Money: An Echo of Value

As they walk toward you, the attractive, young-middle aged couple, they just look like they want your vehicle, they certainly appear to be able to afford it, and you’re hoping they’re not the shopping around type but just want to get their car-buying over with.

At least that’s what you’re telling yourself because, well…you need this sale.

But, there are two problems with that:

The first is that:

“No one is going to buy from you because you have a quota to meet, you really need the sale, or even that you really love your product and think they should own it.”

The second problem is that, because you are focused on yourself (and on the commission) you cannot adequately focus on them. And, if you cannot truly be 100 percent focused on them, you put yourself at a huge disadvantage in the selling process: namely, you won’t find out exactly what they want and need. And, if you cannot effectively determine that the chances are far less likely the sale will occur.

After all, when it comes right down to it:

“Successful selling is all about finding out what your prospective customer wants and needs…and helping them to get it.”

So, the suggestion is to shift your focus – shift your focus from “getting a commission” to giving exceptional value to your prospects. But, please don’t confuse value with price. Price is the dollar figure. Value is the “relative worth or desirability of a thing to the end user or beholder.”

And (and this is key):

“Value is always in the eyes of the beholder.”

It isn’t what you believe is valuable about your vehicle and it isn’t what you think they should believe is valuable about it. What do they believe about your vehicle (and the ongoing caring they’ll receive from you and the dealership) that brings value to them above and beyond what your competitors selling the exact same product are communicating?

It all begins with what I call The Golden Rule of Sales, which is:

“All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer business to, those people they know, like, and trust.”

And, there’s no faster, more powerful, or more effective way to elicit these know, like, and trust feelings toward you from your prospective customers than by focusing on them rather than on yourself.

In John David Mann’s and my book, The Go-Giver, Law #3, The Law of Influence states:

“Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other peoples’ interests first.”

Of course, that doesn’t mean that you should be anyone’s doormat or in any way self-sacrificial. It simply means that when you move from an I or “me-focus” to an “other-focus,” you naturally bring more value to — and hold more value to — that person. As Sam, one of the mentors in the story advised the protégée, Joe:

“Make your win about the other person’s win.”

In other words, to the degree you can take your focus off of yourself and place it onto the other person, that’s the degree to which you yourself will become successful; it’s the degree that you’ll have customers who love you, who buy from you again and again, and refer lots of other people to you. They will become your Personal, Walking Ambassadors!

Shift your focus from getting to giving (in this context, giving means being constantly and consistently focused on providing value to others). Become unabashedly, unabridgedly, laser-focused on making this experience the most phenomenal customer-based experience they’ve ever had.

You know, the Old English root of the word Sell was “Sellan” which literally meant, “To give.” Exactly what are you giving when you are in the selling process?

If you are doing it correctly, I suggest you’re giving: Time; attention; counsel; education; empathy; and, most of all, value.

How do you believe your prospect would then feel about you? Would they be more likely to buy from you? To want to do business with you? To make you a part of their life? Would they be more interested in your success? Would they be more excited about referring/introducing you to those they care about so that you could make your win about their wins, as well?

Of course. And this is exactly how the most successful automotive sales professionals conduct their business. They know that, when it comes right down to it:

“Money is an echo of value. It’s the thunder to value’s lightning.”

Yes, the focus must be on them. The money you’ll receive in the form of a commission is simply a very natural and direct result of the value you’ve provided through that focus.