Automotive Intelligence Insights
Part 4

This article is part of the weekly Insights Series, in which Automotive Intelligence shares techniques, tips & tricks that you can use to become a better, smarter car salesperson, even in the times of corona. In part 4 of AM-i Insights, we delve deeper into culture shift, your personal sales plan and knowing when to say ‘no’.

Recap

In the previous instalment of Insights, we compared selling a car to a game of chess: ultimately you’re after the king, but there’s a full game to play first. You’ll have to get all your pieces in position before you’re ready for the final move. Preparing your quote and collecting the information you need to tell the right story to your customer are important, but secondary elements can also play a key role. Is it easy for customers to find your special COVID-19 policy? Is your company well prepared and capable of offering contactless test drives? With every new chess piece you bring into position, your chances of success increase.

Missed part 3? The third article in our Insights series can be found here:

AM-i Insights deel 3

Turn it around

Old-school sales plans used to be a matter of volume, volume, volume: “How many cars do we have to sell this month?” You’d just think of some impossible number and Bob’s your uncle. Little attention was given, however, to how these goals were to be achieved. Approaching the problem from exactly the opposite side is much more useful. “Which preparations must be made to achieve these figures this month?”, for instance, is a better question, as it will enable your team or you as a sales rep to think about which concrete actions to take to achieve goals. This, however, requires a culture shift.

Culture shift

In the old situation, back when sales was a purely numbers-based game, daily schedules would often be largely unstructured. In a nutshell: customers visit the showroom or get in touch by phone, so all you have to do is sit back. This approach has always been risky and now it has become simply untenable. Today, we have to be proactive and delve into the archives, determining who our customers are, what motivates them, and which car is best suited to them, as well as creating the ideal conditions for a sale even before picking up the phone for this first time. As we said before: preparations are key and you’ll need to free up the time for them. It is important that directors/owners give their teams the time and that sales reps use the time they are given. Preparing well will pay off.

Saying ‘no’ and explaining why

The best way to lock in this culture shift is to make these new tasks a fixed part of your daily schedule: block off the times you’ll be making crucial preparations for sales in your calendar. If you manage a team of sales reps, sit down together and determine which times are best to work on the necessary preparations. If the showroom tends to be quiet from 10 am to 12 noon, for instance, this is the perfect time for sales reps to withdraw into their office to prepare quotes and gather supporting information. If you’re working on your prep work, having blocked off the time in your calendar, of course, and someone asks you to do something for them, simply say ‘no’ and, importantly, explain why. Tell them what you’re working on and why these preparations will help you achieve the goals you set together.

Perfect your sales plan

If you’ve structured your sales plan, made preparations a fixed part of your daily schedule and frequently practice Online Consultations and showroom meetings, your sales numbers will go up. An additional advantage of this approach is that the amount of data at your disposal will only increase. If you keep track of what you say in an Online Consultation, which elements you always include in your quotes, which piece of information tipped the scale in your favour and helped your secure a sale, and how many quotes you had to draw up to sell one car, you can use those data to fine-tune and perfect your unique sales plan.

4 : 2 : 1

Tracking your data will also help you home in on your perfect ratio. Now what does that mean? In part 2, we talked about selling 6 cars in 6 days by preparing 18 quotes. Assuming that you’ll have to draw up 3 quotes for each car you want to sell, leading to 2 appointments and 1 sale, your ratio – in this case – will be 3 : 2 : 1. Naturally, this ratio can be higher or lower. If, after using this method for a month or two, you know that you will usually be able to sell a car by drawing up 4 quotes and scheduling 2 appointments, you can continue preparing 4 in the future, rather than 3 or 6. All the time you manage to save can be spent on quotes for other cars or on helping colleagues who haven’t quite perfected their sales plan. Who knows, they might just take some work off your hands next time you’re swamped.

Share your tips and experiences

Help your colleagues improve their sales skills by sharing your tips with AM-i. If you have a golden tip or approach that works a treat with Online Consultation? Share your experiences by sending an email to support@am-i.nl and we’ll include them in AM-i Insights.

To find out more about AM-i Carstock and Online Consultation, visit the website and make an appointment for a live demo.

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