Is there such as thing as a ‘good’ car sales story?

My husband and I recently bought two new cars over the Christmas break. We initially went in to buy one car. It wasn’t a Christmas splurge if that’s what you’re thinking – nor was anything it like the recent press on luxury cars and their owners. We wanted to go smaller and greener for all sorts of reasons I am sure you can image and one of our cars was at the end of its lease. Having done our research, the ‘make’ of our last four cars wasn’t doing enough, in our opinion, to be ‘greener’ so we decided to look elsewhere and try something different instead.

Big decision: New brand, new car, new experience.

Now I must say having bought a few cars in my time, as has my husband, and never being impressed with my car buying experiences, I did enter this car buying process with somewhat of a cynical and wary attitude at first. My husband is also and engineer, so big buying decisions do not move quickly – they must be properly analysed. I knew I was in it for the long haul.

However this time I was very pleasantly surprised – it was positive. It was very easy. It was no fuss. And it went pretty quickly. Why?

New make, new dealer, new experience. Was it the company? Was it the sales person? Was it their strategy? Was it conscious or not? I don’t know. Maybe it was one or all of those things. Whatever it was, it worked.

It was different because we were listened to, heard and understood. I was not patronised or treated like an idiot. The sales person and the business didn’t seem desperate, overbearing or too ‘features’ oriented. We weren’t rushed or pressured in any way.

And Joseph, our sales guy, just loved cars and loved selling cars. It was a joy to meet someone who clearly loved what he was doing. He shared with us that he used to be a chef and also worked in IT but his first love was cars. So he figured why not work with what he loves. So he now sells cars for a living. He had been there two years and we found out later that was one of their best sales people (no surprise to me). He was very open, friendly, real, passionate (about cars) and trustworthy. He knew that both of us where clearly involved as joint decision makers and so he set the scene accordingly. He didn’t pressure us. He gave us time to make a decision. He could see we liked to think things through and weigh everything up. He understood, consciously or not, how we liked to buy.

And he treated our children with respect, even though they were getting bored from time to time waiting for us to finish. He was funny, down to earth and real. We felt very comfortable working with him. He helped us in every way to make an informed decision. The atmosphere was relaxed. The other sales people seemed happy and engaged in their work too.

And after we bought the first car I was so grateful we didn’t have thrust upon us the ‘after sale girl’ as is so often the case with other car places. Men may find them enticing but as a woman I find the process a complete turnoff – especially if I have just made a buying decision with someone else. I am not blaming the women themselves, it’s the strategy that’s irks me. In my experience and opinion this model is not how to up- sell and cross-sell effectively (as you would have seen by my recent article on this topic in Dec 07). In most cases up selling and cross selling should be part of the actual sales process conducted by the sales person, not an after the sale is made. This was our experience with Joseph. I noticed that this car dealership didn’t have this type of ‘after sales’ approach.

After taking our new car home and reflecting on the car itself and our car buying experience, we did our numbers and worked out that we would be better off financially and environmentally if we traded in our other car as well. As it was not long off being turned over too we decided to buy a second car from Joseph and the company he represented.

Now that’s what I call good selling. So instead of catching people doing something wrong let’s catch them doing something RIGHT.

So with that I would like to thank Joseph Haddad and Brighton Mazda very much for their help. No, I am not on their pay role I just thought it was a good sales story, especially a good car sales story, worth telling.

And if you see Joseph tell him I say ‘hi’ and thanks again.

Clients don’t expect to be coerced, bullied, tricked or intimidated into buying. They don’t expect to be treated like an idiot by sales people who just talk at them and flash brochures or product sheets. Relationships do not work effectively if they are forced!

Clients are now after ‘Business people’who can sell.

Most clients know what they are after even if they don’t know how to articulate it sometimes.

The ‘market challenger’ or ‘early adopter’ clients are open to new ideas and innovations and whilst they don’t know what they don’t know they are often happy to see competent sales people to learn and keep up to date with the latest ideas and innovations. They want to stay ahead of the pack. A key part of our job, as sales people, is to help clients articulate what they need in language they can relate to and understand so they can get what they need.

Today, clients expect to deal with a real professional who knows their own business and how that business is able to serve the client’s business well.

As sales people, we need to listen beyond the obvious product need and get to know how our offering fits in with our clients’ overall business or personal plans. Here are some suggestions on how you can do this:

• Determine the expressed client needs by asking questions, which get you understanding their situation for their point of view. An initial question I often use is ‘What are your key priorities and issues you need to address in the next … months in relation to your company’s sales performance (insert your own area of expertise)?’
• Press for more information to identify the business issues underlying the client’s needs
• Creatively draw on the full resources of your business to see what possible solutions you can offer

Clients expect to be ‘helped’ these days. They expect the sales person to have a reasonable degree of business acumen & commercial awareness. You need to be aware of the bigger picture and your place in it. As you well know the world does not only revolve around your product or service.

You can build your credibility and value as a trusted business partner if you:

• Look to further the interests of your client’s business as well as your own
• Keep current on developments that affect clients’ business strategies including emerging trends and clients’ competitors
• Have a long-term perspective on the way you do business with clients
• Expand the client’s understanding of what a business relationship can be
• And do not forget your ‘Economic Argument’, your ROI (return on investment). Look for ways you can contribute to your clients’ profitability.

As a sales person make sure you always have a valid business reason (VBR) to position you in context of your client or prospect’s business. Think in terms of how the client will perceive you and your value to their business.

An excellent barometer for how your clients feel when you are interacting with them is to imagine you are one of your clients and you are being served by you. Really put yourself in your clients’ shoes and describe your sales and service approach in as much details as possible. What did they say about you and your value to them?

‘Success’ is but an artistic term

And after proper investigation, we as sales people should be able to define what ‘Success’ will looks like in partnership with the client and have a planned approach for change. Remember ‘Success’ is but an artistic term until you give it substance. You need to make sure you can link your client’s goals and desires to work with you to tangible actions and outcomes. We are living in an increasingly evidenced based society and you need to be able to link your business offerings to real outcomes.

No fluff and spin!

You need to be able to communicate achievable objectives for the relationship while challenging the creativity of both the client and your organisation.

In short, in at least Business to Business sales, clients are now after ‘Business people’ who can sell.