The primary
mission of an automobile sales person is to constantly
prospect for new customers. The most important goal to a
sales person is to sell automobiles with maximum
profitability, but to accomplish this you must have quality
sales prospects. We can't afford to wait for the customers
to just walk in our showrooms and buy a car.
Webster's Dictionary defines prospecting as "Soliciting,
canvassing, drumming up, polling, seeking, leading or
campaigning".
Most experienced sales people secretly hate prospecting. It
is the most feared word in our industry. The reason most
sales people don't prospect is because no one ever taught
them how to prospect.
When you mention prospecting to sales people they think of
sitting in a dimly lit room making cold calls to strangers
from the telephone book and getting rejections. Let's look
at what I call power-packed prospecting.
Treat prospecting as the lifeblood of your sales center. Not
the clichéd definition, but what is called power-packed
prospecting:
- Focus on quality. It is the only way you can spend most of
your prime time with qualified prospects. It is also the
only way you can have enough hours in a week to be
successful. - Focus on quantity. Your success depends on
having enough solid sales leads. - Focus on consistency. A
steady supply of qualified prospects can enable you to avoid
slumps and plateaus, eliminate call reluctance and
procrastination, and keep you from pressuring current
customers. - Do it now. Increasing your prospecting
effectiveness is the fastest single way to boost your sales
and income.
Treat prospecting as your most valuable time management
tool. Remember that you are always looking for ways to
better leverage your time:
- Use it to avoid wasting prime time on people who are not
qualified to buy or say "yes". Such as, your fellow sales
people. - Use it to ensure that you will always have enough
qualified prospects to keep you productively busy. - Avoid
time wasting through sloppy or haphazard prospecting.
Take an organized approach. Never keep leads on scraps of
paper or post-it notes. Use contact management programs.
Whichever platform you choose, select one that ensures you
will never:
- Lose or forget about valuable leads - Be late on promised
follow-up calls or visits. - Waste time looking for lost
information - Improperly value your prospect inventory -
Fail to do mailing and other footwork due to disorganization
prospect list. - Become a compulsive procrastinator when it
comes to developing your prospect inventory
Remain alert for "suspects" who have the potential to become
qualified prospects. In today's fast-paced society, people's
needs may change rapidly and radically, giving you prospects
where you had not thought to look:
- Develop a prospecting mindset that automatically asks, "Is
this person a prospect?" - Assume all suspects are prospects
until proven otherwise. - Keep looking for new places to
find prospects. - Cultivate mutually beneficial
relationships with everyone who can give you leads or open
doors for you. - Take full advantage of every effort by your
organization to generate leads. Maintain close alignment
with your service department. - Make it your policy to
always secure referrals from satisfied customers.
Stay in constant touch with active prospects through phone
calls, periodic mailings, and personal contacts. Keep in
mind the "Top of the Consciousness Principle" which states
that:
- The only certain way to ensure your customers think of you
first is through frequent, repetitious contact. - Others are
always competing for a finite amount of your prospect's
attention and dollars. - You never know when your prospect's
motivation to buy will suddenly, dramatically increase. -
You need to be sure that he or she thinks of you or the
product first when they evaluate how to fill their
transportation needs.
Rework your suspect inventory regularly to try to upgrade
suspects to the status of qualified prospects. A good filing
system will help tremendously
- Learn to use the telephone in a professional, pleasant,
and business-like manner. Then use it regularly. -
Constantly search for people who can give you a referral for
every suspect on your list. Or, better still, will they make
a contact for you? - Look everywhere for the slightest clue
that the suspect's buying status might be changing.
Continually upgrade your prospecting system and strategies.
- For a steady flow of fresh ideas, you should read books,
journals, magazine and business news, listen to CD's, invest
in CD ROMs, watch videos, attend seminars, and talk to other
successful people. - Above all, keep a positive attitude
about prospecting. Make a game out of it.
Everyone we meet is a prospect for an automobile or knows
someone who is or soon will be. To successfully prospect you
must talk to people everywhere about buying an automobile.
People like to do business with someone they know, so even a
brief meeting will give them that familiar face and name to
look for when they visit the dealership.
Automobile sales are nothing to be embarrassed about; it's
an honorable profession that can raise a family and send
children to college. Willingness to talk about your
profession and the service you offer is essential for
consistent production. Even if you don't choose to follow
this program, make a commitment to ask one question to
everyone you meet; "When are you going to buy your next
car?"
The key to a successful sale starts with an organized,
systematic approach to prospecting. After all, without an
adequate supply of prospects who would you sell your
automobiles and service to anyway?
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