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Sales Tips for the Automotive Industry

Building Your Own Business

It is really is shocking how many sales consultants we run into at dealerships who have 5,10,15 years experience in the business yet still get the bulk of their opportunities from floor traffic. In our experience, the closing ratio for repeat and referral clients is THREE TIMES that of new walk-in traffic. The key ingredient that allows these strong closing ratios is trust. The biggest roadblock you face with a new walk-in client is that they don't know you, like you, or trust you - YET. You have to work hard to establish rapport and trust.

Play the Right Movie

Here's a math lesson and a different way to look at closing ratio. There are only 2 possible closing ratios for each individual customer opportunity you get. Either 0% or 100%. They either buy from you or buy from someone else. If a customer shops around and meets 5 salespeople working at 5 different dealerships they still only buy one car so 4 salespeople get 0% and one gets 100%. Over a month or year IF everything was equal (skills, personality, and product) we would expect that if all customers shop at 5 places then the average closing ratio would be 20%. Here's the problem. Everything is not equal. Some salespeople will achieve significantly lower than 20% due most often to weakness in skills, attitude, or leadership.

Anticipation

We always talk about client follow-up as the key to the next sale. Anticipating client needs before they happen or being top of mind when they do happen, significantly increases your odds of a repeat or referral sale. Here's a good sales story from this week...