People Love Choices

No one likes the idea of not having a choice, this includes our customers. However, most salespeople only give their customers one choice, the vehicle the customer came in asking for or “thanks for stopping by.” Statistically speaking this would give the average salesperson a 50/50 shot at selling a customer a vehicle, however, this is not reality. The actual closing percentage in this scenario drops dramatically because during a car sale there are several opportunities to present your customer with options to choose from, and if the salesperson is not creating options to help the customer select the right vehicle, then they are probably not presenting them with options at other steps of the sale.

Before we dive into all the places that a salesperson can offer a customer, options to choose from, let’s first look at “Why” you want to present your customers with options.

Presenting the customers with options to choose from:

1. Gives the customer the sense of being in control.

People love the feeling of being in control. When they are in control, they are more likely to make a decision. However, if you present the customer with the possible responses, you are actual the person in control.

Let’s take a look at an example we can all relate to:

A husband asks their wife, “What would you like for dinner.” The husband is really craving either Chinese food or Pizza. The wife responds with, “I don’t care.” Excitedly, the husband quickly with their first choice, “How about Chinese food?” Immediately, the wife shots it down, “I am not feeling Chinese food, anything but that.” A little disappointed, the husband responds with their second choice, “Ok, I how about pizza?” Again, very quickly the wife shoots down the husband’s suggestion, “I am not feeling that either. Anything else is good with me.” Frustrated the husband snaps back, “It’s not anything, what do you want?” Upon hearing the attitude in her husband’s voice, and not appreciating it the wife responds with, “Why don’t you get what every you want, and I will be on my own.” And then they are both frustrated with each other, and a lose-lose situation has been created.

If you haven’t experienced something like this, then you are not married 😊 I know I used to before I learned how to offer my wife choices, make her feel like she is in control, get her to make an actual decision, and best of all, get what I want.

Here is how I would handle the above scenario now.

Me: “Hey sweetie. I was thinking about picking up dinner, so you did not need to cook tonight. I was thinking about picking up a pizza or even getting Chinese food from that new restaurant your friends were bragging about. Which would you prefer?”

Wife: “Oh! Yeah! Let’s try that new Chinese restaurant!”

That sure is a much better conversation, wouldn’t you agree?

In the above example, you can also see how offering choices will do the following:

2. Gives the customer the sense that you are working in their best interest

When I offered to pick up dinner versus having my wife make something, showed her that I was doing this to help her out, working in her best interest.

3. Gives the customer justifications to make decisions

Knowing that she needed to eat, also knowing that no effort was required on her part, and then throwing in the third-party validation by talking about how her friends had been raving about the restaurant, made a decision easy to justify making.

4. Opens the customers mind to additional items they may need but don’t know it yet

When I initiated the conversation, my wife was in the mind state that she was going to make dinner. Not even thinking about Pizza or Chinese food. Once I made the proposal, offered the choice, something that she was not even thinking about, so became a reality.

5. Gives you the best chance of getting what you want, a sale!

Best of all, I got exactly what I wanted. Either option worked for me, Pizza or Chinese Food. I did not give her the chance to say something that I did not want. I did not give her the chance to say the dreaded, “I don’t care.” I only gave her the option to choose from what I wanted; therefore, I was good with whichever choice she made. This will not only save your marriage or relationship, but this concept will also work with your customers too. 

Key Areas to be sure to offer your customer options:

Selecting a Vehicle – When you are selecting a vehicle, even if the customer comes in with a vehicle already selected, offer your customer an alternative to choose from. This will provide you with win-win information.

Presenting Financial Figures – Once again people love choices and giving them choices when presenting them with financial figures increases the chance that they will choose one of your choices versus going straight to negotiating.

Trade Values – When presenting trade values, you can present the customer with a value with their vehicle fully reconditioned and a value in its current state. You can let the customer choose to spend the money to fully recondition their vehicle and get your top dollar value or just trade it in as-is without investing any more money into the vehicle. This approach justifies the values presented.

Payments – When presenting payment figures you can present the customer with a grid of down payments, terms, and monthly payments. This will encourage the customer to choose one of the options rather than negotiate the figures.

Financial Products – When presenting back-end products like Vehicle Service Contracts, Maintenance, GAP, Sealants, etc. you can present them in packages. Statistics show that people are more like to choose one of the packages versus individual items. This will create higher closing rates on more of these products.

As you can see, choice can not only make a big impact on getting what you want, a sale, a commission, even a customer for life, but they can also make all of this easier to accomplish.

Speaking of making things easier. I am proud to announce the completion of my newest book, 99 OBJECTIONS – But Closing Ain’t One. It is now available for sale at https://joecarusoonline.com/99-objections. This is not a lightweight book about closing. It is the Heavy-Weight Champion of the World when it comes to overcoming objections and closing sales. Weighing in at over 400 pages it knocks out the competition. If you are ready to stop fighting with your customers and start closing them, this is the book for you. Order yours NOW! DOn’t waIT – DO IT TODAY!