If we accept that there will always be good service and bad, good sales people and bad or good customers and bad, then we will acknowledge that the world is not a perfect place. This is demonstrated perfectly in the world of car sales, where everybody wants to win rather than establish a rapport good enough to advance the business and the referral process. It is easy to see why, from a buyer’s point of view, that the trust of any kind of sales person has been eroded down the years partly because of the trade itself and partly because of the bad press that selling cars can attract. The car business has, and still is, making great strides towards improving its image and improving the experience of customers during the hectic process of car buying, but still some customers will want to negotiate on price straight away rather than consider all the options and the whole picture.
Whereas there are still sales people who don’t care about proper qualification or first class service and are just concerned with getting the deal done and moving on to the next victim. Both of these approaches will almost always ultimately end in disappointment for both parties and never in a long term relationship.
So how do these barriers get broken down? Well the sales training courses that many new sales people attend are certainly focused more about delivering a memorable experience for a long term gain, and as customers become more educated about products and their specification, there is a duty for sales people to behave professionally and provide the correct solutions for car buying.
At the end of the day we see it as follows:
A customer wants to deal with someone competent and courteous.
They want to feel wanted and respected.
They want to know that the person they are dealing with knows what they are talking about and does not give misleading information.
They want a fair deal and market value for their trade-in.
They want a business professional to offer realistic advice with funding solutions and associated products.
They want to feel confident that ‘under promise and over deliver’ is not just a tired cliché.
They want the car on the agreed day, for the agreed price with agreed condition and specification.
If the dealer achieves this there can be no reason that they not only will they deserve a profit but that they can continue to do so.
Customers who only want the cheapest car at the best rate and don’t care about the service should probably go elsewhere, somewhere that equally doesn’t care about them.
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