Sell More Cars

The CLOSE Are you a Clerk, order-taker or Pro?

2011-12-13T20:51:00.005-05:00

The Kick Butt Club. It is about automobile sales professionals who want to climb the sales ladder at their dealership, make more money and sometimes receive a kick in the butt reminder to increase your motivation. EXCLUSIVELY FOR SELECT SALES PROFESSIONALS from across United States and Canada.

What is the difference between a clerk, order taker and a sales professional? I find all three where vehicles are sold. I have heard some people say they choke up when they try to close. I believe if they understood that closing is helping a customer make a positive decision they wouldn’t choke, they would become more motivated. Closing is helping not pressure! Read on and I will share the secret.

Ø The clerk is not engaged in the decision making process. Essentially, clerks take your money and complete the paperwork. But they had no value to the transaction and they get paid what they are worth.

Ø Order-takers provide information but play no role in the decision making process of the purchaser. All the decisions are left to the customer. No wonder so many customers say, “I have to think it over” at the conclusion of a test drive and walk. These serious showroom prospects have to walk because the salesperson didn’t provide the confidence and help the client needs to make their buying decision. There are too many walk-outs because there are too many sales clerks and order-takers. Don’t be one, okay?

Ø The Sales professional knows how to close. They are students of their business; they understand their customers came to their showroom for answers so they can comfortably conclude the deal. They have done their research on the internet websites, read the consumer reports, visited your dealership when you were closed and read the fine print in your ads. The know what they want and know the payments and price range before they walk in!! Your showroom prospect is at the end of their buying cycle, they come prepared to make a decision if they can get a little help. They don’t want to shop anymore, they want to enjoy their new car or truck …not talk about it anymore.

The CLOSE

The Professional sales consultant designs his/her presentation to remove fears or doubts and give solutions to their customers Achievers succeed more often because they provide meaningful help in making the decision before they ask the Closing Question.

Close – At the right time… Pros give a reason to buy and ask for the order. This then gives your client the opportunity to decline your offer and share their reason. “I’m not ready yet, “I have to talk it over with my spouse”, and you have heard it many times before. And this is what you really want to hear.

Now your professional skills come into play. Are you ready…really? They really want you to give them a positive, reasonable perspective to proceed and make their vehicle purchase. They don’t want your business card. They want you to influence them comfortably to make the decision so they can get on the road with their new vehicle!

This is what my sales consultants achieve in my Skill Specific Coaching workshops—How to Close the Deal...without pressure!! At least that is what the salespeople tell me after attending these coaching conferences across this great land. We are coming to Ottawa December 13, 14, & 15. If you are in the area you should consider attending. Great way to end one year and start the next.

Professionals are perceived by their clients as problem solvers—a valuable, necessary component in their buying experience. Yes, there are risks when making a purchase but sales professionals minimize these risks and reduce the fears for their customers. That is your job. That is what you bring to the transaction. They really appreciate your ability.

AUTOMOTIVATOR FACT - Clerks and order takers make a modest wage and the pro makes a fortune.

I work with some of the best salespeople in the business and do they make money—money that school principles and lawyers would like to make but, without their aggravation. These are the same professionals that I will work with at least twice a year. They keep on sharpening their axes to be ready to help their clients and be better than their competition.

My point—too many people selling vehicles are not professionals because they are not committed to helping people make positive buying decisions. They just give information and wait for the customer to make the decision to buy. That is what clerks and order takers do. If you are one, make the shift!

You are a partner in the buying process, my friend, not a pain.

So rate yourself on a scale of 1-10. Are you a sales professional or something else?

So get up earlier—do your ‘homework’ and show-up ready to perform. ALWAYS TELL THE TRUTH, provide solutions not BS and always Ask for the order. There is more to come shortly.

Get Wealthy by Choice NOT by Chance my friends.

Great Success, and Kick some butt!

Dave.

Hey, keep in touch, Know someone who might benefit from this tip? Please; forward it to them with my compliments - OR send me their email address and I will add them to my mailing list.

The ART OF THE DEAL in-house professional development workshop will make a profitable difference. Connect with me Dave@Automotivator.com or 1-800-668-0362.

Canada’s Automobile Sales Coach http://www.automotivator.com/

Tweet? Follow Dave Kemp @automotiv8r

Trackstar WEB- North America’s newest, most profitable and easiest CRM. You very likely are losing $100,000 plus a year.

Preview this short video on Trackstar. Click and Check out this short video.

Customer Follow-up is automatic with Trackstar. It is the most effective computer follow-up system in North America. Discover why dealers like you are abandoning complicated, cumbersome, ineffective systems. They are turning to the most dealer-proven, powerful but uncomplicated system available to bring walk-outs back and to build a loyal client-base of repeat customers.

Copyright 2011 Dave Kemp, author. Automotivator. . Permission to print is granted only if you retain this copyright credit to the author and contact information on all materials copied and printed or transmitted by any means electronically.

What’s the biggest difference between achievers and average automobile sales people? Part Two

2011-11-28T11:02:00.004-05:00

To Lie or not to lie...that is the question.

During my years in the car sales business I have witnessed many sales professionals achieve incredible sales and make crazy money year after year and they are straight talking, ‘tell it like it is’ people. I also have witnessed some salespeople "stretch the truth" and they don’t make much money.

NO, it is not just sales people who stretch the truth but other business people do also. For example, trades people share a little fib about completion dates, start dates, extra costs. Financial advisors stretch the truth about the return on your investments if you deal with them. We have all felt taken advantage of from time to time. And we know our customers stretch the truth as a defense tool also. But should we?

My belief is the customer knows a lie has been told 90% of the time. They rarely let on that they know, but they also never forget!

The only person who believes a small lie is OK, is the person who told it.

The customer believes if a salesperson is willing to lie about something small, he will certainly lie about something "big" too!

What every SALESPERSON needs to consider:

Some salespeople believe that a "little lie" is ok to tell as long as it helps get an order. They justify it as "stretching the truth," or feel that it is not a big deal if it is not a "big lie." Humm. Who is fooling who?

What the SALES SUPERSTAR does:

The achiever tells the truth even when it may cause him/her to lose a car sale.

When a customer sees that level of integrity, he knows he can trust the sales consultant in any situation. And they buy...again and again and send their friends.

What can you do?

Tell the truth, or don’t say anything at all. The car business is about the long term. Turning showroom walk-ins into customers and keeping your customers for life. Repeat business and referral business is the mark of a real car sales pro. Whatever gain you may get by "stretching the truth" in the short term, you will surely lose far more money in the long term without repeat and referral business. That’s the truth.

One other thing is true, this is a great business and we have people who live well and enjoy commission sales because we sell what people want—vehicles. And they keep coming back. And once a customer buys from you they prefer to stick with you, they value the relationship and your integrity too.

So get up earlier—do your ‘homework’ and show-up ready to perform. ALWAYS TELL THE TRUTH, provide solutions not BS and always Ask for the order. There is more to come shortly.

Get Wealthy by Choice NOT by Chance my friends.

Great Success, and Kick some butt!

Dave.

Hey, keep in touch, call with your sales challenges and I will work with you personally, okay? I mean it. Lots of sales professionals kick tires with me regularly.

Dealers and Sales Team Leaders—NO Frills vehicles are low-profit deals for the dealer...unless your sales consultants know how to sell no mark-up or low mark-up vehicles effectively. Many don’t. And they cost you profits and themselves commissions. The ART OF THE DEAL in-house professional development workshop will make a profitable difference. Connect with me Dave@Automotivator.com or 1-800-668-0362.

Canada’s Automobile Sales Coach www.Automotivator.com

Trackstar WEB Follow-up Systems – Keeping Your Customers for Life.

Tweet? Follow Dave Kemp @automotiv8r

WHAT'S THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE Between High Achievers and Average Car Sales Consultants?

2011-11-15T14:30:00.004-05:00

Part One.

Recently, in a discussion with about thirty five other sales trainers I asked “what have you discovered that were the reasons top sales pros achieved their success?”

These trainers were top achievers themselves in a variety of big ticket sales before choosing training. I was the only automobile professional development specialist in the group. It was stimulating and enlightening to engage in this rapid-fire discussion. So...

What separates great sales guys and gals from average ones?—Part one.

Here are some of the differences you can apply, right now, today, to become the successful sales professional waiting inside you. If you are not achieving your potential, are you ready to respond and attack your career, focused like a laser or just to sit back and wait....again?

YOUR Automotivator Sales Personality Dynamics for Success

1. You treat selling as your own business, know that you have more control than anyone else as to whether you succeed or fail.

2. You are motivated and stay self motivated; you don't let the hiccups get you down for long. (People who are successful at this career aren't bothered by their failures, they learn from them.)

3. You are much more empathetic than your unsuccessful peers and understand that solving problems by putting yourself in your prospects shoes makes for better sales results.

4. You understand that just because you are having a good month or quarter, there's always tomorrow and you prepare by having strong and essential pipelines filled with qualified buyers, showroom walk-outs, past customers, service leads, orphan customers.

5. You are short and long term goal oriented. You often use things that you want or need to keep you focused on bringing home the bacon i.e. “I need a new roof, boat, deck , condo,- pick one...”

6. You have a healthy ego which forces you to be the best that you can be.

7. You want the recognition and money that comes with being the best. Nothing wrong with that!

8. You work both hard and smart.

I love this time of year! Hockey has finally started, Baseball play offs are on, Football is midseason –exciting stuff. (Even the Winnipeg Jets). We all admire the best in sports and we can’t help but be impressed with the commitment each player on their team makes to personal conditioning and practice. The best athletes are coachable and always improving.

The difference between an Average and Top Performer in automobile sales is Coaching and commitment. It’s true for you and me—just like in sports!

Folks, listen to your sales team leaders, they can impact your personal bottom-line with their sales coaching. Don’t forget their bonus depends on your achieving success! It is a WIN-WIN! (You could also attend my sales skills specific boot camps to stimulate your motivation and sales skills.)

Here are my last thoughts for this newsletter part one, my friends.

Get up earlier—do your ‘homework’ and show-up ready to perform. ALWAYS TELL THE TRUTH, provide solutions not BS and Ask for the order. There is more to come shortly.

Get Wealthy by Choice NOT by Chance my friends.

Great Success, and Kick some butt!

Dave.

Hey, keep in touch, call with your sales challenges and I will work with you personally, okay? I mean it. Lots of sales professionals kick tires with me regularly.

I Provide IN-HOUSE Professional Development for your Sales Professionals – New Staff or Experienced Sales Professionals - Email - Dave Kemp, the Automotivator. Dave@Automotivator.com

Canada’s Automobile Sales Coach www.Automotivator.com

Trackstar WEB Follow-up Systems – Keeping Your Customers for Life.

Trackstar WEB- North America’s newest, most profitable and easiest CRM. Keeping ‘in touch’ with your prospects and clients will make you serious money. Preview this short video on Trackstar.

Click and Check out this short video Customer Follow-up is automatic with Trackstar

POWER SELLING

2011-08-15T14:15:00.004-04:00

What is stopping you from making more money in car sales?

How good are you with the Presentation Drive? For most customers the Demonstration is the deal breaker. If your client doesn’t feel motivated after this experience you probably are sunk. Not a great feeling. But you can get over this hurdle.

Customers clearly indicate that price is not the only factor in making a decision to buy a car or truck today.

1. The driving experience counts significantly in the equation. Don’t waste your time doing a walk-around feature blah blah presentation first. Focus on power selling— the Presentation Drive turns your prospect ...into the sale!!!. Action is more powerful than words my friend.

2.T The Positive attitude from salespeople, the excitement created during the drive determines whether the customer is buying from you or not.

Are you up to the job?

Automotivator Keys to Success

Don’t flip the keys to the vehicle and let your customer drive first. That approach just doesn’t cut in anymore. Drive first. Sell the vehicle from the inside out with a Power Presentation Drive with you behind the wheel.
Present the information as you demonstrate the features you are talking about. A lack of professionalism here and kiss your sale good bye. Put the vehicle through a powerful presentation then…. let your customer drive.
Always let the female drive first, then the male. You will need her positive attitude to close the sale.

Power Selling and making more money is about the choices you make folks, Get Wealthy by Choice NOT by Chance

Great Success,

Dave.

Dave Kemp, the Automotivator.

Hey, keep in touch, call with your sales challenges and I will work with you personally, okay? I mean it. Lots of sales professionals kick tires with me regularly.

Provide IN-HOUSE Professional Development for your Sales Professionals – New Hire Sales Staff or Experienced Sales Car Sales Professionals love our car sales training.

Trackstar WEB Follow-up Systems – Keeping Your Customers for Life.

Tweet? Follow Dave Kemp @automotiv8r

Get Wealthy by Choice NOT by Chance

2011-04-26T13:00:00.004-04:00

It is often said that 20% of the salespeople sell 80% of the vehicles. My experience finds this statement pretty darn close. In our Skill Specific Coaching workshops across Canada, I focus on those specific sales skills that are required to be powerful.

You will never be a great salesperson without the skills.

Get wealthy my friends, you are in the right business!!!

How to become wealthy as a Superior Producing Salespeople.

They are authentic and real.
These people don’t fake it ‘til they make it, they are real. They know their stuff; they are not fluff when it comes to presenting the reasons for buying. They are focused on their ultimate goal-helping people make positive buying decisions. They know that most customers value and need a professional salesperson’s advice in deciding what vehicle is best for them. So they are competent and confident in their role. Are you?

They have energy.
They move at the speed of success. It is cool to be with a top performer and watch how quickly they make decisions and act. The real professionals are comfortable with who they are. They know people want and need help making decisions and they help. Good performers are confident they are doing a good thing for their customers and they are right. Customers appreciate decisive salespeople. They don’t want information only. Buyers want concrete direction in making positive decisions and they want to get the deal done. Are you decisive or indifferent? What you do counts, folks.

Effective salespeople live with an inner integrity.
Good salespeople are not trying to do anything they wouldn’t want done to themselves. They don’t lie or promise what they can’t deliver. But they deliver what they promise and more. These people are just plain helpful straight-talking and comfortable with themselves.

Top guns in the car business love what they are doing.
They enjoy and live life to the fullest. In other words, they have fun. They are fun to be with. They don't take life or themselves too seriously, (except for their opinions). They know that business is only a game. They win some and lose some, but in the losing there is a stimulus not to keep this result. Their definition of winning is beating their own personal best, not just having the most stickers.

Top Salespeople come to work, to work.
They stay late and get up early. They work hard. They know about working smart, but they know it is not a substitute for effort. They don't even consider what they do as work. They don't follow the clock or the calendar.
The smart part is they focus on a great buying experience so not only does the customer buy but they want to come back and buy again and again. They keep their customers for life. Repeat business, ‘The Breakfast of Champions’. Many of my best salespeople are using Trackstar to manage their client relationships with showroom prospects and sold customers. It works.

The Automotivator Keys to Success.
• Know your stuff.
• Know customers need help making decisions so they provide help.
• Move, be deliberate. Take action decisively with customers. Qualify the customer’s needs and wants and provide solutions not just information.
• Be a person of integrity. People only refer people they trust.
• Have fun. Create excitement for your customers and make a better buying experience than 80% of the other salespeople your customers meet at competitor dealerships.
• Focus on turning first time buyers into customers for life.
• Read this newsletter again; underline some things you need to do differently. Take action today to become a top gun in your business.
• One of the action items is to increase your sales competency, so attend the next Skill Specific Coaching conference in your area. We limit the number of participants purposely, we coach not talk. See you there.

For you dealers, now is the time to provide my ART OF THE DEAL Boot Camp for your salespeople in-house and they will get new, refreshing sales motivation to launch your spring and summer sales campaign. There is time if you are the type of person to act quickly.
Skill Specific Coaching pays of in sales and profits.
Contact Dave@Automotivator.com for information right now.

Make things happen at your dealership. Take out the stops and go for it!!

Folks, Get Wealthy by Choice NOT by Chance
Great Success,
Dave.Hey, keep in touch, call with your sales challenges and I will work with you personally, okay? I mean it. Lots of sales professionals kick tires with me regularly.
Dave Kemp, the Automotivator. Dave@Automotivator.com Canada’s Automobile Sales Coach http://www.automotivator.com/ Tweet? Follow Dave Kemp @automotiv8r

10 Powerful Sales Principles to Increase YOUR CAR SALES

2011-03-08T16:14:00.004-05:00

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The Automotivator Sales Training Bulletin for Sales Consultants, Car Dealers, Managers, Sales Team Leaders
10 Guerrilla Sales Principles to Increase your sales income

If you really intend to make more money act on the 10 Guerrilla Sales Strategies below. Print this letter and put it on the wall in the meeting room or put it in your day timer or store it on your wall in the bathroom. But put these sales principles into action to tune up your sales and make extra spending money for the season.
Be a rebel not a wimp. Breakthrough the glass ceiling you have placed above you. You can make it in this great business but don’t follow the crowd.
In my boot camps, The Art of The Deal for sales consultants and sales team leaders, we give you the straight talk on what works and what doesn’t with our Internet Savvy customers. The old ways don’t work guys and gals. We practice and role play until you are better than the competition in every sales skill. I am very proud of the many sales consultants from across this great nation who are making incredible money and having a better lifestyle as a result of taking these Automotivator workshops.
My graduates make the choice to be better—more skilled, more motivated and equipped to succeed. It was great to work recently with the Auto Dealers Association and have the positive feedback from their sales consultants and sales team leaders. We had two great sessions, The Art of the Deal for sales people and Motivating the Motivators for dealers and sales team leaders. Yes, professional development pays off.
Study and put into action my:
10 Guerrilla Sales Principles

1. Selling should be embedded into every aspect of your activities, from leaving a business card with every restaurant bill to including a discussion while in line to buy movie tickets. Get yourself known as a ‘professional’ automobile sales consultant not just a salesperson.
2. Deliver the best Power Presentation Drive in the business—the most exciting, motivating demo your client will ever get in their shopping around experience. You must drive first to make your presentation or it is just conversation blah blah.
3. Ask for the order after every Power Presentation Drive—every time.
4. Have clear personal goals written down and reviewed frequently to keep you on target for high income and sales objectives.
5. Target service orphan customers who are driving vehicles that are costing big money to keep on the road. These people need a new vehicle.
6. Brand yourself as a knowledgeable, professional consultant. Know your stuff and share your expertise confidently and appropriately.
7. Ensure your clients understand you are a career-focused sales person. You are in this business for the long-haul. You want to make a difference in their buying experience.
8. Make it clear to your clients and prospects what makes you dramatically different from your competitors. You are honest, FUN and speak with conviction.
9. Develop client-specific follow-up tactics. They need to be at the center of your daily sales activities strategy. (Trackstar makes you very effective with be-back sales while your competitor is missing the mark.) http://www.trackstar.ca/
10. Deliver the best buying experience that your walk-in customers will ever get so more people say, “This salesperson is the best I have ever met buying a vehicle. I want to buy from this person, right now, here, today.”

The Automotivator Action Plan
Do you know the problem for many salespeople? They are mediocre—just average. They give a cold-fish handshake and a flaky, indifferent, boring buying experience. They are not motivated or committed to really making serious money. Don’t be like these irritating salespeople.
Make the choice to help your customer make a positive buying experience every time you greet a client. Help them make comfortable buying decisions, not feared confrontations with you. Help them buy a vehicle for gosh sakes.

Your clients want their sales consultant to be good at what they do. Don’t forget this—your customer came to buy—help them!

Smile - One day my housework-challenged husband decided to wash his Sweatshirt. Seconds after he stepped into the laundry room, he shouted to me, 'What setting do I use on the washing machine?' 'It depends,' I replied. 'What does it say on your shirt?' He yelled back, ' OHIO STATE !' ...........And they say blondes are dumb....
Great Success,
Dave.
Hey, keep in touch, call with your sales challenges and I will work with you personally, okay? I mean it. Lots of sales professionals kick tires with me regularly.
Dave Kemp, the Automotivator. Dave@Automotivator.com
Canada’s Automobile Sales Coach http://www.automotivator.com/
Copyright 2011, Automotivator Professional Development 613-253-5300

Trackstar WEB- North America’s newest, most profitable and easiest CRM. Keeping ‘in touch’ with your prospects and clients will make you serious money. Preview this short video on Trackstar.
Click and Check out this short video. Customer Follow-up is automatic with Trackstar. It is the most effective computer follow-up system in North America. Discover why dealers like you are abandoning complicated, cumbersome, ineffective systems. They are turning to the most dealer-proven, powerful but uncomplicated system available to bring walk-outs back and to build a loyal client-base of repeat customers.

Month End Blues

2010-11-29T18:56:00.003-05:00

Month end blues?

The Road to SALES Success is Always under Construction
How to AVOID the Bumps.

This car business is a great business for a sales inclined person to make great money. But you want to avoid the bumps on the road to success—and you can!

My experience as a successful salesperson, sales manager and dealer taught me these truths.
Four primary reasons why salespeople do not reach their sales goals or exceed their sales quotas every month.
Indifferent, inconsistent Sales Process
Poor sales follow-up and prospecting skills
Poor planning and time management
Letting outside influences control their attitudes and success.

What is your basis for not achieving the sales you want?
You have to have a strong business plan to construct a good income.
I was back again recently providing professional development with a long-term training and Trackstar Follow-up client. One of the sales professionals started his first day in the car sales business with me in a ‘new hires seminar’. He came up and shared his biz experience with me. He was making great money and only in the business two and half years. This now very successful sales consultant said to me, “Your professional automobile sales training makes an impact on me. I use it man.” Then he said this. “You were right Dave. The car business is a pretty simple business to make good money in compared to other fields.”
Do you agree? Are you making any serious money? Here is the secret. Good and great car salespeople keep it simple and effective.

Automotivator Road to Success

1) Ask each prospect to buy! Every time.
The reason your customers do not buy—because you don't ask them to. Give each customer a reason to buy. Offer an incentive to your prospects. How do you expect them to become buyers without a nudge?
If you're going to rely on your customer having the incentive to take the bull by the horns and close themselves... then you are dreaming overestimating your buyers. They won’t. They need and want help to make a decision. They need confidence. They need a reason to buy today from you!!
Heck, you can’t expect complete strangers to just 'drop' money into your pockets because you have a good personality.

2) Follow-up
Don’t complicate this business. People come in, they either buy or walk. If you can’t close them the first time, you better be geared up to convert your walk-outs into be-backs. It is that simple. You will make money.

The best sales opportunities come from only four simple sources, my friends.
1. Be-back appointments
2. Repeat customers
3. Referral prospects from recently sold customers and service department customers
4. Internet leads

If you don’t follow-up you are not going to make any serious money! It is that uncomplicated.
The highest quality traffic you meet in your dealership are be-backs, repeats and referrals. Your closing ratio is over 50% with these prospects. But if you are waiting for the walk-ins your closing ratio is 13%. That is one sale for every seven walk-ins. This approach is simply stupid.
As a salesperson, I discovered the top gun at our dealership never took ups. Never! The best salespeople I know don’t take walk-ins. Yes, they did when they started into our business but… they made sure they had a system in place to build their future business. (I designed Trackstar to make an automotive sales consultant’s life very simple and highly profitable with follow-up.) Check this video out if you are a dealer or sales manager. Click: Click and Check out this short video.

3) Prospect
Spend your time where you will make the most money—every day.

* Plan to prospect the service department for buyers in disguise.
* Target people who are spending major money on their four- seven year old vehicles. They are entering their buying cycle—they just don’t know it.
* Orphan Service clients are a source of serious money, they know your dealership but have no salesperson.
* Target the orphan customers when a salesperson leaves your store. Adopt these orphan customers and you will make many more sales. Keep in touch with these owners/orphans and you will be increasing sales every month.

4) Attitude
Finally, don’t let other people disguised as automobile salespeople discourage you from making this business payoff. Attitude counts! Not everyone with a sales consultant’s title is motivated to follow-up and prospect. In fact, some salespeople are downright unmotivated. Stay clear of them. They whine and complain about the pay plan, the weather, the inventory, the service department, their sales manager, the appraisals and whatever else they can think of. But they don’t hold themselves accountable for doing what it takes to be successful. They do love to drag you down with them. Don’t let them.

Sales Quote – Don’t be afraid to learn. Knowledge is currency, a treasure you can always carry easily and use to buy success.
This is a simple business and a well paid business, if you keep your mind on the business and not into someone else’s business. Don’t let someone determine your attitude. As my friend Zig Ziglar says, “Your attitude determines your altitude! Get rid of the stinkin’ thinking and climb to the top of your sales team.”

Automotivator Action Plan – Today is the day to follow-up, prospect and create your positive attitude. Contact me today if you want specific ideas to impact on your personal bottom-line. I really mean it. NO charge. I really want to help. Click here: Dave@Automotivator.com BTW – Pass this newsletter on to someone you like.

Now, have FUN AND go out and construct some serious money and success in our car and truck business.
Have a great month, folks
Dave,
Dave Kemp, the Automotivator. Dave@Automotivator.com
Canada’s Automobile Sales Coach http://www.automotivator.com/
Copyright 2010, Dave Kemp Seminars 1-800-668-0362

Attn. Progressive Dealers and Sales Managers - want to increase profits in this competitive market? –BOOK professional development dates now – There are only a few dates left for IN-HOUSE Skill Specific Coaching workshops – Powerful and effective Professional Development for your Sales Professionals – Email or call for dates for your Sales Team. Dave@Automotivator.com

Trackstar Gold - Keeping ‘in touch’ with your prospects and clients will make you serious money. Preview this short video on Trackstar.
Click and Check out this short video. Customer Follow-up is automatic with Trackstar. It is the most effective computer follow-up system in North America. Discover why dealers like you are abandoning complicated, cumbersome, ineffective systems. They are turning to the most dealer-proven, powerful but uncomplicated system available to bring walk-outs back and to build a loyal client-base of repeat customers.

2010-11-29T11:53:00.003-05:00

Yes.. YOU can make more SALES and more $$$

Confused how to do it? Here’s how.

About two months ago I received a call from a car sales consultant who asked me, “Dave, how do I increase my income? I have grown stagnant in sales and need to kick-start some sales action”. We talked about his sales process and then I asked this critical question.
“How good are you with the Presentation Drive?” I listened to what he was doing and then asked him to commit to improving his Presentation Drive with my Automotivator sales training principles.

The results?! I talked with him this week, and his sales increased by 4 the first month and 5 last month!!! These results are no accident. You can do the same, if you will make a decision to improve your sales process.

So…I ask you, “How good are you with YOUR Presentation Drive?”
For most customers the Presentation, during your Demonstration Drive, is the deal breaker. Why? If your client doesn’t feel motivated to buy after this driving experience you probably are sunk… no matter what your price is. People buy vehicles emotionally, not logically. Are you creating emotion or yawns???

Sales Fact
Automobile customers clearly indicate that price is not the only factor in making a decision to buy.
Ø The presentation and driving experience counts significantly in their buying equation. If your customer doesn’t get turned on with their drive, they walk.
Ø The attitude generated by positive sales consultant makes an impact
Ø The excitement created during the Presentation Drive determines whether the customer is buying from you or not.

Remember this friend:
When prices are the same for similar vehicles every where
When quality is similar from every manufacturer
When trade values are similar at your competitors

What makes the difference?
The sales consultant who delivers the better buying experience wins the sale. It is all about your sales process.

Are you up to the job?

Automotivator Keys to Sales Success
Don’t flip the keys to the vehicle and let your customer drive first. That approach just doesn’t cut it anymore. Drive first. Sell the vehicle from the inside out.
Present the information as you demonstrate the features you are talking about. A lack of professionalism here and kiss your sale good-bye. Put the vehicle through a powerful presentation then…. let your customer drive.
Always let the female customer drive first, then the male. You will need her positive attitude to close the sale. But there is more, much more to becoming a power presenter.

(If you are an auto dealer or automotive sales team leader you should schedule our Back to the New Basics in-house professional automobile sales training workshop to improve your sales process for this year.) dave@automotivator.com )

Sales Quote – “You don't have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great.” Les Brown
Great Success, catch up with you next month, folks.
Dave.
Hey, keep in touch, call with your sales challenges and I will work with you personally, okay?
Dave Kemp, the Automotivator. Dave@Automotivator.com
Canada’s Automobile Sales Coach http://www.automotivator.com/
Copyright 2010, Dave Kemp Seminars 1-800-668-0362

Trackstar WEB- North America’s newest, most profitable and easiest CRM. Keeping ‘in touch’ with your prospects and clients will make you serious money. Preview this short video on Trackstar.
Click and Check out this short video. Customer Follow-up is automatic with Trackstar. It is the most effective computer follow-up system in North America. Discover why dealers like you are abandoning complicated, cumbersome, ineffective systems. They are turning to the most dealer-proven, powerful but uncomplicated system available to bring walk-outs back and to build a loyal client-base of repeat customers.Copyright 2010 Dave Kemp, author. Automotivator. Dave Kemp Seminars. Permission to print is granted only if you retain this copyright credit to the author and contact information on all materials copied and printed or transmitted by any means electronically.

CLOSING...On Value-priced vehicles - part one!!!

2010-03-10T14:17:00.002-05:00

Closing….on Value-Priced Vehicles - Part One !!!
An email from a salesperson.
Dear Dave, the AUTOMOTIVATOR
I work selling cars and trucks and I'm not doing as well as I should. My manager says that I'm not closing hard enough. I am trying but I don't want to offend the customer either. Do I just keep asking them to buy or do you have a better method? I need help because my money is running low.
Darryl, Winnipeg.

Dear Darryl, Hummm... Not Closing hard enough?
Here are some proven ways to help you get more cars over the curb and get you making some serious money. Lots of people are having the same problem. First things first, though. What do you mean when you say you work selling! Sales is not work! Digging ditches is work, shovelling snow is work. Selling is exciting, selling is a challenge and it should be fun. When selling becomes work, you know you need an attitude adjustment. Look more carefully at ditch digging and you will get the message.
Secondly, let’s clarify what you mean by closing? If you are negotiating the price before you get the commitment to buy today, then no doubt you will have trouble closing. You will also be considered a pressure guy by your prospects!
The successful sale depends totally on what you do at the beginning of the sale, my friend. Your sales process needs to be a series of decisions. With value-priced vehicles the price is only one component. Failure to get the right decisions in your sales process leads to many walk-outs and you and your dealer are paying too heavy a price. You are blowing commissions and your dealer is blowing profits.
Improve your closing ratio.
Closing successfully is getting the decision or the commitment from your customer to buy a vehicle on some condition.
The condition could be
· The price or trade value.
· Or changing the colour or equipment
· Or making the payments fit.

Negotiation is what you do after the vehicle decision.
Don’t start negotiating the price before the customer has decided on his or her vehicle. Never negotiate until the vehicle is sold!!!
There is a big difference between these two! Would you buy a bright orange shirt even if the price was low? Doubt it. (Unless you work at Home depot.)
Don’t get me wrong. Yes you can talk about the price and payments of the vehicle in general terms. That is normal qualifying and investigation. But don’t negotiate the price until you have provided a power presentation drive first!!! How? You drive first.
During the presentation drive, put in plain words how the high standard equipment included makes your vehicle the high value attraction that it is—but this is not negotiation. It is positive persuasion. This should be part of your sales presentation that leads to a positive decision on their vehicle. After your client has driven the vehicle, then definitely ask them to buy! YOU owe this to them. They want to make a deal.

Automotivator key to success.
If your customer hasn’t made a decision to buy what you are selling, it doesn’t matter what your price is!
Your price could be half price and even throw in a year’s worth of gas, but if they don’t want what you are selling…. they aren’t closed...YET!
· Close your customer first on the vehicle. Take short cuts in your power presentation and you cut short your income every month. (This takes a specific skill we will discuss in our next Automotivator Newsletter)
· Then negotiate your price as the value it represents.

Closing is a lot more fun and easier if you get the order right. If you are a manager or dealer, our in-house Skill Specific Coaching on Closing with Value-Price Vehicles will improve your sales and bottom-line quickly. Invest a little to equip your sales team to sell in this new market and you will make a lot more profit. Email me to discuss this valuable in-house workshop at your dealership. Dave@automotivator.com

Hey guys and gals, If you are discouraged, take heart. Customers buy from a professional sales consultant whose sales presentation is about making their buying decision easy. Deliver a better buying experience compared to the competition and you will deliver more vehicles and make more money. Now Go get rich.

Sales Quote for the week - Closing really is about closing on the vehicle ….not the price!
By the way, email me your personal sales concerns and I will help you. Okay?
Great Success,
Dave.
Dave Kemp, the AUTOMOTIVATOR.
Dedicated to improving the buying experience in the nation’s showrooms.
Please spread the word about this newsletter to your dealer and manager friends and co- workers who want to sell more cars/trucks and make more money. Just forward it on and invite them to receive it.
To get your own copy: dave@automotivator.com

(If you are a dealer and you want to increase your sales results by closing more sales, consider having a Focus on Closing, Skill Specific Coaching workshops in your dealership. These courses are limited to only your sales people and managers so that we have maximum time for coaching one-one. Call me. 1-800-668-0362)

CLOSING - How effective are you?

2009-06-01T12:13:00.002-04:00

"It doesn't hurt to ask"

Actually, it does hurt. It does hurt to ask for the close… the wrong way. If you haven’t set up the close properly, to ask without preparing your prospect, it hurts your chances—big time. It hurts because you never get another chance to ask right.

Timing is everything. If you see Celine Dion at the local restaurant and say, "Hey Celine, will you sing at my daughter's wedding?" it hurts any chance you have to get on with a positive relationship with this diva. You've just educated her to say “no way—I pass on your offer.” You have also educated her that you are a bore, selfish and you've taught her you're both self-seeking and out of touch with reality. Timing is everything.

Confidence is everything. If a prospect walks into your dealership and you walk up and say, "Please pay me $200,000 right now for this Porsche," you might close the sale. But I doubt it. More likely than not, you've just pushed this prospect away, turned the potential for approval into a wall of resistance and self-protection. I doubt if any of you are doing this ridiculous approach either. But my point. It does hurt to ask the wrong way and at the wrong time. But many sales people do it!

Instead, invest some time and earn the right to ask. Do your job as a sales professional. Build relationships, create chemistry, and qualify their needs and wants. Present your vehicle with enthusiasm and power, create desire and positive emotion. Closing is all about emotions.

Automotivator Sales Action Plan
 Stay in your demo vehicle after the demo presentation.
 Connect with your client by helping them make easy, comfortable steps to their vehicle buying decision.
 Step by step, ask and review how this vehicle meets their wants and needs.
 Ask their opinions. Make it comfortable for your prospect to express their positive feelings about each feature. Build the agreements on each feature.
 Let them state their opinions, don’t sell. Let them sell themselves.
 Yes, let them discover they are not being sold.
Then ask your closing question. You have set it up, you have earned the right to ask and their confidence.
Now, they are ready to consider your proposal. It seems like a natural response to your client.

Predictable Answers to your closing question
Hey, will they say “YES” and buy? Sure, quite often, frankly—it was what they came to do. But, sometimes their answer to your closing question will be “NO”—not until you get the vehicle that is right for them. Sometimes their answer is “MAYBE”—if you can make the payments fit or make the price right or give them enough for their trade. And most often it will be, “I have to think it over, talk to my spouse, sleep on it”.
These are predictable to the professional, and no big deal to handle… if you take my courses on closing like my kick butt sales leaders do. Professionals commit to learning like pros always do. Not just limping along on empty. Learn how to close. (Check out the Sales Stimulus Boot Camp.)

Bottom-line. You will close a lot more if you set it up right. A heck of a lot more than just throwing it out there and hoping for the best. You will lose more than the sale and the commission. You will miss the opportunity for them to want to deal with you now or ….ever! And their friends, buddies, fellow workers, neighbours. Now that hurts.
Now get out there and close some sales!

Great Success,
Dave
PS Email me for personal coaching, it's free.

Dave Kemp, the Automotivator, The Automobile Sales Coach.
Dave@automotivator.com http://www.automotivator.com/ Call - 1-800-668-0362 or 613-253-5300
Dedicated to improving the buying experience in the nation’s showrooms.
Print permission - Copyright 2009 Dave Kemp, author. Dave Kemp Seminars. Permission to print is granted only if you retain this copyright credit to the author and contact information on all materials copied and printed or transmitted by any means electronically.

Take the Bull by the Horns and Take Action

2009-04-21T16:11:00.003-04:00

DEALERS AND MANAGEMENT REPORT
A challenging perspective
Dave Kemp, the Automotivator

Provide the taxpayer's money to the taxpayer to buy vehicles.
The auto sector is in trouble, but it won’t be terminal if we quit talking bull and grab the bull by the horns. The world wide automobile industry needs immediate stimulus but not the factory bail out type of stimulus. There is a very quick and positive solution to our economic problem that will impact on every part of the economy, not just the retail car industry.
We need to provide the taxpayer's money to the taxpayer to buy vehicles to kick start the factories. There is no value to providing taxpayers money to idle, unproducing manufacturing plants.
We need to create demand now and the automobile manufacturer’s problem will vanish. So will the politicians problems improve. The retail dealers need to create real pressure on the USA and Canadian governments and across the world in G20 countries to make major cash incentives available directly to the buyer not the manufacturer.
Key Point
This can’t be just a token amount of cash incentive. It has to be a major impact incentive to the retail buyer. It has to explode the lethargy and fear factors of millions of buyers needing vehicles. The goal is to jolt the potential buyers to buy now. Money talks.
We have virtually millions of owners driving vehicles four to 10 years old that need to be replaced. Scrap heap 7 year and older vehicles that desperately need to be replaced in the best interests of the owners and the countries—serious incentives for scrapping vehicles is required. These vehicles are inefficient, lack safety advantages and most definitely not meeting the current needs of their families.
Rick Gauthier, President of the CADA is right.
"The system is broken down. Credit is not flowing through the system. So we need to get creative." The government needs to encourage credit and car loans available for more buyers. It is a sham response for parliament and congress to talk but not take tangible, specific action for the retail buyers. Credit should be made available to dealers to inventory vehicles.
The Facts
In Canada alone over 6,000,000 people bought vehicles 4, 5, 6 and 7 years ago.
These old cars and trucks don’t meet the owner’s needs anymore.
People are postponing buying to their detriment in your town and this country every day, week and month.
Most potential buyers have good jobs, steady employment and available credit.
Thousands of people in your community need to get out of vehicles that are paid off or nearly paid off. Why?
The average repair bill to keep their vehicles safe and running is too costly—over $2000.
The fact is, these vehicles need and are ready to be traded.

We need to create significant motivation to overcome fear, lethargy and indifference in an uncertain public now! We need to create credit availability and financial incentives that drive the buyers into the showrooms now.
The resulting demand for vehicles will have a huge impact on the parts manufacturers and vehicle makers. It will immediately stimulate employment. Income earning workers will drive the economy out of this mess.
It will be the entrepreneurial car dealers, motivated and effective sales leaders and quality sales professionals who will ultimately deliver the country out of this mess.
The financial sector caused this downfall. It was caused by greed, and unethical mortgage practices made worse by complicated, mismanaged credit and inept corporate financial leadership.
For sure it is necessary for auto manufacturers to right their ships and improve profitability by decisive and essential actions. For sure the CAW and UAW unions needs to be held accountable for their blackmail over these many years. For sure the NA manufacturers caved in for expedient, short term gain and now, long term pain. But this can be dealt with effectively with fresh, creative commitment from all parties.
Don’t be mislead by left leaning media. This is not a ‘made in North America’ problem. All manufacturers, from Asia to Europe have been impacted by this melt down.
President Obama says the nation “cannot make the survival of our auto industry dependent on an unending flow of tax dollars.”
I agree. But we sure as heck can’t have him, a guy who has never really worked for a living in a business environment acting as defacto CEO of our automobile business.
Make no mistake about this—if Obama gets traction in this auto business it will be incredibly disastrous for the entire population. Can you even imagine the possibly—Government mandated vehicle design and distribution channels? They can’t even get their own house in order.
Don't leave this to someone else. Take the personal responsibility today, right now, to connect strongly with your elected officials to get this done. Especially don't leave this to the government bureaucracy! They are going to screw this up. Giving money to the non-producing companies is insane. Create vehicle demand and you solve the manufacturer’s problem and the world wide problems. It will also cost far less than a bailout. I have called and contact my Member of Parliament and provincial representatives today. Let’s all act together. Today!

Dave Kemp, the Automotivator, is President of Automotivator Professional Development and Trackstar International Follow-up Systems. Dave, a car industry expert who focuses on improving the sales process for dealers and manufacturers with great results. Contact info. http://www.automotivator.com/ Email Dave@Automotivator.com 1-800-668-0362

Trackstar—Turning Your Walk-outs into Customers and Keeping Your Customers for Life!
Get the Facts - Check the Trackstar system out-- view this short video.
Trackstar is easy to install, uncomplicated to use, and the best follow-up system available in the car business. Many others out there make clerks out of your salespeople …and still don’t work. Trackstar is designed by successful car people, for successful car people. 1-800-668-0362 Dave@Trackstar.ca http://www.trackstar.ca/
Definitely the best Hot Prospect and Client Retention system in North America.
Print for your files. Forward to key people.

Auto Manufacturers and Auto Dealers

2008-12-16T16:50:00.000-05:00

Dave Kemp, the Automotivator asks.

WHAT IS YOUR ACTION PLAN IN ADDITION TO THE BAILOUT?

Here’s one. We all know the negative side of this business for auto manufacturers and auto dealers, right now. But there are definitely things you can do to create a more positive bottom-line. It is not waiting for the showroom door to open though. Many dealers have no idea where their next car or truck sale is coming from. Each sale seems like a surprise event. Many managers only a vague idea what their salespeople have on the go for the day. This economy creates a pressure-filled working environment and you may lose valuable sales people you need to succeed.
It is a hell-raising ride for everyone on shift each day wondering—where is my next sale coming from. In this economy sales don’t have to be by accident. GM, Ford and Chrysler auto dealers not the only dealers hit in this squeeze. Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Hyundai and others are too.

Increase Your Bottom-line by getting people off their bottoms.

Fewer people come, look and leave…but more motivated to buy. Yes fewer people are “shopping around” but those who come in are buyers. People only come into your dealership in this economy when they are ready to get serious—otherwise they stay at home, keep warm and watch TV. They have made a decision before they walked into your dealership. They have concluded that, even in this economy it is better to buy than repair their present vehicle. They have done their homework; they know their situation is better served by a new or used vehicle than hanging on to the old beast. But your customers are not stupid. They don’t have to buy from just any salesperson—there are many dealerships available in 45 minutes drive from your store.
Dealers, educate your salespeople to handle every walk-in like they are buyers—not tire kickers. Because they are. Walk-in prospects seem difficult to close only because most salespeople are not skilled in turning these ‘first visit’ ‘price shoppers’ into buyers. Even in this economy sales consultants give indifferent sales presentations because they think the prospect is wasting their time! Many are making short-cuts, leaving out key steps that blow the close. Dumb. Your closing ratio with walk-ins can improve. Auto dealers and auto manufacturers see sales turn around significantly when they invest in my boot camp on closing.

Hot Prospect Follow-up is a profit centre in this economy.
How is yours follow-up systen working?
Bottom line? It is costing many dealers big money by ignoring this truth—follow-up is a profit centre!! How much is lost you ask? At least two or more extra deliveries for each salesperson on your staff each month— just from current walk-ins and more from lost repeat customers. Trackstar is very inexpensive, highly profitable, easy to use and increases your bottom-line dramatically. Sales do not have to be accidental.

There are high-quality, inexpensive sources of business prospects for your dealership. My clients are taking action every day, every shift to improve sales.
a Be-Back prospects from previous walk-in traffic
a Repeat customers
a Referrals from clients
a Service Orphans from your service or body department
a Internet leads
a Finance leads
a Centres of Influence
a Customers trying to sell their vehicle privately.

Unfortunately, most dealers focus or depend on walk-in traffic. IF it is your major source for new, used vehicle sales you are in trouble in this economy.

Change your business model and you will change your bottom-line.
In my in-house workshops I focus on getting your sales teams generating business without depending on walk-ins. We practice and drill with word scripts how to take action and bring in business. I provide an action plan for team leaders and sales consultants. We set achievable goals and sales targets to create profits. Increase their skills and confidence and your people will take action at your dealership.
a Goals need to be set for each salesperson in each area of lead generation by the day, week and month.
a Incentives and spiffs to provide to encouragement and motivation to take action.
a Lists have to be created, letters sent out and phone calls made.
a Daily coaching and encouragement from sales team leaders.

If you are not focusing on the least expensive, yet high quality prospects from your past owners, referrals, walk-outs, sold orphans, service and other lead generation activities, you are missing serious opportunities for profit every day. You are placing your dealership in jeopardy. Let me help.

Poor follow-up means lost sales
Most salespeople don’t follow-up walk-outs well or for long! Why? Because there is no process that is easy and effective to use in most dealerships.
If your customer contact program is designed by their office accounting software supplier is complicated and cumbersome. They are difficult to use, produce vague reports and vague results.
I created Trackstar for dealers to stop losing money from poor follow-up. Trackstar is a state of the art customer retention system that brings back walk-outs to the dealership and keeps your clients for life. http://www.trackstar.ca/ Make it easy for sales managers and salespeople to manage their sales follow-up business—only takes minutes a day. Trackstar is the most efficient and user-friendly system available and our clients love it. We also give our Automotivator sales expertise to each client.
With an effective follow-up system working for you, you will know where your next sale is coming from. “HOT PROSPECT” MANAGEMENT should NOT be an option
See this short video—very profitable information. Just Click View this short video.
Get in the drivers seat and take action. You well strive. Success, Dave.

Do you have an EFFECTIVE Closing Strategy? Really?

2008-03-24T18:44:00.000-04:00

If you aren’t closing well you aren’t eating well. If you aren’t closing well too many people who intended to buy a vehicle today are disappointed…maybe even a little angry.
Your customers want you to be good at closing. People really want you to be good at what you do. Why? They really want to buy a vehicle! Your customers want to solve their vehicle problems. They want out of their old vehicle, now. They want to get on with their life.

Closing the sale is not an event at the end of the presentation. It is a process. A process that is designed to help your customer come to a buying decision. That is what closing is by my definition—helping people make positive buying decisions. Help more people and you will make more money. But,
Ø It is not about you and it’s not about your commission.
Ø It is not about making a sale.
Ø It is not about getting a sticker on the board.
Key Point - Your customer’s love to buy and hate to be sold.
It is about helping your customer make a comfortable, timely buying decision. If you have an effective closing strategy it leads to a customer saying “yes” and being delighted about it. Closing is all about your customer. Closing is all about pain relief. It is about looking forward to driving a new vehicle—good stuff if you are a customer. Good thing if you are a sales consultant.

The Automotivator Closing Strategy that works. Quit selling and start helping and you will make more money. Lots more.
¨ The client has to trust and like you. How do you come across at first impressions lately?
¨ You need to know the trade is a big part of deal with 70% of your clients. Even when your customer says it is not. If don’t know how to handle their trade early in the sale you lose. Do you?
¨ You both have to be comfortable with the right vehicle, based on an accurate understanding of the customer's real needs, desires or problems. Do you wander the lot hoping to get lucky?
¨ You have to present your vehicle powerfully from your customer's perspective…and better than your competitor salesperson! Do you really?
¨ You have to help your client make the vehicle decision first—BEFORE you serve up numbers. Do you?
¨ You have to present the payments, trade-in value, price and down payment in a ‘value-based’ write-up closing presentation that is natural and comfortable for your customer to say “Yes”. How do rate your write-up process to help your customer’s close?

You are saying right now in your mind, “Duh, this not new, I know this stuff.” Success is not about what you know—it is about what you do! Every time. I lay a wager you really adlib your sales approach most of the time. How would you like your heart surgeon adlibbing his way through your operation? I bet you don’t like those odds! Ask your sales team leader about your consistency. Attempting to close a sale without all of the above steps is to invite a 'no sale' result and a walk. Humm…doesn’t seem like a plan.

Do too many customers say they have to “talk it over”, “sleep on it”, or “shop around”. NO decision… or was there? The decision to stall is a decision….and you wiff your commission Why? Because your sales process was out of step with your customer’s buying process.

My mystery shopping tours prove too few automobile salespeople actually have a 'closing strategy'- a process that they follow with each and every sales opportunity. They meet and greet, ask a few questions, jump into a vehicle presentation and go for bumbling close. Don’t’ be one of them!

There is a very powerful closing process that I coach in my Skill Specific Coaching workshops. It works! Successful salespeople are following my sales process and are eating very well.

If you really want to improve sales and improve your personal income, improve your closing strategy.

(Sales Managers and Dealers, contact me dave@automotivator.com for my dates available for the Automotivator in-house workshop - Coaching on Closing.) *** See note below.

Sales Quote - "Your past sales process has determined your sales success at this moment. What you do today and from now on will determine where you are tomorrow. Are you moving forward or coming to a standstill?" Dave Kemp.
Have a great selling day! Dave.
Dave Kemp, the Automotivator, The Automobile Sales Coach.
Dave@automotivator.com http://www.automotivator.com/
Call - 1-800-668-0326
Dedicated to improving the buying experience in the nation’s showrooms.
*** Dealers and Managers to receive your own Sales Skills Evaluation Form to pinpoint where your specific team members can improve their sales results just email me. It is no charge to our sales training bulletin dealers. Valuable accurate insights you need to succeed.

Think Lack of Negotiation Room is Your Problem?

2008-03-24T18:19:00.002-04:00

Don’t be fooled! Negotiating room is not a substitute for effective selling skills. Many salespeople believe that they need to be better negotiators, when what they really need are improved sales skills to close more sales and make more money. One of my favourite Sales Team Leaders said to me recently, “Some guys get the cart before the horse and blow the sale.” I bet you have heard this from your Sales Manager too.

We are in a marketplace where almost every vehicle sold by any sales professional, by any manufacturer is a no mark-up deal. There is no negotiation room. And what little may exist is given away in factory promoted discounts.

Want to know why people buy from one sales consultant over another? A recent survey of 1000 purchasers of vehicles rated the two major influences on buying as a combination of competitive prices, (not the lowest price) and professionalism of the salesperson. Location and brand loyalty were next but much lower on the scale.

If you want to improve your sales results and your commissions in this market condition you have to deliver a better buying experience. Period. It is not about price because your price is competitive now.
It is all about your brand, your image in the mind of the buyer. My automobile dealer clients deliver a better brand of professionalism because we focus on it. Their profits show it also.
So what should you do to improve your sales performance today, this week, this year? Focus on delivering the best buying experience your customer will get anywhere, anytime from anyone. And you can.

Do you know that most salespeople start at the end of the sale?
Most salespeople meet a showroom prospect and head to their desk. At their desk they make a short ineffective effort at rapport that degenerates into a discussion about the customer’s vehicle preferences and then price. Next it is out to the lot to show some vehicles. There is something wrong with this picture.
Where do you start? Be honest with yourself, is this your basic selling approach too?
You already know this. If your customers aren’t sold on you, they aren’t buying your vehicle no matter what your price. If they are not sold on the vehicle, they are not buying, period. End of story! It doesn’t matter if you are a great negotiator. Premature negotiation is deadly.

When do you and I negotiate successfully? We close more when the sale is made on us first and our vehicle second. Two sales are required before we negotiate, right?
Negotiating is finding a way to reach a payment and price point after your prospect agrees they want your vehicle. This is a win/win for both of you.
After observing hundreds of sales presentations, it is my belief that most of these salespeople didn't really know how to sell in the first place and learning to negotiate better was not their biggest problem.
Change your focus and change your results!! Guaranteed… ask Tiger Woods.

It is all about relationship. If you aren’t good at building a trusting and friendly relationship, forget about negotiating. People only buy from people they like and trust. Get your priorities right and negotiation, when necessary, is easy. So enjoy this business more, have FUN and let your customers enjoy you more. You will improve the buying experience and improve your payday.

Automotivator Action Plan – Make a decision today to focus on the steps that build your customer’s confidence in you and your vehicles before you negotiate.
Ø Learn how to build rapport and trust, even with the price shopper and aggressive clients
Ø Qualify well first—find out what gets them turned on.
Ø Don’t wander the lot—select specific vehicles to present
Ø Deliver a power presentation that is like Sid the Kid heading for the net.
Ø Disarm sales resistance, with good closing questions.
Ø Close by getting the commitment on the vehicle before you write
Ø Write-up the deal based on value, not price.

There are no short-cuts in this area, my friend. If you don’t do this well you blow sales and commissions you don’t need to lose. Success is all about delivering a better buying experience than your competitor. You CAN!!! Start today!
Once you have made the two key closes then mastering the art of negotiation is the solution. I love to coach negotiation skills. I get greaaaat results with my course Mastering the Art of Negotiation, but first things first.
Sales Quote for Success: "Four short words that lift most successful sales consultants above the crowd—a little bit more. They did all that was expected of them and a little bit more." Lou Vickery

Take advantage of this day and month! Dave

Dave Kemp, the Automotivator, The Automobile Sales Coach.
Dave@automotivator.com http://www.automotivator.com/ Call - 1-800-668-0326
Dedicated to improving the buying experience in the nation’s showrooms.
There are many sales consultants who can become "High Performing" Sales Professionals. But they won’t… if they don’t get professional development and sales training in how to close the sale. Seriously consider the powerful sales advantage of having custom designed in-house Automotivator Professional Development. Many of the most profitable dealers and manufacturers in the country do. Call Dave to discuss opportunities for growing your sales and profits today. Contact info. Dave@Automotivator.com 1-800-668-0362.
Print permission - Copyright 2008 Dave Kemp, author. Dave Kemp Seminars. Permission to print is granted only if you retain this copyright credit to the author and contact information on all materials copied and printed or transmitted by any means electronically. 1-800-668-0362 Email Dave@automotivator.com http://www.automotivator.com/

What Dealers Say about Automotivator Professional Development

2007-09-14T10:46:00.000-04:00

Thanks Dave! Great Info at our Boot Camp for Advanced Level Selling! I would like to thank-you again for your ideas from last week. We have had success with the "flexible" close already. Steve, Mgr. Prince George, BC

Everything has been going excellent since I was in your program! It helped me with my confidence level through all the aspects of selling a car. Getting commitment from a customer has played a big part on the number of vehicles I have sold, and I use it every time I am out. Jared, Winnipeg.

The boot camp was a success and talking to the sales staff that took part, all said they benefited. My top sales person (25-30 deals per month) said he used one of your techniques step by step to a couple who came in just looking and not going to buy for a couple of months. They left with a new vehicle that day. It is nice to see that even my most successful sales agent is willing to alter what works for him to change with today’s new buyers.
Peter, Dealer PEI

I want to thank you for the days we spent together. I felt the training was excellent, just the right content so I absorb it all. The way you take each process and approach it from different angles tends to imbed it in my mind so it is nor easily forgotten.
Dave, Dauphin MB

Hi Dave, Re: Cambridge ON Boot Camp
I appreciate all the info your course offered it was a great learning experience. I have always had a problem with over coming trades and trade allowances. Your information has been a great asset to me dealing with the trade. I've been on every test drive since your course, and can see a great deal difference in customers, and how they relate to me.
Al, Kitchener

Two Ways to Make More Money

2007-09-14T10:26:00.000-04:00

The Automotivator Action Plan
Some newer sales consultants, three years or less in the car business complain about not making enough money. Let’s change this now.
So why do YOU FAIL to make more money?

1. Too Much Thinking - Not Enough Doing.

Too many sales consultants substitute thinking about doing something for doing something. Never acting, just thinking is deadly to your success. I know I have, and it's cost me too.

Take action on the most important sales steps, the basics.

Learn how to do the basics very well. Not the old basics from the ’80’s and ‘90’s, but the new basics for 2007! They are different. Boy do you pay a price if you are not instep with the current sales process that works.
Hey, you may be in the business only a month, a year or three years but you could very likely be using the ’80’s and ‘90’s style of selling. How? You have been watching and learning from the old pros. Now this can be very helpful when they are top of the board—observe them and learn well. But some don’t sell any more than you do. Not realizing that you pickup ineffective sales habits and attitudes from their example is serious. It is going to limit your sales. Deadly to your sales success my friend.
Many experienced people succeed because they can count on past sales returning to buy. This is great for them—they have earned these sales because they have kept in touch with their clients and built and maintained a relationship. You should follow their example of maintaining long-term client relationships. But these experienced sales consultants can take short cuts to success and get away with it. You can’t.

2. Follow-up more

People come, look and leave every day. You talk with them but too often you fail to follow-up. These people are ‘hot, hot, hot prospects’. They are buying today, tomorrow next week or even next month. They are buyers and you need to get serious about maintaining a connection. I developed Trackstar just because hundreds of thousands of dollars is being lost every year by dealers and salespeople because of poor follow-up. It works.
People do return to salespeople who keep in touch, they close quicker and easier than first time walk-ins. Your closing ratio with be-backs is better than 50% most of the time. Follow-up walk-outs and you will make serious money.
The same goes for past customers. Maintain a positive long-term relationship and your past owners will buy again. Great income is just plain lost every day if you don’t stay connected. You will also get more referrals when you build your business.

Automotivator Sales Action Plan

Let me encourage you to take action now. Not today, but right now.
¨ Take the next five minutes and walk into your manager’s office and discuss what sales basic you should improve.
¨ Grab your file of previous Automotivator newsletters.
¨ Plan to attend my Boot Camp for Sales Pros in your area. (email for details) Dave@Automotivator.com
¨ Write a short note to all recent walk-outs. Do it every day from now on.
¨ Pick up the phone and call prospects from, yesterday, a week ago, or a month ago. You will be surprised how many have not bought yet.
¨ Connect with a past owner today. They or a family member may be back in the buying/lease cycle.
Do something that moves you forward…today!
Then do the same thing tomorrow and the next day and every day.

If you do this, you will make time your ally and success will not be far behind! You will make more money. Don't hesitate to email or phone me for personal coaching.
Sales Quote - Change is to give up what we are, to become what we could be.
Have a great selling day! Dave. the Automotivator

High Performing Sales Managers

2007-08-20T16:47:00.000-04:00

TWO MORE CHARACTERISTICS of HIGH PERFORMING SALES MANAGERS / SALES TEAM LEADERS Part two

Great ‘Sale’ Managers are good sales coaches. When a prospect is in the showroom then the sales manager is leading the charge for the sale. You need to be creative to support and backstop your sales consultant. Sometimes they will run out of ideas and confidence. That’s when the sales team leader earns their pay.

Two more characteristics of top performing sales team leaders
(1) They run a strong sales desk. They know what to do and how to coach to close the sale.
(2) They are willing and confident to go in on deals quickly and skilfully when needed.

STRONG SALES DESK. There is always an open door at the sales team leaders/managers desk for a deal. Nothing else is more important than this sales consultant with his/her deal—not the dealer, not the factory zone people, not the phone. The salesperson is king when they have an offer to present or a need to get direction on his deal. No waiting in line, everything stops for the salesperson.
The peak performing sales manager has a predictable approach to each offer. He keeps the chat to a minimum, assesses the offer situation quickly and gives a specific strategy. They don't say, "you need more money"—your sales consultant knows that. The top team leaders tell them "how to" get the offer improvement. The first time the offer is presented the best sales leaders congratulate the salesperson on achieving the offer—no matter how far away the offer is from acceptable. This builds respect and confidence in your sales consultant.
Effective leaders put on their coaching hat and then give a clear simple instruction that gets the salesperson back with his prospect quickly. Top ‘sales’ managers don't use the outdated method of making the prospect wait for his decision on the first offer. The good sakes coaches know when to change the Basis of Negotiation, and how to make it easy for the prospect to say "yes". I am always impressed when the best sales desk managers want to attend all my courses on Sales Desk Management for a tune-up and new ideas, and the rest ...care less. Tells you something doesn't it. Some managers are more interested in getting their golf score down but not their closing ratio. Check out my website www.Automotivator.com or email for additional ideas you can use.

TOP GUNS SALES LEADERS NEVER Walk Prospects Without Meeting the Client. A sales leader who goes in on deals, everyday, makes more money for the dealership than any desk jockey ever did. Most managers will walk deals without ever meeting the customer, "if that salesperson couldn't get the deal I'm sure I couldn't". The peak performing sales leaders regularly close deals that would be walked if they didn't meet the customers, not everybody closes, but lots do. They don't miss an opportunity to get the sale—it means too much to the dealership and sales consultant to walk a prospect without even trying. Sales team leaders don't lose their confidence by riding the desk getting slivers, hiding behind paper, they are enjoying the opportunity to keep the sale.

There are many managers who can become "High Performing" Sales Team Leaders. But for some managers they "just don't have time" to do the things I have shared. Too many good potential sales team leaders are bogged down in administration when they need to be focused on making sales. Maybe you, the dealer, better look again at your priorities before it is too late. What are you doing today, to make your manager able to achieve their potential as a peak performing sales team leader? Check out http://www.automotivator.com/ $$$

High Performing Sales Managers/Sales Leaders

2007-08-15T10:39:00.000-04:00

TWO CHARACTERISTICS of HIGH PERFORMING SALES MANAGERS / SALES TEAM LEADERS Part one
Author - Dave Kemp, The Automotivator
One of the fundamental problems in the car business today is ‘Sales’ Management. Sometimes you can stand in front of the office of a sales manager and just see the frustration of the salespeople as they leave after bringing an offer to purchase a vehicle. The salesperson had achieved the first goal of automobile salesmanship, "get the offer, and bring it to me". Yet you would think he had just interrupted a meeting between Harper and Bush. "Can't you see I'm busy!" is the expression on the manager's face. "I have work to do"!, is the attitude implied. It is pretty bad when the reason we are in business, an offer to purchase, is an interruption.
Don't blame your sales manager, he or she is not the problem in most cases. They are buried in administration, not "sales" management. Look at your list of typical "sales" management activities for your sales team leaders. The activities that are, directly specific to creating sales, desking a sale, or coaching a salesperson is too low on the list. These sales activities should be on the top of the list for your ‘sales managers’.

Two characteristics of top performing sales team leaders
There are four characteristics of top performing sales team leaders I have discovered in the automobile business ... and I have been providing professional development for sales leaders, studying and working with the best for years. Here are the first two. They know how to:
(1) Recruit the best possible sales team
(2) They are dedicated to the success of their sales consultants. They want them to make money and have FUN doing it.
RECRUITING. The top performing managers do not tolerate inappropriate sales consultants for very long. They seek out the best talent in their area and go after them. They don't depend on the best talent "just walking in" when they need salespeople.
They are proactively recruiting. There are good people selling or leasing business machines, office equipment, clothing, cameras, boats, service advisors and many more key areas. They don't depend on recruiting "experienced" automobile people. They want to develop their "own people". As one manager said, "I don't want someone else's mistakes screwing up my people." Don't hire anyone unless you are confident that they have the potential to succeed at your dealership. It costs you, far more than they sell you.

DEDICATED TO SUCCESS. The better ‘sales’ managers expect the best results because they give effective sales coaching, training, incentives and daily direction. They are dedicated to the sales team's success, there is a "results focus" mentality, they show it with strong daily direction about closing prospects that are in the showroom, working "hot prospects" in the system, and quick follow-up of showroom walk-outs and internet leads.
They meet with their salespeople "one on one", to give them ideas, motivation, and a sense of their value to the team. It is a war zone out there on the sales floor and you want to keep the attitude strong in this competitive market.
The best leaders get their people to "buy in" to the dealerships weekly sales objectives, and each sales person understands their role in achieving the objective. Personal recognition, incentives and high expectations are his/her motivation tools and fear, occasionally. A sense of trust, confidence and commitment to sales results "despite the odds" are inspired by the top managers. This "job will get done" attitude rubs off on the sales team.

Look for two more characteristics next edition.

Dave Kemp, the Automotivator, is President of Automotivator Professional Development and Trackstar International Follow-up Systems. A car industry expert with decades of success training Canada’s most achieving and profitable automobile dealerships. He has been a successful dealer, General Manager, Sales manager and sales consultant and has shared his sales strategies with thousands of successful dealers, manufacturers, sales team leaders across North America.. Contact info. http://www.automotivator.com/ Email Dave@Automotivator.com 1-800-668-0362

Busy days ahead ...

2006-12-06T23:10:00.000-05:00

I am off to Vancouver this week for a Professional Development week for Sales Trainers and the board of Directors meetings. I am the Chairman of our National Foundation for our Professional Association. I love this opportunity to be with the world’s best trainers. We share information and ideas to keep up to date with this great business.

Progressive Dealers and Sales Managers - want to increase profits in this competitive market? –BOOK professional development dates in February, March, and April now – There are only a few dates left for IN-HOUSE Skill Specific Coaching workshops – Powerful and effective Professional Development for your Sales Professionals – Email or call for dates for your Sales Team. Dave@Automotivator.com

10 Guerrilla Sales Principles to Increase your sales income this Holiday Season and all year long!

2006-12-06T23:01:00.000-05:00

If you really intend to make more money act on the 10 Guerrilla Sales Strategies below. Put them into action to tune up your sales and make extra spending money for the season.

Be a rebel not a wimp. You can make it in this great business but don’t follow the crowd.

In my boot camps for sales consultants we give you the straight talk on what works and what doesn’t. We practice and role play until you are better than the competition in every sales skill. I am very proud of the many sales consultants from across this great nation who are making incredible money and having a better lifestyle as a result of taking these Automotivator workshops. My graduates make the choice to be better—more skilled, more motivated and equipped to succeed. Study and put into action my:

10 Guerrilla Sales Principles

1. Selling should be embedded into every aspect of your activities, from leaving a business card with every restaurant bill to including a discussion while in line to buy movie tickets. Get yourself known as a ‘professional’ automobile sales consultant not just a salesperson.

2. Deliver the best Power Presentation Drive in the business—the most exciting, motivating demo your client will ever get in their shopping around experience. You must drive first to make your presentation or it is just conversation blah blah.

3. Ask for the order after every Power Presentation Drive —every time.

4. Have clear personal goals, written down and reviewed frequently to keep you on target for high income and sales objectives.

5. Target service orphan customers who are driving vehicles that are costing big money to keep on the road. These people need a new vehicle.

6. Brand yourself as a knowledgeable, professional consultant. Know your stuff and share your expertise confidently and appropriately.

7. Ensure your clients understand you are a career-focused sales person. You are in this business for the long-haul. You want to make a difference in their buying experience.

8. Make it clear to your clients and prospects what makes you dramatically different from your competitors. You are honest, FUN and speak with conviction.

9. Develop client-specific follow-up tactics. They need to be at the center of your daily sales activities strategy. (Trackstar makes you very effective with be-back sales while your competitor is missing the mark.) www.Trackstar.ca

10. Deliver the best buying experience that your walk-in customers will ever get so more people say, “This salesperson is the best I have ever met buying a vehicle. I want to buy from this person, right now, here, today.”

The Automotivator Action Plan
Do you know the problem for many salespeople? They are mediocre—just average. They give a cold-fish handshake and a flaky, indifferent, boring buying experience. They are not motivated or committed to really making serious money. Don’t be like these irritating salespeople.

Make the choice to help your customer make a positive buying experience every time you greet a client. Help them make constructive buying decisions, help them buy a vehicle for gosh sakes.
Your clients want their sales consultant to be good at what they do. Don’t forget this—your customer came to buy—help them!

Closing the Sale: Why People Really Buy!

2006-11-03T09:20:00.000-05:00

Closing the sale is not a matter of trick closes or manipulation. It is not using fear or hard sell tactics. Closing the sale is the natural conclusion to everything you have done in an effective sales process. No matter what your car customers says about waiting, shopping around or not buying today, often they don’t mean it.

You gotta know why people buy. People will buy things they don't need, but you can't make people buy things they don't want. So what do they want? What they want may surprise you. It is not just a better looking car with more features. It is not just more fuel economy. It is not just more performance. It ‘s not just a vehicle more suitable to their current family size. It is these things, but more.

The real motivators.

People buy to solve problems.

The most common motivation to buy is the unsafe mechanical state of their vehicle. The impending expense of tires, brakes, exhaust or suspension forces people to finally decide to buy rather than repair.

People buy because of the accumulation of expensive repairs they have already made to their vehicle. People buy to solve problems.

A strong motivation to buy comes when convenience features are no longer operating and the aggravation level is increased. Air conditioning not operative in warm weather, power windows that malfunction, CD players that skip, alloy wheels lose their looks, these things cause people to act sooner than later.

One of the most motivating reasons to buy:

Your customer has a pressing personal dead-line to make a decision. Customers postpone buying decisions. They simply procrastinate until they are forced to make decisions. This works in your favour.

The above repairs combined with family travel plans cause people to buy sooner than later. For instance, needing a reliable vehicle for a planned family trip on a long weekend or annual vacation or travelling five hours to a child’s university graduation or a nephew’s wedding forces people to make buying decisions.

Don’t underestimate the power of personal timelines in helping people make decisions. People naturally procrastinate until their immediate situation or need forces them to buy. Most of your customers need this personal incentive to act. You just need to find out the real motivator and push that button!!!

Poor salespeople try to sell price to turn their prospects into customers or clients. Good salespeople discover the real reasons people buy. It is not just fair prices or comfortable payments. That is what they want after they have made the decision to buy. You need to discover the reason they are at the dealership in the first place. You will make a lot more money.

If you are a dealer and you want to increase your sales results by closing more sales, consider having a Skill Specific Coaching workshops in your dealership. Theses courses are limited to only your sales people and managers so that we have maximum time for coaching one-one. Call me. 1-800-668-0362

This is a New Year and a great opportunity for you to really kick your sales into gear.

Have a great selling day! Dave .

In the News

2006-08-04T09:30:00.000-04:00

Automotive component immunity testing for automotive industry
The automotive industry has been aware of the problem of electro-magnetic interference for many years now and all reputable manufacturers have taken steps to alleviate the situation. John Dearing reports.

The effect on modern electronic control systems of electro-magnetic interference has been of concern for many years. Nowhere is this more evident than in the automotive sector. Vehicles now have a range of electronic modules on board, some of which are non-critical such as in-car entertainment or heating controls, but others of which are directly related to the safe control of the vehicle, such as engine management or anti-lock braking, and even electrical power steering functions.

Full Story

Hyundai becomes world’s sixth largest automaker
According to the Detroit-based weekly Automotive News, Hyundai Automotive Group ranks as the world’s sixth largest automotive manufacturer in the world.
In Automotive News’ most recent survey of global automotive sales and production, Hyundai Motor Co. registered an 11.6 per cent jump in global sales in 2005. It was the largest percentage gain of any carmaker in the million-plus sales category. With it, Hyundai Automotive Group climbed one spot in the global rankings.
Full Story

AS GAS PRICES RISE, SALES OF MID-SIZE SUVS FALL, BUT FULL-SIZE SALES HOLD ON
As fuel prices soar, big sport-utility sales sink -- or so the story typically goes. But, some industry officials say, mid-size truck-based SUVs, vehicles such as Ford Explorer and Jeep Grand Cherokee, are even more endangered.
Full-size SUVs have more space, cargo capacity and cachet. And most full-size SUV buyers care more about interior space and cargo capacity than fuel consumption, so the mid-size SUVs are not an option when gas prices shoot up, some analysts say.
Truck-based mid-size SUVs also have been hurt by ferocious competition from smaller, softer car-based SUVs -- vehicles such as the Toyota Highlander and Honda Pilot. The main vehicles in the truck-based portion of the segment are the Durango, the Explorer, the GMC Envoy, Grand Cherokee and the TrailBlazer -- all of them domestics. Automotive News reported recently that GM would kill both the Envoy and the TrailBlazer after the 2009 model year."I think they will fall to a relatively small niche after next year,'' Hoffer said. ``They have no reason to exist.''
Despite all the talk about fuel consumption these days, there is little evidence that consumers are turning away from big SUVs and pickups strictly because of high gas prices, some industry observers say. There are few alternatives to those vehicles for drivers who need them, analysts say.

In the same period, car-based crossover utility vehicles have seen a 27 percent increase in sales, said George Pipas, sales analysis manager at Ford Motor. "Most of the shift is from demographics,'' Pipas said. ``Baby boomers are getting older. If I don't really need that vehicle, the older I get, the less interested I am in stretching to get up into a big SUV or truck. The second factor is gas prices.''
Full Story

YOU Can Make More Sales and More Money

2006-08-04T09:18:00.000-04:00

About two months ago I received a call from a sales consultant who asked me, “Dave, how do I increase my income? I have grown stagnant in sales and need to kick-start some sales action”? We talked about his sales process and then I asked this critical question. “How good are you with the Presentation Drive?” I listened and then asked him to commit to improving his Presentation Drive with my Automotivator sales principles. I talked with him this week, and his sales increased by 4 the first month and 5 last month!!!

So…I ask you, “How good are you with the Presentation Drive?”

For most customers the Presentation during your Demonstration Drive is the deal breaker. If your client doesn’t feel motivated after this experience you probably are sunk… no matter what your price is.

Customers clearly indicate that price is not the only factor in making a decision to buy. The presentation and driving experience counts significantly in the equation. The Positive attitude from salespeople, the excitement created during the drive determines whether the customer is buying from you or not.

Are you up to the job?

Don’t flip the keys to the vehicle and let your customer drive first. That approach just doesn’t cut in anymore. Drive first. Sell the vehicle from the inside out.

Present the information as you demonstrate the features you are talking about. A lack of professionalism here and kiss your sale good bye. Put the vehicle through a powerful presentation then…. let your customer drive.

Always let the female drive first, then the male. You will need her positive attitude to close the sale. But there is more, much more to becoming a power presenter.

(If you are a dealer or sales team leader you should schedule our Back to the New Basics in-house professional development workshop to improve your sales process for this fall. http://mailto:dave@automotivator.com )

Remember this my friends, when prices are same for similar vehicles, when quality is similar, when trade values are similar, wherever showroom they walk-in, the sales consultant who delivers the better buying experience wins the sale. It is all about your sale process.

Have a great selling summer day! Dave

What are YOU going to do? Sell a few, moan or…… Top the Sales Chart this summer.

2006-07-10T10:55:00.000-04:00

It is often said that 20% of the salespeople sell 80% of the vehicles. My experience finds this statement pretty darn close. You can top the charts at your dealership. Just focus on those specific sales attitudes that are required to get sales results. You will never be a great sales consultant without these sales qualities. Check yourself on this list below.

Specific Characteristics of Top Producing Salespeople.

Top Guns are authentic and real.

These people don’t fake it ‘til they make it, they are real. They know their stuff. They are not fluff when it comes to presenting the reasons for buying. They are focused on their ultimate goal—helping people make positive buying decisions. They know that most customers value and need a professional salesperson’s advice in deciding what vehicle is best for them. So sales pro are competent and confident when they ask for the order. Are you?

Top Performers have energy.

They move at the speed of success. It is cool to be with a top performer and watch how quickly they make decisions and act. The real professionals are comfortable with who they are. They know people need help making decisions and they help. Good performers are confident they are doing a good thing for their customers and they are right. Customers appreciate decisive salespeople. They don’t want information only.

Buyers want concrete direction in making positive decisions.
Customers want to get the deal done.

Do you take too long to ask for the order? There is a ‘right time’ when you close. Are you decisive or indifferent? What you do counts, folks.

Effective salespeople live with an inner integrity.

Good salespeople are not trying to do anything they wouldn’t want done to themselves. They don’t lie or promise what they can’t deliver. But… they deliver what they promise and more. These people are just plain helpful, straight-talking and comfortable with themselves.

Top guns in the car business love what they are doing.

They enjoy and live life to the fullest. In other words, they have fun. They are fun to be with. They don't take life or themselves too seriously, (except for their opinions). They know that business is only a game. They win some and lose some, but in the losing there is a stimulus to sell the next opportunity. Their definition of winning is beating their own personal best, not just having the most stickers.

Top Sales Consultants come to work, to work.

They stay late and get up early. They work hard. They know about working smart, but they know it is not a substitute for effort. They don't even consider what they do as work. They don't follow the clock or the calendar.

The smart part is they focus on delivering a great buying experience so not only does the customer buy but, they want to come back and buy again and again. They keep their customers for life. Repeat business, ‘The Breakfast of Champions’. Many of my best salespeople are using Trackstar to manage their client relationships with showroom prospects and sold customers. It works. www.Trackstar.ca

Top Salespeople follow-up walk-outs and bring them back.

People Come, Look and Leave. You can’t close everybody, but you can bring walk-outs back. These be-backs are motivated and buy quickly. Manage your walk-outs and you will increase your sales and personal income. Click on Trackstar benefits.

Keys to Success.

Know your stuff and ASK FOR THE ORDER!.
Know customers need help making decisions so provide help.
Move, be deliberate. Take action decisively with customers. Qualify the customer’s needs and wants and provide solutions not just information. And ASK FOR THE ORDER!
Be a person of integrity.
Have fun. Create excitement for your customers and make a better buying experience than 80% of the other salespeople your customers meet at competitor dealerships.
Focus on turning first time buyers into customers for life.
Read this newsletter again; underline some things you need to do differently.
Take action today to become a top gun in your business.
One of the action items is to increase your sales competency, so attend the next Skill Specific Coaching conference in your area or have an in-house boot camp. We limit the number of participants purposely, we coach not talk. See you there.

For you dealers in Moncton, St. John, Fredericton and area, send your salespeople and they will get new, refreshing sales motivation to ask for the order and launch your fall sales campaign with a jump. There is time if you are the type of person to act quickly.

Skill Specific Coaching

Moncton, New Brunswick, Thursday, September 7, Holiday Inn, Trans Canada Hwy.
Contact Dave@automotivator.com to register and information today.

Make things happen at your dealership. Take out the stops and go for the top of the sales chart!!

Have a great selling day!

It’s Summer Show Time!

2006-06-12T10:28:00.000-04:00

Success Hints

The first fifteen minutes -
You win or lose in the first fifteen minutes if you are in the car and truck business.

SO how good are you at show time? Is it a comedy? A tragedy? Or a monologue? A hit? Or is the show cancelled? We are not talking about the latest effort from Hollywood or New York, but your last sales presentation.

Have you ever had a prospect say to you, “you have fifteen minutes to convince me that I should give you any more of my valuable time?”

Maybe not exactly like that but…. if they don't say it, you can bet they are thinking it. When the customer gets out of their car, you are on stage and ….

It's show time.

If you are going to sell your prospect you have fifteen minutes:

To build a positive rapport.
To establish an atmosphere of trust and respect.
To gain control of the sales process.
To uncover your prospect’s needs, desires, attitudes, opinions, problems and potential resistance.
To gather specific vehicle and financial information that you require to land them on the right vehicle.
To confirm your interest in helping them make the right decisions.
To discover the dominant emotional buying motives.
To sell them on the need for you to deliver the balance of your presentation.

A lot in just fifteen minutes? Yes, but if you don’t your clients are gone.

The key role: The ability to ask the right questions, in the right way, at the right time.

Remember, your prospect is constantly asking themselves, "Why should I give you more of my valuable time?" The ability to ask the right questions at the right time and in the right way keeps the prospect's focus on his/her needs, problems, concerns and keeps you off …..pitching your vehicles and features too soon!.

That’s right! Don’t start offering solutions to customer’s vehicle needs until you know their needs. Don’t show any vehicles until you know what they want.

It also shows the prospect you are more interested in them, than you are in just selling anything to them. This is one of the best ways to build trust and rapport in your relationship.

Sales quote for the week:
Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.
- John F. Kennedy

Let's summarize with a few basic sales presentation rules when you are on stage each summer day.

Your prospect will tell you what you need to sell them. Ask good questions.

The information you don't get soon enough, will hurt you later in the process.

Just because the prospect says they aren’t buying, doesn’t mean they are not.

People buy from people they trust, not people they like.

People buy for 'their' reasons not yours. Discover their reasons. Ask! The client will tell you how to help them make their decision.

Any questions? If you want the specific questions to ask, come to my Skill Specific Coaching workshops. You will get the answers. Let the show begin.

Have a great summer selling day!
Dave.

Reducing Lost Sales… Means Big Bucks

2006-05-24T11:14:00.000-04:00

It’s the start of a new month, and usually this is a dynamite month to increase your income and make some big sales. This newsletter always focuses on how to make sales, but there is another side to this business—lost sales. If I can help you close the deals that didn’t make the deal sheet you will increase your earnings big time. Think about this.

How many sales have you lost this month? I guess it depends on how you define a lost sale.

One lost sale is one you didn't make because: you didn't get the key decision maker to say yes and they walked.
The second lost sale came when you didn’t put them into your follow-up system and in the end they chose your competitor.
The third lost sale is the client you sold previously who buys their next vehicle from someone else.

Three types of lost sales that you could reduce, right?

The average cost of a lost sale today is not just the gross profit to the dealer or the commission to the salesperson – it is 12 times that. The average customer will buy at least 12 vehicles in their lifetime. And they influence even more vehicle sales when you consider second and third family vehicles. That’s a lot of sales opportunities lost! And when you throw in the lost service labour and parts dollars it is more again.

So why do we lose sales?

focusing on vehicles first rather than building a relationship first
giving poor sales presentation drives
not asking for the business before you walk them
negotiating before you get the commitment process is complete
selling a low price rather than high perceived value
not following up walk-outs and
not keeping previously sold customers returning to buy again.

Understand this about your customers.

They want to buy much more quickly than they tell you.
They are willing to pay more than they tell you.
They value payments over price.
They buy from salespeople who follow-up.
They value a long-term relationship with their salesperson and will be loyal to them.
They will send you referrals because they value your relationship.

Keys to Success in the car business.

If you can not sell your client the first time put them in your follow-up system. Follow-up your lost sales and turn them into Be-back customers. When you sell them once, keep them coming back to buy again and again and again. That is what your customers want most – a relationship with someone they can trust. It makes buying easier and more fun, less stress. Be good to yourself and your customer. My Trackstar clients have a slogan, “Turn your walk-outs into be-back customers and turn your customers into clients for life.” www.Trackstar.ca
So to increase your sales, focus on reducing lost customers and you will increase your income big time.

Hope to see you in Halifax. It will be great to get away and increase your sales.
I’m at the Toronto airport waiting for my next flight to Winnipeg for a Boot Camp for New Hires. Then off next week to British Columbia for a Motivating the Motivators conference for GM Sales leaders. Contact me personally by return email or phone to discuss how I can help you increase your sales at your dealership. Dave@Automotivator.com

One of the Best Kept Secrets of the Selling World

2006-04-05T16:12:00.000-04:00

Every hour people come, look and leave your dealership. Who just left in the last minute, the last hour, yesterday? Do you have a system in place to follow-up? No follow-up system? Then you have no sale for 5 out of 6 customers who walk into your dealership.

Since 85 percent of all sales are NOT made on the first visit to your showroom, follow-up is as important as any part of your selling process. If you don’t follow-up, there is no sale with 5 out of 6 customers who chose to come to your dealership. Buying a vehicle is a process and follow-up needs to start immediately if you want success. The clock is ticking.

You must have an organized method or system of following-up if you want to make the sale. There are several types of follow-up systems but none are as effective and uncomplicated as Trackstar. www.Trackstar.ca

Walk-outs not followed up cost money!

However, the only activity that some salespeople and managers focus on is finding the next walk-in client. The most critical cost, the cost of the lack of follow-up of the walk-out, remains to be the best-kept secret in the selling world. I am asked regularly, "How can I speed up the sales cycle?" My answer—target your showroom walk-outs and bring them back to buy. They are the quickest close you can make. 50% of the time you make a sale with a be-back. Time is flying by this month and this year.

So the hidden financial impact this situation has on your business is serious money. The lack of effective follow-up is very costly. On average the typical dealership loses at least two deliveries a month for each salesperson on their staff. The value of the lost commissions is $700 a month for each salesperson or over $8000.00 a year. The lost gross to the dealership is incredible. What is more expensive—the cost of lost sales to competitors or staying the same as now?

Dealers and Sales Managers frequently ask the question: “What does it cost me to have your system?” The answer is simple, “How much does it cost NOT to have Trackstar working for you?” The answer is scary. Most dealerships are losing at least two deliveries per sales consultant each month. Do the math and discover how much you are paying not to have effective hot prospect follow-up.

Trackstar makes follow-up a profit centre for you. It does not cost. It pays and the price is right! Call 1-800-668-0362 to discover the ridiculously low cost for this profit maker. The investment is less than the smallest advertisement you make in the paper.

What is important is how quickly you can change the result.

Trackstar can be installed and operating in your dealership within three hours.

"How can I protect my sold clients from the competition?” You have to have positive high quality communications between sales. With Trackstar you have the best long-term client retention system in the car business. Repeat and referral sales are high year after year when you have a positive, high quality customer relationship system working for you. Can you target your clients easily for newsletters, service promotions, invitation only sales? Absolutely… and easier than Reynolds and Reynolds, ADP or other complicated dealer systems.

View this short video explaining Trackstar. http://www.maxdbc.tv/trackstar If you want your sales people organized to increase sales you have found your answer.

A dealer using Trackstar only for 18 months is getting 12 more deliveries each month with increased be-back sales and referrals every month.

Another client installed Trackstar in December 04 and went from #3 out of 4 in their marketplace to number one in Ontario in February. They experienced an increase of 140% over the previous month in April.

A Trackstar client for 7 years has 40% of his sales each month REPEAT clients.

If they can so can you!

The best kept secret in our business is the cost of poor follow-up in the car business. Time for a change at your dealership.

Great Success, Dave.
Dave Kemp, the AUTOMOTIVATOR

Go for the Gold!

2006-03-03T13:35:00.000-05:00

You gotta love it. The rush and excitement of the competition, the cheering and the fun that these athletes had during the Olympics was fantastic. They gave it all. My wife Mary Jane and I found ourselves being motivated by the incredible, gutsy performances these women and men provided.

The interviews with these athletes almost always included comments about their commitment to training tirelessly and their dedication to doing their personal best made all the work worth while. Even if they didn’t win the gold, even if they didn’t medal, they felt going for the gold made them achieve far more than they might have.

Are you going for the gold?

From our point of view, as sales professionals, we are in a similar competition every day. We need to keep on top of our game too or we can trail the field. Our business takes courage and gutsy performances. When our customers come in to our arena there is a ‘golden’ opportunity to score.

The big question—do we give our gold medal sales presentation to our customers? Do we work to improve our performance as sales professionals or do we coast to the finish line?
Remember: Everyone wants to have lots of money, but few people want to work hard and smart enough to earn lots of money. You can!

We are rated on our performance.

In the car business you only can win the gold. For us there is no silver or bronze—you win or you lose. You can’t almost sell a vehicle and take home the commission. Training for athletes or professional development for sales professionals is the key to success. When you give your sales presentation to your customers they do give you a performance rating. You either score high on the scale or you don’t. The gold medal victory comes with a sale now or with effective follow-up as a be-back sale. But in either case you win.

But so does your client win. When you deliver your best presentation every time, you give each customer a better buying experience than the competition and they declare you the winner. It is a ‘win-win’ situation. The bonus—you will have more FUN! We are in a competition.

It is obvious you are in a competition every time you go out and meet a client. You are in the game against every other sales person your client has met in their buying cycle and somebody is going to win…or lose! Your client is NOT the opponent. They are the reason we exist. They just want to buy or lease a vehicle but are we up for the opportunity? Do you deliver a gold medal sales presentation or are you listed in the also rans? You either inspire your customers to buy or you don’t.

We need to train for this game too. You and I can’t take for granted that we will deliver a strong presentation just by showing up. If we are going to stand on the sales professional podium and receive the rewards of our efforts we have to train. You don’t get the metal just for showing up!
Coming to work dragging our butt and complaining doesn’t work for champions. We have to be developing specific skills to succeed.

I coach many sales people who practice the specific skills required to be at the top of their game. They win far more competitions against the other sales consultants because they are simply better equipped to handle the challenges. Champions have more FUN and make more money.

The challenges to champions are obvious.

The road to a sale requires bringing tension filled clients into their natural comfort zone.
The twists in the road can be successfully handling the price shopper or the person who is worried about their trade value.
The fear factor for some clients is the payments will exceed their budgets or they will select the wrong vehicle.

Just like on the mogul run, you expect bumps but that is why you train. Our game plan has to be all about helping our customer make a comfortable buying decision especially when they start of the game “just looking”.

Casey Stengel: Sport Quote
Most games are lost, not won.

You can stop losing sales with challenging customers by improving your sales skills.
You will sell more vehicles and make more money…if you receive the right type of professional training. Skill Specific Coaching is available. I will be having a series of “Skill Specific Boot Camps for Sales Professionals”. These boot camps will fine tune your game for more sales success. Plan to attend one even if it means travelling or giving up a day on the sales floor. Get yourself ready for a gold medal performance this spring.

You already know the value you receive from the AUTOMOTIVATOR Dealer newsletter and the articles on the http://www.automotivator.com/ website.

Now you can experience the live training that will give you the insight of:

what works with your clients
why it works, and
how to do it.

You will be able to incorporate the missing knowledge in your sales process that will help you sell more and raise your personal income to your personal best.

Now you have the opportunity to get the kind of intensive training that will help you create gold medal sales presentations. The next “Skills Specific Boot Camp for Sales Professionals” is in Ottawa, Ontario.

If you live in the area, you owe it to yourself to check it out and register today. Just email dave@automotivator.com for the registration form, give your fax number or we will email the registration. Phone FREE for details 1-800-668-0362.

If you don’t live in Ottawa area you still need to think about traveling to be there (others have already decided it is important enough to do so). And if you are a dealers or sales manager, call us for an in-house session right at your dealership. I hope to see you there.

Go for the Gold this year in your sales career. Commit to improving the buying experience with your customers and start to live your dreams.
Go for it.

Great Success, Dave.

Dave Kemp, the AUTOMOTIVATOR

SELL MORE! BRAND YOURSELF.

2006-02-21T10:33:00.000-05:00

Everybody is selling your type of vehicle. So why should they buy from you? Because your price is better… I doubt it. Your vehicle is special… Yeah sure. Your trade-in appraisals are higher… Duh.

Why should they buy from you is a great question when your vehicles can be purchased almost around the corner.

To sell more you have to stand out in this crowd. Do you? I don’t mean that you are the tallest or the shortest or widest. I mean does your sales process create a positive difference about you personally in the mind of your buyer?

Think about buying cars from your customer’s point of view. They think when they step into a showroom they will likely meet someone more interested in selling something than helping them make the ‘right decision’. If this is your sales approach than you are not branding yourself or separating yourself from the sales consultants they meet while shopping around.

What’s your brand?
I am not talking about your manufacturer’s name, I mean your image. You will sell more if you work on separating yourself from the competitor salespeople. If they prefer your brand or style of selling you will win more sales.

The Automotivator’s Keys to Successful Branding.

1. Treat yourself as the product not your vehicle.

You have to focus early in your sales process to be better. l more caring l more knowledgeable l more skilled l more useful to your client in their time of need.

Become the expert. People buy expertise. Customers respond to competency and are repelled by inadequacy or mediocrity.

2. You brand yourself by treating yourself as a business person not a salesperson.

You are in business for self. As a commission-based earner you are self-employed. Nobody is paying your mortgage or putting the food on your family table.

So treat yourself as the business person you are and become the most qualified sales professional your client will ever meet buying a vehicle. Your attitude will raise you above the competition in the mind of your client. You will stand out as the person they will want to do business with.

It is about branding. Get ahead of the pact and set the standard for professionalism. If you want to sell more you have to give to get.

Give to Get

Give a better sales presentation.

Give more effective answers to product questions.

Give more value in your presentation of vehicle price.

Give more reasons to buy from your dealership than the competition.

Go out of your way to serve your clients while they are in the dealership.

Follow-up
If you can’t sell them today, then give them the most effective follow-up they will ever get anywhere. Be the leader in follow-up at your dealership and you will lead the pack in sales. People return and buy from sales professionals who care enough to keep in touch when they need help making their decisions.

Brand yourself as the expert who follows-up people. You will gain professional stature in the mind of the buyer. You will sell more. You will be talked about by your customers as a positive influence in their decision challenge. Trackstar is the professional’s choice for follow-up. www.Trackstar.ca

Stay put and build a business. You have heard your manager and dealer say this and they are right. Look around and see that the best sales professionals don’t bounce around. You will earn your current client’s future business because they feel nobody compares to you in this car business—and they know where you are. This is part of your brand too.

You will be referred clients by your satisfied customers. They want to impress people with their connections in our business.

Your phone will ring with more qualified prospects. Your appointment schedule will be filled with more buyers. If you concentrate on follow-up, you will have more people wanting to ‘buy’ from you and you won’t have to ‘sell’ so much. Customers love to buy and hate to be sold.

Rewards of Success
Branding yourself will make the difference between no sale and the sale. You will make more commissions, easier and more often when you work on yourself. Don’t remain mediocre or indifferent to your showroom customers. Don’t sit and wait for customers to return, follow-up diligently and with their best interest in mind.

Don’t do anything once and expect results. Results come to the committed professional who consistently does the steps to success that are required. Look at the Olympians for your model. They practice and work their butt off to make it look soooo easy. You can too.

Improve Your Sales Process – It is your brand.
Dedicate the time and energy to handling the tough customers, the aggressive customers, the price shoppers with skill and effectiveness. You will be recognized as the best. These people will buy from you because you know how to bring them from the tension zone into their comfort zone. That is what a professional sales consultant does. That is what your sales process is all about. If you can’t do this well make this your target for this newsletter.

I was just working with two great sales teams and dealerships in BC and Alberta and that is one of the keys to success we focused on effectively. These sales professionals made some serious decisions and increased their skills to succeed with the aggressive clients. Buying vehicles can be challenging and uncomfortable but if you are committed to helping these customers have a better buying experience you will sell more cars.

That is what I do… I coach dealerships with the best sales process in our business today. My Automotivator brand is “Improving the buying experience in the nation’s showrooms.” That is what the Automotivator brand stands for—better buying experiences and more sales for my dealer clients. Check it out at www.Automotivator.com

Around the News

2006-02-21T10:30:00.000-05:00

The Toronto Star is reporting that car sale price increases have been below inflation ... but that's about to change.

One industry watcher said yesterday the trend in average price increases below inflation for cars likely will change this year as some major North American manufacturers close plants, cut output and reduce incentives.

"Consumers have had their way for the last four or five years," said analyst Dennis DesRosiers. "Manufacturers are restructuring so they won't be producing so many cars. They won't need the same incentives to unload them. It means higher prices at some point this year."

In the News

2006-02-08T16:06:00.000-05:00

>In this article, Michael Vaughan of the Globe and Mail speaks with Dean Mullett, who is the national leader of PriceWaterhouseCoopers' automotive and industrial products practice, about the state of the Canadian Automotive industry. Also mentions the Canadian Automotive Summit which is being held Feb. 15 to address these issues facing the Canadian industry.

It appears >the F-150 remains the best selling vehicle in Canada for 2005, but the Honda Civic is closing in.

A study estimates >more than 100,000 positions are available in U.S. auto dealerships.

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety finds that most seat/head restraints would do a >poor job of protecting people's necks in rear-end crashes in SUVs & pickups

Will Value Pricing Work? You Bet!!

2006-01-18T12:49:00.000-05:00

Now that we are into Value Pricing don’t gamble on price to close your sale! You WILL lose. Most salespeople don’t sell value today. They are focused on price because the factory has focused on price, discounts, rebates, interest rates and gas deals and yadda yadda…….

Your customers want a great price no doubt about it, but they aren’t buying a price. They aren’t driving a price to work or their price to the lake or to the school to pick up the kids. Your clients are buying a vehicle they want and need to meet their lifestyle. So? Get off your butt and start selling again. Get off the price focus—that train has left the station.

All Cars Cost Money
Your customers have lots of vehicles to choose from in each vehicle segment, don’t they? The one thing in common to all these vehicles? Your customer has to pay for them. They have to part with their hard-earned cash so…. they want as much car or truck for their money as they can get.

Therefore, price is only one component of the equation when it comes to buying. The Value component is the most important. There are lots of choices in their marketplace and your vehicle has to be presented as good value or they don’t buy it and you lose!

Value Selling is the Key to Sales Success
I bet you can increase your sales this week and for the rest of your sales career significantly if you will just start selling value. Be confident about what you are selling for the right money—the standard features, the quality of the vehicle, the options that will meet their needs and wants. Be excited about the fact that you are selling more car for less money this year than last year. This is your value story. It makes your price right! You will sell more car and trucks!
About the Price.

I believe that value is what sells cars and trucks NOT just price. But you must have your sales process in gear to sell value and your price. If you are going to succeed with trade-ins you have to know how to present the appraisal numbers and not blow your client out. Serving up your numbers better be done right or you lose again. Contact me if you want specific coaching on value pricing. Time to focus on these areas now and you will make great money my friend. And you will deserve it.

Do Not Rely on Luck to Sell Cars
In car and truck sales is there any such thing as luck? It all depends on the roll of the dice? The luck of the Irish? You lucky stiff… I never win anything…

Everywhere car salespeople seem to have different views of luck or good fortune. I believe in timing and I also believe certain things seem to happen and we can't explain why.
Well, I have seen people have good fortune without a lot of work because their daddy’s rich or they married well.

I also believe in preparation, effort and persistence. Isn't it is amazing how many sales consultants who:

work hard;

follow-up diligently;

learn their profession;

commit to their goals; and

have a purpose for their money often have more than their share of good luck?

There is a great old saying that: luck is nothing more than preparation meeting opportunity.

Keys to Increasing Sales

Come in earlier than most salespeople on your staff. You will get more details done and be ready when a prospect comes on the lot.

Get more cell and work phone numbers. You will increase your follow-up contacts for more be-back appointments.

Keep your sales edge sharp. Read and study my Professional Development books and notes at least 10 minutes a day.

Commit yourself to an earnings goal for each week! Divide your income goal by the average commission to determine your sales. Don’t select a sales goal first. It is the cash that make the goal motivating to you!

SELL VALUE. You will convert more walk-ins into sales if your sales presentation is about the outstanding value your vehicle represents in the marketplace. Don’t take a short cut here or you will shorten up your deliveries.

Follow-up your walk-outs. Get organized to follow-up showroom walk-outs and your closing ratio improves dramatically. Be-backs close at 50%. Check out www.Trackstar.ca

Dealers are moving to Trackstar, the reason? They say, “the other systems are complicated, cumbersome and don’t deliver what they promise”. Check the system information out-- view this short video.