Employee Keepers

I would like to thank Joe at Saturn of White Bear Lake for this one. I had occasion to be up in the greater Minneapolis area yesterday and it was my good fortune to run into one of my former students, Joe. We took a few minutes to catch up and I asked some questions as to how he was doing. While Joe is rather new in the automotive sales business my hat’s off to him for the studious approach that he takes toward his profession. He graciously took some time with me to explain how he was keeping up with not only his product knowledge but also the incentives, interest rates, rebates and the like.
I had to run off to a meeting with Joe’s boss and upon returning saw Joe busily being a student at the customer contact center.
It occurred to me that Joe was probably new enough in the business that he still could use some direction as to the activities that will make him a consistent, sustainable and healthy income. So I gave him a suggestion (unsolicited as usual). Pull five deals of customers that you have re-contacted after they have not purchased and the re-contact did not produce a sale, said I. Then, meet with another sales consultant and develop word tracks that you can use to make another recontact with each. Now, here’s the most important part, practice those words by role-playing with your partner.
Two points here:
Most of us are more than willing to practice new techniques. Unfortunately most of us also consider the practice field to be our showroom and the people that we practice on our customers. Never practice on your customers!!!
Practicing with a fellow sales consultant makes you and the sales consultant better at what you do. I know of no better way to hone your professional reflexes. So that when you are face to face with the customer, you will say and do the right things that will lead you and your customer to what you both want… a sale. Yes, trust me, they want to buy and get on to owning that vehicle just this much is you want to sell and get on to spending your commission check.
It goes back to what we’ve talked about previously. “It’s what you do when you think you have nothing to do that will make you all the money in this business”.
That little exercise that Joe and I discussed, will probably take him 20 minutes. Do you think you could of the 20 minutes in sometime yesterday that help you and a partner hole in your skills?
Thanks Joe, great to see you again,
Until next time
Curt

Hey I was in a meeting last week in Hawaii…..that’s kinda why no articles last week. One service manager,Bobby, Servco Auto Windward in the group had a good tip for walk-arounds in the service drive. He has a quick lube tech in the drive doing the walk arounds while the customer is working with the service consultant. It speeds the process, keeps the customer involved and gives the appearance of a professional looking over the vehicle.
This is not just fluff, Bobby’s department has the highest hours per R.O. in the meeting. Great tip Bobby. Mahalo
Until next time,

Curt

Tell them… they will forget
Show them….the will remember
Let them….they will understand

Think about how this applies in Sales, demo drive. Service, walking the vehicle at write up. Leadership, everything you do with your team.
Are we “letting” often enough. Are we on the look out for new opportunitiew to “let”.
All three have to do with leadership if you think about it.
What do you think.
Let us hear from you.

Until next time

Curt

Nice. Tia Saturn of West Palm Beachwill ask her customers to describe a typical day in the live of their vehicle. This could either history as in their present vehicle or future as in the vehicle they are in to purchase. The power behind this technique is that of non threatening conversation. You are having you customer talk to you about something that is personal in a non-personal fasion, just by how you frame the question…..hey, come to think of it asking someone to tell you a story like that is not even a question. Using this technique allows you to avoid the interrogation “blues” that we all want to avoid at this stage of the sales process.
Thank you, Tia
Happy selling, Curt

This one comes from Susan of Saturn a West Broward. While doing some role-playing in our class today, Susan mentioned how she gets the customers registration and proof of insurance early on in the interview process if they have a trade in. Of course, when she said this everyone in the class said, huh? So we asked Susan if she might show us how this might look in a role-play situation, I was going to be the customer.
Let me set the stage for you. I was playing a young customer who is basically just interested in getting an appraisal for my trade.
So, after a proper meeting I indicated that I just wanted an appraisal for my trade, and Susan said, “of course, I will need a copy of your registration and proof of insurance and your car keys so I can get the mileage off your vehicle.” She did it in such a matter of fact fashion that I immediately complied with the request. Then she invited me inside and transcribe the information from the documents that she got for me to her interview sheet. She never attempted to explain to me what she was doing, but I got the feeling that if I asked, she would certainly explain it to me. Well everyone in the class so the power of this technique. I think the keys here are two. Number one make sure your attitude is one of serving the customer and giving them what they want. Number two, that matter-of-fact tone is what carried the day.
Which, brings up a larger issue that we learn from day one in sales. Never put your own values on a decision that you’re asking a customer to make. Even if the decision is just giving your registration and proof of insurance to your sales consultant.
Susan, it was a great finesse technique, one that no one in the class will soon forget. Oh by the way, Susan’s only been selling for five weeks.

Until next time, happy selling
Curt

I am spending the week in Coral Springs Florida with Saturn sales consultants and sales managers.
I have a couple of great techniques contributed by a couple of our class members that were too good not to publish.
The first one is from Tia, a sales consultant at Saturn of West Palm Beach. At the appropriate time during the interview process, Tia askes the customer what their monthly payment is on their present vehicle. When they tell her, regardless of what the payment is, she says “really, how did you get the payment so low?” I think you see the power behind this question.
Our next contribution comes from Rich from Saturn of Stuart. This one has to do with the all-important trial close at the end of the demonstration drive. After Rich summarizes some of the features that were important to the customer at the end of the demonstration drive, he then asks the customer, ” based on all of the features that I’ve shown you, do think this vehicle will meet your needs for the next few years?” Incredibly professional and equally effective.
Needless to say, it’s a pleasure to have Tia in Rich as class members.
Thank you Tia and Rich, you are doing an excellent job of being ambassadors for your company.
Until next time, happy selling, Curt

I once listened to a radio program whose guest speaker was a noted authority on problem children. She stated over and over again that you can’t spoil a child by loving them too much.
I would like to paraphrase what she had to say in this article today.
Before we do that, however, I wish to remind you of the two things any customer who comes into our retail facility in the automobile business spends. Time. Money.
Now for the paraphrase, just like you cannot spoil a child by loving them too much, you cannot spoil a customer by thanking them too much. Remember, every time we see a customer they are, at the very minimum, spending at least one of those two scarce resources. Two resources that no one has too much of, that’s why they’re scarce.
We are always in the business of looking for reasons to recontact our customers. Let’s not overlook the obvious. Thanking them for time and financial considerations is a great place to start. Whether they bought from your not!

Until next time

Curt

Well, the good folks at the Mystic Lake Casino have done it again. The convention center an all of the restaurants were outstanding as usual.
Speaking of as usual, I was in the company of some outstanding service professionals again. I am coming to expect great interaction and quality contributions when I am in Minnesota.
One theme that we adopted for the course was professionalism. We had great contributions from our General Motors representatives as well. We had some great ideas about how to present ourselves professionally. We talked of how it is as much attitude as it is actions. In fact the attitudes dictate the quality of the actions.
I was able to see my good friend and colleague Jim Leslie of the Wipfli Accounting organization. Jim is an outstanding consultant in the retail automotive industry. he and I spent the morning talking about leadership in the retail automotive industry. We shared some thoughts worth publishing in future articles.

see you soon.

Curt

Was in the Marriott Airport in Pittsburgh. Kudos to the staff…outstanding job. Specail thank you to Craig in catering. Representation in the seminar was geogrphically and brand…wide ranging. We had representatives from Pa. as well as Ohio and Long Island, New York. I want to extend my thanks and best wishes to Gary over at Cassel GMC Truck GET WELL SOON, BIG GUY. Special thanks to the Generl Motors representation at the class as well. I really appreciate your participation and great insights.

Couple of best practices:

Follow up. The higher up the empowerment ladder the follow up call comes the more impact it has. Some stores the dealer calls after service!!!

Presenting Additional Work: Make sure you tell the customer all that you have completed up to that point before asking for additonal labor and or parts. It really helps the closing ratio and customer satisfaction levels.

Awareness. Dirk made a great presentation that brought awareness to all about the total value of a customer in the service department to the total dealership. The case in point was a customer that represented $5 million in vehicle sales alone. This versus the cost of a loaner vehicle for a day or two. Thank you Dirk.

Special thanks to Rob from Sun Buick Pontiac GMC for all of his fine presentation work.

Until next time, Curt.

Wow just got back from a parts manager traing session in Irvine Ca. then off to a meeting with the good folks at Servco of the Pacific and am now training Saturn service and sales managers in Tucson. Wild couple of weeks. Here are some relevant links.

Servco Automotive
Jaguar
Saturn