So, You Think You Want To Sell Cars, eh?

If you’re thinking about entering the car business (either as a permanent career move, or “just until something better comes along”) and you are a never-ever beginner, BEWARE.  You are in for a huge surprise.  Selling cars is not easy–its difficult.  Like Jeremy Cato of the Globe and Mail said, “This job is not for me or the faint at heart.” Professionals make it look easy.  During the several years I was a General Sales Manager, I had my fair share of resumes dropped on my desk for people who supposedly wanted to sell cars.  I estimate that only five (5%) percent were for female applicants looking for a job.  I know it may be hard for you to believe but I even hired my fair share of “new people” who just didn’t make it in the car business.  However, I became convinced that the best applicants for me to hire were those who had little, if any, sales experience (car sales or otherwise). Overall, the sales people I trained who have become successful in the car business are those folks that had zero sales experience. Therefore, they brought no bad habits to my dealership.  Trust me, there is major baggage normally attached to every applicant coming from another dealership.

If You Can Sell Cars, You Can Sell Anything:

So, here are a just a couple of free tips for those of you who are about to embark on the adventure of selling cars.  If you can learn to successfuly sell cars, I believe you can sell any product or service–provided you remain coachable.  First, you will need to understand selling cars (or trucks, RV’s, etc.) is extremely competitive.  No, I’m not referring here to the competition between brands and dealerships, I’m talking about the fierce competition between sales people at the dealership.  Let’s say you’re about to start your first week at the dealership.  Generally speaking, the other sales people on the floor regard you as a threat to their income.  They do not want you there, they do not want you to succeed and will definitely expend time and energy to contribute to you failure–quickly.  You may receive some warm smiles and handshakes–”welcome aboard” type stuff, but lookout–here it comes!  It is your peers’ intention to indoctrinate you to the ways of the “huddle” as quickly as possible.  The priority intention is to incorporate you as a member.  Over the course of the next few weeks, I will be writing about some of the things new sales people must be aware of.  The huddle is the informal parliament in the sales department of the dealership.  The huddle will often successfully create rules for you to follow.  It will directly or indirectly set the tone in the sales department, and decide whether you are “one-of-them,” or not.  The huddle is often subtle and quite tempting.  If you are the type of person who needs to feel welcome by other salespeople, or you have a need to chat with your peers a lot in order to feel welcome; you are a prime candidate for membership.  You do not want to join the huddle but if you’re not careful, you will quickly discover after a short time you have become a member without realizing it.  Membership in the huddle is comprised of beginners together with those salespeople that deliver a minimum acceptable number of cars per month to keep their jobs.  Here’s one example of the huddle at work which I observed on more than one occassion.  I’ve witnessed salespeople (members of the huddle) approach new hires who had not yet even started training.  The newly hired people were casually approached and told, “you can’t make any money here.”  ”It’s really slow in the car business now, hope you already have plenty of money.” You may think I’m kidding but I’m not–that’s the huddle at work even before the new person started. If you’re a never-ever beginner in the car business, ask your sales manager about the huddle and a few examples of how it works at your dealership.  If his or her response includes something similar to the tone of, “welcome to the car business,” or “it’s the car business,” you might very well be in trouble.

The exception is if your dealership has well-trained, professional sales people working there; if so, then you are not a threat at all.  Professional salespeople in the car business do not particularly care how many “new people” managment hires–their incomes are uneffected.  It’s the other salespeople (the majority in every dealership) who see you as a threat because they believe there will be less “opportunities” available.  Opportunities are what new potential customers are called the car business.  If you take an opportunity (also referre to as an “up”) then there’s one less opportunity for other salespeople.

Therefore, one of my first free tips for you is this.  Develop thick skin quickly.  You will need to shield yourself from the huddle, and you will need to protect your attitude from customers as well.  More on that later.  I hope you are at a dealership that recognizes the extreme importance of training and therefore you receive training quickly.  Most new hires in the car business need to make money rather quickly however, these people are often not advised of the true earning expectations during the first three to four months.  In order to make any money in the first few months in the car business, you must become trained quickly.  Stay away from the huddle and let me know if you need help.

A Huge Need For Training.

Network Marketing (a/k/a MLM’s) presents an untapped market for professional sales trainers and general business consultants.  I have personally developed an in-depth sales training program designed to help people recruit and duplicate with success.

I was recently asked by someone who is successful in network marketing whether I believed my training will assist people who are trying to grow their network marketing business.  This particular person is a Silver Director in USANA and has a network of a hundred plus associates.  My answer was a resounding,  Of course!

People engaged in self-employment activities are directly involved with sales.  Network marketers are indeed entrepreneurs, but are often ill-equipped i.e., without any business or sales training.  Unfortunately, these folks are persuaded to start a business for themselves being told;  You don’t have to be a sales person in order to be successful in THIS network marketing business.   Nothing could be further from the truth.  It’s not that the recruiter is intentionally lying to their new prospect; it’s just simply that the recruiter doesn’t know any better.  New enthusiastic network marketing people do not realize the truth until they’ve been in business for a few months.

Other than a lack of sales training being a major cause of failure in network marketing endeavors, entrepreneurs fail because of an extreme lack of ability to  duplicate their efforts.  In other words, they haven’t been trained in sales and therefore are certainly not competent to train others.  Even if one is a well trained sales person, it does not mean this person has the skills necessary to thoroughly train others.  If you’ve ever been involved with network marketing, or you have been close to someone who has or is currently, then you know the truth of which I speak!  Nothing more sad than to watch a group of  excited new entrepreneurs go down the tube simply because of a failure to understand the importance of professional sales training.  It’s pretty much the blind leading the blind.  Each person is persuaded to believe that the productand/or opportunity is so good that it sells itself—or alternatively, “new people” are told–all a person has to do is share it with their friends, family, and neighbors—anyone can do that without training and become successful!

Every major network marketing business (a/k/a MLM) involves a combination of recruiting others and selling products or services.   I admit I am amazed at how easy it is apparently to convince a person to get into business for themselves.   Most people recruiting others actually believe for awhile that anyone can do it–if they just want to.  Although, anyone can do it if they want to develop the skills necessary; the majority are not willing to do so.  Often this is a result of being first convinced that training is not necessary.  When people face difficulty, they don’t look back and think in terms of a lack of training.  However, by first receiving the necessary training in sales before fully launching their business, a far greater number of these entrepreneurs would in fact reach significant levels of success rather than simply fade away.

In the past, I have been one who has often said, enthusiasm sales;however, I have never been one to suggest enthusiasm by itself is enough.  It is not enough to simply be enthusiastic.  When enthusiasm feigns because of a passage of time or personal circumstances, success strictly becomes a product of competency by and through the diligent application of a sales process.  More importantly, a particular sales process must be proven to work in the network marketing industry.   For example, the type of sales process I teach for sales in the auto business is not the same sales process network marketers need.  One simple example: the common Joe who decides to try network marketing does not normally have a high tolerance for rejection.  Rejection is exactly what slaps Joe in the face unless he has received the training necessary to become competent in an entire sales process that leads to results.  No results–goodbye Joe!

Today, I was reminded how important training is for people who are trying to succeed in a MLM business–whether they are trying to simply supplement employment income or create a truly successful home based business.   I received a call today from a person that wanted to introduce me to a network marketing opportunity.  I do not want to personally offend this person nor come across here as mean spirited.  However, with that said, I can honestly tell you that his call to me was enthusiasticfor sure; but that was about it.  As I was listening to what I was being told, I could not help but think of all the steps in the process (recruiting = sales) that he was missing–either by choice or from a lack of training.  Apparently, he has just recently joined this MLM opportunity and is having some initial success.  I am not surprised because this particular person has a gift of gabthat which most people believe is all that is required to be good in sales.  So, there was not a problem with him being able to talk.  However, one of the several issues he will have to deal with sooner or later, in order to be successful, is to know when to talk, when to ask questions, and more importantly, when to shut up!  This is a common MLM problem.  How can he recruit and train others if he is not trained himself?  What about the two or three people he has quickly recruited?  What if they totally lack his gregarious personality and gift of gab–how well will they do without training?  Could this perhaps be the reason the mortality rate in network marketing is so high? Exactly.

For the above reasons, I have decided to offer professional sales training to MLM groups.  I have been involved with several successful MLM people and opportunities and I know what I am talking about.  I am offering this as one of my RST services thereby helping people develop skills to dramatically increase the probability of their business success.