Sales

129 · ·The Death of the Order Taker in the Automotive industry

Bill Gates is quoted as saying “Success is a lousy teacher” and if anybody knows about success it is Bill Gates. Prior to the recession we had seven full years of growth, of success if you like, and during those years we learnt that we no longer need to sell, we simply need to take orders to be successful. During the recession we became accustomed to much lower sales and those companies that survived the recession became leaner and more efficient. Most of those companies, however, had become so used to taking orders rather than selling their product or service that the habit was hard to break.

Coming out of the recession now our sales people are still “taking orders” rather than selling and company growth is just not happening.

The automotive industry is a great example of this problem. Since the beginning of this year I have been asked by many companies selling both new and used cars to help their sales people get out of the rut and start to sell cars again and there are a few lessons that we can all learn from this experience.

The Problem

• When the recession hit in South Africa in 2008, new car sales dropped and they have never really recovered. There are many expert opinions on this matter but the real challenge is not to attempt to change the South African economy, but to dramatically change the way we sell cars in this new economy.

• A new economy requires a re-think in the way we sell. If our sales people continue to do the same things in the same way in a declining market their results will also decline (and in some cases decline dramatically).

• The Recession has become an excuse for poor performance. Many of our sales people have become accustomed to lower targets that they do not expect to meet.

• When car sales are down, sales people become less motivated and that, in itself, has a considerable impact on car sales. It is a vicious circle that has to be broken.

• Sales Managers and Dealer Principals also have a responsibility here. During the boom years the best way to take advantage of the boom was to employ “Hunters” who are hungry to take orders and who are rewarded by low basic salaries and large commissions when they sold well.· The boom is over and we need to re-think the way we encourage and reward car sales people.

The Survey

To identify the issues and add real life examples to the challenges we are facing in the motor industry, I have recently undertaken a small survey to see how selling cars has changed over the last 5 years. Before the recession we had seven boom years where we didn’t really have to sell cars, all we needed to do was to “take orders”. I was interested to know if this “order taking” has changed at all since the recession hit in 2008.

The Survey process was not complicated. I identified 7 Showrooms selling new Cars in the Durban Area (and one in Johannesbureg) and did the following:

• Walking into the showroom I looked at the closest 4X4 and waited for a sales person to approach.

• When approached, I explained that my wife had suggested the previous evening that I need a new car. If asked, I said I wanted a 4X4 but wasn’t sure what type.

• I then waited to see how the sales person would handle me.

There are as many different styles of selling cars as there are sales people but there are always a few basic steps that should be in place. In the survey I marked each sales person out of 10 for each stage in the sale. (This survey, of course, only covered the process from when the prospect enters the showroom, getting the prospect to come to the showroom in the first place is probably the most important job of the sales person and this will be covered later.)

• Greet and create instant rapport
  • ·
    • How long does the prospect wait before he is met?
    • A welcoming smile and warm friendly body language.
    • Introduce yourself and find out the prospect’s name.
    • Show that you care by asking questions about the prospect
• Uncover the prospect’s needs.
  • ·
    • Find out what the prospect wants the vehicle for.
    • What type of driving does he do?
    • What is he driving at the moment, is he happy with it?
    • Size of family, who makes the decisions in the family etc.
• Qualify the prospect.
  • ·
    • Where does he work, what does he do, will he need finance, how soon will he want the car, when will he make the decision?
    • Get the prospect’s business card.
    • Or get all the contact details.
• Offer solutions to the prospect’s needs
  • ·
    • Don’t sell features (This car has a big boot) but sell benefits (This car has a big boot that will fit all the kids sports gear and your golf clubs).
    • This is impossible unless you have completed sections 2 and 3 properly.
• Continue to the next stage
  • ·
    • Offer the prospect a quote.
    • Offer test drive - Set up time together with the prospect’s partner (if they are part of the decision making process).
    • Never let the prospect go without agreeing the next stage.
• Look for commitment.
  • ·
    • Close the sale
    • Get the prospect to commit to the next stage.

The results of the survey are as follows (I have removed the name of the sales person and the brand of car they sell for obvious reasons)

Town	Sales person	Date	1	2	3	4	5	6	Total	%
Umhlanga		08/08/11	6	1	4	0	5	0	16	27
Durban		08/08/11	3	0	0	0	2	0	5	8
Pietermaritzburg		10/08/11	5	2	0	0	-	-	-	-
Pietermaritzburg		10/08/11	4	0	0	0	1	0	5	8
Westville		11/08/11	8	3	4	0	3	0	18	30
Pinetown		11/08/11	8	4	5	0	6	0	23	39
Melrose Arch Johannesburg		18/08/11	5	3	3	0	1	0	12	20

In general the sales people I met in this exercise showed little skill in actually selling cars although one or two of them are probably good order takers.

In general none of the sales people properly uncovered my needs or provided solutions to those needs. None of them really qualified me as a potential customer, none asked for my business card, and none asked where I lived or what my wife drives. Only one of the sales people (Pinetown) picked up on the fact that I had mentioned my wife encouraging me to buy a new car, only three actually took my contact details, only two made contact after I left the showroom and both of those were a quote. None followed up the quote or made any other contact to date (4 weeks later), despite the fact that I said I had the cash to buy the car and was wanting to make a quick decision.

None of the sales people asked for a referral either. I have often heard it said that you would only ask for a referral from satisfied customers but this is not true, everybody should be asked, what have you got to lose?

The above is not meant to be a scientific survey. It was taken with too few people in a small area and therefore may not be very accurate. If, however, it does reflect the performance of sales people throughout the country there seems to be room for improvement to say the least.

In the next article we will continue to look at the problem and offer a few solutions.

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Richard Mulvey, "The International Sales Guru," has directly influenced over 150,000 business people over the last 17 years helping them improve their sales profitability. You can follow the author on·twitter·(richardmulvey) or purchase his DVDs, Books, MP3s etc at·www.richardmulvey.com. You may re-publish this article un-edited in any electronic media as long as this paragraph is at the end.