The past few months my husband has been searching for a replacement car. Recently, I joined him at the dealership for the test drive. Our experience with the salesman can serve as a lesson for any salesperson at a tire dealership.
Like many consumers these days, or as a typical Gen Yer, we had spent hours online researching before actually visiting the dealership. We basically knew which car we wanted, we just wanted to test drive it and have a few additional questions answered. We should have been a sure sale.
When we arrived at the dealership, a salesman approached us and started with his sales pitch about the car. As we both listened, we noticed he was spouting out facts that were wrong. We asked a couple of questions and the salesman was clearly making up answers.
While we still wanted the car we weren’t going to give the sale to someone who was lying to us, so we left.
Nothing is worse than a line of BS. If you don’t know the answer, its okay to say you’ll look it up. Sales people don’t need to know everything; they just need to be willing to find out.
There are hundreds of tire options and sizings and it’s impossible for a salesperson to know them all. You could be serving a customer who’s thoroughly researched their purchase and others who have no clue which tire to get; both deserve to get the right tire for their vehicle and needs.
A salesperson willing to find me the right tire for my needs is all I want, and all your customers want. If that means you have to admit you don’t know something about a specific tire but will find the answer, then do that.
Being up front and honest is the best way to build trust with you customer. When they trust you, they’ll come back to you. You could lie now to make the sale, but that customer might not return a second time.
Disagree with my view? What tactic do you take with customers? Let me know below in the comments.
