It’s Your Business
- Author: Terry Greenhut, Business Editor
- Subject matter: Customer Relations
- Issue: Lead with questions
Most of you, I’m sure, are familiar with late-night TV show hosts like Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, and David Letterman to name a few. One thing they and their shows had in common was that they would always begin with the host doing a monologue, a one-way conversation with the audience. The celebrity would go on and on relaying information and telling stories and jokes with the only feedback being the occasional laugh or burst of applause. That might be all that those personalities need to keep them going, but when you are performing for your customer (and selling is definitely a performance), you need feedback to find out whether what you’re saying has the proper impact and is advancing the sale.
A two-way conversation in which both parties are giving and receiving information is a dialogue, and it’s what is needed to make successful sales. You may be the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to mechanical skills. You might even be great at handling customer situations and problems after the sale, but if you can’t have a successful dialogue with a potential customer over the phone or when they pay a visit to your shop, those wonderful attributes won’t mean a thing because you won’t be making profitable sales.
It’s not, and never has been, about how well you and your staff are able to fix a car; it has been and will continue to be about how good you can make the customer feel while you are doing it. That doesn’t involve tools in the traditional sense, it’s about another set of tools you must possess, the ability to lead your customers by means of conversation.
The first contact people in our business have with their customers is still usually accomplished with a phone call. Even though so many products and services these days are sold online, auto and transmission repairs are still better handled one on one with a knowledgeable salesperson making sure customers get exactly what they need while paying a price that allows the shop to make a profit and customers to feel confident and comfortable with the transaction.
It may be a tall order to hope that all those things will happen when we meet a new customer, but we must fulfill that order over and over again. Every single time a customer calls or comes through the front door, the show begins again, and if you’re lucky and do everything right, it happens several times every day. Each time it does, a new dialogue needs to begin. The words may be different depending on the situation, but the goal is always the same: Make the customer comfortable enough about dealing with you that he or she will accept your service and repair recommendations at the initial price you quote.
Your words – how you say them, how you put them together into the appropriate sentences and paragraphs – mean a lot, but the way you sound and look when you say them makes a huge difference. You are not only responsible for saying the right words and providing useful information but also for leading and controlling every phase of the conversation as well. To do that you have to have the confidence that your way is the best way and that the customer needs to follow along with you. You can’t be cocky about it, and you can’t tell customers what to do, because that would be the equivalent of backing them into a corner, and no one responds well to that.
You lead by asking questions structured in a way that not only demonstrates your ability to lead the customer through this experience but also provides a level of trust and comfort as well. For example, we know that when people first call a shop with something they think could be a major and costly problem, they are afraid and they ask questions like, “How much will it cost to get my transmission rebuilt?” We also know that if we shoot them a price quote at that point, we will do nothing but put them deeper into fear. By quoting a price we are essentially agreeing that they need the major repair they asked about, but we really don’t know at this point and can’t until we get a look at the problem. Once they are able to get a number out of one of us and now believe that they need the repair, we are no longer of any use to them, so they hang up and start peddling our diagnosis all over town, looking for the best price. Unless someone else along the line convinces them to have the problem professionally diagnosed, they will continue to shop for price, thinking we are all the same. We, as a group, need to quit quoting baseless prices and learn to establish meaningful dialogue that leads to diagnostic appointments.
Sometimes the dialogue can be really short and to the point because callers who are unfamiliar with the way our business works don’t really know the steps we want to take them through. We might just get the appointment for a visit by saying something like, “Sure, I’ll be more than happy to give you a price. Is the vehicle driveable?” If the answer is “yes” the next question is, “When would you like to bring it in so I check it for you? Would now be good or is 10 o’clock better for you?” Take note that you have not refused to quote a price. In fact, you’ve agreed to if they will bring in the car to let you have a look at it. You have also immediately asked for the appointment, so if letting you check out the problem before getting a price makes sense to the caller, you are basically done with this very short dialogue. Will it always go this easily? Absolutely not, but it should always start this way. Why go into a lengthy conversation that might allow for saying the wrong thing and losing the sale if you don’t have to? Remember, the mission is to get the appointment. The faster you complete it the better.
If the caller still wants a price, you might continue the dialogue by asking if they have gotten any other prices. If they say “yes,” then ask if there’s any reason they didn’t take it to the person or people who quoted them a price. Often their answer will be that they are shopping for the best price. Don’t be offended by this response or jump on your high horse and make them feel bad that they are looking for a bargain. Instead say something like, “You know, you’ve asked me – and probably everyone else you’ve called – for a price on a rebuilt transmission. I understand that you want to save as much as possible, so do you really want to buy one if it turns out you don’t need it?” When they say they don’t, which is what anyone in their right mind would say, go into agreement with them. Say, “I wouldn’t want to do that either. That’s why I’d like you to come in so I can see what you really need and if there’s any way we can save you some money. It won’t cost you anything to find out. Is 1 o’clock a good time for you to come by or would 3 be better?”
A dialogue is questions and answers, but in selling it’s the salesperson who needs to be asking the bulk of the questions. In any conversation the person asking the questions is always in control because he or she forces the other party to answer or to at least think about an answer. That’s control and you can’t get that from a monologue in which you are doing all the telling.
Selling is a lot like the martial arts. It’s using the opponent’s strength against him. Rather than pushing back, you step to the side. In our case it’s a matter of leading them down the right path until they come to the proper realization, which they believe they are doing all on their own, because when it’s their idea it’s a good one; when it’s yours, not so much. So they feel they got a win but at the same time you got what you wanted.
When you want to get your point across, put it in the form of a question. For example, instead of telling the customer about your great quality service and why it’s better than everyone else’s, try asking, “Quality is a major concern of yours, isn’t it?” No one is going to say, “No, I don’t care very much about the quality of the repair I am getting ready to spend $3,000 on.” They will all answer by saying, “Yes, of course it is.” That answer is the equivalent of them saying, “Quality is important to me.” The difference is that you didn’t tell them quality was important (monologue); you asked and they agreed (dialogue). It’s as good as if they had totally brought it up themselves.
Telling customers things pushes them back into a corner, and when pushed they fight back. Asking pulls them along with you. People really don’t mind being pulled along unless they’re very much opposed to the direction in which they are being pulled.
When you have expertise and your customers know or can sense it, it’s not too difficult to pull them along. After all, they did come to you primarily for your expertise, opinion and recommendation before the idea of actually making the repair even comes up.
If your dialogue with customers establishes in their minds that you are their best alternative for handling the problem, price will no longer be their primary concern; not that it won’t matter, just not as much as before they were given the chance to accept you as someone they believe really wants to help and has the ability to do so.
