In a world where service
advisors don’t want to be considered salespeople, we need to search our
souls. Why is it that “selling” has
become a dirty word? Why is it that we cringe at the term “sales?” It’s simple!
Most service advisors do what they do each day because they care about
people. To become a “salesperson,” in their mind, means to become pushy and
overbearing. To most, it means that
their interest must shift to one thing and one thing only … The customer’s Visa
card! So, what’s the best way to
overcome this misperception? First and
foremost, we need to get something clear:
Selling is helping people through a difficult decision making
process.
Let’s face it: Many of our
customers are poor decision makers. How
many times do customers come into your shop, only for you to discover that
they’ve been neglecting their vehicles?
In many cases, this is because a service advisor has never helped them
truly understand the value of vehicle maintenance. These customers who have a pattern of making
poor decisions are the ones who need our help the most! True salesmanship is always going to put the
customer’s best interest ahead of everything else. If selling starts violating ethics, in my
mind, it is no longer selling; it’s stealing.
Over the years as an advisor,
I discovered that in most cases, a customer’s decline in vehicle maintenance
happens slowly. This gradual decline can
be primarily attributed to the failures of the advisors. Rather than genuinely
caring about what’s in their customers’ best interest, service advisors are
acquiescing to their customers with the attitude that, “It’s the customer’s
money, it’s the customer’s safety, and he
can do whatever he wants.” This
is the easy way out; the path of least resistance! We need to ask ourselves…is this right? What if this customer was your grandmother or
your daughter? Would you just roll over
and accept that they made the wrong decision? Of course not!
So, where do we go from
here? Well … service advisors need to
become true salespeople. In large, sales
skills come into play once you really grasp how people behave and react in a
buying environment. When we sell auto
repair, we have to keep in mind that we’re selling something that isn’t
pleasurable for people to buy! Many
times, we’re also selling an intangible.
Talk about tough! We need to
learn how to sell in a way that helps our customers see the true value of each
service, because in order for the customer to authorize the service, the
perceived value of that service needs to exceed the value of the money the
customer will have to spend.
We always need to ask
ourselves, “How will the customer win by saying, ‘yes’?” This is, after all, what your customers care
about most, in that they will always be thinking, “How do I benefit?”
If we, as salespeople, can
master selling benefits instead of parts and labor, then we’re one step ahead
of the crowd. Let’s work together to
help our customers, because they need us!
After all, we are the experts… right?
This article was contributed
by Doris Barnes of Elite, a former industry-leading service advisor who
currently heads up the Elite Masters Service Advisor Training Course.
More Articles in Management