I’m always amazed at how disorganised most businesses are. The huge amount of opportunities that fall by
wayside due to poor management. Let me tell you what happened to me recently. The Car Dealership
I stopped off at my local dealership as I was interested in updating my current vehicle. This dealership is very well-known and spend a fortune on advertising trying to attract more buyers.
I walked in to
new car division and was greeted by a saleswoman. I made some general enquiries and at
end of our conversation decided it wasn’t worthwhile purchasing a new vehicle at that time. The salesperson didn’t know what questions to ask me and relied on me asking all
questions. She obviously hadn’t been trained in selling. When I left she didn’t even ask me for my contact details.
I then walked over to
Used Car division. There were two salesmen filling in
afternoon, chatting about
cricket. I had to interrupt their very important conversation to get some assistance. I then asked all
relevant questions (remember I’m
buyer here, not
seller…it should have been
other way around) and I looked at a couple of different cars. Not once did
salesman try to point out
benefits of
cars. All he did was watch me. When I said “thanks very much for your time’”, he said “have a great day”.
Again, there was an opportunity to sell me and he did nothing!
The Real Estate Agent
I went to a seminar and heard a well-known agent speak about how they have successfully built their business and how much they really look after their clients.
A couple of weeks later, I rang one of his agents as I was interested in a particular development. I left a message and mentioned that I was seriously looking and to call me back. I had to ring three days later as
call was never returned. The saleswoman gave no apology and was in fact very unfriendly. (Possibly because it was a Sunday). I asked her a few questions and it turned out there wasn’t a suitable apartment in
block that would fit my scenario. Instead of asking for all my contact details, she just hung up!
What Should Have Happened?
First of all
owners of these businesses should have their people undertake a training course to learn
art of selling. Programs like Wayne Berry’s Sales Bootcamp (Click Here For Details) are ideal. Not only that… and this is a big one, they need to learn how to follow up. These ‘salespeople’ should have asked for my contact details and had a system to stay in contact with me. At some stage
right product to suit my needs could become available and all they had to do was call an already ‘hot prospect’.
What Can You Do To Increase Your Profits?
Train your people…constantly. You can’t be an expert in everything, send your people out to conferences, seminars and workshops so they can gain valuable skills and utilise them in your business. Make sure you go as well. At many of my public workshops on “How to Have Less Mess, Less Stress and More Success”, quite often business owners and managers send their staff along. Their people gain great benefit from attending, although without a doubt,
staff’s biggest challenge is management. It’s
management who need to attend
most as they can influence change.