subject: What Sales Training Will Help You Sell More Cars [print this page] Selling a car in these recession ridden times is no easy task. There are so many models of cars and new technologies being launched these days that it becomes quite difficult for people to discern between all the different models and options they have to choose from. It's hard to imagine that one can be an effective car sales person without having taken up some form of car sales training. Given that over 70% of customers purchase something different than what they originally had in mind, it shows how well trained sales people help people make better decisions and these customers will leave happy, because they have found a better alternative.
Great automotive sales training teaches you about about matching features of the car to the benefits the buyer really wants. The buyer wants to achieve an emotional feeling from their purchase. To understand those feelings, and identify how they will achieve them, the buyer makes internal pictures and holds internal dialogue. You find the surface needs, wants, and desires of the buyer, at the questioning stage of the sales process. But there are car sales techniques that help you get the deeper emotional triggers, and very few sales people become competent at using them.
What are the sorts of things you would learn from car sales training ? Asking the right questions can make or break the relationship you are trying to build with your customer. Salespersons that stand around with other salespersons and are unavailable to customers never make the sales. The salespeople who makes sales approach people, start a conversation and get people talking.
Good training teaches that people don't just want a car. They want what the car will do for them. For some it will be a gleaming fashion accessory to attract admirers, and a sound system that is more important than the safety features. For others the car is a necessary tool, or a reliable means of transport. It helps you understand that you should never assume to know what people want. You need to find out what questions to ask your customers, and how to read the deeper levels of meaning in their answers to uncover their view of the world, their map of reality, as it relates to cars. Then you can show them how your car will fit into that view.
No sales training would be complete without covering how to handle objections. Professionals respond to objections calmly and hear people out. They isolate objections and confirm they are real. They define what objections mean. For example if a car is too big, what does that mean. Is the problem parking it or fuel economy or handling ? Then the objection can be discussed and perhaps handled by appropriate countermeasures.
Of course, you can get by without good sales training. Just like you can get by without lessons from the golf pro or just like you can teach yourself how to drive but I don't know that I'd recommend it.
