The Principle of Reciprocity begs the question, “What Have You Done for Me Lately?” By definition, reciprocity is the practice of exchanging things with others, for mutual benefit; by design, it is the ambiguous idea that people feel obligated to return a gesture, kindness or invitation that has first, been granted to them. In sales, reciprocity is what separates the Winners from the Wannabees.
I remember my first week at the dealership. It seems like forever ago now, that I walked through those doors to buy my first car – that feeling of being surrounded by a looming sea of sharks, just waiting to sink their teeth into me. I was ripe for the picking and all but clueless that stepping onto the lot that fateful night, would result in my becoming one of “them.” It was a precarious process – my journey to the Wolfpen and a story entirely of its own, but I vividly recall telling myself that if I was going to embark into this seemingly sinister world, I was going to change it.
Sales came easily to me. Call it my personality or call it luck, but I sold 14+ cars my first month in the car business. I’d had no formal training and was more or less thrown into the proverbial shark tank, so it was Sink or Swim. The problem was that my tank mates thought of themselves as Great Whites and I was the guppy; a gullible guppy at that. Their pranks were endless and their pokes and prods, incessant to the point that I nearly quit my second month in. Not only was I bearing bright green gills, but I was the lone woman on the floor and to this sea of testosterone, the “Shiny New Toy.” So, if I was going to succeed, I quickly realized I had to step up my game and separate myself from the shiver; it was shortly thereafter that I would meet the then, GOAT of the auto industry, Grant Cardone.
I was front and center at Grant’s seminar and once again, the single female in representation. In tote, my sales journal, a pen and an eager willingness to learn all that I could about car sales, in less than three hours. I listened intently, taking care to note everything of significance, but the defining moment for me happened as we broke for break. Grant didn’t break. Instead, as the attendees began filing out like a trail of ants, Grant took to the stage and like a BOSS, started slinging his products that were for sale; books and tapes and software – Oh My! Yet, he did it in such a way that not a single decision maker could digress. He offered them something for FREE, and I was ALL EARS.
Never before had I seen someone give something substantial away and gamble on their livelihood in that manner. To be perfectly honest, I can’t recall exactly what the product was – possibly his desking software, but I will always remember that feeling of seeing an audience of onlookers who had just been racing towards the door, suddenly frozen in their tracks and intently hanging on every word that man was saying. It was then and there, that I had my first official lesson in the art of reciprocity.
Give something away to get something in return. What a novel idea! On the surface, the concept seems simple enough to grasp and in fact, a great number of entrepreneurs and sales professionals alike, have gone on to be quite successful using that tactic. We see it on a daily basis via social. Whether it’s an e-book or a t-shirt or even valuable content, via a free webinar or app trial, the reality is that all roads lead to, “Buy my product” and we do, time and again. Why? Because they dangled a carrot in our faces, we got a taste and now we want more. That being said, it would lead us to believe that in the GREATEST industry in the world, (at least in my humble opinion) automotive, we as a whole would have widely embraced this concept by now. Yet, so many dealers are still archaically relying on clicks and tricks to fill their sales pipelines and it’s time for a change, folks.
As early as 2000, reciprocity marketing was the pinnacle of my success, when it came to selling more cars and generating our favorite word, PROFIT. Never did I rely on floor traffic or a website or a CRM or the worst, a Circus Tent, to sell cars for me. I relied on MYSELF. I spent every lunch break, out in the community, networking with other locally-owned businesses and introducing myself. I’d offer to buy gift cards to their establishments and give them away to any customer they sent to me, so that the circle of wealth, could come full circle. Then, I’d go a step further and after the sale, I’d go to Hallmark, buy a card that had a personal ring to it, handwrite a message of gratitude and include the gift card, along with a printed referral card in the likeness of a $100 bill; in any given month, I sold no less than TEN cars, that came strictly from repeat and referral business in the community, as a GREEN PEA.
So, what’s your excuse? Time? Budget? Lack of effort? Complacency? Whatever the case, it’s costing YOU and your dealership money. I went on to spend fifteen more years on the sales floor, in one capacity or another before launching my own business, around this intrinsic idea of reciprocity. I worked my way through the ranks of finance and management and implemented the principle of reciprocity in every store I worked in. Time and again, stores that had lackluster performance levels, saw increases hand over first, by simply instilling my ideas into their practices. The reason: procured relationships, procure profit. Period.
It’s 2019 and business as usual, isn’t cutting it anymore. The industry as a whole needs to step up and step out of old ways and old habits, if we truly want to effect change. We never thought we would see the day of cars being sold from vending machines, but news flash, they are. Similarly, dealerships who aren’t malleable enough to embrace and implement change in both their cultures and their processes, are going to find themselves marauding unemployment lines, for paychecks. That’s just the reality. Real results happen with real change and real change is long overdue for our Industry. We can rise together through reciprocity or fall together in disparity. The choice is yours. Choose wisely.