.

4) Follow-up on everybody! (card/letter and phone calls) - I think you would be amazed at the number of salespeople who are really poor at this.

5) It's a numbers game..look for ways to increase yours (postcards to orphan owners..an internet advertising campaign, etc)

6) Out hustle and out-work every other salesperson at the store - if you even suspect somebody is working harder than you, work harder. That doesn't mean try to take every up that hits the lot..see the above recommendations.

7) Be honest with yourself about how much effort you are truly putting in on a daily basis.

8) Get good on the phone. Incoming sales calls are excellent prospects but you need to make every one of them a prospect..which simply means you need to have their info for follow-up.

9) Be a student that APPLIES what you learn but don't use terms or phrases that are not a comfortable fit for you and your personality. They will sound forced and fake.

10) take your time off to rest. done right, this is a very demanding business and you will be at your best when you are well rested.

11) Be considerate. Anybody can hit a home-run deal by taking advantage of people but that's not the way to feel good about yourself and your profession...any two-bit schmuck can do that. Don't be proud of over-grossing somebody who doesnt speak good english or somebody who has few choices. Ask for all the money but don't ask for more than all the money. (But be proud of the full-gross deal on the attorney or doctor! ;-) )

12) Go to work to work.


That's a vague and short list but if you really want to make some money that list will get you started down that path. (I define "some money" for a salesperson as nothing less than 100k..others have a different point of view). I hope you have great success.


Larry

[mchastek]

Wow what a great post! Thanks for typing that all up, Larry!

[UpBus.com]

I'm not quite as long-winded as the pebble guy but that post was close ;-)