I say, take it with a grain of salt. Look at where the auto industry is today, we’re behind the times, it’s always been that way, many times it has been said, “The auto industry is a late adopter of any new technology.” I think the reason why this is, is because there are too many auto dealers out there that are always looking for industry best practices without thinking about their own dealerships best practices.

Wikipedia defines best practices as a technique, method, process, activity, incentive, or reward that is believed to be more effective at delivering a particular outcome than any other technique, method, process, etc. when applied to a particular condition or circumstance.

Wow, that doesn’t sound bad, now does it? No, it doesn’t. In fact, it’s not the actual best practice idea that I want you to think about, it’s about the idea of blindly following what another dealership has done with the assumption that it will produce the same results for you. Now, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t look into these so called “best practices,” because you should. But instead of looking at them as the holy grail, use them to create practices that are best for your particular dealership. In other words, test, measure, test some more, measure again then rinse and repeat. This testing process should never end, in fact, you should make it a habit to continually improve upon your own numbers by measuring and testing on an ongoing basis.

The 5 Fundamentals Of Developing DEALERSHIP Best Practices

Embrace The Chaos and be proactive. Times change, people change, and culture is always shifting. The most important aspect of any marketing strategy is to make it flexible enough so that it won’t break when things don’t go according to plan. Adhering to industry best practices and not developing your own dealerships best practices is the quickest, surest way to failure.

Be a student, but surpass the teacher. Be proactive in your pursuit of knowledge but a master of adaptability.

Don’t Let Fear Stop You from taking on new challenges and trying new things. I see a lot of dealers that won’t try anything new because they fear they will lose market share, they are content with doing what has always worked, then lose their minds when it doesn’t. In order to grow your business and take over market share, don’t be afraid to adjust industry best practice by testing and measuring what works best for your particular dealership.

Use industry best practice, but mold it to fit your needs. Being fearful prevents growth, proceed with caution but don’t let fear overtake you.

Put Your Ear To The Wind and pay attention to what it says. Predicting what’s going to happen, in most instances, is near impossible. But if you listen to the constant change that is going around you and adjust business practices accordingly your dealership will always stay relevant. People are buying differently, mediums have changed and they put more emphasis in what their peers think than ever before, are you listening to them? If you are, then creating dealership best practices will be a much easier task!

Listening is one of the greatest business practices not being utilized today, what are you listening to?

Communicate Up and Down and Inside and Out. Open communication has been preached on forever but it’s something that rarely occurs, good communication anyway. Instead of this being about internal dialogue I want you to think about external dialogue and listening to what your customers have to say. I encourage you to open up dialogue with them, get their opinions on what you can do better, believe me, if you ask they will tell! The best way to turn an industry best practice into a dealership best practice is by asking your customers how THEY would like to purchase a car, get service, or buy parts, then adjust accordingly.

Effective communication is more than a fundamental, it’s the bedrock upon which ALL successful businesses are built.

Add Value. Everything you do, every email you send, phone call you make, ad you place and every time you talk to a customer should add value to their lives. If you care passionately about your customers it will become much easier to add value. Take a look at what you’re doing now, which processes can be adapted so that they add value?

Adding value builds a stronger win-win relationship with your customers. Stronger relationships equal more sales, more referrals and more repeat customers.

Conclusion

While these fundamentals will get you started never forget that you must always test, measure, then test again. Never be comfortable with where you’re at, always push the envelope, be creative and grow. Keep in mind that just because a specific email is working now doesn’t mean it will ALWAYS work, the same can be said for a phone script, a liner ad, or a radio spot. Adapt and grow.

If you would like to be alerted of future posts just put in your email address below, don’t worry I HATE spam too.

Related posts:

1. Your Comfort Zone is Killing Your Ability To Win [Guest Post]

Last night I was at the mall, picking up a few books, when my wife decided that she wanted to go into the Yankee Candle Store. We had our three year old with us that just loves to put his hands on everything, and with the amount of glass in that store, I decided it best if I waited outside of the store for her.

In front of me was a Sprint kiosk. We all know how aggressive cellular sales people can be and the guy behind the counter was no different. I was holding my sons hand and leaning against the wall when he said, “Who is you cell carrier?”

“T-Mobile I said,” trying to act uninterested.

“Oh, and what phone do you have.”

“The Cliq” I responded, ” But I just got it, about a month ago, and have no intention of switching.”

“No problem,” he said. “How often do you use the internet.”

“All the time.”

“Really? Come here a second I want to show you something that will blow your mind!”

I took a look in the candle store and saw my wife still shopping so I thought, why not! Once at the counter he asks to see my phone, so I showed it to him. He acted unimpressed and shows me the HTC Hero.

“Like I said before,” I started. “I have no intention of switching, I really like this phone.”

“No problem, I just want to show you how fast the internet is. Do you have YouTube on your phone?”

I tell him that I do and he proposes a speed test. We bring up the same video in a YouTube search and he says, “This is going to blow you away, on the count of three we will click on the video and you will see how much faster Sprint is than T-Mobile.”

At this point I figure Sprint is going to win, I mean why would a salesman paint himself into a corner if he didn’t already know what the outcome would be. Not only did my phone win the speed test, it did it with ease!

Looking slightly embarrassed he says, “I’m going to go sit in the corner now.”

“Why would you do that if you didn’t know the outcome?”

Switching the subject he asks me how much I’m paying then proceeds to sell me on price.

Let that sink in. What just happened there? What could this guy have done different? For one, he could have known what was going to happen before he did it. Some people may argue that maybe Sprint wins 7 times out of 10, but then I would ask them, “What about the 30% of the time where he looks like a fool?”

We all know that sales is a numbers game so why would you start off your presentation by cutting out 30% of the people. Why turn off 30% of your prospects?

I ask you this? Where in your presentations are you turning people off? What can you do in your own presentation to increase the likely hood of making a sale?

Where can you tighten up your presentation? Let me know in the comments below.

If you would like to be alerted of future posts just put in your email address below, don’t worry I HATE spam too.

Related posts:

1. Winning Friends and Influencing Word Of Mouth Using Facebook

I’ve known T. Lavon Lawrence for years, he is the lead Mental Fitness Trainer & Brain Training Consultant for Dynamic Mental Fitness Training, INC. He has developed a ground breaking mental fitness program called Neuro-Sculpting!© that works to give you Better Mental Focus, Improved Mental Concentration and Stronger Willpower. Using his time tested, scientifically backed methods ANYONE can learn to perform at a higher level, taking their sales and their lives to new extremes. Enjoy!

The key to making good in this or any other world economic condition – in ANY Market or Field – is the ability to do what must be done, when it must be done, whether you want to do it or not, with innovative creativity,  and with absolute concentration, focus, and willpower.  Nothing else will so definitively secure your future, separate you from the crowd, and elevate you above the fearful, troubling storms assaulting the mass of society.  To get that kind of personal power, you will need to analyze whether the comfortable way you’ve been operating is preventing you from fully expressing your potential.

A person who is comfortable where they are is destined by life to experience shocking pain, because Life is change, and being holed up in a comfort zone leaves one unprepared for the inevitable shifts that come.  This is what has happened over the past few years to many millions of people with the onset of a challenging world-wide economy (as well as your local economy):

• Business owners were not personally prepared and ready to adjust their strategies early on.
• Business Professionals were not personally prepared to tap into their creative and productive depths to help the Business Owners keep positions open and growing.
• Managers were unprepared to crank up, direct, and promote the unlimited abilities of the people they are supposed to lead.
• Employees were not prepared to leverage their talent and skills in a market shrinking because of failures happening far above their level on the ladder.
• Now, students are being blindly, badly prepared by a mechanically operating educational system so that when they enter the marketplace they’ll be subject to perpetuate and suffer the same sordid scenario.

Many Business Owners, executives, employees, and students are either already suffering the cost, or are worried about their future – and you may be among them.  Yet, every single person in the situation (including you) can do something for themselves to turn events to their advantage while at the same time adding value to whatever enterprise they are engaged in.

You as an individual must decide that being a helpless victim to circumstance is insufficient, that you shall no longer wait around for somebody to save you.  How are they going to save you when they are hoping somebody will fly in and rescue them from their own worries?  You must then set out to become the hero of our own life.

If you want to separate yourself from the cycle and never again have to worry over a sense of economic and personal security, you must train mentally to possess and efficiently exercise – as well as maximize – your own wellspring of personal power.

Personal power is mental power, and it is personal power that unlocks market competence and profit insight for the business owner, creative productivity for the business professional, leadership for the manager, highly-prized talent for the employee to leverage, and for the graduate entering the marketplace, it provides the discipline, focus, and willpower to convert their education into massive economic results over a lifetime.  Yet, this potential is not actualized through acquiring additional academic education, but through a rigorous, strategic cognitive training to unleash the full force of your will to succeed.

For the sake of yourself and those you care about, I hope you possess the wisdom and desire to break out of the mental choke-hold that comfort zones inflict.  If you are willing to set aside a consistent daily schedule of committed mental training in the same way a person would consistently exercise their physical body, then you can have unlimited personal power to do what must be done, when it needs to be done, whether you want to do it or not, with innovative creativity, and with absolute concentration, focus, and willpower.

The great philosopher and cognitive pioneer William James wrote,

“The great thing, then, in all education, is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy.  For this we must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can . . . The more of the details of our daily life we can hand over to the effortless custody of automation, the more our higher powers of mind will be set free for their own proper work.”

By training your mind so that your arsenal of mental habits contain unshakeable mental discipline, the power to concentrate, strong mental focus, and iron willpower, you can have the confidence, competence, inner strength and practical intelligence you need to create opportunity through bold, relentless action all day, all week, all month, and all year.  In this way, you annihilate the self-imprisoning chains of your comfort zones, and secure yourself a bright future that lights the way even in troubled times.

If you would like to be alerted of future posts just put in your email address below, don’t worry I HATE spam too.

T. Lavon Lawrence the Lead Mental Fitness & Brain Training Consultant for Dynamic Mental Fitness Training.  He is a Personal Mental Fitness Trainer and Author, developer of the NEURO-SCULPTING!© Brain Training & Mental Fitness System for building improved Mental Concentration, better Mental Focus, and stronger Willpower for extraordinary performance in any area of endeavor.

Contact:

T. Lavon Lawrence, NCMFT
Brain Training Expert & Author
The NEURO-SCULPTING!© Mental Fitness Training Studio
580 Highway 98 East, Unit B
Destin, FL 32541
Phone:  (850) 374-2200
Skype:  (904) 638-3851
Web:  www.MrMentalFitness.com

Related posts:

1. Offline, Online; It’s Still About The Basics [Guest Post] (Bob Burg)
2. Are Industry Best Practices Killing The Car Business?
3. Link Exchanges, The Real Scoop

Not many people think about it but its very important how you carry yourself during this time. Most car salespeople feel nervous or jittery others can feel over confident and cocky. How should you carry yourself? How do you feel during these moments?

Kenrick Cleveland teaches something called the Unconscious Hello. Simply put it’s the non-verbal way to say hello. For the next couple of days I want you to pay close attention to how people greet each other from a distance. Pay close attention to the body language, the way they turn their body, the nod of their head, the opening of their arms and their facial expressions. Take a look at how both strangers and friends greet each other; you will notice a big difference.

Persuasion, in any sales environment, should be happening at ALL times, during every moment of the sales process. Every movement of your body, your hand movements and facial expression should be used to persuade. The Unconscious Hello can happen 20 or 30 feet out from your contact with the prospect. Smile and nod your head as if you are walking up to shake the hand of your best friend. This may seem small to you but it speaks volumes to your prospect. They are nervous enough when they see a car salesperson walking up to them, do whatever you can to ease that nervousness, to initiate the rapport and trust building process.

If you expect above-average results you must learn, implement and perform above-average concepts.

That’s why I asked you to pay close attention to how people greet each other from a distance, so that you can better mimic those moments. Have you ever been in the mall and noticed a good friend walking toward you, how did they look when he or she noticed you for the first time. Did their eyes widen, did they smile and start to walk faster? That’s what I want you to do; I want you to act as if you are familiar with them; smile warmly, nod your head and quicken your pace just slightly. Your prospect will do the same; they will nod their head, smile back and will return your non-verbal greeting.

Don’t miss this moment, do it every time and you will be much closer to closing the sale because you are persuading. After the unconscious hello go right into pacing and remember that if you expect above-average results you must learn, implement and perform above-average concepts.

Want to be Alerted of Future Posts? Subscribe with your email address Below:

Related posts:

1. Increased Rapport and Building Trust
2. Cult Like Persuasion, The Jim Jones Effect

It has been said numerous times that “power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely,” and that holds true for master persuaders. A great American once said, “with great power comes great responsibility” (Uncle Ben, no not the rice guy!) so use what you are about to learn wisely, don’t persuade for the wrong reasons and always remember that morality above all else is what sets us apart from the fore mentioned cult leaders.

Have you ever wondered what these cult leaders had over their followers that would make them murder, steal and commit suicide? No, it’s not that their followers were stupid or even crazy, most of them are just like you and me. These followers were given something of tremendous value, a gift paralleled by no other, a gift more valuable than even life itself. Do you want to know what this gift was, it’s the gift of hope.

Now that does sound crazy doesn’t it? Hope. It’s a powerful motivator, it’s a release from the day to day, it’s a way out of almost any circumstance and it can be used to motivate almost anybody to do almost anything. Hope can be used to sell more cars and as you’re sitting there reading every word of what I’m about to say you’re going to learn how to do just that.

The Problem

Car shopping isn’t fun for most people, it’s downright frightening. It’s like preparing to jump into chummed waters when sharks are present, it’s not something most people would want to do. It’s a situation that most people would rather not have to go through, but something we know we must.

It’s in our nature to look for the easier way out, we don’t like to go against the stream and if something looks in the least bit difficult we don’t even want to do it. Having said that, each time we get ourselves in a predicament that we don’t want to be in we tend to lose hope, if only somebody would come along and find it for us…

There’s Persuasion in Hope

Do you know what it’s like to find hope after living without it? It’s as if a veil has been lifted and you will do anything, ANYTHING not to lose hope again. That’s where your power of persuasion will come from and that’s what I’m about to teach you. Three steps to building hope are:

Step 1: Begin with an Incongruity

If you can show a prospect that you are different without saying that you are different your prospect starts believe that you are different. Remember that people will sometimes believe what they are told buy will always believe what they conclude.

Try saying something different to bring them to the conclusion that you are different, something like:

“I like to be as up front as possible and I want you to know that my goal is NOT to sell you a car today, I’m not even going to try. My goal is to answer all of your questions, show you a few cars and if you want to buy, then see to it that it’s the one you want, that it’s affordable, but most of all that your happy with your decision.”

Can you imagine the look on their face when you say something like that! That is the absolute last thing anybody would ever expect a car salesman to say. You’re now that much closer to your prospect hoping that this time will be different.

Step 2: Bring Their Fears Out into the Open

People want answers, no they need answers and they will do anything to gain a sense of hope. Frustration causes stress and stress makes people do crazy things so it’s your job to confront those frustration and push them aside. Here is an example of what can be said:

“Owning a new car is one of the most exciting moments in anybody’s life but the whole car shopping process can be a bit tedious and frustrating. If it wasn’t such a necessity most people wouldn’t even want to go through it, just so they wouldn’t have to deal with pushy sale people looking for a commission check, I know firsthand because I bought cars long before I sold them.”

“People will sometimes believe what they are told buy will always believe what they conclude”

What? Did a car sales person just say that to me? If you can voice what they are thinking then they are going to conclude that you are different, especially if it’s something that could potentially paint you in a bad light. I purposefully didn’t put in there to say, “I’m different, I’m not like that,” because if you did they wouldn’t believe you.

Step 3: Paint a Picture of Understanding

People like to be understood, they like to know that they aren’t alone and that their feelings do matter. Don’t discount anything that they say let them know that you understand what they are feeling and they are right to feel the way they do.

While anything is rarely as easy as it is to write I want you to take the time to really dive into building hope with your prospects, they will follow you to the end, just make sure that you don’t give them false hope and always follow through.

A Few More Idea

• Support Their Dreams
  People like to feel supported, they like to be told that they are doing the right things and that they should pursue their dreams.
• Failures Are Okay–Let Them Know
  Nothing makes a person feel as vulnerable as failure. Support their failures, let them know that they did their best and to try, try again.
• Ease Their Fears
  If you can make somebodies fear go away or at least make them easier to face you have built a relationship for life.

These are just a few more ideas to build trust, use the power wisely and happy persuading.

Want to be Alerted of Future Posts? Subscribe with your email address Below:

Related posts:

1. Here’s To A Successful 2010
2. The Non-Verbal Meet and Greet