In a previous RV News article, I wrote that empathy can separate good salespeople from great ones. Genuinely caring about our industry’s health, customers’ experiences and those we work with opens up long-term growth possibilities.
This month, we dive deeper into a specific way sales professionals can demonstrate empathy and how to use empathy to produce more sales in today’s marketplace.
Start by listening fully first.
Let’s begin with a multiple-choice example. The result you choose can gauge where your team is today.
When you prompt a customer or ask them a question, they will respond in three parts.
First, they will give their gut reaction. A customer will let you know immediately how they feel towards the product shown or question asked.
Second, the customer will process the prompt. This is called thinking out loud. The customer will walk through their thought processes and you will hear their mindset as they do.
Third, they will give you their final thoughts on the matter. Whatever conclusion they come to will be the last statement made.
Which of these three responses is most important: their gut reaction, their thinking and processing out loud or their final statement?
Listening Requires Patience
Picture a customer walking up to the RV to be shown for the first time. As they approach, they say: “This thing is hideous! Why would they make something like this? That red decal striping is just horrible. Can I get it without the decals?”
The answer to which of the three responses is most important: The customer’s final statement on the matter is the most important and the one the salesperson answers.
Had the salesperson not listened fully to the customer, they would have immediately moved on from the RV. Because the customer’s first reaction—“This thing is hideous!”—and their processing of that reaction— “Why would they make something like this? That red decal striping is just horrible”—were negative, the salesperson would have provided the customer another RV option.
However, the customer’s final statement—“Can I get it without the decals?”—gave the salesperson an opportunity to show what probably was the customer’s best option, an RV the salesperson chose from the product selection or qualifying step of the sales process.
A salesperson who responds to gut reactions will never get to the bottom of what the customer is saying and needs. Instead, the salesperson will spend the bulk of their time handling objections, and their customers will leave negative reviews because the salesperson did not listen to them.
Had the salesperson in this example stopped listening during the thinking out loud part of the response, they still would have been handling an objection about the wrong problem. The salesperson would have missed the chance to give the customer a full presentation on the RV to overcome their one simple objection.
All of which leads us to the customer’s final statement on the matter. After a customer completes their thought fully is when we can best respond to them. Jumping ahead to conclusions without the complete answer limits a salesperson’s ability to answer the customer’s real concerns.
One of the principles I regularly teach is Start with an Empty Head. So long as the sales professional is worried about their responses, goals and own concerns, they will never be able to hear what a customer is really saying. Once a salesperson starts with an empty head, they must continue to listen fully through the entire Road to the Sale.
Each of you have experienced this, from both sides, before. My wife always knows when I am listening but not fully present. I can repeat back verbatim what she just said, but that does not mean I was processing the plans as she was talking. Her follow-up question is, “You are thinking about work, aren’t you?”
You have experienced this from the other side as well. You are trying to tell a grocery store clerk what you are looking for, but before you finish your sentence, the clerk is directing you to an aisle that may, or may not, have what you need.
This process is frustrating for all parties and takes us back to the solution: listening fully first.
Your dealership’s sales process systems should provide space to listen properly to a customer. Cookie-cutter interview forms with small spaces to write tell the customer we are not concerned with full answers, only what we believe we need. Write-up forms with condensed information do not enable the proper conversations to happen, ones that avoid any confusion or stress on the customer’s part.
Responses to Objections
Let’s cover an example of the sales style Downstream Selling, or nonconfrontation sales.
If a customer asks what their interest rate will be, we must understand why they are asking and recognize where we are in the sales process to respond appropriately.
If a customer asks what their interest rate will be at closing, the correct response is to close on everything else, and and then have the finance manager work on the customer’s real interest rate.
When the customer requests their interest rate before the write-up step, we cannot simply tell them ranges or we will be wrong.
With rates constantly changing, if we provide a number and the customer finds that number is 0.1% different during financing, we have created a much bigger problem. Instead, actually listen to what the customer is saying when they ask about their interest rate. They are really asking about their payment amount and how their payment will fit into their budget. That is a great buying question.
The salesperson’s response, with proper understanding and no conflict, would be, “Of course, you are going to want competitive rates and terms. We do not know exactly what they will be until you choose the exact RV and my business manager goes to work for you. What if they were able to get 1, 2, or 3 points or percent better than you were expecting, but it is on the wrong RV, or the loan payment structure left the payment still too high? Would it matter?”
Assure the customer you want to find the right RV first. Any RV you look at will fit the structure the customer outlined earlier. As soon as the customer chooses the correct RV for them, we will have the business manager begin working for the customer to ensure they get the most competitive rates and terms.
By understanding the situation and listening fully first, we can continue down the Road to the Sale and address the customer’s real concern without conflict.
If we are listening fully, the other interest rate objection in today’s market involves rate changes. Customers will say they want to postpone buying to see which direction interest rates are going.
Our answer must be an appropriate explanation of why what happens with interest rates down the road does not matter. By buying an RV now, they win any way they figure it. We call this technique Lock-in.
Explain to your customer they can lock in current interest rates by buying now. Doing so also locks in pricing structures before price increases come to market, and locks in the best RV selection so they can take their camping trip now.
If rates go up (and they will), the customer wins by locking in their rate, price and selection. If the rates stay the same, the customer wins by locking in price and selection, and they can start camping now.
If rates go down, the customer still wins. By locking in current pricing, the customer already saved so much more in cost than interest paid. By locking in selection, they chose the right RV before the summer inventory is picked over by other RVers. By buying now, they went camping and had all the quality family time they otherwise would have missed.
Oh, and the cost of refinancing an RV is practically nothing, especially compared with the monthly interest amount saved if the rates drop and they choose to refinance.
Today’s customers demand a higher service level, and so much of that service comes down to who listens fully first. Sales teams must be proficient with their tools and techniques, so they can start with, and keep, an empty head throughout their interactions with customers.
The sales professional can respond correctly because they actually listened to the customer fully and did not just hear them. Better interactions with customers mean not just more positive reviews, but more deals now and later.
Jered Sobel serves as president of Sobel University, a company providing training for management, salespeople and consumers across North America. He is best known for designing the industry-standard onboarding sales training manual and co-authoring the consumer guide to purchasing an RV. Among his previous work experiences are roles as a dealership salesperson, a general sales manager and hiring dealer staff.
