Almost 10 years ago, I did a three-part series on “Common Traits of Top Salespeople.” The market seems to shift day to day, and inventory management is always a question. I thought this might be a great time to retouch some concepts about what makes top performers perform at a high level today, regardless of what is happening around them.
A lot has changed in 10 years, but top performers have adopted certain traits as a result of wanting to improve. They tweak paperwork processes to save man-hours. They tweak habits and build daily structures to avoid falling into negative patterns.
After all, if you are not satisfied with the results you are getting, you probably should change what you are doing. With this mentality, let’s examine how top professionals are evolving in this industry.
The first trait counters the adage that “the customer is always right.”
The customer is sometimes wrong.
Consider the most recent SUV-driving customer who walked through your door, looking for an 8,000-pound travel trailer. Remember the customer who knew he had a 5,000-pound tow rating and bought a 4,800-pound trailer? When you saw them pull in for service, the vehicle’s rear axle was bowed. The chains were scraping. The customer did not consider their gear and the tanks’ weight when filled.
Hopefully, your dealership has a culture that prevents customers from unsafe situations. If the salesperson or other dealership employees do not correct a client when needed, customers could get themselves and others hurt.
With specifications and technologies changing at staggering paces, keeping up with new ways products are manufactured is impossible for your customers. The adage is especially true in the RV industry.
By the time factories have their brochures published and printed, the information is outdated compared to information on factory websites. Even websites are behind what may be rolling off the manufacturing line. Resources available to gather information could be different depending on where the brochure is printed.
Trailer lengths are a perfect example. Each manufacturer measures them differently. The sales brochure’s measurement may not accurately indicate whether a trailer will fit in a garage.
Top professional salespeople know they can and should say “no” when the customer is wrong. They just have to include an explanation of why.
Couple this with the month-to-month production cost changes and we have even more uncertainty about the total cost. Now transfer all these unforeseen costs to the retailer, who still has to forecast inventory levels based on future sales in an uncertain market.
What does all this mean to a customer who is always right? If the factories and the retailers do not know what their true costs are until the end of a fiscal year, how do customers always know what the retailer’s costs are and what the dealer’s profit margin on any given product should be? Of course, the customer is not always right.
Resolve to adopt the top salespeople’s first common trait: They know when and how to say “no.” Top salespeople follow up
with an explanation of why. Top salespeople do not let something that is not right for the customer, dealer and industry happen.
The second trait builds off top salespeople knowing the “customer is always right” adage is not entirely accurate.
The most common-sense approach to giving the best service would appear to be doing as customers ask. However, as we already know, customers do not necessarily know what is best for them. Most likely, they have not taken the time to learn about your product to the same level you have. How can they know the best option for them if they do not even understand all options?
Top salespeople leverage their product expertise to help customers. They usually help customers better than customers know how to help themselves.
Let’s use the medical field as an analogy. I spent over a decade believing that I had a nagging shoulder injury. Every time I talked to a doctor, I told them my problem. The doctor gave me a stretch that I did not feel and a note to stop doing repetitive motions that might inflame my shoulder.
I learned to live with the pain until I made the injury so much worse, I could not handle the pain any longer. I was playing basketball when I heard a pop, and since there was no pain, I kept playing. That weekend, I took a little low-end travel trailer out with my family. By the time I cranked everything out and in twice for the trip, I could not move my arm at all.
My wife told me to see a physical therapist, and so I did. It is amazing what a specialist can do in under an hour that I could not figure out over 10 years.
I did not have a shoulder injury; I had an upper biceps injury. Without a background in anatomy and physiology, how would I have known that the biceps runs up through the shoulder? When the muscle is fatigued, the shoulder overcompensates. My shoulder injury is now fixed by doing the proper stretches and lifts for my biceps injury.
Modern medicine does not allow for self-diagnosis. Although online medical references have their purpose, doctors know better than to let their patients or themselves rely on mere reference material.
Your customers will still consult the internet and jump to conclusions based on what they read and what other untrained people are saying. They will decide they need certain features their friends have or a specific fifth wheel floor plan they found online.
If you simply take their order and deliver the RV, you might miss an important fact. Maybe the family travels with canoes and now will not have the truck top to put them on.
After learning that the customer is not always right, top sales professionals naturally evolved into “physicians.” When it comes to your product, your customers need your professional diagnosis.
The third big leap is all about releasing pressure and having fun when playing at the highest level.
When I was in high school, I had the good fortune of having some great mentors and teachers. One in particular was an older gentleman who had played on the PGA Tour for many years.
He spent his twilight years hanging around the local course and giving lessons to those golfers in need. I was a decent player—I was on varsity for my high school’s team as a freshman—but as anyone who has played golf knows, being decent means you could use help.
One day, out working on my approach shots with the pro, he took note of me hacking at the ball as hard as I could. He asked why I played golf. My response was easy. “I play golf to relax and have fun,” I said.
He just kind of shook his head and said, “No. You have to relax to play good golf, and then you will have more fun.”
His advice changed my golf game immensely. If you catch me out on the golf course, I will be the one humming while walking up the fairway. All life’s pressures are released before I go, and that enables my swing to be easy and smooth.
Here is where all the advice comes together. Once you can say no and help the customer get into
a process designed to help the customer go camping, you are
no longer a salesperson.
For years, top salespeople have not looked, sounded or acted as you expect when you hear the term “salesperson.”
Consider the numerous negative connotations associated with the term “salesperson.” Just turn on the TV, listen to the radio or ask people how they feel. There are not many positive representations of this form of sales.
Any customer coming through the door is going to have their guard up against someone whose sole existence is to take customers’ hard-earned money. What you need to realize is that the customers are coming in to go camping. Why would we ever try to do anything other than help them accomplish their goal?
As for the top salespeople I am basing this column on, use whatever title you prefer for these professionals, but do not dare call them salespeople. They will take offense if you lump them in with all those salespeople who give our profession a bad reputation.
There are no deceptive acts in top professionals’ DNA. When the customer sees that the person they are speaking with only wants to help them accomplish their goals, they relax and treat their salesperson as a human.
Just like when I go golfing, when top salespeople step in front of a customer, you can be sure they are relaxed. They are not worried about being treated poorly but know they will be thanked. They will help their customers accomplish what no one else has been able to do yet…serve them in a non-salesy, fun way to accomplish their goal of going camping.
Every month, I host a short webinar for my clients, covering various topics. Regardless of the topic, I always sign out the same way. The message is a reminder to continue striving toward these top traits and reach the level of being top salespeople.
I say, “Have fun with your next customer, and I’ll see you all next month.”
Jered Sobel serves as president of Sobel University, a company providing training for management, salespeople and consumers across North America. He is best known for designing the industry-standard onboarding sales training manual and co-authoring the consumer guide to purchasing an RV. Among his previous work experiences are roles as a dealership salesperson, a general sales manager and hiring dealer staff.
