In a time of Ellington and Coltrane there was a little known jazz musician named Charles Mingus. Mingus had a very different approach to jazz compared to his other, better known colleagues. Mingus never felt that his music was too tough to learn. So once players knew their instrument well enough and found themselves in Mingus’s music, Mingus used to shout out to his musicians, “PLAY YOURSELF!”
Mingus believed every musician had their own voice, and wanted each of them to find it within his music. Today, the customer buying process has changed, and to compete, your dealership needs to find its voice. This is cultivated within your niche and through your own unique competence, and it has the potential to create a marketing differentiation for you in the market place. This means a very powerful force in creating new leads. The challenge is you’re likely out of sync and still using the old school ways today. You need to understand the prospect on their terms, not have them understand you on your terms. This is how a dealership not only engages more effectively with the prospect, but also has a good marketing strategy to tap into.
“Everyone is shopping and everyone is looking for a price, but it is so hard to pin them down to buy.” That is the manager’s mantra in today’s market place. What is this big disconnect today? We are missing how to effectively sell these shoppers and price grinders. In this regard, things have not changed; there have always been the shoppers and the price grinders. What has changed is what NEEDS to be done to turn more of them into buyers. The dynamics of the shopper today is a long research process with a quick decision involving one or two dealerships. Selling people has become obsolete. Dealing with their issues is what is necessary today. And the way to deal with their issues is to properly engage with that prospect. That is, getting on board with them, not trying to get them on board with you. Fundamentally, it’s an understanding of why the prospect is in the market and what are they trying to accomplish.
What we need to be saying is; “let me jump on the buying process with you and help you figure out all of these issues you are dealing with. I have good experience in this area and I can assist you rather than try to force you to do it my way.”
Unless you’re engaging with the prospect correctly, you’re missing a lot of prospects that were exposed to you. In most cases you gave them information when they weren’t ready to buy at that time, but will buy when they are ready. It’s a question of being there for them or being lucky enough to encounter them when they are ready. And you know you can’t always count on luck. Engagement is the key.
Understanding where the prospects are in the buying process and assisting them in that process is where you can make great strides in this business today. This is engagement! This is finding your voice! Making those strides is what’s going to differentiate you in the market place. Your unique voice means more market share.
Let’s do it their way! This will make the prospects far more comfortable and feel good about the decision they need to make. You will be more realistic with the customer and be working with them on their issues and terms. This has proven to drive many more prospects to a dealership. In this way, you are letting go of the old school methods of selling. Now you are being true to your prospects and true to yourself, thus as Mr. Mingus put it, “Playing Yourself.”
(This article was written with the help of Dale Boch – Management Developers Inc (MDI) Dealership Strategic Planning 25 years in helping dealerships build great teams, be more productive, increase market share and improve profitability.)