We are ALL Creatures of Habit

It’s true! We are all creatures of habit! Think about it. If you are anything like me when you get home each day, you follow the same routine. I put my wallet and keys in a certain place, I take my shoes off in the same spot, and so on. If I ever place my keys in a different spot when I get home, it takes me a while to find my keys the next morning. This may not be the same routine that you have however, I am sure you can think of some similar habits that you have.

Your daily habits can form your entire sales career and turn you from an amateur into a professional, top performing salesperson. However, we are not here today to talk about your habits, today is all about your customer buying habits. And luckily for you, just like your daily habits and routines, your customers have buying habits that are very easy to learn, giving you a major advantage during the sales process because all your customer’s buying habits are at your fingertips.

Imagine if you knew all of the information about why a customer would buy from you before you began your sales presentation. If you had this invaluable information, wouldn’t that make your job that much easier? Of course, it would! Did you know the customer will provide you with all of this information without ever knowing it? That’s right, your customer will actually tell you everything that you need to know to sell them their next car, if you know how to ask. It is really simple, actually, all you have to do is ask the customer about their current or most recent vehicle, and they will spew out more information than you can imagine. This works for several reasons:

1. You are inquiring about the customer, making the see you in more of an advisor role versus a salesperson.
2. Good, bad, or indifferent, people like to talk about themselves.
3. Customer do not realize this information will help you sell them.

HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF

So, what does all of this really mean? Simply put, if a customer has done something in the past, they are likely to do it again. History repeats itself. For example, if a customer a customer leased their current or last vehicle, they are most likely to lease their next one.

PEOPLE LEARN FROM THEIR MISTAKES

Best of all, if your customer is not going to repeat a previous buying habit, they are going to tell you exactly why. So, if they made a mistake in their previous purchase, the customer is going to tell you the ‘entire’ story of why they not going to do it again. For example, you notice from the customer’s registration that they are leasing their current vehicle and you inquire about it. The customer will tell you about their experience with leasing and if it was bad, they are going to tell you that they are not going to lease again and why it was a bad experience.

HOW TO QUICKLY GATHER BUYING HABITS. GUARANTEED!

The key to quickly gather all of the customer’s buying habits is to ask the customer about current or most recent current situation. Three simple questions that will give you more insight to the customer buying habits than any other:

1. 1. “What is it that you like about your {Model X}?”
      • This will tell you what the customer is going to want in their next car.
   2. “What is it that you REALLY like about your {Model X}?
      • This is going to get you the customers most important HOT BUTTON.
   3. “What is it that you do not like about your {Model X}?
      • This will tell you the problem that you are going to need to solve.

LET’S LOOK AT HOW THESE BUYING HABITS WILL HELP YOU

Now, let’s take a look at how the answers you may receive from these questions and how you will use the information later:

Investigation Example:

Salesperson: “What is it that you like about your {Model X}?”

Customer: “I like that the vehicle has four doors, making it easy to get the kids in the back.”

Salesperson: “What is it that you REALLY like about your {Model X}?”

Customer: “I love the fact that the vehicle has keyless entry and I do not need to take the keys out of my pocket to unlock the car, especially when my hands full with the kids.”

Salesperson: “What is it that you do not like about your {Model X}?”

Customer: “I wish it had one of those automatic lift gates. It is such a pain to try to open the back when I am carrying about of stuff.”

Presentation Example:

Salesperson: “Watch this, not only does this model have the wide opening rear doors to make it even easier to get your kids in the backseat, all you have to do is wave your foot right here to open the rear lift gate. That’s much easier than your current car isn’t it? And just in case you didn’t notice, the keys are still in my pocket.”

How it all ties together

• • • What the customer likes about their current vehicle.
    • What the customer doesn’t like about their current vehicle.
    • What the customer REALLY likes about their current vehicle.

When Buying Habits Change

Keep in mind with each of these past buying habits, customer’s will more than likely repeat their past behaviors unless something in their life has significantly changed. Such as if they are about to have another child and a vehicle with more room in it. The external factor has influenced the customer to change their buying habit. In most cases as you inquire about an area in the customers current situation has changed, they are going to let you know. This typically will be the problem the customer is looking to solve, their main reason to purchase.

The amount of vital information that is available through the customer’s current vehicle and situation is almost endless. This information will take you all the way to the sale of their next vehicle. You just need to know how to get it. Practice using the following completed trade appraisal and determine what information you could use to select and sell them their next one.

Completed Trade Appraisal Download