Salespeople need to be people-driven and not profit-driven when dealing with customers, said a North American automotive sales trainer and recruiter. He believes change starts with upper management.
Brian Maxwell, who is based in Florida and has done some consulting work in Canada, said salespeople need to put the customer first and eliminate “typical-sounding verbiage” that can quickly frustrate consumers.
“Customers want to be treated like people that have some intelligence, and on the sales side, they want to deal with somebody who is really interested in buying,” said Maxwell in an interview with Canadian auto dealer.
He sees a rising customer discontent on social media because of the way consumers are being treated. And, since Maxwell works with dealerships, he has personally noticed the unrest in surveys he has sent out and secret shoppers he has employed.
“Both parties are exactly what each other is looking for. But we have that thin veil of fakeness that the salesperson believes they have to be a ‘salesperson,’ as opposed to just dealing with the person. And the customer believes they have to be this brick wall and tight lipped rather than dealing with the person.”
Maxwell said a big part of the problem is that COVID created a situation in which dealerships could easily sell cars, because of the supply shortage, without worrying about customer service. He said as the pandemic slowed down, some of those same selling practices are still being used and there is an increasing number of stores that are struggling.
“Profit margins are affected, because when (customers) want to do business, they are looked at as a dollar sign rather than a person,” said Maxwell, who is co-host of a popular automotive podcast called Lethal Sales.
He said combatting consumer discontent starts from inside the dealership and requires management and employees to establish a “synergistic” type of relationship in which the customer is at the centre of the circle. He said the key to all of this is culture.
“It starts from the top-down and internal re-conditioning, meaning the owners have to (tell) their team members to treat customers like people, not products,” said Maxwell. “Sales departments and executive leadership have to focus on teaching their people how to be customer-focused, how to be better at customer service, and how to be a consultant rather than a salesperson. The stores that are doing it right — that relationship and working trust is the centre of their process.”
“Prices are still the same as everywhere else, but the relationships and the focus have shifted,” he said.
