Why Do Most Customers Walk Out of a Dealership? What Students in Auto Sales College Need to Know
While Canadian car retailers are on track to deliver record sales in 2017, top sales professionals know it’s important to always be on the lookout for new and creative ways to improve. Knowing why some sales don’t materialize, or why some clients walk away when they had first seemed eager to buy, can be important learning opportunities. Here, we break down some of the most common reasons given by potential buyers for why they opted out and walked out.
Still Window Shopping: a Common Refrain Heard by Auto Sales Pros
Understandably, the decision to buy a car is a major one for many individuals. For many, their decision will also affect their partner and family, and making the wrong call could mean living with a disappointing vehicle or paying more than necessary for years to come. For these reasons, many buyers feel they need to continue to play the field, seek out better value, or come back with a trusted confidant who can help them with the decision-making process.
However, auto sales professionals know that if a client has walked onto the lot, they are at least somewhat interested and have probably researched their options. A warm greeting, and the ability to determine their needs and the car that best matches them, could help to provide a little more information and keep your dealership front and center in their minds when they do feel ready to make a purchase.
Any Perception of Disrespect Is Bad News for Auto Sales Careers
If a client feels like a sales professional was rude or disrespectful, they are almost certainly going to walk out of the dealership and take their business somewhere else. It goes without saying that effective professionals are able to eliminate this reason for a lost sale during their automotive sales career. Even so, it’s still an important point to keep in mind. A classic way to sink a sale is to make a cultural faux-pas in conversation, or not treat both members of a couple as equally important in the purchasing decision.
Potential buyers should individually be treated as the most important person on the lot when they arrive and all interactions should be carried out with respect, eye-contact, and a focus on the issue at hand: the buyer’s needs.
Auto Sales College Will Teach You the Importance of Keeping Appointments
The reason that appointments are made at sales locations is to facilitate planning and have a dedicated period where questions can be answered and a sale potentially realized. As you will learn in auto sales college, sales professionals are constantly jumping from solving one issue to another—like answering an inventory query from one customer, or ironing out financing for another. However, even with a busy schedule, appointments should always be respected.
Not keeping an appointment means setting a clear precedent for disappointment that is highly counterproductive from a sales perspective. Potential buyers will simply make an appointment elsewhere if their meeting is rushed or pushed back. It’s one top reason why customers will walk away from a dealership, which is why trained professionals know this is one mistake to avoid making.
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