Remember earlier I touched on the subject of qualify and I said building rapport and qualifying go hand in hand? Let's look at the topic of qualifying in more detail.

What is the purpose of qualifying?

It's to find customer wants and needs.

Now I want you to have a thorough understanding of the difference between a want and a need. If you clearly don't understand the difference then you'll end up doing dealer locates and dealer trades for the rest of your sales career.

Example:

Need: A NEED would be a customer who comes in and says "I need a black full size vehicle to for my limo business to match the rest of my vehicles." That's a need! He is saying he needs a black car to match the rest of his limousines. This is a clear need. In this case you're going to have to show a black vehicle.

Want: A WANT would be a customer who says "I love the color blue so I got to have a blue one". This is not a clear need, this is a want. The customer likes the color blue and wants it. There is really no reason why the customer needs it, other than that the customer likes the color.

Now from the above two examples if you understand them, you can see: you'll have a much easier time steering the customer away from the blue vehicle rather than steering the customer away from the black vehicle.

I also want you to note that I used an example only on color. But it can be on equipment as well. But the above example should give you an idea of a customer wants and needs.

That's the whole purpose of qualifying. It's about trying to find the customers wants and needs. Find out what they have to have and things that's on their wish list. If you properly understand this whole section on wants and needs then I guarantee you it will decrease your dealer trades. If you don't understand, please re-read this entire section.

Qualifying for wants and needs might not seem like a big deal to you. But this little secret I just revealed can save you thousands of dollars in lost sales, if we were to do the math and analyze properly.

• When you build rapport use open ended questions- which allows the customer to talk.
• When you qualify use either/or questions- which will allow you to control the conversation.

Question Examples For Qualifying And Building Rapport

But mix it up. As you start to qualify, you'll notice a perfect chance to ask a question which will allow you to build rapport.

Example:

Salesperson: "Was this vehicle for you or someone else?" (Either/or question- qualify)

Customer: "No it's for me, I need it for work"

Salesperson: "Oh, what type of work do you do?" (An open ended question that gets away from selling and builds rapport with the customer about their work)

Customer: "Oh I work in construction"

Salesperson: "Really, how long have you been in this business?" (Another open ended question that allows the customer to talk and let's you build rapport)

If you analyze the above example, every one or two qualifying questions you ask will allow you a chance to ask an open ended question to build rapport. Through this type of questioning pattern, you must learn to build rapport and qualify at the same time. If you keep conversing with the customer this way; guess what happens? You're gaining their trust because you are making friends with them and you're qualifying which will allow you to present the right vehicle. Just remember when you qualify, figure out which is a want and which is a need.

Grouping Your Customers

Most average salespeople group their customers into different categories. Some of the categories are listed below:

• Lookers
• Tire kickers
• Credit Criminals
• Shoppers

If you categorize your contacts this way, you are just killing your paychecks. For a successful salesperson, all the above types of customers fall into one category. And that category is BUYERS! The fact is they are here to buy a vehicle now or somewhere in the future.

Grouping For Successful Salespeople

While it's true average salespeople categorize like the list above, successful salespeople also has a list. But this list is a bit different. They analyze customers into these categories:

• Repeats
• Be-Backs
• Referrals
• Phone-ups
• Walk-in

I have made the above list in order. The group at the top of the list has the best closing ratio and as you get to the bottom the closing ratios decrease. Did you notice that walk-in customers are at the bottom of that list? Then let me ask you one question- why do average or below average salespeople spend most of their time working with walk-in customer?

If you're average, then it's time for you to start realizing that you are working with the worst/least productive group of people.

Here is another tip: Learn to work with the top four groups rather than spending all of your time on walk-in customers.

Again, this tip might not sound big to you right now. But if you act on it (and we did the math and analyzed it), it can literally double your income. If you earned $45k last year, just working with the top four groups more will allow you to earn $90k or better. It's not a fantasy. These are very much realistic numbers. Now I'm not saying don't take any more walk-in. Your dealership provides them so take as many as you can. But your primary objective is to be so busy with the other four types of customers that you won't have any time to take walk-ins.

See you on the next auto sales training article and have a great selling day!