Work these 16 sales-improvement ideas into your plan for

1. Prepare yourself to excel.
Use a checklist to prepare your attitude, appearance, customer information,
company and product information, and the selling environment so you can be
at your best in the showroom.
2. Figure out what is working.
Study yourself, your product or service, and your dealership to know what is
working now. Reinforce the actions and tools, which are generating results.
Learn from your successes as well as your failures.
3. Know your competitive advantage.
Study your store and your vehicle line in relation to what your
competitors
offer. Know where and how you stand out, and where you don’t. Be
prepared to discuss these comparisons at any moment.
4. Improve your selling skill, not just your product knowledge.
Don’t rely on product knowledge to make you more persuasive. Sharpen your
skills in reading people, describing your offer in compelling ways and in
asking for the sale at the right time.
5. Target the people who are your best prospects.
Best customers have patterns. Most will fit the same pattern, so
prospect among those who fit the pattern. Calling on people with
similar needs, circumstances, and interests makes you more likely
to create another best customer.
6. Know what to ask about.
Know in advance what questions to ask by knowing what answers you need.
Cultivate a strategic curiosity. Learn to be curious about the things that will
advance your chance of making a sale.
7. Understand the customer and the situation.
Create an awareness of the psychological needs of your prospect as well as
knowing what their technical needs are. Sometimes the way someone wants
to feel has more influence on their decision to buy than what they actually
need.
8. Mine the diamonds in your own yard.
More business exists around you than you know. Look among your friends,
neighbors, existing customers, past customers, colleagues, competitors and
coworkers for the opportunities that others overlook.
9. Ask for specific referrals.

Tell people what your ideal customer or prospect looks like. Ask them who
they know who fits this description. Then ask them to take action to help you
meet the prospect: a telephone introduction, a testimonial letter, etc.
10. Grow your own brand identity.
Get yourself and your company known within your market area. Write
articles, letters to editors, offer expert input for reporters and publishers,
provide free services to key people, donate your time to worthy causes, put
your photo on your business card, share valuable ideas via e-mail. Create a
broad awareness of yourself as an authority on what you do.
11. Build great relationships.
It is not only who you know that determines the value of your relationships;
it is whether they know you as a valuable business resource. Define who you
need to know today and five years from today. Start now to cultivate the
relationships and the reputation, which will expand your possibilities.
12. Manage tension in the sales process.
As tension rises, trust falls. Be aware of the ebb and flow of tension as the
sale unfolds. Learn to reduce it when it gets in the way and to momentarily
increase it to add urgency to the decision process.
13. Look good to your prospects.
The way you are perceived by your customer determines how much
resistance you will encounter as you sell. Learn to project a positive feeling
among those you communicate with.
14. Develop the right selling style.
Build a mix of activities to diminish your sales weaknesses and amplify your
strengths.
15. Understand the meaning of what you do
When a person doesn’t find much meaning in what they do, they don’t bring
much value to what they do. Write down specifically how your dealership’s
vehicles and service makes life better for customers. Read this description
every day, briefly, to keep in mind the reason behind the purchase. It’s not
about buying; it’s about benefiting from buying.
16. Know how to ask for the sale
Learn to recognize buying signals, how to ask differently with
different people, when to let the customer sell himself, how to
negotiate details and when to walk away. If you don’t ask, you don’t
get.
Make it a champion day!
“SALES TRAINING MATTERS”