There is a lot of talk in our industry about being different; however, with 20 groups, consultants, trainers and attrition, we all seem to drown in the sea of sameness. What does it mean to be truly different? We try with uniforms, coffee bars or cafés. We are all striving to have something special to differentiate us from our competition. When we really stop and think about it, our point of separation comes within three areas: our people, our products and our processes. If we break each of these areas down, it is interesting concerning the original question — what is your point of separation? When it comes to people, we seem to have a problem in this business. The average attrition rate for salespeople is still around 90 days. The reasons for this may be management, culture or other salespeople. We cannot grow our business with a revolving door of new employees. We know customers buy from people they know and trust. Training a new group of employees every 90 days seems to be an exercise in futility. The first way to eliminate turnover is to look for specific personality traits in our people. After analyzing the most successful salespeople in our client base, four behavioral attributes stood out: proactivity, tenacity with knowledge, game-planning and a positive attitude. Proactivity: Proactivity is the catalyst for successful accomplishments. In athletics, our home life or business, whatever the endeavor, proactivity determines the outcome. The opposite behavior is reactivity, which is totally dependent on another stimulus. We found that successful salespeople are proactive in three areas: as an employee, a salesperson and within their personal life. Proactive employees rarely need to be managed. They consistently do things before being told to do them. Personal initiative takes over everyday actions. Proactive salespeople are always in control of their time with the customer. From asking questions to solving problems, they initiate the process. In our experience, the best salespeople are proactively in charge of their personal life as well, including fitness, healthy eating and personal growth. Tenacity with Knowledge: Tenacity with knowledge is an interesting and important attribute. The art of selling is the ability to develop trust with the potential customer, to analyze their needs, to solve their problem and to help them work through their decision. For a salesperson to consistently perform this task appropriately, they must be tenacious with personality, product and process knowledge. We often focus only on the selling process and expect our people to be bullet-proof within the steps to the sale (as if the steps alone sell the car). However, without understanding the four main personality traits of driver personality, analytic Point of Separation By Tim Marbut, Ethos Group SCAN THE QR CODE FOR AUDIO. 26 Illinois Automobile Dealer News
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