This is a debate I see regularly, can you still count on making a great $100,000 + a year income by taking care of  referral and repeat business? Or are your customers going to find their next car by some search engine, true car, or through social media?

What Brings Customers In?

What would you equate are the reasons your customers are coming in to buy? Are your customers coming into see you strictly because of you, or did a newspaper add, facebook page, billboard, or some other means of advertising bring them in? Well if you are a good sales person it’s most likely some form of marketing got them going, but ultimately it is you who sets the appointment and by taking care of them, a friend or family member that brought them in. When you are a good, sincere sales professional that cares about and remembers what is important to their customers you are taking all kinds of doubt away from them and making their decision to buy, an easy one. Ultimately if you are a good sincere sales professional your customers will come back to see you more often and are still the most effective form of advertising.

Case and Point. I took a fresh up two and a half years ago, during cash for clunkers and sold a young family a car. A year later I leased them a Ford Edge, and a year after that traded them out of the first car into another car. This was three fast deals in under two years in which they called me with what they wanted to accomplish. By building value I was always able to sell them without them shopping around by working hard for them. I made good money on every deal, and received perfect CSI. When they would come in for service I would always say hello, ask about their family’s and hobbies and always remind them “Next time you are in the market to call me, or if they ever hear of anyone looking to have them call me directly, as I will give them the same professional business I have always given you.” This is a line that has made me a lot of money, and is completely true. I work harder for referral and repeat customers ultimately because they are easier.

Make any sense?  It should because since I have dealt with them in the past, or because they were referred to me they are easier to sell. I can and will now ask specific questions to find out how I will get them in a vehicle I have in stock that best fits their wants and budget. I know I have time to get them talking about their family, work, and most importantly themselves which If you don’t know everyone likes talking about themselves. So therefore their is no hard selling really done. I ask a series of questions that lands them on a car that has the size, color and options that best fit their wants and budget.

Since then I sold their parents they sent in to see me, who sent her sister in to lease a car from me and turn in her lease she got from another dealer, and when she came into get hers she brought her daughter who picked up a car from me the next day. That’s a lot of business most dealers would have spent over $300 a customer to get them in. I was able to do it by doing what a good sales professional should do day in and day out. Doing the basics with a sincerity to help your customer accomplish their wants and needs.

So What Brought the Customers In?

What brought the customers in was me, my abilities to deliver what the customer wants and my reputation. It was not ZMOT, true car, a TV or newspaper add, it was Noel Walsh. Don’t get me wrong marketing usually gets the customer thinking, but it is a sales professional who puts the deal together and presents it in a way that over comes all objections. It wasn’t SEO or a dealership facebook that got the people calling me it was me. All forms of marketing are good but YOU are what makes things great for your customers.

Let me know your thoughts.

Written by Noel Walsh creator of  NW&A “Conquer What You Chase” Sales Training and Consulting from Ann Arbor, MI.