I must share with you that the days of what I refer to as “Rain Ex Sales Reps” are gone!

“Rain Ex,” front lobe “yes, yes, yes,” rebuttals, scripts or habits are weak.  They immediately, from first contact, either lump us into the stereotype that makes this business fun and easy for the committed and miserable for the unprepared or unwilling to change.

People, let me tell you right now, I know exactly how it feels to have the quality of your name and/or profit or loss determined at times by a team, partners, employees, social networkers, etc.  That is what I mean by “front lobe” vs. my methodology, which is based on skills, not just scripts. This approach was developed by “watching countless hours of game tape,” meaning doing reconnaissance or due diligence, sharing the why, not just what and how with everyone.  That means customers, staff, family, friends, etc., as a way of life, not as an act or performance.

You may want to use what I call the “self barometer technique,” meaning we think back and face the fact it is true that we, as human beings, may remember half of what someone says to us, but never forget how they made us feel. For instance, how do you feel when you are on a customer service call with someone who is scripted and, although they could have a sincere heart, they don’t show any concern for your time or even what you are saying?  Also, canned e-mails are not effective, from my experience. Over 60% of America has four to five e-mail addresses or more. Which one do you think they are giving out?

So with the knowledge, experience and collective agreement that if we truly differentiate ourselves and what we say comes across as real and it hits the customer’s subconscious with “commonality based communication” we can learn a great deal about them in a very short time.  Then by notating everything about them in your CRM your further contact can be humanized, personalized with messages that can be “curiosity based.”  It can then be real communication, not just cold dialogue.

This year something happened again with my peach tree as has happened in every car store in the world.  The fruit that required more than minimal effort to reach was left behind. All the ripe ones within easy reach were harvested and we were quite pleased. However none of the dozens on the ground were double checked as to whether they were ripe and could be harvested.  Rather, it was assumed they were all rotten.  How do you feel about all those “ripe” customers left to “rot” in your CRM for lack of quality notes and little or no human interaction?

How do you feel when you listen to sales calls, listen in on VMs, observe SMS and MMS, etc., where people are going through the motions and just “knocking it out?”

How do you feel when I share with you that every group, store, conference, roundtable, etc, has a staff of reps all agreeing there is extensive “down time” in our industry.  Nonsense!  Breaks, lunch? Sure, “down time.”  That is an excuse for mediocrity, lack of discipline or a complete unwillingness to do these things that shut down both the BS excuses and take your competition off the market.  There are great opportunities to create a lot more activity, profit, higher closing ratios, more referrals, etc. There is no need for only 20% to make 80% of the money.

“Some people change when they see the light, others, when they feel the heat!” Well, the heat might be a new number one rep.

• Daily warm-up: Before you pick up your first call every day!

• Review all ads: Keep up to date with not only your store’s current ads, but also your competitors’.

• Evidence manual: Create a quality evidence manual and have it available for each and every call.

• Touch the desk: Check in every morning.

• Dealership sizzle: Know the top 10 reasons to buy from your dealership.

• Urgency: Remember the 28-second rule, impact wording and back to back dialing.

• Differentiate: Humanize, smile, curiosity-based voice messages.

• Sound sincere: Remember 93/7 rule, significant and proper CRM notation.

• Specific time appointment: Give a confirmation number, create mental drive, appointment tags, activate confirmation number with the reverse TO when/if they don’t arrive on site.

• Persuasion works: Quality either/or questions.

• Commitment: Involves saving face.

• 100% TO: TO any prospect not appointed while live, not later, to only leave a message.

Remember, nobody bats 1,000. However, in our never ending pursuit of the “elite team,” we have to keep in mind that, “Some will, some won’t, so what!”  This is not meant to be cold, just a fact we must face.

If any of this doesn’t fully click, shoot a live chat or e-mail and we will provide a glossary.  Good selling to you.