Getting to Know Your Customer | Part 1

One of the main tenets of Quantum⁵ is 'win customers for life.' But, how do we win a customer for life when we have such a short amount of time to get to know them? The answer to that is easy to say but can be difficult to accomplish. Dealerships are fast-paced; with the goal of selling as many vehicles as possible while also trying to gain trust from the customer, when they often don't trust us. We must focus on using what time we have to get to know who our customer really is, instead of considering them just another opportunity.

When I had a customer at my desk or on the lot, I asked the same industry-wide questions everyone knows, “do you have a trade in?” “are you considering financing?” “why’d you pick this car?” Questions car buyers have heard at every dealership. Of course, there must be a place for at least some of these questions, we would miss crucial information if we did not ask them. But, we are missing opportunity after opportunity in getting to know why our customer is really here.

Every customer comes into the dealership for a reason, even the ones who say they are “just looking.” We can choose to keep this encounter surface-level and walk the lot with them, or, we can ask better questions to understand their true motivator. The customer who is just looking may have been wanting a new car for months and is unsure if they can purchase one. The customer who wants a brand-new car could need a vehicle with better gas mileage because they unexpectedly have to drive a loved one around more often. The possible motivators are endless.

Have you ever been showing a customer a car and they don’t seem interested? While you are busy showing them how easily the second-row seats fold down, they just want to know if it has the safety technology they really want. If we don’t uncover why they are REALLY interested in a car, we cannot connect our presentation to their motivators. Each moment we spend with the customer is a chance to build a relationship that is valuable to them, or if we fail, a chance to show them why we are no different than every other salesperson they have met.

Many customers do not want to share too much information, so how do we uncover why they are really here? At Quantum⁵, we believe the answer lies in results-focused questions, which are designed to trigger people to share more. Oftentimes, salespeople ask the customers the same old questions and complain about the results instead of trying something new. Instead of asking, “why did you pick this one out?”, you can say, “describe for me what you like about this one.” You might find out it has a great safety rating, or it has the speakers they really want.

The question is, are you willing to ask different questions to get better results?