Over the years I have heard an awful lot about what motivates people to buy, what causes them to make a decision on one model over another and even one salesperson, and eventually his or her corresponding dealership, over another.
I have heard lots of different numbers and percentages but the one that sticks in my mind is the first one I learned. "Jack," my manager, told me, "people buy cars 90% on emotion and 10% on logic, because there is no logical reason why a person would trade in a two-year old car with 20,000 miles on it."
You know, it really made sense to me and I've thought long and hard about it over the years. I have also started to look at a lot of other numbers that surveys throw around. To simplify the whole thing I have formulated Jack's rules of 90-10. If I am famous for nothing else before I die, maybe I'll be remembered for these!
#1 Attitude and Ability Selling cars is 90% attitude and 10% ability. If you have anyone on your lot that has ever sold a car, they have the ability. Naturally, the better that person hones those abilities and adds their personality, the easier it is to sell a car, close a sale and generate a profit. But one can have all the ability in the world and if they don't feel like getting up in the morning, they're done. They won't sell anything. Even if a person doesn't stay in bed, but comes to work wishing they did, it will show up in their bad attitude and customers will sense it.
Give me a salesperson with a great attitude, who is excited to get up in the morning, and I'll develop their abilities. But give me a natural that stays in bed and I'm in trouble.
#2 Wants and Needs & #3 Emotion and Logic I group these two together because they are really closely aligned. There are very few true-need buyers out there. If a person was a true-need buyer, their trade-in vehicle would have 150,000 miles on it, it would be all used up, and it wouldn't have anything in it but a heater. As soon as the customer adds pin stripes, wheel covers or a radio, they become want buyers. Because of this, the factories advertise on an emotional level more so than a logical one. Obviously, when they're talking about a truck and they advertise payloads or towing capabilities, they are focusing on needs, but the bottom line is that cloth interior, chrome bumper and deluxe trim package are really to get the customer excited. And that's all right. As a matter of fact, it's the way it should be. People should get excited and should have the opportunity to upgrade simply because they want to. The reason I point this out is to remind you. Keep your salespeople focused. Keep them excited. Get them emotionally charged up and they will sell more cars.
#4 Selling and Closing My belief as a manager is, give me a good salesperson over a good closer any day of the week. Because if a customer is really sold on a car, I could get a monkey to fill out the order. I also believe, however, that there is a fine line between closing and selling. When I use an alternate choice close such as, "Sir, would you like a light or dark color?" and he says, "light," have I closed him on the color or have I sold him on the color? I'd like to think I sold him.
The most important thing for your people to remember is that when they are on the lot, they are selling, not closing. The more time they spend showing him cars and explaining features and benefits, the less time they'll have to spend arm wrestling in the office over a hundred bucks. The road to a sale is 90% selling and 10% closing.
#5 Value vs. Price, & #6 Price vs. Value There was a survey of people who bought cars that revealed that when asked the question, "What was the most important thing on your mind when you went to a dealership?" nearly 90% of them said something other than price. They said selection, service, reputation, etc. For simplification, I categorize all of these things as value. A very low percentage of these customers put price as their main concern. However, when they surveyed salespeople, they all said the customer had only one thing on their mind: price. So what your salespeople think the customer is thinking is not necessarily accurate. The main reason a customer gravitates towards the window sticker or the price issue is because the salesperson has stopped selling, stopped serving and stopped leading the sale. The only common ground a customer can fall back on when the salesperson stops talking is price. When a salesperson stops talking, the customer's standard response is, "How Much?" Make sure your staff is always moving the sale forward and when a customer asks, "How much?" they are in a closing office.
Tell them, "Sell on your feet and close at your seat!"