10 Things to Ensure Success in 2022

Wow, 2021 has been an interesting year and it is almost over. For some you have had your best year ever financially, even though you sold fewer vehicles. And others really struggled in the trying times of the chip shortage. Some salespeople fell victims to the following excuses:

• “We don’t have enough inventory.”
• “My manager won’t discount.”
• “My customers don’t want to buy the dealership add-on.”
• “My customers won’t pay the mark-up.”

This may be hard to read for some people and that’s ok. If you are one of the people that this makes uncomfortable or angry than this is exactly what you should be reading. However much you believe these excuses are preventing you from selling vehicles, others are still selling and excelling in these same environments. These other salespeople are successful for one main reason, they accepted:

“You are the only person responsible for your success.”

Top performers understand this fact, accept this fact, and use it to fuel their success. Every salesperson has a choice, allow external factors outside of their control (like the excuses above) to prevent them from selling cars and earning commissions or the can do what the Top 1% in sales do and choose to succeed in spite of these issues.

If there was one thing, I wish every salesperson would do in 2022 it would be for them to accept responsibility for their success and stop allowing external factors to dictate their success. Even those of you who are having success during these interesting times, must realize that times will again change. Chips will become available, inventory levels will return to “normal” or at least close to it, and then what happens to your success. Do you continue to earn the highest commissions of your life, or do you go back to earning minimum commission? Do you accept that supply and demand will no longer drive these huge mark-ups and determine new ways to build the value needed to get your customer to still pay the same mark-ups, or do you use the fact that supply is no longer driving pricing and use it as the excuse to justify the minimum commissions? Most salespeople are going to fall into one of these camps and unfortunately it is going to be the latter. However, those who accept that they are the only person responsible for their success will still find a way to continue their success.

Here are 10 Additional Things to Ensure Your Success in 2022

1. You DO NOT need to re-invent the wheel – It is actually the exact opposite, the wheel is still round for a reason, it works. Sure, it gets lighter, more efficient, but in the end, it is still round. Your sales process is your wheel. You do not need to re-invent it. You may need to tweak it slightly to maximize efficiencies in these ever-changing times, but don’t change it. Take every customer though the steps, 100% of the time. And most importantly, do it with 100% enthusiasm and excitement to the best of your ability.
2. There is no Success without ACTION – The effort you put in, will always have a direct correlation on the results you achieve. Sales and commissions are only a result of the actions that you put in. These results are a cumulation of the number of opportunities you take, the customer profiles you complete, the number of presentations & demonstrations you give, and the total of investment proposals you present. Your sales and commissions are also the results of the number of phone calls you make, the emails & text messages you send, the amount of snail mail you send out, and the number of business cards you give out. You should have a target for all of these actions to ensure you get the results, sales & commission desire.
3. You CANNOT improve what you don’t measure – This goes hand in hand with number 2. If you do not spend the time and execute the efforts to measure your actions, you will not be able to improve your results.
4. You get what you FOCUS on – Anything that you focus on enough, you will make happen. I learned this lesson from my mentor. When we were working for a Nissan dealership there was a very significant Altima stair step program. Hitting this program was so important that when he would typically ask the salespeople, “how many appointments do you have today,” he began asking, “how many Altima appointments do you have today.” Soon the entire team was focusing on hitting this number and we crushed it. We became the #1 Altima in Northern California. Anything you want, you can have it, if you focus on it enough.
5. You must go for the No – Every salesperson hears the word “NO,” it is how they handle it that separates the mediocre at best from the Top 1%. The mediocre hear the word “no” and accept their defeat. The Top 1% hear the word “no” and realize this is their Next Opportunity. When a customer is telling you no, they are letting you know they are just not sold yet, however they are also letting you know they are interested, otherwise they would not be talking to you.
6. Persistence always beats resistance – Be the river not the rock. The river will always wear down the rock. You must be persistent with your customers, you must be persistent with your follow-up, and you must be persistent with your success.
7. A positive mindset fuels productivity – If you think you can then you can, if you think you can’t then you can’t either way you are right. Which would you rather be right about? And as soon as you believe that you can do something, you will do it. I believe this is most apparent when it comes to follow-up. Most salespeople hate follow-up. When someone mentions that the salesperson needs to do more follow-up the salesperson cringes. Negativity about follow-up kicks in and the salesperson does not make the calls or if they do, they do them poorly because of their negativity about follow-up. Conversely, the Top 1% of salespeople embrace follow-up. They go into it with a positive mindset and in turn get successful results. You have the opportunity to be positive or negative about the things you do and this choice will dictate your results.
8. Help others, don’t worry about yourself – Zig Ziglar was famous for saying, “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.” I always say, “Always operate out of the customers best interest.” I have been challenged by many salespeople and managers about this because they say they operate out of the dealerships best interest. I maintain that operating in your customers best interest is operating in the dealerships best interest. Too many people associate operating in the customer best interest with giving the customer the best deal. I believe operating the customers best interest and delivering them the highest level of service is what actually warrants the highest prices and earns you the highest commissions.
9. Success is a journey not a destination – No one goes from mediocre to a Top Performer overnight. Success is a continuous adventure. Sometimes the targets change, the pathways to get there move, and sometimes you even go backwards. However, you can never give up. Always have a plan to keep moving forward, and sooner than you think you will be crushing your goals and you will begin to realize that you are not setting them high enough.
10. Ask for help! – So, I save the best for last. This might be the most difficult thing for a salesperson, or any person for that matter to do. No matter the profession, the best of the best has a coach, a mentor, and a confidant to help them achieve their success. As well as hold them accountable to their commitments. In order to achieve the success of Top Performers you must find the right person to ask for help. This can be a manager, another salesperson, or a professional such as myself.

After accepting responsibility for your success, finding the right person to help you, might be the most important thing you can do in 2022. As my commitment to your success in 2022 I am offering a personal 30-minute one-on-one coaching call for FREE. If you want to take advantage of this offer please use my online calendar to book your call.