Selling cars is a very skilled business despite what many people might think. To be able to match an appropriate car with a suitable owner and get the price bit right takes training and experience with a liberal dose of personality and communication skills.
During leaner times and occasions like we now find ourselves in, where supply has become harder and demand is high enough to keep us interested but not enough to become blasé, is the time when really good sales people really earn their living.
Whilst waiting to attend a meeting in a busy franchised showroom in the north of England recently, I couldn’t help but be struck by the sales person who greeted me. No one in the showroom knew me from Adam and therefore had no idea I was not a customer. The receptionist was busy with customers and knowing the pack drill and how to operate the coffee machine I negotiated myself to a comfy chair and picked up and perused the local rag.
At this time I must point out that being an old cynic I always expect the worst, having been in the ‘game’ for a long time I have seen on far too many occasions customers enter a showroom and sales people blatantly ignore them unless they were either good looking or looked wealthy, not right I know and not totally representative but alas it happens every day somewhere.
So you can imagine my pleasant surprise when the sales guy bounced over and literally bowled me over with his enthusiasm and once he had established who I was proceeded to make me feel most welcome even though I certainly wasn’t going to be a paying customer.
We got into conversation while I waited and then he immediately greeted some more customers where I witnessed a thorough meet and greet and qualification process which was totally natural and immediately put the customers at ease, they almost could have been related such was the connection he made with them.
I went to my meeting and once it was over (perhaps we should carry out these meetings standing up maybe they would be a lot more focused and a good deal shorter) I once again caught up with Tom the enthusiastic salesman, who told me that the couple I had seen him with earlier had signed up on the car they were interested in, had been very happy to do so and were overjoyed with their choice.
It was the satisfaction he had from making a customer happy and knowing they would recommend him to their friends as much as the commission he was going to earn, and form my part it was refreshing to witness someone looking at the bigger picture. It reaffirmed my belief that there are some great people in my business and if the business gets as tough as some are predicting sales people like tom will be OK, and customers will be in good hands.
I would love to tell you where Tom worked but being an insider I can’t blow my cover so you are just going to have to discover him yourself!
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