Ten Strategies to Raise Your Gross

One of the keys to becoming more successful selling cars is to raise your gross. Eric Thomas said, "When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you'll be successful." Whether you define success in automotive sales as selling more cars or making more money, there are key strategies to raise your gross on every car deal.

I never tracked money. It wasn't important to me. I treated money like a Nintendo game and never got emotionally wrapped up in it. I've seen salesmen get so wrapped up in money and they become desperate. Their desperation bleeds into their negotiating. Their customer feels it and backs off.

The money will come if you're not afraid to put in the work and grind through the difficult times. Closing, negotiating and word tracks are my favorite things in this game. I call this a game because you are continually competing against yourself to raise your gross. Here are ten strategies you can use to raise your gross every time you close a deal.

Affect Their Emotional State

When customers are emotionally invested, they spend money. People don't just buy a product, they buy the experience of the product or the sale. You start affecting the customer experience at the meet and greet. Your greatest opportunity to affect the emotional state of your customer is during the test drive. The test drive is when your customer envisions them self owning the vehicle. When the test drive is over you are responsible for making sure your customer falls in love with the vehicle. When emotion is not part of the experience the deal is over.

Manage the Customer's State

Emotional state and the customer state are two different things. You have the ability to influence and manage the atmosphere between you and your customer. Customers often have emotional and psychological barriers set up to protect them from being taken advantage of. You need to identify and alleviate those barriers.

Prepare the Customer Physically & Emotionally

You need to develop the ability to prepare your customers physically and emotionally. It is your responsibility to prepare your customers to purchase the vehicle. You can prepare your customers through your body language, voice inflection, and the words you use. If your body language shows you are relaxed and comfortable, your customers will be more relaxed and comfortable. The way you use your voice will also affect your customers. If your voice is excited, your customers will be excited. If your voice is calm, your customers will be calm. Managing yourself properly will allow you to prepare your customer effectively.

Make Them Enjoy the Process

Purchasing a vehicle is one of the most stressful experiences customers can have. If you make the car buying experience fun, you will alleviate the stress your customer is experiencing. When your customers enjoy the process they will be more relaxed. Make the experience feel like they are not in a negotiation. The worst negotiation you can be in is the one you don't know you are in. What I mean by that is when your customers do not feel like they are negotiating they are more willing to spend more money.

Build Trust

Trust is something that is earned. Automotive sales people have a well-earned reputation for being untrustworthy. You must start building trust with your customers at the first handshake. Every word you say and action you make influences the level of trust your customers have in you. Building trust is like building a house, one brick at a time. Raising your gross has to do with building trust one step at a time. When you build trust your customers are more willing to spend all the money with you.

Create and Sustain Interest

You must create interest in your customers. When your customers lose interest you lose your customers. There are three levels of interest - hot, warm, cold. Customers who are hot with interest buy quickly and spend more money. When interest levels become warm or cold you start losing your customers. Managers can turn over (TO) warm customers, but cold customers are done. You must sustain the interest of your customers to keep them warm.

Surface Their Deepest Needs

There is something within your customers that is a dominate buying motive. You need to find out what the dominate buying motive is for each of your customers. Surfacing your customers deepest needs will provide leverage when you are closing the deal. When your customers reveal their deepest need for purchasing, you can remind them why they are spending their money.

Give the Customer a Way to Justify Paying

You want to give your customers a reason for justifying paying you all the money when you present the deal. I've seen so many sales people freeze when they present the first pencil to their customers. You have a choice, you can try to talk your customers into paying more than they want or you can show them how to justify paying what you want.

Obtain Commitments and Don't Lose Them

This is closing 101! There is no reason a customer should back out after you obtained a commitment. If you have a customer who backs out after committing to purchase, you did not properly use these strategies. Once you have a commitment, shake your customer's hand and prepare your customer for the rest of the process. Remember, you're not done with the sale until your customer drives off in the vehicle. Let your customer know what is coming next and how long the process should take. Stay with your customer. Get your customer talking about anything other than the car deal. This will keep your customer relaxed and will allow you to prepare them for delivery.

Create Sales Leverage

You must learn to leverage your customer throughout the process. Never undersell and never oversell. If you undersell or oversell your customer you will lose them. All of these strategies allow you to leverage the experience and close strong. Each of these strategies play into all the others. If you are weak in one area, you will fail to properly leverage the sale.