Top 8 Mistakes Car Salesmen Make (And How to Avoid Them!) Cars Unlocked Academy

I'm going to discuss some common car sales mistakes and how to avoid them. Let's jump to it. [Music] So, a lot of you guys messaged me on Instagram your questions about your car sales career, and I find a few common mistakes that a lot of you guys make when we're talking about your career progress. So, I just wanted to address that a little bit. Now, if you guys are new here, make sure you guys check out my Cars Unlocked Academy playlist here. We have a full training program for you guys. Check out the free YouTube videos. And if you want to learn more, I have a full master class where I teach you how to grow from 25 to 30 car sales per month in your first year of car sales. So, link is in the description below. But let's talk about some common mistakes. Now, the first mistake that I see a lot of you guys doing is being too salesy. Yes, the word is car salesman, but you don't want to appear car salesy, guys. Right when you start your career, you already have this stigma around you about being a car salesman. You know, that guy that's going to try to close anybody that they can see or that person that's going to lie or kind of cheat their way into deals. >> We really should weld these bumpers on. You need to stop being salesy and get rid of that stigma right away. >> Daddy, you're a crook. >> I try to have my customers know that I don't care if they buy the car or not. I'm just here to help them and guide them through the process. And that's your perception that the customers need to see of you. It shouldn't matter if they buy the car from you or not. No hard feelings. You're there to help them do your job and inform them. And if you come off in a light-hearted way like that, you are going to make more sales. Mistake number two, and tying back into that first one I just mentioned, is failing to listen to your customer. I know a lot of you guys, you start off and you're talking a lot, and you're telling the customer all about the cars, but you're not taking the time to ask them the right questions and listen to what they actually want. If you are doing 90% of the talking during your sales process, you are talking too much. You need to be asking your customers open-ended questions that are going to allow them to elaborate on what they're trying to accomplish. And you need to dig deep by asking questions and listening attentively to your clients. Big mistake, and I was guilty of this a lot, and I'm still guilty of this in my career, and that is overpromising and underdelivering. So, if I know I can have a car ready for a customer in three days, I'll tell them, "Hey, your car will be ready in four to five business days." And then on the third day, I'll say, "Great news. They got everything ready. You can come pick up your car early." And that's what I mean by underpromising and overd delivering. You want to exceed your customer's expectations versus just meeting them. The other name of the game here, guys, is followup. The biggest mistake that most rookie car sales people make is not doing the follow-up. Not calling other customers asking for referrals, not calling people the next day if they didn't buy the car, not sending them more information. You should be following up, making 30 to 50 phone calls and text messages per day so that you can be booking appointments because having appointments is the name of the game. So, make sure you dedicate at least two hours of your sales day to following up with customers and booking appointments. If you are not doing this, you are making a big mistake. Time management is a key thing in this game here, folks. If you are spending an hour of your day shopping on Amazon, scrolling through Instagram, going out for launch, coming late and leaving early, or chatting with your other salespeople, you are wasting your time. Nobody in this business is going to monitor you like they would if you were working at Starbucks. Like really, you could spend two hours of your day shopping and nobody's going to come to you and be like, "Hey, get off your computer. Like, why are you shopping?" Nobody's going to say that to you. You need to be self-motivated and you need to manage your time effectively. If you got an eight or nine hour shift, pretty much want to spend those nine hours working towards selling cars, booking appointments, online training, and honing your craft. Whatever it is you're doing that wastes your time, it's going to negatively impact your sales. So, make sure you are on your time management and you have a schedule and you stick to it. Now, co kind of invited this mistake to happen, but a big mistake that people are not doing anymore is going on test drives with their customers. If you are not going on your test drive with your customers, you are doing yourself a disservice. There's so many reasons why you should go on the test drive. A, you want to build rapport with your customers. A little small talk, kind of learn a little bit about them, qualify them while they're on the test drive. You also want to make them feel comfortable with you. Like I've said before, if a person is comfortable to get in the car with you, then they are going to be comfortable to purchase a car from you. And if you don't go on the test drive, you're not breaking those barriers down. You don't know how many times I've started on a test drive and the customer was driving the car in a low gear or they had it in the economy mode or the sport mode. You want to be able to make sure they're driving the car effectively. Show them the features, hit their pain points that you learned in their qualifying stage. Really build rapport with your customers. So, if you're not going on test drives, start going on every single test drive that you can. and you will see how many more sales you're going to get. Make sure you guys are up to date on your product knowledge. Do not really focus on, hey, this car has this engine specs, horsepower, yada yada yada. All that information the customer kind of has probably already looked up online, but focus on the key features, the pricing, maybe the difference between the different packages of your car. If you add this package, you add that feature. If you go up to this model, you'll add this feature. This car doesn't have that, but this one does. Show your customers the features that they mention they want to see when you're qualifying them. The last thing you want to do is have a customer, hey, does this car have heated seats? And you say it does, and then they pick up their car and it doesn't have heated seats. That's going to leave a negative bad taste in their mouth. So, make sure you are up to date on all your product knowledge. >> The sawdust quiets for gears and lets the engine run as sweet as a nut for a couple of miles. >> Daddy, that's cheating. >> Car sales world has switched to internet sales here, guys. So, a lot of people are inquiring online. You might notice if you've been in the industry for a handful of years, you're getting more and more internet inquiries, and this is what you really need to focus on. Dial in your craft on how to respond to internet leads. Don't just be generic and send them links to your website, asking them when they want to come in. Be creative. Make sure you guys are responding maybe with different forms of content, video content, in a creative way, and you're following up with these internet leads. Make these leads a top priority. And do not procrastinate. If you get a lead 8:30 at night, don't say, "Oh, I'll wait in the morning to respond to it." A lot of times, if I get a lead late at night, I can text that person or start talking to that person and book them in for the next morning. Keep in mind that when someone submits an internet lead, you're not the only one that they've submitted. They've probably submitted at least four to five applications or requests or inquiries to other dealerships. So, make sure you are on top of it and you are honing your craft with these internet leads. That's a wrap, guys. I threw a lot of information at you, but if you guys want to learn more or have personal questions, just send me a DM on Instagram. Give this video a like if you guys learned something here today. Thumbs up and subscribe if you're new. And if you really want to elevate your car sales career, check out my free master class in the description. I'll see you in the next video. We use super super glue instead.