Who Would You Rather Be?

One of my favorite parts of my job is talking with salespeople. I love telling them stories of my adventures in this business and I love hearing the salespeople tell me about their adventures as well. Especially, now that I am not in a dealership every day.

Recently, I gave a live class in at my classroom and one of the salespeople showed up early, we began to chit chat and they told me one of the most relevant stories. Their story hit on the topics I have been recently talking about in the virtual training, it hit on the topics of upcoming virtual trainings, it even hit on topics that we were going to discuss in the live class that I was about to give. This story put the biggest smile on my face, and I immediately told the salesperson that I was going to share his story. I proceeded to share this story with the class once it got going, I shared it with the next class later that day and that was still not enough. I needed to share it with all of you, it is too good not to.

Before I begin, I want to let you know that this story is based upon true and actual events, however the names of the people involved have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty.

Our story begins with our hero, Julie (the fictitious salesperson), walking through the customer lounge at their dealership. Being the outgoing salesperson that she is, she welcomed all of the customers waiting in the lounge and engaged in pleasant chit chat with them. That is until she ran into Steve (another fictitious person). When Julie asked Steve about the vehicle he had in service, he happened to mention that his lease was going to be expiring soon. Wanting to be of service and value to Steve, Julie asked, “Are you aware of what is going to happen at the end of your lease? And do you know what your options are?” When Steve confessed that he was not sure what was going to happen at the end of the lease and that he did not know what he was going to do next, Julie knew if she treated Steve well that she could build a relationship with him, possibly buy his existing lease, and more than likely sell him his next vehicle. Julie quickly replied, “There is no need to be concerned Steve, most people are confused at the end of their also. Let’s go to my desk and I will get you all the information you need to make an informed decision at your lease end. I am sure you will feel better knowing what is best for you, when it comes to the end of your current lease. Won’t it?” Steve replied, “It sure will.” “Excellent, follow me and let’s get you that information,” Julie responded as she turned around and began to walk to her desk.

Fast forward a little while, Julie has explained to Steve what all of his lease end options are. While Steve begins to think about all of his options, Julie offers up one more. “I just thought of something. I believe your current vehicle is on our ‘High Demand’ vehicle list. What this means to you is that now is the perfect time to sell us your vehicle because we will be able to pay you well above market value. So, considering the fact that your vehicle is in such ‘High Demand,’ the fact that we will be able to pay you ‘Above Market’ for it and that it will ‘Never’ be worth more than it is right now, would you consider taking advantage of this offer?”

Steve was very intrigued by this offer and agreed to an appraisal. Once the appraisal was completed and an offer to purchase was made, Steve felt the numbers made sense, he said, “If I sell you my car, what am I going to do next?” This reply was very exciting for Julie, as she knew she was not only going to buy Steve’s vehicle, but she is on her way to selling him his next car.

Julie proceeded to take all of the information that she learned during the appraisal process to help Steve select the right vehicle. Once the right vehicle was selected Julie proceeded to build value during her presentation and demonstration based upon all of that valuable information gained during the appraisal process. Steve did like the vehicle and wanted to see what it was going to take to lease the next car. After Julie presented the figures to Steve, he said that he was comfortable with the numbers, however he wanted to go home and think about things a little, as he was not planning on buying a new car that day. This was understandable to Julie, so she ensured that Steve had all the information that he needed and then they parted ways.

The next day, Julie being the professional that she is, called Steve to see how else she could be of service. Steve informed Julie that everything was good, and he would come in later that day to move forward with leasing the new vehicle. In fact, he did come in and lease the new car that day.

Now I love the fact that a salesperson benefitted from working the service drive, however, this is not my favorite part of this story. In my opinion the best is yet to come. Once the salesperson who this story was based upon finished telling it to me. I asked him, what about the salesperson who sold the customer the first car. The salesperson proceeded to tell me that once the vehicle was sold, the previous salesperson started going on and on about how this was their previous customer. I laughed, and said, “I bet he did,” and then asked when was the last time they followed-up with the customer. The salesperson laughed and said, “He hadn’t.”

I figured this to be the case, and this is way this is my favorite part of this story. Salespeople are unbelievable. The previous salesperson wanted to get on the deal for doing nothing. In actuality, that salesperson instead should have been kicking themselves in the butt because had they had been doing their job, they would have been staying in front of their customer and in turn they would have been the one to sell the new car and earn the entire commission. Which salesperson would you rather be? And do your actions agree?