Selling a Salesperson

I bought a car this month and thought I’d share some lessons for you and your business in this essay I’m calling Selling a Salesperson.

While I am keenly aware of the process because of my profession, the general public is more aware of the tactics too than ever before. Here’s the list of 9 observations I wrote right after buying my car:

1. Customers may be smarter or better informed than you.
2. Over reliance on certain sales phrases can actually work against you.
3. Ask the right questions and pay attention to the answers.
4. Using your customers name is nice, except when you get it wrong.
5. Upselling works with some people but you have to be straight with your customer.
6. Customers can walk away if they don’t like the deal you are offering.
7. Tracking your advertising is usually a guessing game at best.
8. Honesty wins and builds trust.
9. Follow through helps with referrals and additional sales.

As I share my story, see how it applies to you and your business and what lessons you can apply to make things better for all.

My wife, Kathy, was driving home from a friends house and noticed the temperature gauge on her 1999 Chevy Lumina was sneaking into the danger zone so she pulled over and let it cool down before heading all the way back to our place.  She took it to our mechanic who popped open the hood, opened a few things and pronounced the verdict: blown head-gasket.

(Kathy found this car a few years ago as a steal.  Only 30,000 miles and in decent shape.  Since then she has racked up another 20,000 miles and we’ve had to replace a couple tires, but she loves this classic beast.)

When I heard about the situation, I knew we were not going to spend a thousand bucks or more on this no matter how much attachment my wife had to her baby.  I followed the advice of a friend to try a special sealant and when that failed, I started shopping.

I started the process online, doing research and asking the auto experts in my family that I trust for recommendations.  On Friday night, while I’m at a hockey game, they are sending me links to cars they found online in my price range that were recommended.  Saturday I narrowed it down from 10 to 2 cars and then Sunday, when the car dealers were closed, I visited and checked the two contenders out in person.

By this time, we decided that I was going to get a new (used) car and my wife was going to reluctantly inherit mine.  Not that she didn’t want my car, but she LOVED hers and it was hard to consider saying goodbye to her baby.

Sunday night, I decided which car I was going to buy.  It was because of who I was buying from more than anything else.  A Toyota Prius from a used car dealer or a Honda Fit from the Honda Dealer, and I decided the Honda Fit would likely be my next ScLoHoMobile.  After doing my online research, it was my gut that told me to check out the Fit and I sent the dealer a note that I was interested using the online form on their website.

Monday morning, I got a phone call from Ross, one of the sales guys at Don Ayres Honda to set up a test drive for 12:30. Remember point 1: Customers may be smarter or better informed than you.

When I arrived at the dealership, I knew who I was looking for because I looked on the Don Ayres website and saw a picture of Ross.  I surprised him when I arrived and simply said, “Hi Ross, I’m Scott Howard.” It caught him off guard because we had never met in person before, but I did my research.

Your potential customers are also doing their research and may know more than you realize

In my case, I was better informed than Ross on this vehicle. I spent a few hours researching not just this model but also this particular car using the free Carfax that was in the online listing.  When we got in for the test drive, Ross told me he didn’t know how to drive a manual transmission which was not problem for me, I did.

When I walked in and told started my conversation with Ross, before the test drive, I told him I was planning on buying the Honda Fit if the test drive checked out and the deal was good.  I knew what options I had with payments so I was 95% sold before Ross saw me.

Before the test drive, Ross asked me numerous routine questions that would be used to start the finance process and I started noticing  point #2: Over reliance on certain sales phrases can actually work against you.  No matter what I said, he responded with, “Great!”, “Fantastic!”, or some other positive affirmation.  Some of my answers were certainly not worthy of a “Fantastic!” like when I told him I’ve lived in my current house for nearly 4 years.  I almost tossed in a comment like, “my Dad died”, just to see if I’d get a “Great!” but I controlled my tongue.

Which brings me to point #3: Ask the right questions and pay attention to the answers. Ross was not paying attention to the answers I was giving him.  At one point in our conversation he asked me if I wanted to look at any other cars, I told him, “no, I’m hear to buy the Honda Fit.”  A few minutes later he offered to show me some other cars and again I reminded him, “I’m here to buy the Honda Fit.”

Point #4: Using your customers name is nice, except when you get it wrong.  My name is Scott, yet I counted at least 3 times that he called me Steve in our interaction.  When I looked over the paperwork, I double checked that it said Scott Howard and not Steve Howard.  I’ve been guilty of this every once in awhile myself but I am much better because I decided to overcome this kind of mistake.

Finally it was time for me to talk with Taylor in Finance.  I had a few minutes between the time I was first introduced to her and when we went to her office to work out the final details so I Googled her  from my smartphone and found her LinkedIn profile.  From that I learned that this was her first job in automotive and she had been there less than a year.  I knew where she went to college and that she had worked in a coffee shop awhile ago.  In my conversation with her, as she was trying to get me to buy stuff I didn’t want to buy, I sprinkled some of the information I learned into our talk, not in a creepy way, but just enough to throw off her pacing of her sales pitch.

This part of the car buying process is not my favorite but I’ve made it a game. Taylor was there to seal the deal and get as much money from me as possible.  Those Finance people are also sales people, sometimes better than the salesperson on the floor.  Which brings me to our next point: Upselling works with some people but you have to be straight with your customer.

Because I was buying a used car that was out of warranty, they offered me three additional warranty options.  Each time I declined.  Why?  I did the math and I knew my own risk tolerance. The first option would add $100 to my monthly payment for the life of my loan.  That would mean paying about $5,000 extra.  I knew that if I needed a repair for my Honda Fit that cost anywhere up to $5000, I had the means to pay for it myself.  The other options she offered were not anything I wanted either.

Under most circumstances, customers have an alternative to spending money with you.

Remember I was 95% sold on buying the Honda Fit from Don Ayres Honda, before I talked to Ross or Taylor.  It was their deal to lose.  Because, point #6: Customers can walk away if they don’t like the deal you are offering.

In the end, I bought the car and Taylor asked me to tell her how I decided to shop at Don Ayres that day by using a tracking sheet,  On a sheet of paper where various advertising and marketing options and I was asked to circle the one that fit.  I circled the Cars.com logo and no further questions were asked. Point #7: Tracking your advertising is usually a guessing game at best.

Cars.com is not why I bought the car from Don Ayres.  It just happened to be the website that first introduced me to the car along with several others.  And it really wasn’t the website, it was my son-in-law who sent me a link to the car and also recommended both the car and dealership to me.  Cars.com didn’t deserve credit for that sale.  But when I was given the choices on the sheet of paper, my son-in law was not listed as one of the choices.

If you want to track the effectiveness of your advertising and marketing, you need to ask the right questions otherwise you are bound to get inaccurate answers.

Point #8: Honesty wins and builds trust. I may be coming off a little harsh as you read this, but overall I really like Don Ayres Honda and here’s a couple reasons why.  Ross told me at the beginning of our conversation that he is not a car guy. Not that he doesn’t like cars, but he is more like me, someone who doesn’t know all the ins and outs of what’s under the hood and I really don’t care, except for my car. My expectations are that everything works and that leads me to what happened after the sale was complete…

I noticed when Ross and I were talking that there was only one key, so I asked for them to provide me with a second key as part of the deal.  No problem.  That night however I noticed two additional items that were not discovered during the test drive.  The interior dome light was not working and the heater blower only worked on high speed.  I wrote an email to Ross and mentioned that I was sure that these couple of items were probably overlooked by the service department when they prepped the car for sale, and I asked them if they would fix the light and heater.

Ross introduced me to one of Don Ayres Service Advisors, Pete, and got permission from Carlo, the Used Car Manager to get those items taken care of at no charge.  Pete gave me his business card that included his cell number and told me that he would let me know when the parts would be in and we booked an appointment to get everything taken care of.

Which brings me to our final point: Follow through helps with referrals and additional sales.

The day I came in to get the repairs made on my new Honda Fit, Pete told me that Ross is no longer working for Don Ayres, but if there was anything I needed, to please contact him (Pete). There was a slight hiccup in the repair paperwork that Pete took care of and I have written positive reviews online and shared with friends and family my experience and recommendation for Don Ayres Honda.  As you can tell, everything was not perfect and smooth sailing but that was okay.

What matters most is how you take care of those customers and potential customers along the way.

I learned somethings about the way I conduct myself in business, what lessons can you apply to you and your business?