CHAMPION STRATEGIES

Strategies for Customer Centered Selling Success

 

June 4, 2010                                                                                    Newsletter # 1506

Happy customers share their experience with three other people, but unhappy ones retell a negative experience twice as much. Our research involving hundreds of focus groups proves this to a scientific certainty.

The question is: do you believe it? Well, do you? No, of course you don’t.

How do I know? My business is teaching and speaking about building strong relationships with guests. I have coached thousands of sales consultants and managers on how these relationships, properly attended to, will make more sales and greater profits. And yet, I continue to my fair share of customer service stories; some of them good, quite a bit of the bad, and sometimes the downright ugly. If people truly believed this data, customers would not be experiencing the following.

A friend from my college days in Wisconsin moved to Mississippi and shortly after, shared this story.

I purchased a vehicle from a car dealership. I was absolutely delighted with every aspect of the purchase. The sales consultant was perfect, I very much liked my car, and in all, everything seemed wonderful. The consultant said my first oil change would be performed at no charge. All I had to do was call her when the first oil change was due; she would handle the details for me. Three months passed during which I sang the praises of this dealership.

Then the no-service nightmare began and whatever positive relationship there had been went the opposite way and fast. I called my consultant. She didn’t remember the sale. She didn’t remember my name. Okay. Fine. But I just wanted the promised reward of the free oil change. She said, and I quote, ‘I don’t really handle that, but here’s the number of the service department person to ask for; he can take care of you.’

I called. A young lady answers. I explained the situation. My guy is at lunch and she doesn’t know anything about that free oil change thing. She didn’t take my name but said she would be happy to schedule something if I would like. But the something she was scheduling wasn’t the free oil change.

I declined the offer of the other service work and never did get the free oil change. Here’s the thing. If I can’t count on this dealership to fulfill a $40 or $50 oil change, how can I count on them to stand behind a vehicle that cost me up to $60,000?

His reasoning was sound and I completely agreed with him. Too bad for that dealership. They missed out on many more referrals from my friend. Instead, he has retold his no-service story to nine people that I know of. He isn’t vindictive. He’s just being helpful to a fellow consumer.

How many people will now give serious pause to doing business with this company?

Think about that for a moment before you read on. So, ladies and gentlemen, time for lesson number one:

If you make a promise, do your dead level best to live up to it. That’s not to say that you aren’t going to fall short at times. Try as we might, we all have our moments where we fall short. If you want to stand out above those in the marketplace when you do fall short, be honest about it, admit you fell short and, if possible, do your best to rectify it and make up for it.

Lesson number two: You don’t have to be perfect. Chances are you can’t be perfect 100% of the time no matter how hard you try, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a target worth aiming for. Aim for it and you will find that, far more often than not, you will be way ahead of the game both professionally and personally.

People not only want to be able to believe in and trust those they do business with — lesson number three: they will actively seek out those they can feel that way about. Strive to be that person and you will attract more than your share of opportunity — and make many more sales in the process.

My friend didn’t buy from an Asbury Automotive Group dealership (he didn’t know about the Gray-Daniels Automotive Group in Jackson, Mississippi). But when he found out about our “best practices”, he now tells the same circle of friends to call Gray-Daniels or visit the web site — even though it is one-hundred-seventy miles from his town.

Of course, I thanked him for his trust in me and I thank the Asbury Automotive Group family of sales team members. Lesson number four: In order to get referrals and repeat business, let’s treat our guests the right way because they are the most valuable asset we have.

Make It A Champion Day!

“SALES TRAINING MATTERS”

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