4 Secrets Apply To Goal Setting

Your Goal Planning Includes The 4 Areas That Control Your Success

When you look at “how” you’ll reach your goals, you’re looking at the Four Secrets I learned a long time ago that completely control your success.

• Your Skills!
There are so many skills you need to learn and develop, that by the time you get good at some, you’re already slipping in other areas. That’s why continuing education with continuous improvement keeps you moving forward.

Is your goal more units, better gross and increased CSI? Then, if I had to pick one area to suggest you focus on with every prospect you talk to on the lot each day, it would be The Selling Process.

Why? Because whether you’re talking to the stranger who came in from the ad or the customer who has purchased a dozen vehicles from you, virtually every high achiever I talk to who went from that standard 8-car rut to the 20, 30 or 50-unit rut instead, got there by mindlessly following the Basic Steps of Selling with everyone they talk to.

I purposely said mindlessly, because if you start thinking about it, you’ll prequalify people and only give a few the chance to buy. If you just blindly follow the sales steps with everyone, your units and income will skyrocket.

There’s always a ‘catch’ to just about everything. With the Basics, there are dozens of ‘catches’. Or more accurately, there are dozens of other ‘skills’ you need so you can follow the Basics effectively.
If you talk about price, trade values, down payment, rates or monthly payments on the lot, you won’t follow the Basics. That means you can’t build value, so you have to try to close on price and miss more sales than you make.

You have to learn how to Bypass Price, Rephrase Price, Close the Sale, and then Close again on the Objections people give you for not buying. If you can’t bypass and rephrase price, you’ll spend all of your time talking price, selling price, and then trying to drop price low enough to get a commitment.

Unfortunately, you also can’t follow the Basics effectively unless you know how to Ask Questions so you can Greet Properly, so you can Build Rapport, so you can Investigate, so you can effectively Present and Demonstrate, and so that you can cover the Benefits of all those features you point out. Remember: You don’t talk your way to a sale, you ask your way to the sale.

• Your Work Habits!
Whether it’s from lack of need, not caring or just poor work habits, we’ve all seen salespeople with great skills who don’t use them.

My first five years, I was the #1 salesperson just about every month. There was an old guy named Charlie who could easily outsell me any time he wanted to, just by calling a few of his old customers, but he just didn’t really care. He was retired, his wife worked and with 3 incomes … he didn’t need to sell more or make more money.
But if I got cocky with Charlie about being #1, he’d just pull out his prospecting file, make a few calls and I’d drop to #2 on the spot. He had the ability to sell more, but not the desire or habit.

• Your Attitude(s)!
I put an (s) there because too many people assume that just having a genuine smile on your face means you have a great attitude.

But couldn’t you be happy and still not like selling? Couldn’t you be a happy person and not like your product, your dealership or talking to customers? Couldn’t you be happy and not like doing follow up, prospecting or giving people demonstrations?

Your attitude about everything affects selling – from the customers, to the process, your product, your managers and to the dealership you work at. Your attitude controls your success in sales.

• Your Choice of Customers!
80-90% of the salespeople today are still dependent on their dealer to supply them someone to talk to. That someone who generally shows up is a price shopper who’s been on 7 websites and will shop 4 or 5 dealerships before they buy. 

Again, in setting your goals to improve, you have a choice; talk to 20 people, give 75% demos (15), write 60%  (9) and close 40% of your w/ups (4).

Or … you can put just half that number (10) of your own prospects on the lot each week through follow up, prospecting or turning unsold people into be-backs, and you’ll deliver 7 or 8 instead.

If you really do want to be successful in sales and if you really do want to take control of your life in sales, there’s just one way – develop the skills it takes and put in the effort every day to build your repeat and referral business.

Through daily follow up and prospecting – regardless of the weather or the market, you can guarantee you have traffic each day asking for YOU.
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If you really want to hit the big time in sales and stay there, step one is to make the total commitment to becoming a professional in sales. Stop saying you’re trying and just do it. Step two is to set your goals, write your plans and go to work-to-work every day and you’ll make it happen!

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Sell more cars with Joe Verde’s latest book, “Earn Over $100,000 Selling Cars – Every Year.” Click on the link to get a free PDF or order a free soft cover copy book.