HELP CREATING SALES PROCESS FOR SALESMAN

[Marcus1984]

HI
FIRSTLY, MANY THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR LOOKING AT MY THREAD, ALL HELP TRULY APPRECIATED.

I am a small car dealer, stocking apx 40-50 cars between £1000 - £5000.

I employ a couple of salesman , and looking to install a professional, effective, proven sales system into the "company". Currently we are just a decent bunch of guys, with life experience only ! Im ambitious, work hard, and looking to put firm foundations in place for the next step up .

What im looking to achieve is a sales process that everybody adheres to, that I can monitor their conversion rates and successes. Currently i dont think we are chasing all leads, and i also think we lose sales because of poor negotiation, and poor closing skills , poor handling of telephone enquiries etc .... we are prob stuck in the pre internet era ! and the old school " trusted local garage " mentality which worked ok, but now our customers travel, come from different counties etc and we really do need to step up our game, and i want everybody to be accountable, and i want to, as their boss be able to sit down at the end of the day and review what has happened, and review what we need to do, in order for me to expand and get to the next step i feel i need car sales process's and systems in place .... i just simply dont know where to turn !

Theres plenty of sales trainers out there, but how do i know who has genuinly had the experience to train my guys, and who actaully does have upto date sales methods we can use ?!

I have been to larger main dealer sites, pretending to be a customer ! and love the way they do things, and chase every avenue to get a sale, i love their negotiation skills, and techniques used thought their sales process, but to date have not been successful in finding out where / how they learn it !

Can anybody help ? point me in the right direction, any advice gratefully appreciated

Many thanks again
Marcus

 

[The Byre]

1. Make sure that all your cars are listed in the usual places, such as eBay and Autotrader.

2. Make sure that your own website is also mentioned on those listings and that your own website is bang-up-to-date with all cars available.

3. Get your salesmen to LISTEN to the customer! The best salesmen are the quiet ones who listen carefully to requirements and are honest about the car being looked at. If it does 20mpg in the real world (Subaru!) don't let them gloss over that fact, just because it is not moving and needs to be cleared off the lot!

4. If (when) a customer begins to look more closely at a car, you can help the salesman to close the deal by giving him/her the ability to throw in a freebee, such as free servicing or a satnav.

5. Teach your sales staff to provide the customer with a choice of cars. "Which one do you prefer?" is a step towards closing. "Do you want to buy it?" is a step towards running away!

There's nothing up-to-date about selling! It's all about listening to the customer, or as Henry Ford put it, "The secret of success in business is to find out what the customer wants and then to give it to them!"

 

[Marcus1984]

hi, many thanks for the reply, it is appreciated,

im looking for a more strategic way of selling ie 1) introduce yourself 2) find out what customer wants / budget etc 3) test drive etc etc
but wanting a more uniformed way ie being able to educate my salesman as to what questions to ask and in what order, how to conduct a test drive ,

for example when i went to Volvo in 2 different towns, at the end of the test drive they both told me where to park the volvo i was driving .. which uncannily was next to my old car ! which i assume is phycological ! and obviously the newer shiny car i was driving was alot better than then one i was parked next to !

it was their steps, and process, that i loved so much. its clearly a training program of some sorts, as both dealers, in different towns, basically followed the same pattern, from my arrival, to follow up calls,

i just want to give a more positive customer experience, and of course, actually close every single deal we can, with salesman being accountable, and having a clear sales process to follow,

but i do genuinely appreciate your comments, many thanks once again

 

[billmccallum1957]

http://www.impactsalestraininguk.com/car-sales-training/impact-car-sales.html

 

[Marcus1984]

many thanks billmccallum1957, that is appreciated ,
any more suggestions or help welcome
MB

 

[MBE2017]

DIfferent dealers have different ways of selling, mainly down to how they wish to be perceived, i.e. Local dealer, large internet trader etc.

There is no single correct way to sell cars, I visit dealers daily in my business and see different methods employed to different degrees of success, but the simple truths remain.

Your customers want a few main things as standard..such as to know the vehicle is finance clear, to know it has been checked and prepared to a good standard, that it comes with a warranty preferably, and that the dealer will respond to a complaint as quickly as asking for the sale etc. Offering easy methods to buy the vehicle are also important, and as mentioned salespeople who actually listen to the client. Get those few things right and you will be streets ahead of most dealers. Reputation and feedback are more important than ever today.

Another part of success is learning what your ROI is from different marketing, few dealers can ignore Autotrader, but many are cutting back in favour of better forms of advertising.

What area are you based in?

 

[AllUpHere]

As MBE suggests, a one size fits all training solution is not what you need. You would be much better off getting someone to tailor the training to your specific business.

Do you have a strategic marketing plan in place?

 

[ffox]

You already know what you want

im looking for a more strategic way of selling ie 1) introduce yourself 2) find out what customer wants / budget etc 3) test drive etc etc
but wanting a more uniformed way ie being able to educate my salesman as to what questions to ask and in what order, how to conduct a test drive ,

Now, start by taking time out to write the process down, preferably on computer. Use the tools you are familiar with, Google docs, or Microsoft Word. Work on these 'how do I' documents, make them bullet point, or numbered lists for clarity. Keep the wording simple. Avoid technical and ambiguous terminology.
Share the documents with your salesmen. Do this preferably by storing the documents in the cloud and sharing them with your colleagues.
Build check lists in spreadsheet, or document table format, with links to the how do I documents, and get the salesmen to sign off each step in the process. This way you build an audit trail.
Review each sale, or selected sales, with the salesman involved and 'score' the process and result against what you would expect if you had conducted the sale personally.
Don't chastise a salesman for failure to come up to the mark. Simply retrain as necessary.
When you have a process, complete with audit trail, that works formalise it with an automated workflow system in G-Suite or Office 365.
It works, it's a tried and tested process.

Hope this helps

 

[webgeek]

Pick up Richard Denny's - Selling to Win book. It's been around a while, but updated often, and is an easy read that covers the sales process and some fundamentals very very well.

We've got some consultants that have combined their experience, knowledge and a bit of software to turn sub-par sales organisations into high performers. No idea if it's a good fit for you, but would be worth a discussion. Please PM me with contact details if you've got 10 minutes for a chat (no cost of course).

 

[Jason Mageehan]

In terms of personal development - you can't go wrong with Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People - it's the daddy of self help books adn has been in print for 60+ years.

The book will teach you how to sell without 'selling'.

Read the book as a team - give everyone a copy and ask your team to read a section a week and then every Monday morning you have a 30 min discussion about it.

 

[Raja Hireker]

Hi Marcus,

If I had your business, I'd get my hands on a copy of Joe Girard's book - 'How to Sell Anything to Anyone'. He's in the Guinness book of records for selling more cars per year on a consistent basis, than anyone else on the planet. (13,000+ cars sold in his career)

More importantly for you from a practical sense, his book outlines and details all the strategies he used to get to that place of selling more cars than anyone.

The book will give you a deep foundational understanding of his philosophies and practical applications of his techniques.

You mentioned you visited other dealers and you liked what they did as you put them through their sales / customer process. Document all that you liked. See what they did from beginning to end. Express it and put it down on paper. You can use elements of it in your dealership's process.

Another way that'll help you is to sit with a pen and pad and map out your ideal A-Z process, from the before, during and after phases of a sale. How would you ultimately like your IDEAL process to look like? What would you like to see happening at each stage of the process?

I can share a lead generation/sales conversion process model with you if you like. I created for a particular professional and it's easily adaptable to your business.

Thanks


Raja Hireker

 

[webgeek]

Why not share with all of us @Raja Hireker ??

 

[profitxchange]

why not ask some dealerships or sales staff who trained them initially. It will not be cheap. I must confess I have always been disappointed with car sales staff when trying to buy a car. I feel I have to do the work its never an exciting experience - which it should be spending that much money. I need to leave thinking that was good. A buyer usually visits a garage . more than once before buying a car - the salesman should recognise this and ask "permission" to follow up the visit with a phone call (no hard sell) to try and build a relationship/friendship.

 

[Mike_Cartwright]

Hello, Marcus!

With the way you've stated your woes and struggles, it sounds like you're willing to achieve something...and that's good! You have growth in mind.

Since you're just starting out, you have a lot of room to find the best strategies that fit your business.I can't help you in terms of looking for the best sales trainer, but I could give you tips in the kind of tools you can use to make your team's tasks a lot easier.

When working in sales, you'll need a CRM, a phone system, and a CTI tool to integrate both.

A CRM is your team's best friend where important customer info and records are stored. It manages your team's schedules (i.e. follow-ups, meetings, demos).

A phone system well..makes and receives calls. You can go for VoIP or PBXs. You can also choose a physical phone line.

A CTI integrates your CRM and phone system in one user-friendly interface. This is a tool that increases call efficiency and lets you make a lot more calls than you are currently making now through the click to dial feature.

What im looking to achieve is a sales process that everybody adheres to, that I can monitor their conversion rates and successes.

It also lets you monitor conversion rates and agent KPIs through real-time data analytics.You can also review the calls that you make so you know who made the call and what needs to be improved. We're using Tenfold as of the moment and it's working great for us.

Hope these help.

 

[webgeek]

Though CTI (computer telephony integration) could happen with dashboard software, KPI software, BI software, sophisticated CRM and ERP suites, etc, etc, etc.

Integration just makes decision making and task completion more efficient and informed.