Demo Lesson

A person is at your dealership lot looking at different types of vehicles. You approach him and greet him. The person shrugs his shoulder and says, “Thank You, I am just looking," or “I am just browsing," or “I don’t need help right at the moment.” You step back, and after a while lose your interest in him. This kind of thing happens everyday.
But have you ever thought about the reason?

When your manager asks, “What happened?” you say, “He was just looking,” or “He had an attitude,” or make up a story, like “I know him, he came to see the service department,” “He was just passing by,” etc. In truth, you had been a little disappointed too, because you did not come to the dealership to approach people who would not even return your greetings.

Let’s continue with this scenario. You lose your interest in the person and look for another prospect that will be better. But to your dismay, you see that another salesperson steps forward, talks to the first person, goes for a test drive and now they are at the desk next to you doing the paperwork for delivering the vehicle.

Selling automobiles is not just taking an order, packing it nicely and delivering it to the customer. No customer will probably say, “Mr. Salesman, I like the car, please do the paperwork.”
Selling automobiles means,

1. you have to effectively overcome the first 30-second objections coming out of the customer;
2. you have to create a desire in the customer so that he or she is interested or curious to go into the great details of the vehicle, and
3. you have to create an urgency in the mind of the customer so that he is excited to take the vehicle home right at the moment.

Research shows that, 57 % of the buyers visiting a dealership bought within three days of the day they started looking and 90% of the buyers bought within a week. About 85% of the buyers, before they left home, decided that they were going to buy a vehicle, but 72% of them told the salespersons that they were just shopping. About 88% of the prospects felt that they did not get a good product presentation. About 96% of the buyers were never followed up and 82% of them could not recall their salesperson’s name 12 months after purchasing. (NADA Management Guide, SL. 35, January 2003).

What might have happened in the above problem are as follows:

1. The person was not just looking. Perhaps, nobody visits an automobile dealership to confront a salesperson for nothing. They are probably in the automobile market now, or will be in the market soon.
2. Maybe, the person at that particular moment, was not looking for a car; but was definitely looking for a salesperson who could demonstrate and sell him a car.
3. When you approached the person, he found something in you that he did not like. That can be your dress, style, attitude, language, accent, color, race, voice, hairstyle, body language, manner, movement and/or a combination or many other factors.
4. He expressed his first objection by saying “I am just looking” or so on and you failed to overcome that objection; and
5. The other salesperson handled the initial objections perfectly, and then was able to go forward with the subsequent selling steps.

You had failed to overcome the initial objections and could not proceed further. Now blaming the customer for his “attitude” or “making up” “stories” to cover the truth won’t pay your bills. It would be better if you learn to do the right thing at the right time.

At the instance mentioned above