Even the most natural salesperson can benefit from learning new ways to sell. Talent and skill are non-negotiable attributes, but as the industry develops, new techniques and tactics are evolving to maximize revenue and capitalize on new opportunities.
If you’re not getting better and embracing the future, you’re already falling behind the competition. Sales scripts and active training are key aspects of modern car sales that meet today’s customers where they are and deliver the unified brand experience they’re looking for, and there are best practices for customer interactions that reflect the changing times.
Fortunately, we can help! Here are six car salesman techniques that can turbocharge your profits!
1. Become a World-Class Listener
We have two ears and one mouth for a reason: to listen more than we talk! Yet so many salespeople fail to focus on their clients’ needs, and instead try to fast-talk their way into a deal that may not reflect what the customer actually wants. Even if you get them to sign, they’re going to walk away feeling like they got a car forced down their throat—and that’s never going to get you repeat business or referrals.
If you focus on listening and make the experience all about serving them, the customer will tell you everything they want and how to give it to them. By paying close attention and reacting to their concerns and needs, they’ll drive away with a great car and the desire to connect their friends and family with your sales team.
The best listeners share similar characteristics:
- Face the person and make good eye contact.
- Learn to read body language. Perhaps more important than words, correct reading of body language ensures you’ll know what your customers won’t tell you—including when they don’t feel heard.
- Paraphrase, summarize, and ask questions. This confirms you’re listening, and keeps the customer in control of guiding the conversation.
- Don’t try to listen AND plan what you’re going to say next. Just absorb what you’re being told. If you need a moment to collect your thoughts before responding, paraphrasing and summarizing gives you a few seconds, as can a thoughtful look or a verbal placeholder like “That’s a great point, I hear you”.
- Take notes. Memory is fallible, but a written record assures you’re going to catch all the details that matter to your customer. You’ll be able to give better feedback and answer their important questions in follow-ups.
2. Learn to Differentiate
It’s said that bad luck occurs when a lack of preparation meets a challenge, while good luck happens when solid preparation meets an opportunity. The latter technique allows you to make your own luck by clearly pointing out the key differences between similar products to address customer concerns.
Every salesperson is great when things are going well, but real-world customers ask hard questions and push back when they don’t like or understand what they’ve heard. These are the make-or-break moments for deals, and in most cases, your ability to identify why differences exist, the value associated with each, and support a customer’s appreciation of them is what guides a lead to conversion.
Know your products, know your competition, and make sure your interactions reflect the value they contribute toward giving your customers what they need.
3. Get Your Phone Game on Point
In the last few decades, showroom foot traffic has fallen off while phone lead generation has skyrocketed. However, few salespeople have appreciably improved their phone skills in this time, and developing them has become a key competitive advantage.
Busy owners and GMs may not have the time to build a phone program, write scripts, and coach their employees. It’s a huge undertaking, and in many cases hiring an expert training partner with a deep understanding of contemporary car salesman techniques is the best solution for unifying your customer service experience.
The top training agencies will deliver active coaching both individually and collectively. Ideally, they’ll work with your team over time to reinforce phone sales skills and make sure they stick.
4. Practice and Personalize Your Sales Scripts
The most successful dealerships don’t rely on their sales team’s memory to get customers the right answers—they support them by creating excellent phone scripts that give them the answers they need. Phone scripts are revolutionizing how dealers unify their messaging between online and in-person contact with customers, and they’re the perfect tool to optimize sales opportunities that an individual might not identify on their own.
The exact words matter when it comes to the details, but scripts should provide your associates with some flexibility to make them their own. Rewriting surface aspects of a sales script that emphasize each team member’s personality and vocal style ensures that when they have to go off-script the customer won’t notice any changes. It also allows them to acknowledge when they need to deviate to answer an important question, which can signal an opportunity to do some research and call back.
5. Find a Great Coach!
New skills take time and mentorship to really sink in, but it can be hard to find someone who has the time and resources in-house with so many people competing for sales. A great strategy for time-pressed owners and GMs is to hire an outside coaching agency.
Phone Ninjas was founded to help coach winning car salesman techniques and phone skills across the industry. We’ve got decades of experience in car sales, and have a great track record of success building up team phone skills with active coaching and individualized training sessions.
We’ll also bring our hand-tailored scripts that present your dealership just as you want to, while our comprehensive mystery shop program (two free!) evaluates employees in the real work environment and follows up individually to hone their new skills.
Phone Ninjas is standing by to take your team to the next level. There’s no ceiling in sales, so reach out to talk and schedule a demo today!
As the COO | Partner of Phone Ninjas, Chris delivers leadership, coaching, and mentorship to 55 team members providing software sales and phone skills coaching. He fosters powerful partnerships and collaborations with leaders across various business sectors, establishing expectations, communicating vision, and escalating performance to maximize productivity and effectiveness.
Chris is an innovation-driven business executive with over 25 years of experience delivering leadership to teams of up to 75 overseeing development, launch, and sale of website lead acquisition, reconditioning process software systems, and technology that support automotive dealerships across the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
