Check the Commitment to Your Solution

If your customer is not closing and they are nit picking the deal or car apart check their commitment to your solution by asking:

“Are you looking to solve your current problem or are you looking to continue to pay for it?”

This might be a little blunt to just blurt out to a customer, however, let’s take a look at the question. All customer’s have a problem they are looking to solve. These problems could be things like, needing a bigger vehicle because your family is expanding, needing something that is more reliable because their current vehicle has problems, the customer wants to treat themselves because they deserve it, or a million other things.

No matter the problem the customer is looking to solve they are there, in front of you to solve it. If they did not have this desire to solve this issue, they would not be there. So, that addresses the first part of the question, “Are you looking to solve your current problem?” Now, let’s look at the second part of the question, “Are you looking to continue to pay for it?” It is this last part that fascinates me about this concept. Every time you have a customer leave without purchasing, they are telling you, they would rather continue to keep their existing problem, and pay for it, rather than take advantage of the solution that you have presented them. This is worth repeating:

EVERY TIME YOUR CUSTOMER LEAVES WITHOUT PURCHASING, THEY WOULD RATHER KEEP THEIR EXISTING PROBLEM, AND PAY FOR IT, THAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE SOLUTION YOU HAVE PRESENTED TO THEM.

This may be a little difficult for some of you to hear (or read) and that is probably because it hits home. Some of you may even argue that this is not true because, “the customer couldn’t afford it,” or “the bank wouldn’t approve the deal,” or “my manager wouldn’t discount the car anymore.” Salespeople argue these points, because my previous statement really hits home, and they are unwilling to accept responsibility for the “no close.”

In each of the excuses I listed, and have heard thousands of times, the salesperson blamed someone other than themselves, “the customer,” “the bank,” and “the manager,” however never themselves. In reality, selecting the right vehicle up-front, presenting and demonstrating the right vehicle up-front would solve all of these excuses. In order to do all of these things properly, you must do a proper Customer Profile (needs assessment).

If you do a complete Customer Profile early in the sales process, you WILL gain the vital information needed in order to select the right vehicle for the customer. Do not fall into the trap in thinking the customer really knows what they want.

ONLY with the information from the Customer Profile, can you present and demonstrate the benefits that are most important to your customer. This is the part of the process that gets skipped most often because the typical salesperson does not make the effort to gather enough information in the Customer Profile step to be able to even know what benefits are most important to the customer. They do not see the benefit of this information so they do not gather it, and in turn they end up in situations like, “the customer couldn’t afford it,” or “the bank wouldn’t approve the deal,” or “my manager wouldn’t discount the car anymore.”

These salespeople also end up with customers that would rather leave with their existing problem and continue paying for it, than purchase the solution the salesperson is offering them. And who can blame the customer if the salesperson did not present them with the right solution. I mean I would not want to spend the kind of money that vehicles cost these days, if the vehicle was not what was best for me.

STOP blaming others for why you are not selling more cars and START taking responsibility for providing your customers with solutions they will want to drive home.