How in the hell do I get good at Sales?

[Jimmy]

I just started a job in the auto industry (selling dodges, rams, chrysler, jeeps and really everything.  All good products.  The pay is phenomenal.  Some guys here make upwards of 100k a year.  I’ve been here two weeks now and I just can’t find my niche.  These other guys are like butterflies, opening the sale, effortless guiding the customer to a close.  I feel so.. UNCOMFORTABLE doing this.  Like I don’t know what I’m doing.  How do I become effortless.  How do I find my groove?

Topic

[Nathan]

Done way too much sales in my life. Both through running my own business and in different marketing and sales roles.

There are two ways to approach sales in my eyes.

• Try sell someone something.
• Give them a solution to their needs.

I personally like the second one. Here’s why:

Firstly, it something I can align on emotionally. I love helping people. Approaching sales as a way to get into their world and find the best solution to their needs makes me feel good at the end of the day. I hate trying to sell something to someone, particularly if I’m not even sure its something they need.

If I were in car sales, I would find out what they are looking for. They might have a specific car in mind or just some general things they want. If they had a specific car I would want to know what it is about that car that peaked their interested. Find out what is important to them in a car, what they would be using it for and what they couldn’t give a shit about. Ask questions about them, their lifestyle, their expectation in a car and listen.

Learn the difference between features and benefits. Features is the fact that a car has a role cage, a benefit is knowing that your family will be safer if you decide to go drive rally cross together and roll the car. Find out what is important to them, and educate them how specific features can benefit that specific person…

Don’t be afraid to test the waters. Make a suggestion and see how they react. If they say no, thats ok, find out why they objected. It could be you haven’t found the right solution to what they need, so dig a little deeper.

And let’s be honest, Sales takes time to get right. Things like understanding the customer and recognising how they related to different products takes time and experience. Understanding the product yourself can also be a time commitment too.

Dude, its been 2 weeks. Go easy on yourself. When you are not with a customer, listen in to how the other salespeople are doing it. Talk to them, pick their brains. If you like the way a particularly salesperson approaches it, ask them to be a mentor of your, and ask them to listen in to your conversations with clients. That feedback will be immeasurable.

And that discomfort is a sign of growth. Man, if you can master sales, the skills you get out in the real world such as being with people no matter how they are and willing to make (sometimes bold) requests, is really handy.

[Jimmy]

Thank you.

[Nathan]

Does that help you at all?

[Leigh]

Excellent reply @nathan. Heaps of solid stuff in there.

[Andrew]

Yo Jimmy! Nice to see you’re getting into sales. I’m not sure if you’re planning to make a career of it, but if you are, then the best advice I could give you is to focus on building relationships with people and thinking long-term. This is because every person you come in contact with could possibly send a referral sale to you.

Here’s what I mean. Let’s say someone comes in and looks at cars but doesn’t end up buying one from you. Not to worry, that person has a good 200+ people in their social circle, and if you keep helping people in a way that delights them, then they’ll send referrals your way especially when Americans typically buy new cars every 3 or 4 years.

You see, someone who buys a car from you once at a lower profit but then returns and buys another car every few years would add up over the long-term compared to a one-time purchaser.

The person who has the longest track record as best car salesman is a guy named Joe Girard. Check out his books and try to implement his tactics, but at a deeper level try to adopt his world view.

Later on, when you get a point where you can invest in customers first, then write up some useful tips about how to buy a used car at a great price and what to look for to avoid a lemon, and send it to people nearby your dealership. And if you keep sending them a message once every couple months that is really helpful, then when they get in the market for a new vehicle, they’ll already trust you and view you as a car expert so the sale will be easy. Trust is the lubrication to any type of sale. It’s one of the biggest purchases in a person’s life, so trust is crucial.

In the short term, since you’re new to this, accept that you’ll probably suck for a while. Don’t try to hide it. Tell people it’s your first day, they’ll be forgiving. When I was selling vacuums door-to-door, I told all the customers it was my first day on the job for a month 🙂

Don’t worry about opening the sale, the person is already looking and coming to you so they’re the ones opening the sale. You just have to keep them comfortable and feel like they can trust you by actually helping them. You can’t sell everyone, but by sticking with it, you’ll get to be skilled enough to be able to sell all the ones who you can. You just have to put in the work and keep looking for one way to improve each day.

What Nathan said is gold. Especially about finding a mentor. Whenever you’re new at something,  you’re trying to learn all about the cars, the dealership, the industry, and the customer. It can be overwhelming especially when you can’t yet distinguish what is important and what isn’t, and having a mentor who is already successful can cut tons of time off the learning curve.

Lastly, listening is the key to being good at sales because no one likes to be sold, but everyone loves to buy. And since they love to buy, they’ll indirectly tell you how they want to be sold if you listen to their words carefully and ask the right questions.

Does what I wrote make sense?

[Jimmy]

Well.  It turns out that sales doesn’t bother me so much as the pressure they were putting on me.  It was one of those situations where, “if you don’t sell something, you’re fired.”  It’s real high pressure over here.

[Jimmy]

Also yes. Yes yes yes yes and yes.  That was gold.  Thank you Nathan.  Thank you Andrew.

I’ll post updates here.  Thank you guys.  It’s good to know I have people who support me.

[Nathan]

Yeah, Sales can be weird like that.

Keep us posted. 😀

 

[Jimmy]

I have 2 questions and I’ll ask the second one first because it give more light one the reasoning behind the first one.

2: If you were working for a company and you developed and APP that would drastically alter the market and in a way that’s never been done before and grossly increase the amount of customers to the business.  Would you feel obligated to provide that tool only to your company or sell it to the market?

1: What the hell is a marketing funnel and can you get it at Lowes?

[Jimmy]

I mean I really just need a crash course in Marketing.  Give me the hard stuff.  I’m a quick study.

As a note.  I sold my first car, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Tuesday and am starting to feel confident in what I sell, I mean, they’re cars, they’re luxury vehicles and I’m starting to realize I’m not selling people toilet paper at Walmart.  I’m.. “settling in”, finding my niche so to speak and am ready to start forming personal relationships with the staff here. I’m satisfied and ready to do what I do.

[Author]

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