The Psychology of Sales
Suppose you walk into a café and sit next to a person at the counter who is a total stranger. Without even asking his name, you ask him where he banks and how his credit is. What do you think would happen in this scenario? I’m sure this stranger would be annoyed, angry, upset and possibly even violent. The truth is, nobody I know would ever consider doing this in a setting such as this. Yet, this scenario happens thousands of times every day across the nation at dealerships.
In the world of Special Finance, the absolute most important link in the chain of events that cause a customer to buy a car is the salesperson. Customers come into our dealerships afraid and apprehensive, which causes them to put up “walls.” The job of a salesperson is to put this customer at ease and knock down these “walls.” In order to be effective and control the sale, we must build common ground with customers. Then, and only then, can the qualification process be started.
Have you ever thought about how a psychologist settles in with a new patient? The first thing the psychologist does is get the person to talk. He or she knows the more the patient talks, the greater the chance of them relaxing. The psychologist then keeps probing deeper and deeper and allows the client to open up. Really what is going on here is a very in depth qualification process in order to figure out, isolate and solve problems.
Are we so different in the auto business? Our clients come to us with a need, and in order to meet that need, we need them to talk. As they talk, we learn about needs and wants, hence we are able to isolate problems and overcome objections. The customer gradually puts their guard down. The most important sales step is to qualify this client, and the more we get them to talk, the more we find out about them.
In order to properly get our customer to come forth with information, we use open-ended questions. These are questions that start with who, what, when, where, why and how. True sales professionals will keep things light, friendly and most of all, uncomplicated. By being yourself, you will have a greater ability to make things fun for the customer.
It is also important to use your own flair and personality and not use canned speeches. When the customer is having fun, you have a better chance of closing the sale, higher customer satisfaction and making higher gross profit. Don’t be afraid to be entertaining. People like theatrics. People, in general, are drawn to enthusiastic, magnetic and engaging salespeople.
I’m sure we have all been home in the evenings when our phone rings. We answer it and hear a telemarketer on the other end reading a sales script. Sometimes these telemarketers are so intent on reading their script; they won’t even let you say a word after the initial hello. If we try to interrupt, them they just keep reading the script. How does this make you feel? I know that I hate this. I feel like this is very impersonal, unprofessional and a waste of my time. I’m sure this is how a client feels if we treat them this way at our dealership. Remember, we must use a system and process in order to be effective, but we don’t want to become robots. Use your own personality and flair. Get the customer to talk! When the customer is talking you are gaining ground.
When the customer is talking, we can learn more about who they are and what type of personality they posses. This allows us to adapt to their style. I’m sure we have all heard of the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” In our business, I think we can tweak this rule a bit too. “Do unto others as they would have you do unto them.” Not all customers are the same, nor do they want to be treated the same. If we treat all our customers the same way, we will lose commission dollars!
The only way we find out how to treat them is to allow them to talk. We want to be a psychologist with our client, not a telemarketer. The way we maintain control over the sales process is to ask open-ended questions. We want our customer to talk and open up. I don’t think we need to go so far as to get a couch next to our desk to our customers can lie on as we discuss purchasing a car. Hey, maybe it’s not a bad idea? The customer could lie down, do some deep-breathing techniques, close their eyes and really relax as they talked about their needs. We could use this couch between ups to catch a nap or prop our feet on it and really relax. OK, now I’m way off the subject. No couch; this is going too far.
In our world of Special Finance, we are dealing with clients that have a story to tell. If we allow them to tell their story, we can build solid rapport and qualify them. This, in turn, will help us make more sales, build our CSI and make more commission dollars. Of course, we want to know where the stranger that walks on our lot banks and how his credit is. The truth is, we can find out and know if we go about the process in the right way. Remember, be a psychologist not a telemarketer. Until next time, good selling!
Vol. 1, Issue 2