To be a top sales person, yes you need to get the customer to agree to buy your car.

But in this article I’m going to share with you how getting client commitment starts very early on in your Road to a Sale process.

Hi, I’m Adrian Law and a mistake that far too many sales people in this industry make, is attempting to get strong client commitment as early as step one of the process.

How often do you hear – ‘If I can get you a good deal, will you buy today?’

I know this line still gets used a lot in the industry but I personally don’t like it. Especially when the sales person has been with the customer for less than 5 minutes.

To do this right, I’m talking about getting smaller commitments throughout the Road to a Sale so when you come to the bigger question of ‘Would you like to buy the car?’ The customer has already been primed for the bigger ‘Yes’ at the end.

First things first however. As an automotive sales coach, I highly recommend dropping the word commitment when you speak to your customers or partners. It may be a guy thing and may even help the ladies to know this next bit of information.

If you are guy reading this article right now. Do you honestly like commitment?

When I ask participants in my seminars to raise their hands if the like commitment,

99% of the men’s arms stay very close to their sides!

If a man has a female partner and the partner says ‘would you like to make me happy?’ Often the man will say ‘Yes! Of course.’ If however, the same partner asks for a ‘commitment’ some will run for the hills.

It’s pretty strange when you think about it.

It can be the same for customers though, so why run the risk of it be off putting.

If you are attempting to get a deposit for example. Instead of the word ‘commitment’ use the word ‘secure’

For an example – ‘Mr. Jones you just need to leave a $500 deposit via Visa or MasterCard. That secures the car for you if we can do that price.’

Compare it to – ‘Mr. Jones you just need to leave a $500 deposit via Visa or MasterCard. That is your commitment to buy the car if we can do that price.’

The first one is so much better, so use that one.

This next part is equally important if not more so.

Successful closes are the accumulation of other, smaller closes throughout the Road to a Sale process.

So many managers tell me that their sales people need help with closing deals but have they closed on rapport, on qualifying, on the walk, drive appraisal and intro to their manager etc. etc.

Often, if I look at the breakdown of stats of these same sales people it’s not the closing where the issue lies. On many occasions it’s not enough bums on seats or low number of people being written up.

Each of these things requires a small client commitment to occur.

Another great questions to ask is – Has the customer agreed to follow the next part of the process that you’ve outlined?

My original automotive sales coach called this establishing expectations, while others may call it sign posting.

Basically it’s where you tell the customer what’s going to happen before it happens.

It’s simply but extremely powerful.

Let’s say that I’ve done a good meet and greet and have built some rapport with Mrs. Smith.

I could then say something like –  “Mrs. Smith, let’s just take a seat for a moment and I’ll simply ask you a few questions to find out exactly what it is that you want and need in a car; and then I can show you some vehicles. Would that be OK?”

If Mrs. Smith agrees, who’s in control of the process?

That’s right I am.

And, it’s a tiny client commitment to follow our process of qualifying without the customer knowing they are doing so!

As I said before, it’s simply but extremely powerful.

You can use this at various stages of the sales process to set up the next step and to get agreement from the customer.

Imagine doing it before a test drive to set up the write up when you get back.

Here’s an example of how you could do that –

“Mrs. Smith, if it’s OK with you I’ll just explain our test drive process. I’ll drive out of the dealership and whilst you are relaxing, I’ll point out some of the great features and benefits of the car. We can then go to the local park where it’s nice and quiet. I’ll stop and open the vehicle up, give you a good presentation and answer any questions that you may have; and then you can have a drive.

If you prefer, you can go down the back streets to get a good feel of the vehicle, before heading back to the dealership.

After that if you are happy with everything we can go through the figures and see how we can make the car very affordable for you. How does that sound?”

If Mrs. Jones says something along the lines of – “That sounds great!’

How’s that for a client commitment?

It’s ‘Gold!’

With the time we’ve got available here, the last piece of advice I’d like to give you on this topic is to ask lots of good questions and then you can recap the customers’ answers.

Do this and it also classifies as a small client commitment.

Having visited several dealership recently that are not my clients.

It’s very disappointing when most of the sales people don’t ask hardly any questions.

You have to know who your customers are and what they need and use a car for.

Unless you have that as a minimum how can you expect them to secure your car?

As your sales coach, if you’ll let me be that? I’m here to share with you that you can’t.

Hopefully, you’ve enjoyed this blog. There’s some gold nuggets in here so feel free to read this article again and contact us for more information.

I’m Adrian Law from Automotive Stars.

Happy selling!

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