Selling would be so much easier if we didn't have any objections to overcome, wouldn't it?

Yet we must remember that selling, most times, is all about overcoming objections. So it is not surprising that I have multiple requests to cover this important topic in person.

The video of course covers how to try and avoid objections in the first place, and a recap of these points is as follows:

• Follow the process
  • Interview - make it professional and complete
  • Touch the desk - get a second viewpoint and help to pinpoint the right vehicle
  • Conduct a "WOW" presentation - the better the presentation, the fewer objections you will get
  • Demonstration - show the customer, don't just talk about it - allow your customers to take that all important "mental ownership"
  • Trial Close - get the customer involved - ask them to rate it on a scale of 1 - 10

• Don't shy away from objections - it is only when we get objections that we can really get to work - you should embrace them!

 

John Newburg said:

“People can be divided into 3 groups:

Those who make things happen 

Those who watch things happen

Those who wonder, what happened?”

So how can you make sure you get in the top group? The first thing is to start measuring.

How many opportunities to do business (customers) do you get each day, week and month?

What do you do with them?

Measure your process, not just your results. If you follow the process, the results will take care of themselves.

Out of every customer that you conduct a proper meet and greet with, start measuring how many you complete a proper interview with, how many you introduce to a manager, how many you get to do a full feature/function/benefit presentation with. Keep measuring everything you do with every customer, so you get a baseline. Only then will you know what you need to do in order to improve.

Improving through measuring and action is making something happen.

Your dealership should have customer logs for walk-ins, telephone calls and internet enquiries. These logs should record the following:

Date, time, customer name, customer e-mail, customer phone number, customer address, what are they looking for, trade details, then they should include the following for tracking purposes: interview, touch the desk, presentation, demo, trial close, service tour, negotiations, manager t.o., sold, video follow up

When dealing with telephone and internet opportunities, the goal is to get in front of the customer, so start recording how many appointments you are setting, and how many of those appointments show up, and how many of those actually buy.

The information you will start gathering is powerful – it will allow you to direct your attention to facts and figures. If a salesperson closes 75% of the customers he/she completes a presentation/demonstration with, but only does a presentation with 45% of the people he/she interviews, then you can direct your attention to what is happening during and immediately after the interview. Your goal with this person will be to make more presentations – this will in turn increase your sales.

Once you have logs in place, you can use electronic reports to track the information – now you can set goals to track performance against, and do something about it if performance is not at a level you are happy with.

With all this information, you can now manage what you measure – start doing that and you will set in motion actions for great success!

 

Picking up where we left off, we discussed in the previous newsletter the warranty administration position and "execution" of the position's duties and responsibilities.  As with any employee it is extremely important to outline what you expect from this person and what should be accomplished on a daily, weekly and monthly basis and have the employee sign and accept these responsibilities.

Recently a service manager and parts counterperson shared with me two separate topics that really kind of hit home.  The service manager explained an experience he had at a prior dealership where there was "no" accountability for open repair orders and to make matters worse there were open repair orders dating back to "DECEMBER 2010" He found out there was a huge disconnect in communication and follow through between the warranty administrative employee, accounts receivable manager, office manager, and service manager.... to the tune of $380,000.00!!  Apparently it wasn't deemed necessary to hold an open R.O. analysis meeting once a week!!

The parts counterperson mentioned that one of the downfalls he had experienced recently, was no concrete job description for a shop dispatcher position and no one reviewed his efforts, inspected his performance or trained him to carry out his tasks.  The dealership dissolved this position a couple years ago and now wants to re-attempt to move this employee back in this position.  After discussing this situation with his supervisors and the employee, there will be training, a written description of his job, and periodic inspections of his efforts.

These are two "real life" examples that put an exclamation mark to what we are trying to eliminate from happening with any of our employees especially the warranty administrator.

The 3 videos in this month's newsletter continue to define or outline if you will a "Warranty Administrator" duties and responsibilities.  The descriptions of these responsibilities are not just limited to what is mentioned and quite frankly should be discussed in depth pertaining to your dealership's policies and procedures.

Many times we think of this employee's position or environment as just  a "warranty order shuffler" in a "back office" somewhere out of sight and out of mind.

As mentioned previously this employee has too much dealership responsibility, ($$$) not to have some type of daily review and training.  I will breakdown moving forward what it means to "Maintaining Relationships with the Customer and the Manufacturer", "Particular Administrative Tasks" and "Complete any Available Training Opportunity," On many occasions I come across a warranty person that has tremendous impact on the dealers fixed operation's bottom line due to superb execution, pro-activeness and a teamwork mentality who is a "real value creator"

Is this your warranty administrator??

 Warranty Administration

 

"Happy New Year"

Execution

Meanings:  Implementation, performing of something, carrying out of legal provisions.

These are just a couple of definitions of execution according to the dictionary.  This is something we attempt to do everyday in our dealership and more specifically in each department.  Lack of execution and communication typically lead to disaster, such as loss of volume, profitability and even customers.

For 2012 I would like to focus on each department, and in taking a step back, recognize what we need to focus on to assist our employees with better execution and carrying out their duties and responsibilities to eliminate the above mentioned disasters.  Yes we may even have to train them more effectively by means of outlining what it is we expect from them on a daily basis, and more importantly share with that employee the basis for measurement and inspection of their duties and tasks.

I want to start by outlining duties and responsibilities of our warranty administrator. Unfortunately this employee is forgotten and left on their own in most cases.

Many dealerships have difficulty with the reimbursement process of warranty claim administration. Most often this is due to a lack of training, high personnel turnover, confusion over policy, and poor documentation. As a result, transactions go uncollected, get tied up in receivables, and are not compliant, which may lead to costly chargebacks.

Since a substantial amount of the dealership's money is generated through warranty administration, timely processing of warranty transactions, and, consequently, speedy payment depends greatly on the performance of those involved. Warranty administration is more than simply submitting repair orders. Dealerships should have an experienced individual who is responsible for collecting valuable warranty dollars while maintaining compliance with the various manufacturers' policies.

Take a look at your staff's experience, workload, and priorities. If your dealership does not have a devoted, well-trained, and capable warranty administrator, your warranty operations may not be getting the attention it deserves.

With that being said lets review the first 3 videos and get some ideas as to defining what the warranty administrative person is responsible for.  And of course the key to these duties and responsibilities will be the implementation of what you want accomplished in your dealership!!

 

It's that time of year - budget/forecasting time. Have you done yours yet? If so, what improvements are you forecasting?

If you haven't made any plans for 2012 yet, don't worry, you still have time. Why should you even do this? Simple - if you don't know where you're going, any road will do! You must believe that you can make a difference in what you do. You have to know that extra effort will produce better results. 

Let's talk about how to achieve forecasts.

Detail, detail and even more detail. The more detailed you are in a) your forecast and b) how you are going to achieve your forecast, the better chance you will have of attaining it.

So don't just say you are going to increase your business by 10%, go into detail as to how you are going to achieve the increase. Do you have the tools necessary to make the increase - do you have enough people to help you make the increase? What are you gong to do differently from 2011? You have to do something different if you want better results - the better results won't just happen! 

Salespeople - your detail should equate to the number of people you need to get in front of to make the requisite number of sales. Then you need to detail exactly how you are going to get in front of those people - think about service departments, prior customers, referrals, your own circle of influence. What are going to do in 2012 over and above what you did on 2011 to give you more opportunities to do business?

Managers - your detail should include what your team needs to do to make the improvements. Do you have the right number of people to service more customers? If not, when and how are you going to recruit? What type of training do you need to provide to both your new recruits and your current team - they won't improve on their own - it is your job to help them become more successful, so what exactly are you going to do differently better? 

Tracking - once you have your forecast set, now split it down to 12 monthly forecasts - depending on where you are, this will require a little work to weight the months accordingly. Now you have monthly forecasts that you can track your performance against.

Here's the deal - most forecasts are forgotten about until the end of the year - nothing is done throughout the year to ensure forecasts are hit. You will have a far greater chance of hitting your forecast if you track your performance often - the more often the better.

Attainable - make sure you set a forecast that you can hit - if it is too far out there, it will have a negative effect all year long - make it attainable, realistic and make it mean something to attain.

If you would like to see an idea of tracking tools, let us know and we will gladly e-mail you some electronic reports to use.

Share your forecasts/goals with others that can help you achieve them - managers and co-workers. You are part of a team - use the team.

Use your forecasts to make something happen - believe in the forecast and do everything in your happen to hit it - make it so that missing the forecast is not an option - you will succeed!!

 

When we work in the same place every day, quite often we don't see or notice how good or bad the first impressions we project to our customers.

There are 3 basic ways our customers contact us:

In Person

Via the Internet

On the Phone

As I task you to do in the video, take stock of how your customers are received at your dealership - check each method of contact.

Here is what you should inspect:

What does the customer see?

What does the customer hear?

What does the customer smell?

Your customers should experience the very best you have to offer, as you only get one chance at this first impression.

Look your absolute best - both facility and dealership employees - rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10.

What are you saying to your customers? Say it with a smile, be enthusiastic, make your customers enjoy their experience.

If you want an outsider to measure any or all of the above, let us know - we can do this for you. 

Watch all 4 of the videos in this blog - David Foco, Vice President, talks about how to keep our customers coming back.

Research has shown that customers will buy their next vehicle from the dealership they last used for service - if it was in the last 90 days, they will do this a whopping 72% of the time!!

It isn't a matter of whether you want to do the processes David talks about, this is a necessity if you want to sustain your business. Don't delay in following his advice, and don't hesitate to reach out to David personally with any questions - e-mail him at:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Now watch the following video:

Number 3:

The thought process, as you see with David's videos, is to involve all departments - the more people involved, the more likely we will be to keep our customers satisfied so they will keep coming back. 

Now watch the video below on a couple of word tracks: 

 

I am sure that many have you have tried to prospect in the past, and in fact some of you may well have a great routine that you use now to continually cultivate business.

What we are talking about here is the kind of prospecting that will produce results - both short-term and long-term. It is essential to get, and keep, your name out there. The ideas talked about in these 2 videos are proven and effective. They are examples of what the top salespeople around the country are doing. 

Managers - do you struggle to get your team to prospect? Maybe they need the tools to be effective - help them develop a company facebook page for themselves (John Q. Salesperson ABC Dealership). This facebook page should be strictly business - no selling though, just information that your customers and potential customers would find interesting. "How To" videos for example, along with video testimonials from customers. Post newsworthy articles about your dealership and product lines.

It is widely known that recipients of e-mails much prefer to watch a video than read e-mail content, so appeal to this fact by sending video e-mails, personalized so the recipient will know they mean something to you. 

Once you have watched both videos from me, watch the video at the end - this is an idea from a salesperson at a dealership we work with in Canada - simple and effective. He is not selling anything except himself and his dealership, and adding a little fun.