How To Ask For The Sale Without Feeling
Like A Jerk
Eric M. Twiggs
Does asking for the sale make you feel like a
jerk? This is exactly how “Kim” felt. Kim was a service
manager in a shop located in the Midwest, who prided herself on her ability to
profile her patrons to determine who would buy and who wouldn’t. She
believed that presenting a high dollar estimate to a first-time customer was
bad for business.
One fateful day, her technicians handed her an estimate that
totaled over $2700 for a first-time customer named “Linda” who drove a luxurious,
elegant, and stylish Geo Metro with 163,000 miles on it!
Kim’s goal was to present “the bad news” to Linda,
without coming across as being pushy. She had profiled Linda and determined
that she would NOT invest in her car. Kim called her to review the
estimate and here’s how the call went:
“Linda, I have some bad news, hopefully you’re sitting down.
You will need to have all four tires replaced, an alignment, new
front and rear brake pads, an AC compressor, and a cabin air filter. I’m
sorry but your total price comes to $2720 dollars.”
Kim felt like a jerk! She was shocked by Linda’s
response:” $2720 you say? What a relief! I thought you were going to
tell me it would take five grand to fix my car. Go ahead and do
it! I would rather pay the
$2720, than buy a new car!” As it turns out, Kim was
wrong.
Have you ever profiled a patron and been proven
wrong? Stay with me to learn two strategies that will help you
ask for the sale without feeling like a jerk. If you embrace these
strategies, your profiling days will come to an end!
Embrace The Three B’s
When your mailman delivers you a bill in the mail for a
large amount, do you ever think: “This is
unacceptable! I need to find a new mailman!” NO! He’s just
doing his job by delivering you the message.
Whatever you decide to do with the information is up to
you. Since he didn’t create your bill,
or conspire with the collectors, he doesn’t feel like a jerk after he hands you
your credit card statement. When presenting future
estimates, embracing The Three B’s will keep you from feeling like a
jerk, as well.
When it comes to your customer’s car, The Three B’s can be summarized as follows: You didn’t Build it, Buy it,
or Break it. Like the
mailman, you are simply delivering the message.
Let’s stay with mailman metaphor for a moment. Imagine how you would feel if you had to pay
additional late charges because your carrier didn’t deliver the credit card
bill to your house on time.
Now, imagine how your
customer feels when she must pay for a parts failure because YOU didn’t
communicate the maintenance recommendation on time. Embracing the Three B’s will keep you from
feeling like a jerk and your customer from feeling the urge to go to your competition.
Use The
Consistency Principle
In his
book Influence, The Psychology of
Persuasion, Dr. Robert Cialdini introduces the consistency principle as a method
of persuasion. He cites a study that
was done on health centers that reduced their number of appointment no shows by
18% by having the patients write down their appointment details and make a verbal commitment to come back as scheduled.
He also
studied a restaurant that reduced its appointment no-show rate by 30% when they
had their phone customers verbally
commit to calling the restaurant before canceling their appointment. These
studies prove that people like to stay consistent with the things they have
previously said.
Making a
quality visit to the car, gives you a great opportunity to put the consistency
principle to use. For example, when I
worked as a service advisor, I visited the car with a customer and asked him
the following question: “How do you currently use the vehicle?” To which he
replied: “I use this car to get back and forth to work. I plan to drive it until the wheels come off!”
We
discovered that the vehicle was due for its 60K service. When I presented the estimate to him, I said “John,
we see that you are due for your 60K service. You mentioned that you wanted to drive it until the wheels come off, so
investing in this service will allow you to do that!” And what was John’s
response? “Go ahead and do it!”
I didn’t
feel like a jerk, because I was simply
restating what the customer told me he was looking for. Making the visit to the car, will give you
the opportunity to use the consistency principle and change how you feel about
asking for the sale.
Summary
So,
there you have it. Embracing The Three B’s, and using the consistency principle will help
you to ask for the sale without feeling like a jerk. Unfortunately, Kim no longer works at
the Midwest shop as the service manager.
Applying
these principles would have been a better path for her than profiling her
customers. Which path will you choose? If you just chose to apply the principles, then go ahead and do it!
Sincerely,
Eric M.
Twiggs
The Accountability Coach
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