Sales Aide

 

 

EXCERPTS FROM

Preface:

Action – Direction – Knowledge

 

A bicycle maintains its poise and equilibrium only so long as it is going to forward towards something.  You have a good bicycle.  Your trouble is you are trying to maintain your balance sitting still, with no place to go.  It's no wonder that you feel shaky.

We are engineered as goal seeking mechanisms.  We are built that way.  When we have no personal goal which we are interested in and which "means something" to us, we are apt to "go around in circles," feel "lost" and find life itself "aimless," and "purposeless."  We are built to conquer environment, solve problems, achieve goals, and we find no real satisfaction or happiness in life without obstacles to conquer and goals to achieve.  People who say that life is not worthwhile are really saying that they themselves have no personal goals which are worth while.

 

Prescription: get yourself a goal worth working for.  Better still, get yourself a project.  Decide what you want out of a situation.  Always have something ahead of you to "look forward to" -- to work for and hope for.  Look forward, not backward.  Develop what one of the automobile manufacturers calls "the forward look." 

 

i

 

Develop a "nostalgia for the future" instead of for the past."  The "forward look" and a "nostalgia for the future" can keep you youthful.  Even your body doesn't function well when you stop being a goal striver and "have nothing to look forward to."  This is the reason that very often when man retires, he dies shortly thereafter.  When you are not goal striving, not looking forward, you're not really "living."  In addition to your purely personal goals, have at least one impersonal goal -- or "cause" which you can identify yourself with.  Get interested in some project to help your fellow man -- not out of the sense of duty, but because you want to.

 

In this book, we are going to focus on, "you," (the energy that drives the bicycle: Action) and "the front wheel" (the steering and direction: Direction).  For the sake of brevity, we will assume that the "the back wheel" (product and process knowledge: Knowledge) has been covered with dealership training.

 

This may to be somewhat uncomfortable at first.  Because, you are about to discover your unlimited potential through a step by step process that will not only increase your income but also give you skills that you can transfer to other aspects of your life.

 

Do you recall the first time you attempted to

 

ii

 

ride a bicycle.  I know I certainly do.  I also remember the scrapes and bruises.  But I learned to ride that bicycle, not because, I had to but because I wanted to.  This was the driving force behind the accomplishment of that goal.  And to this day I still remember how to ride a bicycle.  As you embark on your new career, yes, there will be some scrapes and bruises.  But I can assure you, the tools and tips provided in this book will make your new career "as easy as riding a bicycle."

 Table of Contents

 

SECTION 1 - PSYCHOLOGY OF SELLING

Chapter 1:         Communication

Chapter 2:         The Mind Set

Chapter 3:         Planning and Tracking

Chapter 4:         Staying on Course

SECTION 2 - MECHANICS OF THE SALES PROCESS

Chapter 1:      SELLING

Chapter 2:      PERSONALITY TYPES

Chapter 3:      AVOIDING NEGATIVES

Chapter 4:      COMMON OBJECTIONS

Chapter 5:      INTERNET SALES

Chapter 6:      REFERRALS

Chapter 7:      FORMULA FOR SUCCESS

SECTION 3 – THE TOOLS OF THE TRADE

Chapter 1:         Your Daily Planner

Chapter 2:         Keeping Positive

Chapter 3:         Your Goals Tracker

Chapter 4:         Calculating your Course

  

xvii

 

 Chapter 1

  

Communication is a feedback sensitive activity

 

You'll find that we were spending the majority of our time in interpersonal communication.  Communication is an unconscious and habitual process, and therefore tends to become stronger if reinforced intermittently.  This means that if you get your outcome, with enough regularity that you do not become overly frustrated, you're communication process, effective or not, will be intermittently reinforced enough and powerfully entrenched.  Like any habit  it becomes increasingly difficult to change with time.

 

We need a clear understanding of how to cleanly convey our thoughts and feelings to others, so that in this highly competitive world we will have the maximum influence.  A well-trained actor or comic is able to affect feelings and motivation with keys by the careful use of voice town and tempo as well as mindful use of body movements.  Since individuals still make decisions on their sense of what is appropriate being able to communicate to the got level of another human being becomes the quality of communication that we need today.

 

The process of communication does not only

 

2

 

involve the careful selection of words, but also the delivery of those words and the accompanying body analogs or movements.  You cannot, not communicate.  Even if you do not respond when someone addresses you, you're making a significant statement.  Do a little research for a minute.  Standup or sit up straight.  Now, allow your head to fall forward, your shoulders to round, your head to tilt to one side, and say to yourself, "boy do I feel happy."  What is your internal response?  Why doesn't the communication work?  OK, change position and shake off the feelings of that last exercise.  Now stand tall, look up, raise your arms, breathe deeply and say, "boy am I depressed."  Once you stop laughing at the absurdity of the internal feelings think for a moment about why neither of these last two exercises work from a communication point of view.  I propose that the body analogs were so out of sync with the words that the subsequent feeling was funny.

 

Psychological research supports that communication is more than the words we say.  This research demonstrated that percentage of the overall message carried by the various components of the communication process:

 

            -- seven percent of the message was contained in the words.

                             3 

 

-- 38 percent of the message was contained in the tone, tempo and syntax.

 

            -- 55 percent of the message was contained in the body posture, gesture and eye contact.

 

The significant message here is that, outside of using the appropriate words to set the context for communication, the words are not as important as the way in which they are delivered.  Excellent communicators have known for years that the feedback you receive from the communication is a reflection of the message sent.  If you're not getting the results you want, change the process of you're communication.

 

Communication is a two-way loop between sender and receiver.  This loop is governed by a set of rules.  Understanding and internalizing this set of rules build good interpersonal skills and high-quality relationships.  With the use of these skills, planning and problem solving and the successful transfer of information or direction is enhanced.

 

The six steps to powerful communication can become head digital with minimal practice.

 

            1.  No what you want!  All communication is outcome oriented.  Your desired outcome may be anything from a

 

4

 

change in attitude to a car deal.  Make sure you can define your outcome and sensory specific terms.  Be able to answer in the following questions about your outcome.  When I have achieved my outcome, what will I see?  What will I hear?  What will I feel?

 

            2.  Have the flexibility (at least three choices) about how to achieve your outcome.  The individual with the most choice has the most flexibility and controls the communication loop.  Automatic and habitual responses tend to achieve hacked results.

 

            3.  Have the visual, auditory and kinesthetic acuity to know when you have achieved your outcome.  When we communicate with an individual it's possible to see physiological changes that indicate if the information that we are providing his having the desired impact.  Once you have seen the physiological indicators to tie you that you have achieved your help, stop.

 

            4.  Consider the best context for achieving the outcome you want.  Use words clearly in the communication to set and support that context.  If at any point you need to reinforce the context, do so.  For example, if you must deal with the client that is difficult, set a context for the discussion that ensures they feel important, and not threatened.

 

            5.  Deliver your message with a

 5

 

voice town and tempo that supports what you are saying as well as the outcome.  If your outcome is to help the client deal with and behavior that arises out of a past bad experience in a car dealership, speaking in and gentle and supportive tone and tempo will do more than an aggressive one.  Although aggression on your part may result in some modification of the client's less than desirable behavior, it is also likely to create and negative if only saddle backlash.  It becomes increasingly difficult to sustain that behavioral change and the deal with the backlash effectively.

 

            6.  Use body analogs or movements that support the message being sent eliminate random movements because they often negate your message or create a double message. At best, random movements create no ways that must be eliminated from the receivers visual field in order for the communication can be effective.

 

You'll find useful to guide yourself throughout the day with one question, "what is my outcome, and what is my present behavior doing to support my attaining that outcome?"  Communication is both an internal and external process.  How we communicate with ourselves internally affects the quality of our lives at least as profoundly as how we communicate with others.  All communication, internal or external needs to

 6

   

be focused on improving, the overall quality of our lives as individuals, our community and our culture.  We need to learn to take responsibility for the results of our communication.

 

Communication is a feedback sensitive activity, analogous to the thermostat circuitry that controls a heating system.  If you want the temperature to be 20 degrees in your house, setting the thermostat at 30 degrees rather than 20 degrees will not get the temperature to the desired level any faster than if it was set at 20 degrees.  In communication, louder, faster, and the longer, usually serves to alienate the recipient of you're communication rather than enhance the stability of the outcome.

 

If you do today what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got.  Do yourself a favor and communicate differently today!

 

Back to Home