HARDISON’S TIPS – MARCH 11, 2021 – TRAINING IS THE KEY TO YOUR SUCCESS
Tips To Being A Successful Car Salesperson In 2021
Understanding the Importance of Training
We live by a great saying here, “Training isn’t something you did, it’s something you do”. It’s of critical importance to understand this and truly believe it. We are automotive professionals, the key word being “professionals.” Let that sink in. Most professions of note (athletes, entertainers, doctors, lawyers, etc.) have some form of continuous training and learning as part of their career growth. You don’t do training once and then forget about it – it’s a continuous process to learn new skills to grow and succeed. The same is true for learning how to become a great car salesperson. You need to be motivated as a salesperson but also realize the importance of working for a dealership that values training and is invested in your success.
Practice, practice, practice
For training to be successful, you need to simulate or practice what you’ve learned. When we liken this to athletic training, it instantly makes sense to people. For example, in the MLB, each season teams spend a month and a half at training camp, where they simulate games so that when they go into the season they’re ready to kill it. Once the season starts, they take batting and fielding practice, EVERY day. And it’s not just the rookie’s or the new guys, it’s the reigning batting champions, gold glovers, Cy Youngs. Everyone is out on the field simulating game day actions because they know they need to be on the top of their game for game day.The same thing is true for us as salespeople in the automotive industry, we need to simulate interactions with customers via phone, internet, text, etc, so that when we get a real shopper in front of us, we know what to do and say. When salespeople practice they can adapt and be on top during any sales scenario. As our friend Dave Anderson says, until you’re perfect it’s not redundant.
Realize that Times Have Changed
One of the biggest tips we can give you for this year is to come to grips with the fact that the car buying experience has changed. Many people have gotten accustomed to doing everything online in the past 10 months and we foresee that trend continuing going forward. Dare we say, gone are the days of people just showing up and walking around and spending 4-5 hrs at a dealership on a Saturday afternoon. People are going to want to do as much as possible online, and you need to be ready for that. Make sure you understand your store’s email and text policies and procedures to make sure that you’re compliant. Also, familiarize yourself with online document signing tools and get comfortable starring in and sending videos. Speaking of, that is our next tip for you…
Make Video a Priority in Your Communication
Let’s face it, in today’s world, if you aren’t utilizing video communication, you are behind the times. Look how technology like Zoom changed the face of remote meetings. Communicating with standard text in a text message or email not only takes away nuances gained from tone and voice inflection, but it can also lead to misunderstandings.
We need to ensure that any and every interaction we have with a potential customer is a great one, and you can only imagine how much you’ll stand out from other dealerships when they put a face to the name. We’ve found that dealerships that use video email properly have an increase in response rate by 25% and an increase in show rates of 17%. Video is a crucial piece in learning how to to be a great car salesperson.
