Four things sales staff should never do

For as long as most of us can remember, every dealership and dealer group has had its own sales process and dealership practices that would be drilled into every new starter. Most of them have been heavily based on the Pendle system, and there’s no doubt they worked. The problem is the world has moved on, but in some cases, dealership practices haven’t.

Forcing a borderline deal

Obviously, it can be tempting to keep pushing if a deal appears close but just isn’t quite there yet, but look at it from the customer’s perspective. If they’re not saying yes yet, the old way has often been to start applying pressure and to keep ramping up that pressure until they crack.

This can result in deals, but it can also result in a lot of unhappy customers, even ones that eventually agree and take delivery. Repeat business is the gold standard these days, so are you prepared to risk a customer never coming back to you again just to snag that sale today, and what about how they then speak to others about their experience?

The alternative: Have the salesperson become a counsellor. Train them to get to what it really is about the deal that isn’t right for the customer. Yes, they probably already do something like this, but only as a means of driving through the deal with another offer. UK customers are often too polite to tell you the truth about what they’re not happy about, so back off, give them some space, and let them know there’s no pressure. You might be surprised at what they will then reveal.

Message handling

An incoming phone call from a customer should be cherished, valued, nurtured and treated with the utmost respect. No matter what it’s for, you don’t know where it could eventually lead. Don’t leave it to chance by leaving messages in a sales exec’s online diary or on post-it notes saying that someone has called. The same goes for messages for service or parts.

The alternative: Come up with some hard and fast system that must not be ignored. Whether it’s a large message board or a technological system doesn’t matter. Date and time every incoming call on your system that hasn’t been taken by the appropriate person, and set a rule for a maximum length of time before the call must be returned. It could be as little as five minutes or as long as an hour, but make sure that the customer gets a call back by someone. Even if the person the customer asked for doesn’t make the call themselves, make sure the customer gets a call from someone, and within the stated timeframe.

Callbacks

Customers will walk away without buying; it’s a fact of life. Common practice is to then keep badgering the sales exec to keep calling them on a regular basis until they say they’ve bought elsewhere – or until they’re pushed to say something much worse down the phone!

Once again, this is about the long term and repeat business. If you call a customer back once after they’ve been in and they’re still cold, how often do they change their mind and buy? Some might, but how many others have you driven away forever by haranguing them?

The alternative: Learn when to leave someone alone. When the first call-back is made, if the customer still hasn’t said a final “NO,” try and make an appointment for another call. If they don’t want to re-appoint, try and take the message.

Assumptive closing

We all know how a lot of customers feel about car salespeople and car dealerships before they even walk in; that they’re held in the same or lower esteem than a lawyer or an estate agent. If you want to reinforce this stereotype and put your customers’ backs up, keep using tactics like the assumptive close. It’s transparent at best, and at worst it can be an insult to their intelligence.

The alternative: Just don’t do it. Instead of using assumptive clichés like asking when they want their new car delivered, ask what timescale they have in mind in order to find out if their expectations are realistic as a discussion point.

By Sean Cooper