Now the first thing we need to remember is that certain people gravitate to certain lines of work and for that matter, certain groups. Being a sales person doesn't make you a certain way, being a certain way makes you gravitate toward that line of work. Now if we agree on the sociology of the group, we see why this maybe more of challenge than you think.

The outgoing, friendly person who enjoys making friends traditionally moves toward a sales type of work.

The technical type who specifically enjoys automobiles and may even enjoy working with them a little, tends to move toward a service line of work.

One tends to be extroverted and one tends to be introverted. 

You can now begin to see our stumbling block. We have a person who knows something about vehicles, may enjoy the environment of a shop, but we need them to turn into our sales superstar.

I mentioned in my last post why the climate has changed and why our service team needs to be sales people. The next questions are how we go about making the change.

The first thing your service advisor need to ask during a DECLINED sales call is, why?

I know this sounds like a simple start, but it's also going to be a very effective beginning. It's effective for two reason, not only does it give your advisor the opportunity to start overcoming objections, it also helps in your marketing.

Our current economic environment has us all racing to the bottom when it may not be necessary. 

We are all very assumptive that the ONLY reason a client declines a repair is because of the money,and sometimes it may be, but that's not the only reason. 

The only way we can find out the reasons are clients decline services is by asking.

But the very first part of the process is to begin to listen to sales presentations. This is going to make your advisors very uncomfortable, but it is the only way you'll truly know why people decline services and before you start discounting and racing to the bottom, you'll see it's time well spent.

Spending time listening to sales people sell is common practice for a sales floor, but happens rarely in a service department.

Start tomorrow listening to your sales presentations and then we can begin sharpening them and we'll work together to make our service advisors "Super Sellers"