Automotive sales training for closing deals by using humor
Posted by: Mak in Sales Training, tags: Sales TrainingA true story about being humorous
A good friend of mine is one of the top salespeople in the car business. He’s very good at all the areas of selling. He is good at closing, prospecting, following up, the basics etc. But my friend has a pure talent for making people laugh.
Here is what he used to do. Picture a jam packed showroom on a Saturday. My friend would get out of his cubicle wearing these silly black glasses, with the big nose and the moustache and come to the middle of the showroom and start this hilarious speech in front of everyone. He did have a talent for being a great public speaker. But a gimmick like this worked very well for him. So get creative and see what works for you. But the idea is to be humorous and not rude.
If you have a great sense of humor, use that to you advantage. No need to turn into a stand up comedian like my friend but learn to entertain. You can easily see that the superstars in the car business are all salespeople who have a great sense of humor, follow a plan and work smart. They spend an ample amount of time, money and effort getting better at selling. And they are all very likeable people. But the average salespeople are the ones that are stubborn and think that there is no room for improvement. These are the sales people that usually never grow. Make a friend before you sell something. And building rapport is the same thing as making a friend.
Pitfalls of building rapport and getting caught up
Doesn’t it feel good when you sell a vehicle and have a happy customer because you made a friend? Well then you need to build a lot of rapport. But remember your main objective, and that’s to sell a car. So try not to get emotionally involved with the customer. There is a big difference between getting emotionally involved and building rapport. Avoid believing everything that the customer tells you. If you start to sympathize for the customer then you’ll have a tough time closing the deal.
Take a moment to think about this: How will you present a deal to your managers if you’re emotionally attached with the customers situation. Don’t ruin your selling ability by sympathizing for the customer. This will completely ruin your deal.
Empathizing with the customer is the way to go. Everyone of your customer is buying a very expensive product when they buy a car. So yes it is good to understand their feelings. If you understand them then it will become easy for you to gain their trust. But don’t loose track of the sale by sympathizing. Rather empathize, make a friend and sell the vehicle properly.
