Car sales are unlike any other sales ecosystem out there. They require highly specific knowledge of a huge inventory, an ability to identify customer needs and find ways to meet them, and more than a little gift for gab. But while there are a few old tricks of the trade and some extremely talented talkers out there, today’s salesperson needs to rely on some fundamental principles to close more deals than their competitors.
The reason having a natural aptitude for the craft doesn’t cut it anymore is because the way customers engage with dealerships isn’t the same as it was 15 years ago. For the vast majority of potential buyers, their journey has already started online—they know far more than their parents did when they picked up a phone, and the reason they’re calling is that they’ve run out of ways to find what they’re looking for.
That means sales reps need to be prepared to listen very carefully to customers and address their questions as efficiently as they can. They also need to be consciously building value in an appointment and make sure it’s properly set to avoid giving away so much that customers just start shopping around for the lowest price.
In short, it’s complicated stuff, but it’s very learnable. With these three tips, your sales reps will be able to meet customers where they are and guide them from first contact to a done deal.
1. Develop Active Listening Skills
Active listening in car sales today differs from old-school approaches to customer needs which are more focused on driving a buyer to a convenient car on the lot. This is about carefully identifying the specific things a customer wants from you and building a relationship by escorting them to the answers—either on the phone or by setting an appointment.
To listen actively, sales reps need to observe the customer’s tone of voice, make notes on their requests, and be aware of what is not being said. And while this is going on, they need to manage their own emotional response, follow phone scripts as appropriate, and focus their efforts on giving factual responses or guiding them to an appointment where it can be answered in-depth.
Needless to say, there are a lot of nuances to these hard and soft skills. Little details can be the difference between building trust and burning a bridge, and a great training partner with deep industry expertise is an extremely valuable ally to have by your side. In the meantime, here are some general questions any sales rep can consider in a variety of scenarios that will improve their active listening skills:
- “How well do I normally listen?” Most of us are not naturally talented active listeners, so being honest about, and aware of, our baseline listening mode is the first step into a wider world.
- “Am I making a choice to listen beyond my natural baseline?” At least in the beginning, we often need to remind ourselves to use new skills.
- “Why do I need to listen right now?” This one helps keep the ultimate goals of any conversation in mind, which is key to successfully navigating to a desired outcome, i.e., closing.
- “Who is the focus of this conversation?” This one’s easy: it’s the customer, and always the customer. Asking ourselves this question helps us make the customer feel like they’re our sole reason for existence at that moment. Which they are.
- “Why am I speaking?” If you don’t have a customer-centric reason, don’t talk. It can only detract at that point.
2. Overcoming Objections
Training sales reps in active listening gives them the tools to answer most of their customers’ questions. However, because most people arrive with a lot of knowledge about the vehicles they’re interested in, they’ll typically have a few objections sales reps will have to navigate no matter what.
Handling objections is an area where a lot of associates can get flustered—even when they have a great phone script in place. This is a more creative and fluid aspect of any call, and it may require team members to rely on techniques rather than texts.
That’s why we’re not giving you one tip to handle objections: here are ten in this great video series presented by Phone Ninjas’ own Nicole Marcellino:
- Objection Handling: The Base Price Technique
- Objection Handling Step 2: The Best Price Technique (New Cars)
- Objection Handling Step 3: The Best Price Technique (Used Cars)
- Objection Handling Step 4: Finance Rates Technique
- Objection Handling Step 5: Financially Challenged Technique
- Objection Handling Step 6: How Much Down Technique
- Objection Handling Step 7: Mileage Technique
- Objection Handling Step 8: No Information Technique
- Objection Handling Step 9: Tentative Appointment Technique
- Objection Handling Step 10: Trade Technique
3. Always Ask for the Appointment
It may surprise you to know that the main reason most dealerships’ appointment rates hover around 28% is that, in most cases, the salesperson never asked for the appointment. This is just one of a long list of mistakes that can lead to low appointment numbers, and it’s the first place you should look if there’s a problem.
Once you’ve got the fundamentals of appointment setting in your scripts, you can start drilling down on details with your sales reps. Here are some basic tips any salesperson should build into their delivery that will help get those appointment numbers up:
- Don’t ask customers if they want to come in. That’s a “yes/no” question that can deliver an answer you don’t want. Instead, train your sales staff to ask open-ended questions that solicit further engagement.
- Give customers options when asking for the appointment. For instance, “Would tomorrow or Thursday afternoon work best?” puts customers at ease while offering them control of a win/win choice for your dealership.
- Once the appointment is booked, your team should collect the customer’s contact information, and give the customer your dealership’s name and contact info.
- The customer should be given directions to the dealership from wherever they will be traveling the day of the appointment, be it home, work, doctor’s appointment, etc.
Training Partners Make Things Simpler
Training is an expensive, time-consuming task, and today’s market requires more specialized knowledge than ever before. Partnering with a professional training agency is the best way to make the most of your time and resources, and a great partner will deliver a huge return on the investment.
This is where Phone Ninjas can make all the difference for your business. We deliver efficient, effective training that gives you maximum results with minimal time away from your customers. We cover each of these critical three points in depth during our training program. Our tried-and-true coaching strategy empowers the dealerships we partner with to hit appointment rates as high as 60-80%—and that’s why they close more deals than the competition.
Contact Phone Ninjas today and set up a free demo of what our proven training model can do for your business. We’re flexible, and adaptable, and work with you directly to give your sales reps exactly what they need.
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.
