Limiting Beliefs that Hold New Car Sales People Back
We adore the potential that the auto industry provides to millions of Americans around the nation. And although though we are better recognized for mentoring high-achieving salespeople and automotive leaders to even greater heights, we also appreciate assisting new people, also known in the business as “Green peas.” We all had a beginning, right? Despite all of these opportunities, only a small percentage of auto salespeople stay in the industry for more than a year.
The biggest things that hold them back—what I refer to as limiting beliefs—are, of course, the same ones that keep any of us back. A limiting belief is a myth, fallacy, presumption, or frame of mind that will prevent achievement, impede development, paralyze, and impair performance.
This blog is meant to reflect our dedication to helping dealerships that would provide those Americans with an opportunity as well as aspiring automotive professionals all around the nation. This blog’s target audience is new car sales professionals who want to find and get rid of the limiting thoughts keeping them from succeeding. This blog will also give sales managers access to some of the coaching questions I’ve used to help new salespeople overcome obstacles to success in sales as one of the best sales coaches.
The limiting beliefs are as follows right away:
“I’d start selling cars if I had my business cards,” the person said.
This is a really serious issue! It’s as though new salesmen think that every business card distributed is a coupon for a car purchase that customers will bring to their dealership in exchange for a car purchase.
The truth is that business cards are termination letters. Giving someone a business card is the easiest option for someone who is reluctant to request a prospect’s contact information. Not to mention that there are significantly more effective and efficient ways to share contact information in 2023. Make a contact of yourself in your contacts list instead of handing out business cards, and give it the title “(Your Name) (Make You Sell) Car Gal/Guy.” In the example above, “Sean Kelley Hyundai Car Guy” would be the name of my contact. Instead of giving a customer your business card, tell them it would be ideal if they saved your contact information on their phone because you were tired of people losing your card. And if they do, they can simply do a spotlight search for “Car Guy/Gal” and your name will appear. Most people will forget your name. The nice thing is that you will also get their phone number when you send them your contact information.
Who were the most recent people to give you a business card? is one or more coaching question(s) that can help you tackle this limiting mindset. Can you immediately remove those cards? Right now, where are those cards? What value do they have for the individual who handed you the cards, then?
Enabling Belief: “I will always have the fortitude to ask for contact information from everyone I meet and to arrange a time to follow up. Because automobiles don’t sell through business cards, and if I don’t establish relationships with my clients, they won’t be lining up to buy cars from me.
Business cards don’t sell vehicles; contact information exchange and follow-up with potential customers do.
2. “The paperwork/software is the most crucial thing I need to learn,”
It takes everything I have not to snort when I hear this one. Inhaling deeply, I’ll tell myself, “Sean, they don’t know what they don’t know.”
The truth is that, although paperwork and software are only a minor part of selling, you won’t have to worry about doing much paperwork if you understand the phases in the sales process and why you’re guiding the customer through each step in that process. Understanding the steps in the sale process and the rationale for each is of utmost importance. Here’s a piece of advice: sell your automobile to yourself to learn paperwork. You may write yourself up from beginning to end as if you were purchasing a car; you don’t even have to buy one. Simply number each piece of paper as you go, from 1 to whatever corresponds to the order in which it was written up. You’ll have a small paperwork manual you can use while learning how to sell someone something if you do this.
What more would you need to learn in order to excel in this field, assuming you could master the paperwork side of things in a few hours? are some coaching question(s) to assist challenge this limiting mindset.
I realize there is a lot more to learn than just paperwork, and I’ll commit to learning for an hour every day from this point on.
After learning the paperwork, you’ll still need to work on learning the sales process, common objections and how to overcome them, your product knowledge, the products of your competitors, how to use the phones (both inbound and outbound), how to engage and sell to service customers, how to network with local businesses, and how to market yourself on social media.
5. “Since I’m good at communicating with people, I’ll do well selling cars.”
That would be the same as saying, “I can stack bricks well, so I am a great architect.”
The truth is that while having a wide comfort zone is helpful in the auto industry, your ability to sell depends greatly on the words you choose. There are many lovely people with amazing conversational skills who have difficulty meeting their monthly sales targets. Learn the essential inquiries instead to determine the needs and desires of a consumer. Learn effective language to dispel consumer concerns and objections. Find the top salespeople who are bringing in all the repeat and referral business, and pay attention to what they are saying and, more importantly, why they are saying it.
What distinguishes a friendly chat with a stranger from a sales conversation with one? are some coaching questions to help you confront this limiting belief.
Creating Belief: “I will choose my words carefully and develop my own understanding of the language of sales!In sales, there are no free words. Sales is a language, and very few people have the natural skill to begin as a black belt, much as martial arts have various levels of blackbelt.
6. “I need to keep my customers from finding out that I’m new to selling cars.”
This anxiety is understandable given that clients respect experience, product knowledge, and process awareness when choosing the best sales consultant to assist them with their needs. However, there are still other, more crucial considerations that need to be made before you try to hide the fact that you’re new to the industry.
The truth is that auto purchasers are also wary of car salespeople who are dishonest, opaque, or even deceitful. Would you want to work with a salesperson that isn’t open, honest, and straightforward with you or a new vehicle salesperson who is still learning everything?What do you believe the response to be? It won’t take long for customers to figure you out if you’re new. Being open about your anxieties is a terrific way to develop trust. You earn immediate trust from a customer by admitting that you are new. This will enable the client to reciprocate and be open about their concerns regarding the purchase of a car and encourage them to work with you more.
What do you think the majority of car customers’ perceptions are about “Car salespeople” generally? are some coaching questions to assist you confront this limiting notion. How would changing that perception by being transparent with them?
Creating Belief: Customers demand honesty and transparency from sales representatives; if you provide them with such qualities, they will trust you. What if you were upfront with the customer and gave them a choice? Customers like to feel in control and avoid pushy salespeople. Use the following phraseology after your greeting: “Mrs. Customer, I want to be totally open and honest with you before we go too far in the sales process. Since I am new to this field of work, you could have questions that I am unable to respond to.
Having said that, if you’re cool with it, my manager and coworkers are here to help, and I would love to keep working with you. Do you feel confident moving forward with me, or would you rather I find you a skilled sales professional to assist you today?The people who want an experienced sales professional certainly wouldn’t have enjoyed working with you anyway. The vast majority of people that continue to work with you build their relationship on trust, which will help you close more transactions while allowing you to be inexperienced and uninformed. How exciting! “I will be open and truthful with the potential clients I meet, giving them the option to work with me while not taking it personally or fearing failure if they do not.”
3. “People get annoyed when you ask for help.”
Would you allow yourself to learn anything new?
Abraham Maslow came to the conclusion that every time a person is growing, they go through four phases of learning. Unconscious incompetence, or stage one, is when you are unaware of your ignorance. Stage 2 is conscious competence; at this point, you are aware of your limitations. You now understand that conscious competence is stage 3! Stage 4 of competence is when you can do an action with your eyes closed since it has become muscle memory. The majority of organizations, managers, and coworkers who are aware that EVERY person must attempt, fail, and learn until they are competent also recognize that a new person will require assistance. “Need” is the important word because you will probably fail if you don’t get assistance.
What could not asking for help cost you? is a coaching question or questions that can help you tackle this limiting notion. What advantages may you have if you asked your team members and management for assistance? What would you seek for help with right now, if you could ask for assistance on any subject at any time?
Enabling Belief: “Even though I work alone, my managers and coworkers would rather assist me than let me fail. We succeed as a team.”
Ask for assistance and look for support, and your chances of success will increase significantly. Don’t ask and anticipate a significantly steeper learning curve that might cost you your job selling cars.
4. “I’m just looking into the automotive industry.”
Poor idea. Update your résumé and start looking for work right away.
The truth is that in order to succeed in the auto industry to the fullest, you will need to step outside of your comfort zone, understand the language of sales, and take actions that only a totally devoted human being would take. You must be 100 percent dedicated to succeeding in this industry. Tony Robins describes the Vikings’ invasions of inhabited islands. Before invading the towns, they would take their boats to the island, jump off with their guns and essential equipment, and then set their boats entirely ablaze before burning them to ash. They did this since they didn’t want to eliminate the possibility of retreat. If you search #GoAllin, you should be able to locate profiles for Anthony Santangelo, an automotive recruiter and sales trainer, who states “If you’re just checking out the car business, you’re going to check out of the car business.”
In my own case, I made the decision to forgo a corporate position at Enterprise Rent-A-Car in favor of going ALL IN on the auto industry. Since then, I’ve been able to rise to the position of top salesperson for a dealer group, advance through the ranks of finance, used car management, and general sales manager, accept offers of ownership or partnership, and now own the most prosperous car business coaching company. while also expanding into a loving family of five. Not boasting, just letting you know that it’s ONLY because I bet everything on the auto industry.
What could not asking for help cost you? is a coaching question or questions that can help you tackle this limiting notion. What advantages may you have if you asked your team members and management for assistance? What would you seek for help with right now, if you could ask for assistance on any subject at any time?
Enabling Belief: “There is no backup plan, so I’m going to seize this auto business opportunity like it’s the most crucial thing I’ve ever done.” I am confident that if I put 150% into it, I will succeed.
You won’t receive all the results you could obtain if you don’t put your all into anything. It is frequently the difference between success/longevity and failure/quitting when you don’t obtain all the outcomes you expect.
“Having product knowledge helps me respond to all of my customers’ inquiries and educate them on every aspect of the vehicle of interest,” I said.
Yes, product knowledge is crucial, and being able to respond to inquiries from clients is helpful, BUT…
The truth is that clients don’t need to be fully informed about the automobile, and doing so will hurt your ability to sell it. Additionally, product expertise is essential for much more than just responding to client inquiries. Understanding your product can also assist you decide which car to sell a consumer. When a customer has chosen the wrong car for themselves and there is a better solution, product expertise enables you to recognize it. By comparing your car to the competition using product knowledge, you may stop your customers from spending their time visiting rival dealerships.
Knowing your product is crucial for a number of reasons, but perhaps none more crucial than the fact that it’s how you both physically and figuratively “build value” for your clients. Product knowledge may be incredibly harmful to someone who doesn’t understand how to create value using a customized walkaround with their product knowledge. Product knowledge can be lethal (in a positive way) in the hands of the appropriate salesperson. Daytime running lights, for instance, increase safety for a mother of four who is replacing a car that was recently in an accident by making her car more visible to other drivers every single day! The same daytime running lights, however, make their vehicle more noticeable and attractive so they will catch people’s attention if you are selling the identical vehicle to a young, single buyer. The benefits and features are the same, yet each sort of customer has different values.
What is the importance of having excellent product knowledge? is a coaching question that can help you confront this limiting assumption. How does product knowledge contribute to the value you place on yourself? How can a skilled salesman add value to a walk-around presentation using their product knowledge?
Creating Belief: “I will acquire product knowledge since doing so will enable me to first customize my sales presentations to my clients and second, because clients value expertise!”
You’ll know you know how to leverage product knowledge to sell and not bore your clients when you use the SAME characteristics of your product to produce value for THREE different categories of purchasers.
In conclusion, everyone among us holds limiting beliefs and knowledge gaps. We also don’t know what we don’t know when beginning a whole new career, and our brains have tried to cover these knowledge gaps with beliefs. Many of them will be restricting thoughts that might hinder our achievement. One of the most enjoyable and rewarding careers on the planet is selling cars.
The automobile business offers enormous potential for development on both a personal and professional level. Having said that, it is crucial to recognize knowledge gaps, limiting beliefs, and to continue to be coachable. You will want to swiftly eliminate these beliefs and swap them out for the successful attitudes when reality sets in and you find that this isn’t as simple as you had thought.
Back to Blog