How to Double Your Income in Auto Sales

Relationships

I remember my freshman year of college a Lincoln Mercury salesmen in Charleston SC who did very well. I think in the mid 1970's he was just getting started, however by my senior year he was doing his own TV commercials, and they were awful.

He would start out talking next to a dark, long, elegant Lincoln in a formal suit and tie. Then while he was talking he would lung into the back seat and come out the other side in a sombrero hat, leotards and a cape calling himself The Man in the Hat.

As bad as that may sound, he did very well. What impressed me most was he invested in himself, hired and paid his own staff to work a manual data system to follow and develop a relationship with all of his customers. In the 1970's this was a big exception. The door was swinging well. We only had three major manufactures (we didn't count AMC) and they maintained about a 89% share of the market. Relationships were not a priority.

Times have changed...

In today’s market, we have lots of competition and probably more coming our way. Margins are not what they used to be and neither is cash flow. Dealer's will not be able to continue spending large budgets on advertising to recreate the wheel every month and make the door swing. At some point, we have to start developing relationships with our customers to build a loyal retention base. This is, by itself, is going to be the biggest difference between the old school and the new school way of thinking. The commodity approach of order taking will not last. However, watching the burden of market share and marketing shift to the manufacture will be fun to watch since they know nothing about selling one car at a time.

This is where you, the sales professional comes in. You and your dealer are in charge of this industry. You go out every day, press flesh, meet new people and earn the business at some percentage. You are in front of the customer and a biggest part of the value quotient. As long as you are in front of the customer you are in charge of where this goes. So, if you earn it with your customer - hold on to them!!! What is it worth if you can control 20%, 30% or 40% of your annual unit sales to come back in 3 to 5 years and by another one? Don't guess - make a spreadsheet and figure it out for yourself.

In the old school days "the closer" was king. Now it is going to be the sales person who does the best job in retention. The sales person who builds a long-term annuity by working and managing his relationships with a customer. The pros are already doing it. There are sales people in this town who have been in the business 15 plus years making over $200,000 a year. How much of that income would you guess comes from repeat - referral?

Dealers have CRM software available, but I don't see many sales people really leveraging it into relationships for repeat business. Get into the software and figure out how to skin it. Unlike the Man in the Hat you don't need to hire staff. Figure out the touches or prompts you need to make a relationship and set it up. Then post and forget it until the software prompts you for action.