Don't Mess With Momma's Recipe

Remember one thing. There is a perfect recipe for success; it’s like your momma’s favorite meal, no matter how many times she makes it, it’s always the same, isn’t it? You wouldn’t mess with Momma’s recipe would you? However, most of us do mess with it. We add what we think it needs, and then Momma tastes it and asks what happened. I know, I am Italian and my mom makes the best spaghetti sauce. I am always adding things like Tabasco, a little Vino, maybe some peppers, and pretty soon, it taste like hot sauce. Oops. OK, don’t mess with success. Get the hint now?

Let’s look at the steps to the sale with a BHPH customer.

1. Locate a suspect or prospect, ask for referrals from everyone!
2. First Impression – LAST – Look Act Sound Talk like a professional. Dress up, not dress down. Nothing worse then a salesperson about 3K grand back of book.
3. Greeting – Make it light and positive. “Welcome to our dealership, my name is George and you are?... How did you hear about us?... Great, let me take a minute or two and explain how we do business…”
4. Build rapport. No bond, no sale. Seventy or eighty percent of customers will buy because they like you. Remember, most of these BHPH folks have received lousy treatment from other dealerships. Be a friend, and you will make friends.
5. Bring them inside and explain the reasons why they should buy from you and your dealership. You can also say, let me prove to you why you want to do business at our dealership. Then transition to the lot, say this, “Follow me and let me prove to you why you want to do business at our dealership.” Let me give you five reasons why:
   • We will help you reestablish your credit, and you did say that was important didn’t you?
   • All our vehicles are hand picked or selected
   • We will help you improve your credit score, and what would that mean to you?
   • We can offer you peace of mind.
   • We will make sure you can afford the payments, and that is important to you, isn’t it?

Did you see how I got the customer to say yes to me, you just said yes didn’t you? See it works doesn’t it? Gotcha didn’t I?

6. Now take the credit application along with investigating and build rapport.
7. Do a credit interview with your customer – references, utility bills and so on.
8. Get them approved along with a budget review; commitment again.
9. Select the vehicle, demo if possible and provide a dealership service walk if applicable
10. Complete paperwork, and validate insurance.
11. Delivery coupled with asking for referral(s) for future business. Ask this question: Of all your friends, family and neighbors, who do you think would be next in line for a new vehicle?

Now, I have wrote out the basic steps on how to sell to a BHPH customer. You might have a different process, but at least you can see, the process I have is easy to follow and is hard to get lost on. Are the steps flexible? Some are; most aren’t. I know for sure the first impression, greeting, building rapport and investigating steps aren’t.

You must remember there are two selling processes. The first process is that the customer must buy you. When they buy you, you sell them, and it’s a buy-sell agreement. Does that make sense? Most salespeople’s problems are that they want to sell before the customer buys them. That is when your customer smells your commission breath. At that point, I bet it stinks. If your sales stink, then this might be the reason why, missed steps equals missed sales.

I have often heard that shortcuts are pay cuts. Can you miss steps and make sales? YEP. Should you? NO. Stick to the script and you won’t slip. If you are struggling in sales, it normally comes down to a few things: your heart isn’t in it, you have a lousy attitude or you are skipping steps. Every good manager will always tell you to go back to the basics. Duh. Isn’t that Mom’s favorite recipe? Don’t mess with what works, or you will be a mess.