Do You Run Your Business Like The Auto Industry? You’re Probably Closer Than You Think! How the science of influence and persuasion can bail you out

Many of you know that I spent the majority of my “teeth-cutting” years in the auto industry. Working every aspect, from manufacturing, wholesale/distribution and retail gave me a unique perspective while watching the hearings over the past month. Well, I decided that I’d do my part to help the industry get back on their feet. You see, I have a vehicle that has a lease that’s concluding next month. No, I am not willing to pay full-sticker or more to support them, but with the lease expiring a trip to the local dealers was in order.

So off my seven-year old daughter and I headed last week to three dealerships (Note to consumers – Always bring young kids with you. You can leverage them as an exit strategy when you grow tired of the dealer's tactics!) We visited three dealerships and I believe that I’ve stumbled upon what the biggest problem is.

No, and let me be clear about this right from the get go, we were not treated badly or in a “customer unfriendly” manner. There’s already been enough written about that! My experience was a pleasant one. We were eagerly greeted by salesmen at each location and each seemed genuinely happy to see us (There were few/any other customers around). We had relatively little difficulty at each location selecting a vehicle and test-driving them. We even had no issues departing! There were none of the traditional “You can’t leave until you meet my manager” or “If I could get this vehicle to fit in your budget, would you be willing to drive it away today?” conversations (Kind of disappointing, I was ready to rumble and so was my seven-year old!)

Here is the interesting part, and perhaps the part that you can unfortunately relate to… No one followed-up with me to see how they could further assist me! There was no twenty-four hour call to say thank you for coming by, no seventy-two hour call to see where I was at in the purchase decision, no call at all!

So I started thinking, I wonder how many businesses out there meet a prospect and then never follow-up with them if they don’t buy right then and there? Do you behave like that? Worse yet, do the people that work for you behave like that?

The science of influence and persuasion points out two principles that should come to the rescue:

• Consistency – Whatever your follow-up process is with your customers, you need to do it each and every time! Develop your follow-up schedule and stick to it, and make certain that you are measuring the follow-up procedures of your people so that you properly manage their actions. The current economy has caused the length of time between “investigation” and “purchase decision” to lengthen considerably. Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up should be your mantra as the leader!


• Scarcity – When the customers are scarce, you’ve got to find a way to stay in touch with them. The one great thing about the car business is that incentives/loan rates change daily (make that hourly today!) This is exactly the type of information that you want to present to your customers so that you stay “in the loop” front and present with them. Remember, information that is new should be distributed immediately to your customers, not later on… NOW! Information is like fish… it’s best when it’s distributed fresh (no frozen comments here!)
  

As I was writing this, you’re never going to believe what just happened! That’s right, one of the salesman followed-up with me. He was neither “convincing” nor “sharing of information” with his call. He was using the same-old techniques that no longer work in this economy (I’ll let you guess what he said… write me an email at sp@pathosleadershipgroup.com and I’ll send you a copy of my book “The Influential Leader”).

So are you, or your people like the auto industry? If you’d like to make certain, write me an email and we’ll schedule a complimentary coaching session to assess where you, and your organization are at! Keep this in mind, the government probably isn’t going to bail you and your organization out anytime soon!

PS – I don’t know if any of the other salespeople will follow-up with me. Strike that, I definitely know one of them won’t. He never got my information to follow-up! (Your people do get follow-up information right?) Where have you gone Joe Girard?

You've got a Customer Testimonial...So What!?!

I just visited a blog that discusses the use of testimonials on your website (You can read it here Word of Mouth with a Bigger Mouth). So should you, or shouldn't you use a customer's testimonial on your website? Here was my answer to the blog as well as my comments below:

Great post...You are correct when it comes to testimonials and the connection to influencing others through their use!

The principles from the science of influence and persuasion that you are referring to is something I describe in my book (The Influential Leader) as “Social Norm” and it is analogous to a “herding” mentality that is deep-rooted within each of us! Simply put, if we perceive others doing similar, we will follow.

The use of testimonials is a tricky one though…So beware! There is a right way and a wrong way to put testimonials on your website. Often times, it’s best to not have them at all! So what is right and what is wrong? Here are two examples:

“Scott was fantastic!” – TL
“Scott was a driving force in allowing our customers to develop trust in us. As a result, our sales are up 50% in the last quarter!” – Thomas Leonard, Epson Electronics Sales Director

I would encourage people that place testimonials to do the latter example! If I can further assist, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Sam Palazzolo, CPLP, MBA

Unfortunately, most who have testimonials don't give enough of the 5W's (Who, What, Where, When and Why) and they certainly don't give the "How" towards their success. Worse still, they give a "confidential" name as to who had such nice words about them!

Don't get me wrong, testimonials are great when used properly. They build trust with people that might not know you. However, when used properly they can be better left "unsaid" if you know what i mean!

Are You a Professional Speaker? You are to Me!

Are you like Cavett?

One of my favorite National Speaker Association “Voices of Experience” (VOE) tracks from the last year was on Cavett Robert and the impact he had on NSA’s organization and membership. You’ve probably heard the same track where everyone has such wonderful things to say about him. There are two thoughts that cross my mind as I recall it…

First, Cavett always sat in the front-row at every presentation he attended and took notes. He would always learn something from whoever was presenting and perhaps most importantly, he’d make a point of meeting the speaker afterward to tell them how he thought that they were the best speaker he’d heard! He didn’t stop paying compliments to those that gave presentations, he’d also tell people that he was having regular conversations with how they should become professional speakers (Legend has it that he’d even say the same to garbage men!) So do you act like Cavett? Who have you told that they speak great and that they should become a professional speaker? I know that my life changed dramatically the day Tim Durkin said something similar to me!

Second, I mentioned that everyone on the VOE had such wonderful things to say about Cavett. Who doesn’t like to hear good things about themselves? I only hope that they shared the same thoughts with him when he was still with us. November 14th is a reminder day for all members of NSA to remember Cavett. I say we celebrate the entire month by telling those we enjoy why they are special people in our lives. Who knows, maybe they’ll want to become members of NSA as well!

Visit our "Affiliates" page to learn how you can become certified with Pathos (www.PathosLeadershipGroup.com). The benefit to speakers, coaches or trainers is that you can compliment your A+ material with the breadth of ours (See all we have to offer on the Training page of the website).

Sam Palazzolo, CPLP
President & Chief Influence Officer
Pathos Leadership Group

Where Have All The Cowboys Gone - Influential Sales and the Economy

Paula Cole asked a few years ago, and it bears repeating during this tough economic period..."Where have all the cowboys gone?" This past weekend, I met one that is worth telling you about.

On Sunday afternoon, my wife and family decided to have a little "family day" that consisted of us going to a few open houses and then visiting a couple of car dealerships. My kids initially resisted, but later loved tearing through the open homes (Sorry realtors!) We like to do this because it is a great learning experience to share with our kids what's really important. We always do a debrief after each home and discuss what they liked, what they didn't like, what we have at our current house, etc.

The highlight of the day was when we went to a few car dealerships. Here in Texas, because of the labor "blue" laws, dealerships can only be open one of the two weekend days. If they're open on Saturday, they must be closed on Sunday and vice-versa. Most chose this pattern, but a few like to "swim upstream" and close on Saturday to be open on Sunday. We chose to visit the ones that were open on Saturday and close on Sunday. Even though I worked in the car business for nearly 16 years, my wife summed it up when she explained to our oldest daughter when she asked "Why are we going there, they look closed?" My wife answered in her usually honest way by saying "This way we won't be bothered by any pushy salesperson!"

That's when we met him...The Cowboy! We visited the Park Place Lexus dealership in Grapevine, Texas expecting to be all alone, browsing the hundreds of new/used vehicles un-bothered. To our surprise, there was one lonely salesperson there to greet us. Now he was not pushy or obstructive to our mission, and many dealers post "inventory takers" at their lots on Sundays. That is to say, many Ford, Chrysler, GM, Hundai, Kia dealers. Here was a Lexus dealership doing the same! I was shocked, amazed and simultaneously horrified by our encounter.

How bad is the economy that a salesperson at the cream of the crop Lexus dealer in the country has to have "inventory takers" on the lot on a Sunday? This dealership won the Malcolm Baldridge Quality Award and the State of Texas Quality Award "equivalent" for goodness sake! Our salesperson, David greeted us with a great smile and was dressed casually for the Sunday (Except for the $7,500 watch he was sporting!) He was doing the same thing that other "less than" dealerships have to do to get sales leads.

Here's the bottom line...He was there so that he could sell a car or two in the coming week. He was missing the football games so that he could build his sales leads for the coming week. Was he successful? From the look of his portfolio notepad with all the names he had written down, he was getting the leads. Will they all buy from him? Who knows! But don't miss the point, he was working just as hard, if not harder, to do his job.


What do you do that others won't or aren't willing to do so that you can be the best in your position? Do you want to sell more, even in this economy? Here's an offer for you...The week of November 17th we'll be hosting an "Influential Sales" webinar series. You can read about it at http://www.pathosleadershipgroup.com/. We'll be discussing how you can get the "Influential Edge" to compete and win in today's tough economy. I want you to be a part of this webinar! Send me an email at sp@pathosleadershipgroup.com and I'll invite you to a complimentary overview, or "test drive" on how we perform our webinars for maximum impact!


Sam Palazzolo
President & Chief Influence Officer @ Pathos Leadership Group - Home of the Influential Edge!
Visit us at www.PathosLeadershipGroup.com