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My wife and I recently went shopping for a new car for her. She’s an artist and uses her car primarily to commute to her studio. Her main concerns were safety and comfortable seating. She feels strongly about having a light exterior and a light interior color.
You now know more about her preferences than the car salespeople at five dealerships, where we spent several hours. Based on our experience, the poor reputation of car salespeople is richly deserved.
Here’s what you can learn from our experience.
Failure to ask questions
Not a single salesperson asked us anything other than perfunctory questions. They were too preoccupied with trying to sell us a car. We learned a lot about the differences in the various models of the cars they were selling and why they believed their cars were the right choice for us.
But they learned almost nothing about us and showed no interest in us as people.
This failure to shift focus from being the know-it-all salesperson to addressing the concerns of the prospect is also common with registered investment advisors. In my experience, it’s the primary reason conversion rates are so low.
A Coach and Speaker Who Will Increase Your Conversion Rate
My evidence-based persuasion strategies have significantly increased conversion rates for my coaching clients. I use videoconferencing, which is very cost-effective. I also give on-site presentations and am available to speak at conferences and internal meetings.
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[email protected]
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Smugness
An interesting phenomenon occurs when you have asymmetric information, defined as “a situation in which one party in a transaction has more or superior information compared to the other.”
This was the case with the car salespeople, and often (but not always) is with you.
When you have asymmetric information, it’s easy to project an aura of smugness and superiority. That was our experience with most of the car salespeople we met. They basked in the glory of “educating” us about the technical superiority of their cars. They were blissfully unaware that most of the information they conveyed was of no interest to us.
The “data dump,” whether it involves cars or investments, is perilous. For instance, I found that the car salespeople we dealt with failed to learn how much we knew about cars. What if I was the retired chief engineer at General Motors or my wife designed cars? How would we react to the “Auto 101” lecture?
I once heard a former colleague patiently explain how to measure risk to a prospect. After a lengthy explanation, the prospect told him he had a Ph.D. in statistics from MIT and had published papers on standard deviation.
The prospect retained another advisor.
Think before you speak
When I was trying jury cases, I was fortunate to have a very experienced and successful trial lawyer as a mentor. One of the most valuable insights he gave me was to “always talk up to the jury.”
The car salespeople we encountered tended to talk down to us. They were patronizing and sometimes patently insincere. Here are two of many examples:
One sales manager responded to my request for more detailed information about his proposal by telling me: “Sometimes you have to go with your gut and just sign the deal.” When I responded by asking him if that was how he handled his own business dealings, he looked like I punched him in the gut.
Another sales manager explained that his goal was not to sell us a car because doing so “made absolutely no difference to him.” Instead, he just wanted us to be “happy.”
I asked him why he cared about the happiness of total strangers, and whether the owner of the dealership evaluated his job performance using that criterion. He had no response.
Words have consequences. Think before your speak. Don’t assume you’re smarter than your prospect. Most prospects won’t tell you their real feelings. You’ll only find out when they don’t retain you.
Dan Solin is the director of investor advocacy for the BAM Alliance and a wealth advisor with Buckingham. He is a New York Times best-selling author of the Smartest series of books. His latest book is The Smartest Sales Book You'll Ever Read. His sales coaching practice has expanded to include advisory and non-advisory firms in the United States and Canada.
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