Preparation is the step before the steps, and the importance of the meet and greet is often overlooked. Although the first few seconds with a customer can be one of the most important if not the most critical steps of your sales process because it sets the tone and it has been proven we only have 7 seconds to make an impactful first impression.

.5) Preparation

Now there are people considerably more qualified to discuss motivation and state management than myself. However, before you take an up, get in state, have proper posture, be ready to speak, think and more importantly be prepared to listen and learn, have your goals, current product knowledge, sales training, pitch, motivation and end result in your mind, enthusiasm in your soul and a real smile on your face.

Tangibly, come to work dressed appropriately, with a pen, a notebook, business cards, your lucky socks, or whatever else you could need like a key box or used car price list.

1.) Meet & Greet

It's showtime!

A great meet and greet is genuine, warm, welcoming, not salesy and we should all keep in mind to try to not sound like the last salesman whom our customers spoke with, who could have potentially provided them with shoddy service.

Try to think about how you would meet someone in "real life," you are probably not going to ask someone why they are somewhere unless you are somewhere like jail or mental institution, so I suggest not asking "what brings you folks in today."

You could ask about something you can see to break the ice such as a bumper sticker, aftermarket wheels, a lift kit, a ski rack, plate frame, or whatever else you can see to strike conversation naturally, and this may also assist in avoiding the "I'm just looking" as your customers first response to you. However, sometimes it can help to get objections up front, especially if you are prepared to hear them, the sooner, the better really, that is as long as you don't allow objections to cause roadblocks in your mind.

"Are you here for sale?" Is something you could ask if you do currently have something going on (The end of the month, new incentives or whatever it may be) but be sure to have a reply as to what the sale is about, however, this can be very off-putting.

After that or if you skip the above entirely, you could just politely welcome them and then introduce yourself, your name may be a second thought, "oh by the way my name is _____, what is your name? It is nice to meet you _____, here is my business card in case you forget my name" ("and I'm going to write yours down, so I don't forget yours, I hope you don't mind.")<-- if you have a hard time remembering.

If you are someone who has a hard time remembering the names of people you just met below are four things that could help-

1.) Repetition: Repeat your customers name over and over in your head a hand full of times. Also, you could try to use their name a little extra the first handful of times you speak to them like "So Jim what are your goals for coming in Today. Check this out, Jim" and so on.

2.) Association: If they have the same name as one of your friends, or someone like an actor, you could picture that person in your mind to help remember the name of who is in front of you, or if it sounds like something else, make a mental note of it.

3.) Rhyme: In your head, you could also make a rhyme like the old banana nana fo fana.

4.) Listen: Alternatively to the above; you could always just LISTEN. Far too many people can't remember names because they never actually listened to what their customers have said in the first place so be mindful of slowing down and listen to what your customers are saying and care about what they are saying. Again, we are here to serve customers, not ourselves, without our customers, we would be unemployed.

Two everyday things that customers may say as soon as they see you are I only have 15 mins, and what can you tell me about this?

15 MINS: "Perfect what information can I provide to make the absolute best use of the time you do have?"

TELL ME: "I can tell you a whole lot, but the last thing I would want to do is bore you with something you didn't care to know or that you already are aware of, Is there anything specific you wanted to know about it? Now, although this is more likely to come up later in the sales process if your customer asks you about something more specific like what does DURAMAX mean? It would be wise to have pre-planned pitches for questions like that, especially if they are questions you hear regularly.

From time to time we may stumble upon someone who is being obsessively rude or aggressive, keep in mind that it is our job to sell them a vehicle and provide them with exceptional customer service no matter what. If we win an argument, we lose a sale, being the smaller man and needing to "win" an argument or confrontation is not worth potentially losing $1,000. Not to mention if you want a REAL win, having your customer leave the dealership with you being the person that was able to change their attitude to a positive one while they are driving home in a new vehicle that they purchased from you is the biggest win you can have with someone who was previously apprehensive towards you.

Also, that could be just the way they talk, they could have just had a bad experience at another dealership or with the last vehicle they purchased, they could have recently had tragedy in their lives, who knows, it could be something we did not realize we did or it could very well be they just hate our face. It is best to have a love for all of our customers and try to treat them with the utmost respect and highest level of customer service we can provide them, regardless of how we may perceive their demeanor initially.

If it persists and is blatantly obvious they are making attempts to be a general ass you can attempt to disarm the situation by asking something like:

"I'm sorry, have I done something to offend you or did I just catch you on a bad day" <— with sincerity and a smile, not in a cocky stir the pot tone.

If they keep it up and say something like I hate car shopping/ car salesman. Please do not get offended by their opinion, who knows why they think that way. I would agree with them that car salesman really can suck and how pushy and not helpful they can be. Unfortunately, far too many customers have had many bad experiences with car dealerships due to many different factors. We should all strive and find it our personal business to be so great in our chosen career fields that we can change this perspective and weed out those who cause customers to think about people in sales in a negative context.

If you are new to the car business, you should probably let your customers know that up front and as ask them to please not high pressure you. You could also let your customer know if there are any questions you are not able to answer you will write it down and get them that info for them or find someone who can. If you do stumble on something that you can quickly get the info for you don't necessarily need to turn if you are getting along with your customer, you could say something like; I'm not 100% sure but that is essential information, let's learn together, this does not mean run inside to a computer or into the sales office.

If you are not new and you say you are new, please stop telling people that. If you are a top producer, it sounds much better and more professional to say something such as "I am the top salesman here and that means I sell more cars than anyone which gives me the ability to sell cars for a smaller profit margin than most of the other salesman." In most dealerships, that is probably true, if it is not don't lie to your customers.

Something I said in the past when I was an internet sales manager and would take a fresh up was "do you guys know the best way to get an amazing deal on a vehicle? Shopping online, and I am the internet sales manager, and my department focuses on volume instead of profit, so I am the guy who is going to get you the best deal, all you have to worry about is picking out the right one." At the time that was absolutely factual and yielded a positive result.

If you can't get to the next step TURN

As with all of our car sales training blog posts, please email or place a comment below if you have any thoughts about changes or additions that you think should be made to this post because the goal is to provide the most value to the readers.