Why Car Salespeople Fail – Part Five

Final installment of Why Car Salespeople Fail, part one is here.

Not Asking Questions

Many car salesmen feel that they are being rude or pressuring the customer when they ask them questions, but not asking questions is a mistake and one of the reasons car sales people fail. It is critical to ask questions of your customer when you are trying to sell them a vehicle because you need to gather information. This information is what you will use to make a deal and to break down the barriers that customers build to keep you from getting too close to them. Asking questions does not mean that you need to fire question after question at your customer because that will make them feel like you are prying, but you do need to ask them questions.  When you ask questions you will normally get answers and these answers along with their comments and reactions will help you sell them a car.

Don’t Like Pressuring the Customer

When consumers purchase small items they simply make a decision, but when they are considering a major purchase like an automobile may need some help to make that commitment. Everyone customer is different, in fact I have even sold cars to people that required me to tell them to buy the car before they would buy. Some salespeople are afraid they will be seen as a classic pushy car salesman and therefore they don’t want to pressure the customer. This is probably one of the best ways to turn a customer into a “Be Back” and we all know what with Be Backs, they visit another dealerships and run into a car sales professional that doesn’t have a problem applying a little pressure and they buy a car.

You can apply a little pressure when you use car sales closing techniques without being a pushy car salesman, yet many salespeople fail when it comes to applying a little well thought out pressure. The car salesman or car saleswoman that is afraid of pressuring the customer is boomed and they will sell far fewer cars. A little pressure can be a very good thing and it will sell you more cars. The secret is how much pressure and to which customers.

The Dealership

Many believe that the dealership is one of the reasons why car salespeople fail, but this is rarely the case. Granted there are some dealerships that run a less than respectable operation and don’t deserve to have any professional car salespeople working for them, but there are less and less of those dealers all the time. When a dealership plays games with commissions, is anything less than open and honest about pack and other expenses it may be time to find a another place to sell cars.

Most car dealers today are well run operations and understand the value of a good sales staff. They know they need salespeople that want to make big money because that is the only that they will make money. If you end up at one of those poorly run dealerships simply move on, but that is not a reason for you to call it quits. There are too many well run stores out there that will appreciate a car sales professional and pay them what they are worth. You often hear people bad mouth the car business because they couldn’t make it, but rarely is the reason for failure the dealership. If you read the book I talk about earning respect as a car salesman and that is only done by selling cars, lots of cars.

This is the last installment of why car salespeople fail, there may be other reasons, but I covered the most popular ones that I see every day in the car business. If any of these reasons for failure sound familiar to you than you know what you need to do, like they say a word to the wise is sufficient.

You can sell more cars if you Read the Book and learn some Car Sales Closing Techniques.