ALT-2 Salesmanship never Judge a Book by its Cover
After a lengthy employment at a job that was highly detrimental to my overall health, I opted to try selling cars for a living. I loved cars, and I thought what better kind of job that would be suitable for me in many ways?It was great for a while until the politics in that kind of sales soon left me feeling this wasn't for me.
Regardless, I stuck it out because I was able to sell a lot of cars, and I attribute that to being honest and uncontaminated by the ways of most other salesperson's on the staff. I was able to convey my sincerity to the customer, and I was able to sleep nights knowing I did my best to satisfy that customer.
The thing that I tried to do was to always remember what it was I liked, or disliked about any salesperson when I myself was shopping for a new car. I always put myself in the customer's shoes as to what would make that customer lose interest, and I would avoid anything that might do so.
One of the mistakes I've seen many salespeople do is to prejudge a customer only to find they made a big mistake. But for some reason they don't seem to learn and do it time and time again. However, there are a few who learn by their mistakes, and it is they who get all the sales that the others simply ignore.
I knew that feeling on several occasions that one gets when they feel they have been ignored, and I couldn't help but think about how much I wanted to tip a salesperson that showed the respect and courtesy towards me as a customer. It makes you feel important, and we all like that feeling since we're all human, and it is a natural feeling
My two most memorable occasions about being rewarded for showing good judgment where others failed, was one whereas a little 92 year old man who was the type who would kick a tire to tell if the car has quality, approached this salesperson with some off the wall questions about how cars are put together these days.
This of course seemed like a perfect waste of time, and the reason was, he just looked at the old man as some little kid running loose around a car lot asking a lot of dumb questions.Ignored, the little guy wandered from one to the other, all just ignoring this little old man. I admit I had my doubts as well, but hey, didn't I tell myself I would never prejudge anyone?
Well he got to me, and I greeted him as though he was a millionaire, and showed him all the respect and courtesy I could muster. He agreed to buy the car from me, and that wasn't all. He said to me "listen sonny boy" those idiots over there couldn't spot a flashlight at night if they were an owl."
I knew right then he wasn't some feeble minded 92 year old like they made him out to be, so I offered to give him a decent deal because I thought he might be pinching his pennies. He said "now you make sure you write up the car at full list price, no discounts." He was persistent about it, and his reason was that he could buy ten cars if he so desired as money wasn't of a concern of his. But on top of that he gave me a $500.00 bonus tip for being a caring salesperson.
Needless to say I made no friends with the rest of the sales crew, but yet another opportunity presented itself to further distance myself from the rest of the crew was when a 16 year teen was milling around the lot, and nobody paid him any attention because they didn't want to lose a turn at getting a serious buyer. Again, prejudging.
What the heck I thought. I went out there and went from a to z on a car he was hot on. He left the lot, and of course the guys all laughed and poked some fun at me for being so nave to think I was going to sell a 16 year old.
"Mr. Serra, showroom please, customer waiting" echoed through the agency. There was the teen along with his father who came up to me, introduced himself, and shook my hand. He said his son was here earlier and all he could talk about was how great this salesperson was to him. He not only bought the car for his son, but he also bought a new car for himself right on the spot.
Well, the other guys on the floor looked kind of dumb faced you might say, and for good reason. They knew at last that you shouldn't outgrow that fresh nave kind of approach to selling, because I was proof positive that you can sell more by being honest and interested of the customers needs.
