Developing Top Sales Superstars W/ Craig Lockerd CEO – AutoMax Recruiting And Training

The Death Of A Salesman, Has The Day Arrived  Ernie Kasprowicz – GM AutoMax, Buying Experience  Researcher  Keeps Vehicles A Long Time  Will Pay More For The Right Vehicle, Right Dealership.  Went To 7 Dealerships, Test Drove 10 Vehicles  His Findings:  Not One Salesperson In The Bunch  Poor Customer Service  Lazy Attitudes  No Product Knowledge  Said His 14 Year Old Daughter Knew More  No Benefit Presentation  No Service Walk  No Value Was Shown  Started At Invoice, Went Down From There  Ernie’s Questions  Who Is Running These Stores?  Is It The Managers Fault?  Are You Just Selling Cars Despite Yourself?  Is There Even A Need For Salespeople If You’re Only Selling Price?

Race To The Bottom, A Race You Don’t Want To Win! “People don’t buy our products, services or ideas; they buy how they imagine using them will make them feel” Author Spencer Johnson, The One Minutes Salesperson  Treat Customers Like People  Listen Carefully To Their Needs  Follow-Up To Generate Good Will & Referrals  It’s Not Selling, It’s Helping People Feel Good About What They Buy.  Price is NOT a feeling; it is only a perception of what a potential customer thinks his or her money is worth in relationship to the product or service being offered.  Perceived value goes up…perception of the value of their money goes down.  Think about any purchase we have ever made; a $15 dollar shirt from JC Penny, first time we take it out of the plastic and button it up, how does it make you feel?

Race To The Bottom, A Race You Don’t Want To Win! “People don’t buy our products, services or ideas; they buy how they imagine using them will make them feel” Author Spencer Johnson, The One Minutes Salesperson  Ladies when you buy a new purse, accessory or shoes and go out in them for the first time, how does that make you feel?  Get in your car and see that 3 pointed star or that Jaguar leaping over the end of the hood, no matter the age of that car, how does it make you feel?  How many products are bought every day from a truly logical point of view? Not many if any if you really think about it.

Train For Top Performance  Who will train them, when will the training take place and on what topics?  We say let them train themselves and as management we merely facilitate the training meetings/sessions, make sure they are of a positive nature and all are engaged.  Training everyday or every shift if you have two or more teams set up in your store.  Topics will be developed by two sources, the salespeople themselves on which objections they are having issues in overcoming.  Hidden camera, video tape and secret shoppers.  Stop guessing on what you need to train on  Your test Drive % are low so that must be what we need training on, not so fast folks.  Test drive #’s just may be the end result of something that went wrong earlier in the sale, so how do you know, if you don’t have it on video?  For the investment of $150-$350 worth of “spy Camera Equipment” plus $50 bucks to hire a shopper you will be able to tell where the deal goes wrong early on and train on that, rather than throwing darts in the dark and guessing.  Let the staff know they are going to be shopped, have them sign something to that effect and bonus those that get shopped, regardless of the outcome.

Real Goal Setting Yes, we must set goals. We all know the statistics So, Why Do 3% of Harvard MBAs Make Ten Times as Much as the Other 97% Combined?  Setting Goals  Written  Specific  Know heir “Why” and why their “Why” is a MUST, rather than a should  Measure progress  Change if need be “But if I train them and they leave, all I’m doing is training them for my competition” Our answer to that of course is, “What if you DON”T train them and they stay?”

Questions? Craig Lockerd – –