Goal 3 The Sales person; generating income by bringing Demand to Supply.
 
So with those three goals in mind, you should be able to read the 101 Internet Sales Objections and their rather wordy responses, all the while keeping in mind the common ground the three goals share.  Money, supply and demand.
 
Now that we are looking at the goals rather than the objections, why even bother with the objections?  We don’t like objections.  Objections get in our way.  For every one objection I train others to handle there seem to be three in its place.
 
Some things to consider.
 
The “XYZ” dealer may not give the prospect all the answers to their questions when they visit the dealership, when they call on the phone, or when they send e-mail.  You may not automatically give a prospect the very best (lowest) price on the vehicle of their choice.  So they are forced to jump through a series of hoops while they learn about you and what you are going to do for them.
 
Objections are no different.  It is not often in the sub-prime arena that a prospect walks in and lays all their cards on the table accurately.  So the objections can be viewed as your way of getting to know them.  What they object to, how they object, at what point in your conversation they begin to object, are all insights.  They are clues, if you will, as to what is likely to happen and how you might be causative over the buying cycle as opposed to being the effect of it.
 
You can consider yourself a detective/sales person and the objections are your clues to solving or closing the case.  Now what would happen if they stopped objecting?  Well, if they stopped objecting and bought a car at full sticker price, paid in cash and were happy doing business with you, then you would be looking at the perfect scenario.  However, if they stop objecting and just walked around the car, you would be standing there wondering, with no clue as to what direction to take the conversation into. 
 
So as you can see, it is essential to put aside any and all dislike and resistance to objections and begin finding out what your prospect means.  What he or she means by what they say and what they intend to do, as the result of their unique objections.  Learn to interpret them.  Because in every objection there is some reason the person can’t get to the three goals.
 
We are now full circle to the three goals; Customer,  Company, and Salesperson.
 
Goal 1 The Company/Supply; exists only to supply the demand at a fair-market value.
 
Goal 2 The Customer/Demand; is looking for supply at a fair-market value.
 
Goal 3 The Sales person; generating income by bringing Demand to Supply.

Goal:  To gain an understanding of the basic fundamentals surrounding negotiating with the client at any level and to develop a frame of mind surrounding the art of negotiation that is most conducive to your success.

Principle One:   The prospect is always called your “counter-part”.  This relieves the frame of mind that the prospect is an opponent.

Principle Two:   Don’t nail it down to only one issue (fighter pilot lock-on).  Continually bring up “multiple deal points”.  Juggle.  This gives you more negotiating points and helps to keep the prospect in “present-time” as apposed to becoming barrier fixated on a single stumbling block.

Principle Three:   Anytime that you know less about how to assist your prospect than they do, you run a serious risk of not getting the appointment or sale. 

Another way of saying this would be to say that you need to share the prospect’s reality surrounding their goal of purchasing a new vehicle.  Only then can you truly put yourself in their shoes.

Principle Four:   Being armed with information makes the salesperson feel powerful and thus helps them to feel empowered to stand a greater chance in meeting with success during the sales cycle.  Sometimes it can be an advantage to tackle the toughest challenge first.

When selling a product or service the key to a good relationship is to make sure that your customer being in equal exchange with your efforts doesn’t start after they pay you but long before.

Here is the general rule:  To the degree one is in exchange or giving as much to the relationship as the other, he or she will be able to remain engaged.
 
Any person will revolt and distrust any source that gives more to it that it gives back.

When one is in under exchange they feel compelled to disconnect from the relationship.
 
When we do something for another individual we must mentally and or emotionally justify that the other individual was worth the effort.
 
Applying the law of exchange to the Internet/ BDC sales cycle is done by keeping the prospect in exchange with you. This is accomplished by asking the prospect to do things for you as you do things for them,
 
Doing this will separate you from other sales relationships  the prospect might also be engaged in as most sales people feel it is their job to give to the prospect as the exchange comes in form of commission etc.
 
Where this thinking falls short is in the fact that one must be in exchange at all times and within unity of time that are as close together as possible. Also in the event that a sale is not procured the prospect will be in under exchange and thus over exchanged by the sales person is the #1 case of a short circuited sales cycle.
 
If you have ever had a prospect tell you that they feel bad about all the work you have put into something prior to them purchasing, you know this to be true.

There is a common misconception regarding the difference between hard sales and soft sales techniques. Most people if asked would rather be proficient at the soft sales as apposed to the hard sale. Here is a different look at the difference between the two styles.
 
Soft Sell
 
Definition: To be unsure about your product. To question the products of your job and the effectiveness of the organization. To be unsure as to the final outcome of any advise or direction given in relation to the organization. To be out ethics.
 
Hard Sell
 
Definition: To not accept stops or barriers. To care for the individual. To insist that one gets paid in full and accepting the benefits of your products.
 
If a sales person believes that the dealership they work for is the right place for their prospects to do business, they will have an inherent ability to communicate in a forward and directing manner in the same way that a doctor recommends a treatment that is clearly needed.
 
Doctors, for example, have a legal and ethical obligation to make every effort to tend to their patients needs. If a patient has broken a bone and needs to get it properly treated, we would not expect the doctor to say “well come see me when it’s easy. I’d like to see you whenever you get around to it.” That would not be caring for the individual. That would be an example of a soft sale.
  
If general staff members that believe their dealership is truly the right destination for their customers will naturally subscribe to the hard sale system while people that second guess the advantage of their dealership over others will tend to maintain a neutral stance.

Sales

The biggest factor for increasing sales in 2011 will be seen in a business’s ability to limit “cross line communication”. Every time someone pulls another off task to communicate non productive data, down time is the result.  70% of the average person’s day consists of pulling or being pulled off task.  Hold a class on it, label it and have your employees sign an anti cross line communication policy.   Remember confronting out ethics is 80% of eradicating it from your environment.  Stay away from paying more to get more. 

Money is the least effective motivator of man kind.  Duty is the most effective.  Sounds crazy but it’s a fact.  Create a company culture and live by it. You’ll find that beyond a certain income level, your employees families won’t spend nearly as much time explaining their income as they do explaining what they actually do for a living.  Finally have patients. In 2010 businesses that pencil their lives on a 30 day plan are going to get slaughtered by businesses with longer term visions.

BDC vs. the Internet Department for 2011

This is becoming a real issue nationwide.  Either use a BDC (Business Development Center) business wide or skip it. If a little BDC is good then more is better.  The reason they work is because the best people on the phone are usually the worse in person.  If considering a BDC for 2010 look carefully before signing on with an outsourced operation wielding an auto dialer like a sword. You can’t auto dial greatness any more than you can obtain salvation through better golf equipment.   Internet departments by contrast are now jack of all trades often made up computer savvy hotel concierges turned salesman.  

Then there are the real pro’s who are worth their weight.  Internet managers manage a relationship from start to finish, while a BDC should be comprised of people so good at getting people on the phone and in the business that watching them makes you dizzy.  Internet departments make more sense when the way a sale is made is more important than how many are made and the reverse is true of a BDC.  

Both can produce equal customer satisfaction scores but one is a padded leather chair for the imaginary internet customer and the other is a sales weapon.  So if deciding on a BDC make sure not to blow your foot off.  You can manage Internet departments with great predictability, which is a major benefit.  BDC’s by contrast are more risky and chalked with incredibly out dated sales systems but can double a business’s volume in short order if set up correctly.

Management

In the final quarter of 2010 U.S. payrolls are increasing at a steady pace.  In 2010 businesses that know how to maximize existing employees will prosper.  While leaders rally others to a better future, managers know how to discover a person’s talent and exploit it by posting them on the best job for their talent. I call this the ability to “Discover, Develop and Direct”.  This skill will be essential in 2011.

Advertising

In 2010 I’m advising our businesses to get a grip and get out of print.  I know its co-op friendly for some but so what.  Buy a stable schedule and stick with it. Go gorilla!  Most ads are designed not to offend, design yours to win.   2010 is a political year and you’ll hear it from every ad rep in town.  Don’t listen to it.  Focus on investment per item sold and make your budget work.  Steer clear of local ad agencies.  They’re taking your best ideas to your competitors as you read this and they’re horrible at negotiating good buys. 

Yes that goes for your agency too.  Bottom line with local agencies is the media outlet means more to them than you do. 2010 will bring a crash in agency business and they’ll end up doing anything to sign up your competition for can of cat food. So if you need a friend, buy a dog, if you need help negotiating take a class and if you need help managing media hire a temp. In 2010 blitz one source followed by another but based on a brilliant plan.   Make your buys in Dec for 12 months in 2010 then have them guarantee no bumps.

There’s a way to do this that is incredibly effective.  Stay away from afternoon drive times because in 2010 everyone will be talking on their cell phones when they leave work due to new laws surrounding headsets.   Stay away from paid streaming media.  Every business’s ad budget I’ve ever looked at was paying 300% more than they needed to. Every one!  So sharpen you pencil, know what you want, know what you don’t need and know how to negotiate to get everything you ask for.  Don’t hit on your ad reps.

Recruiting

It always comes down to people and those of us that have the best one’s stand the best chance of success.  Company culture in 2010 was surveyed as the #1 deciding factor of prospected top talent.  Leverage your best employees to reach out for you.  Use emotional intelligence. Research indicates that one of the worst employment moves a business owner can make is disengaging from the hiring process.  Keep new hire’s eyes on long-term opportunity over short-term gain.  Never over leverage your pay plan.

Employee Motivation

Leverage your perks. Pay and commissions are expected, but perks are not. Perks are concrete confirmations the organization recognizes that an employee went the distance. Have your admin staff work with local vendors to trade for perks.  You give me a free dinner to give away and I’ll give you a free oil change etc.

Training

A certain percentage of your net should be earmarked for training.  The lower you’re closing percentages the more your training budget should be because you have the most to gain the fastest.  The better your performance the less you allocate because the goal is to maintain and discover.  When stats are down you are in a “Danger Condition” because you are the effect of your competition, which places your business at risk.  Get smart and get better trained but know how much to spend, when and with whom.  You want to approach your training budget with certainly not speculation.

With that said have a prepared 2011.

Remember that that when you invest in top level SEO, SES (Search Engine Saturation™) that a larger percentage of your customers will be Internet customer or e-customers.  It’s critical to know the difference between these and customers that originate from off-line sources.

Tip #1: Know what kind of e-customer you’re dealing with. 

When going for your next long term customer know who you’re dealing with.  Some e-customers are flexable while others are more resistant.  The difference between these two types of customers is what I call pubic “A” and public “B”. 

Tip#2: Position your self in the driver’s seat as the expert you are.

The strong-hold for e-customers is information.  Put your self back in the position of the expert.  You and your staff know more about the right way to buy your product or service than almost any customer could ever know.  Don’t become the “effect” of their knowledge or misinformation.  Be courteous but strong.

Tip #3: Open a can of websites: 

What websites have they visited?  E-prospects can emotionally lock-up. Usually when this happens, the customer is holding some information that they obtained online.  Ask about experiences they’ve had online.  Ask where they inquired and then survey their satisfaction with other sources.  When dealing with a research intensive shopper you will find this helps them more than you.

Tip #4: Get the prospect from online to phone line fast and to the appointment without delay.

Everyone knows, the faster the customer gets in front of you or you in front of them the better your chances of doing business are.

Tip # 5: Explain e-Tail vs. Retail.

Visually show the customer in person, the difference between a retail price and an Internet price, which is usually lower, side-by-side.

Tip #8: Decode their e-mail address.

For example an e-mail address like mudflaps@aol.com belonging to a female looking for a mini van, may very well be a home maker seeking to convince her husband to trade in the truck for a mini van.  Pay attention to .net, .org, .cc and corporate domain extensions.  Free e-mail may be used by people that lack sales confront or are at work usually on someone else’s time.

Tip #9: Use your cell phone to everyone’s advantage including the customer.

Giving your cell number demonstrates that you invest time and money in order to communicate.  Just find a good call plan.

Tip #10: Make the Internet appointment stick.

The relationship that starts healthy stays healthy.  Give your e-customer a reputation to live up to. Next make them verbalize their commitment.  Now get the duration of the appointment nailed down.  Next create a sense of obligation and then a sense of dependency.  Create a mental picture of a completed cycle of action.  Finally ask them specifically what would have to happen for them not to make it. 

If they respond quickly with “if something drastic comes up etc.”, then you’re fairly safe not to waste yours or their time.  If they hesitate and mutter around then re-trace your steps, build a stronger relationship then re-confirm again. Obviously there is a great deal more to this training but you get the idea.

Active Waiting vs. Passive Waiting:

Active Waiting: To maintain a state of poised readiness in anticipation of an event.

Upon sending someone a communication of any type, you go into what we call “Active Waiting.”  You maintain a state of poised readiness in anticipation of a return email or phone call.  In business when communication comes from an individual that has the power to make you money, you never want to let them go pass the point of Active Waiting before firing off some sort of reply.  Even if the reply is a note that you will get back to them is a good start.  This keeps them in active waiting, which means that making you money is on the top of their priorities.

Passive Waiting:  Doing nothing except waiting for the event to arrive. 

Once a person goes beyond active waiting they fall into Passive Waiting.  This usually takes place between 6 and 24 hours depending on the level of intensity associated with the communication.  Passive Waiting is a position in which the individual doing the waiting becomes more the effect of the return communication rather than an active, profitable participant in it.  If you send someone a communication and move into passive waiting prior to getting a response it ends up being detrimental to the other party.

Stress and Timed Release:

I define stress as a force that distorts a things true shape or form.  When dealing with someone under stress you are not dealing with the individual while in their true shape or form.  Stress induced by time is the most common form of stress.  When a person is in Active Waiting after sending you a communication there is an internal building of stress that develops when the reply goes beyond an anticipated period of time.  Ever sit at a red light thinking it should have changed already.  Almost without thinking about it a person will lean forward in his seat, check both directions and check the rear-view mirror.  All of these are physical expressions of the internal stress that is building.  We have all sat and listened to an answer to a question that is taking too long.  We begin to sigh, tap our feet, and cut in.  Once again these are all expressions of the internal building of stress.   

If, for example, you are sending out communication to a co-worker whom has the ability to generate income from your efforts but return communication is slow, stress will build.  You will find yourself not as motivated to assist this person even if it is a part of your job description as engaging with them equals stress.  This can cause a downfall for an entire team because when we talk about teamwork we’re talking about two subjects; Agreement and communication.

How we subconsciously gauge who’s calls & emails to return and when:

Typically, if we’re talking about communication that exists between people with an ongoing business or employer / employee relationship, our return phone call & email are based about 80% on the following factors.

1)      Convenience

2)      Priority of information received

3)      Respect for the sending party

4)      Perceived control over the sending party.  How much do they need you vs. you need them etc.

5)      Perceived internal consistency.  What you believe their opinion is of your ethical standards as a person.

Here is the number one reason used for not returning communication that is in actuality false by definition.

1)      Being Busy

If we’re going to implement a winning personal communication practice and be a true leader within our areas of influence, then this is one of those false datum’s that we want to shake.  Let’s think about it…  Busy doing what?  Communicating most likely, which means we should be saying, “I’m too busy communicating to communicate with you.” 

That doesn’t make any sense and what’s worse is that most of the people we’re saying that to automatically know that but they just don’t know how to verbalize or won’t.   Here’s a fun experiment.  Ignore your spouses for about three days and then tell them that you were just too slammed at the office to talk with them.  Let’s see how well that goes for you. 

The error in the thinking is the natural assumption that people automatically understand our challenges and priorities.  They don’t.  They just assume they’re not important and as a result stop making you the amount of money as would otherwise be possible.  If we’re clamoring for every ounce of profit we can get our hands on then this scenario would go down on the bad idea list.  I submit that if we can’t even go a short time without communicating with our family who understands our challenges better than anyone, without a detailed explanation, then why would we think the rest of our relationships are going to get it? 

“He who successfully handles the most communications in the shortest period of time typically realizes the most success financially and with their personal relationships. “

The biggest challenge most people have is with emails.  My advice is to take you Inbox at the end of every day and move all answered emails to an answered emails folder.  That way everything you see in your inbox is traffic that is un answered.  I like to keep voice mails as new until answered because once I feel the urge to save it and put it on the back burner I know that the individual who left me the message is about to go into Passive Waiting on me.

Right to Communicate:

Communicating is a privilege.  People don’t automatically have the right to communicate with us but often they think they do.  Call it entitlement issues.  What we’re talking about here is communication with existing relationships.  The idea of this concept is not to return every communication from everyone in the universe.  If you’re in charge of a large ship you should have levels set up and gate keepers to filter new opportunities with new people.  Once you allow someone in your inner circle, the idea is to continually integrate the relationship to the next level.  This doesn’t mean that you have to spend Christmas together or fly clear across the country 4 times a year. 

While everyone has their personal concept of good communication or of the ideal make-up of the best relationships, what’s really only needed is quite simple.  The key is to communicate frequently by any means necessary and to keep both parties in active waiting.  This is the only thing required to improve the profitability of any relationship from any distance on a daily basis.

Now do yourself a favor and go return some calls and emails.

To truly understand what leadership is we must first define it.

Leadership i.e. To Lead, to go before or with to show the way; conduct or escort; to conduct by holding and guiding; to influence or induce; cause; to command or direct; to go at the head of or in advance of; to be superior to; have the advantage over; to have top position or first place in.

Leaders rally others to a better place. That is the only goal of a leader. They cause a belief that some objective, goal, attitude or frame of mind can be achieved that was otherwise not thought possible or simply never before reached. The idea that great leaders need to be the best managers or coaches or have a laundry list of other qualities I found to be both true and false at the same time. Great qualities may be great assets of a leader, but that’s like being good looking and rich at the same time. It’s a bonus.

Study the great leaders over the past 1,000 years and you will find that most of them were quirky at best. Many of them were not the best managers and they were not always the most politically correct. Yet, they still inspired massive change and rallied colossal support from people around them. Study the greatest figures of our time and you’ll find some great leaders wrapped around some weird people.

Kurt Cobain, for example, led and inspired a music revolution that many historians say was greater than The Beatles. All this from a guy who wouldn’t pass anyone’s “10 Point Test” of a leader.

This is an important fact to face because we can’t fabricate an ideal leader for the car business just so we feel safe and get “buy-in.” Only by looking at the reality of what a leader really is can we apply it to our lives and businesses.

In today’s business society, “leadership” is held out as that ultimate greatness everyone wants wrapped around them. To be a leader supposedly means to be the best of everything to everyone, is now sexy and since books on the subject fly off the shelf, the concept must have merit.

I think the waters are murky at best so let’s define what leadership really is and is not. Let’s set aside today’s desired character of a leader and look at the actual results of a leader. What does a leader produce in the universe? Then the real qualities of a leader will become significantly simplified and we can then spend less time striving for the qualities of a leader and more time producing the results of a leader.

Here are the key outcomes produced by true leaders. The final valuable products of a leader that leads to something substantial being done, which in turn creates a legacy. You should find yourself amazed at how these few things create the surface qualities we look for in today’s leaders and how the subject today is in essence studied backwards.

A Clear and Correct Vision

Regarding What Is Possible

The only way a leader rallies people to a better place is first having a clear vision of what that place is but there’s more to it than that. The true leader has to see the end goal so clear that he or she develops a razor sharp ability to explain it or demonstrate it to others in an explicit manner. If the vision and or goal is not clear it cannot be communicated and then duplicated with exact understanding in the mind of the people that are listening.

Telling someone about what is possible is only effective to the degree that the recipient of what you have to say understands it exactly as it was intended. You understanding alone doesn’t cut it. Historically great leaders surround themselves with people who serve as translators having the ability to describe the leaders vision to people of different personalities and points of view so that a great number of people can see the goal clearly.

Communication is the universal solvent in life but for a leader, great communication stems simply from a clear and correct vision regarding what is possible. Leader’s need not be good at making or maintaining decisions. The clarity of their visions and goals will do it for them.

Agreement

Now that the leader has an absolute clear vision of what is possible and can produce a freakishly clear understanding, agreement can exist. Leaders produce large amounts of agreement plain and simple. Agreement exists in life only through communication that is understood. What’s more interesting is the fact that agreement is the single factor responsible for creating affinity and or fondness between people. Only to the degree that people see the world the same in some fashion do they actually like each other. So no, a leader is not a people person by nature that simply created a ton of agreement along the lines of their vision.

Teamwork

Once a group of people clearly understand the vision and agree on it, they all become equal in the drive forward for a period of time, which makes them a team by default. Once a team is formed, people with the ability to manage and place people in their proper positions take over and help to push for the realization of the goal.

Conclusion

So in the end the natural order and sequence of things surrounding leadership becomes: Vision leads to clear communication, which leads to exact understanding. Understanding leads to agreement. Agreement leads to teamwork. Teamwork leads to management. Management of the team cultivates physical results. The leadership to results formula in the order of priority is thus: Vision = Communication = Understanding = Agreement = Teamwork + Management = Physical Results.

There we have it. The mystery of leadership revealed. I hope it makes reaching your next goal a little easier.

Once a growth plan that ensures a predictable level of success regarding the Internet mission or BDC has been developed, the business will need to indoctrinate each staff member into the overall plan and the purpose for the plan. The primary objective here is to create a “group reality”, or team unity.

This is different from buy-in.  Buy-in is a sales job. Group reality means something different. It is actually the basis for the more commonly used and watered down subject of buy-in. Understanding how groups achieve true shared reality can massively increase you sales volume for the long haul as opposed to the short run.

Creating a group reality can sometimes be the most difficult and challenging task an Internet Sales Manager or Business Principal will face in launching a new endeavor relating to the Internet or BDC. Every individual at each level of the business will have their own unique views and opinions relating to these subjects. One of the first steps I like to take when evaluating a plan for creating group agreement within an organization is to survey the views of each staff member within the organization that will directly affect the eventual success of programs.

Over the years, I’ve found that people who occupy certain positions within an organization tend to share many of the same opinions or viewpoints. For example, if you’re hanging out at the NADA convention and happen to get into a conversation with a group of Business Principals regarding selling cars on the Internet or BDC’s, you will tend to see a consistent theme or thought pattern represented throughout the group. They might think differently about it but there are underlining consistencies. On the other hand, if you’re sitting in front of a roundtable of General Managers and bring up the same subject, you will probably get a fairly different read. The viewpoint regarding Internet sales from the group of General Managers will most likely be somewhat consistent from one G.M. to the next, but inconsistent from the viewpoints expressed by the group of Business Principals. This division of attitude and outlook can be duplicated on every level of the business’s organization. The Business Principals have their vision, General Managers have their opinions, Internet Sales Managers have their realities, and so on.

When you have a stable and solid plan and are aware that every staff member will have their own reality on the subject of Internet sales and or BDC’s in general, you will be able to find a way to bring unity to the entire processes and save your efforts before they begin.

To achieve this aim, you must create as much of the same reality between all organizational members as possible. The degree to which each staff member sees the Internet department / BDC and its purpose in the same light as the other staff members will be the degree to which group agreement is reached.

We want to pay special attention to creating group agreement when it pertains to a business’s Internet department or BDC for one main reason. Of all the functions and jobs within a business, these have the widest range of opinions and viewpoints among its members surrounding its purpose and operation. It is this vast difference of opinions as to the function and potential success of a business’s Internet department or BDC that causes its greatest degree of failure.

When a new employee is hired by a business to sell cars on the retail floor, they are given clear instructions on exactly how to sell cars step-by-step, from beginning to end. The managers of the business train with absolute certainty while discussing with a new employee how they have followed a consistent path to success for decades upon decades, while carefully refining their craft to keep up with the times. Every great retail trainer in the industry knows that a new salesperson will fail or succeed depending upon the degree to which they apply the training they have received exactly as they have received it.

In essence, what we are attempting to do in the Internet department and BDC is to create that same brand of consistent certainty. Even if you are not doing everything perfectly you will still need to learn how to pick a rope and climb it for the sake of the team. In other words, you may find that you will second-guess your online sales practices and internal policies from time to time. Being consistent with an imperfect plan while you adapt, however, increase you odds of long-term success.

When it comes to the Internet and the BDC the key to success is twofold. First you have to have a system that turns shoppers into appointments and buyers that flat out impresses the onlookers. That’s the most difficult challenge. From there you simply pick a rope and climb it.