Here are several sales strategies I would like to share with you. Back in 1969, a technician is always ready to greet a customer coming in with a car problem. The technician would pull his car to a bay, look and discuss the trouble of the car. What fluids needing to be drained or replaced or the parts that needs repair. But now, additional crew was added to the mix, including the service managers and service advisors. The responsibility of a service advisor is to increase the sales, improve customer experience and enhance the technician’s productivity. If a technician will not be required to leave his work place in order to greet customers, he will be able to accomplish more work.

Majority of the service advisors in the field understands their role. But with the waning of profits in dealership, we are increasingly dependent on our service advisors to generate sales more than ever. Another thing that I learned while doing service clinics with our clients is that technicians are far better at doing sales than most of our advisors.

We just finished a mini cooper clinic during the weekend, and we make a sale of $32,000 worth of labor and customer paid parts in just one day. We expect to get that much work again within the next several months. While conducting car doctor service clinics, one thing becomes very obvious to everybody, it is very easy for a technician to make a sale. And the reason is that, the technician is basically the one who shows the customers what needs to be done with their car and nothing more. And the transaction usually goes something this way…

While a customer in the waiting room waits patiently, an automotive technician walks in and talks with the client. He will then bring them into the shop and will talk about a 32-point visual examination with the client standing near their car. They won’t be using any sales techniques, just show the client the car and pointing out the worn and torn areas like cracked belts and leaks in their car.
Usually a technician makes a bigger sale than any sales advisor, and that’s because of their much closer relationship with the customer. The technician is more likely to make an impression and develop trust between them.

Customers live in a totally different environment and most likely have never popped the hood or have never seen their cars’ underside. Their last visit with the technician and all the work done will be useless if a customer see a cracked belt or their vehicle leaking oil. They would want it to be repaired or replace and will need another trip, most probably to another dealer. Nothing can persuade the customer more for a comprehensive check up of their car than the technician working on it.

Service advisors learn many things from a technician selling more by just showing their clients what is best for their car. The technician was able to present two powerful things that go together, opportunity and sales. And that’s the service advisor’s job, creating sales and not talking their clients to save on service or products. Make customers eager of your services and keep technicians at their respective work place.

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As technology advances, the trend of conducting business changes as well. Gone are the days for traditional marketing as the present trend tends to lean on technology. Industries worldwide can survive the competition if the entrepreneurs are able to use the latest marketing tools and ideas to create a niche before their competitors.

An entrepreneur can gain valuable insights that can turn into massive sales and profitability simply by listening to the best business coaching personalities who have full knowledge and experience on the present market trends and consumer preferences.

The following are the list of the 9 Ultimate Reasons you can be Successful in 2012.

1. Learn to Adapt to Changes. While we all know that the only constant thing in this world is change, keeping your business running amidst the competition require a skillful leader who masters the change. A number of successful entrepreneurs have an affirmative response to their ability in mastering the change. While the technology constantly changes, businessmen should be able to learn to make a habitual pivot as a response to changes on market forces.

2. Invest with Day Trading. Entrepreneurs who have tried day trading say that their hearts palpitate and their blood run with the turn of events in the micro and macro economy of the stocks. These movements should be constantly monitored in four screens for you to see all angles. If you are an establishing entrepreneur who intends to make it big in the industry, the first thing that you need to learn is how to handle stress while looking at a term sheet that’s going bad.

Entrepreneurs who were successful handling and manipulating the economic movement factors, advises aspiring entrepreneurs to focus in creating strategies that will ensure the existence of the business regardless the ups and downs of the enterprise. This can be done by motivating your employees to work on the achievement of your goal for the company. This is crucial especially for those employees who are new in the industry and those that worry on the stability of the company.

3. Learn to Sell! Regardless of your role in an organization, learning the art of selling is a must. Before aspiring for success, you should first learn how to sell to customers and investors. Entrepreneurs say that the selling strategy you used on your first 100 customers may not be as effective on the next 100. It is important that you keep innovating your strategy by knowing the buying attitude of your market.

4. Invest in Uniqueness! Approaching your market the traditional way or the way your competitors normally does it will not earn you a spot in the top. Thus, creating a unique approach to your team, product, and market is a must.

5. Keep in Mind that not all output will turn out the way you have projected it. When you organize a team, not everyone can take the lead role, all the time. So it is always advised that you humble yourself and take the backseat role and allow your team to move forward, when needed. Businessmen suggest that you should learn to align an equity structure and provide areas for growth and designate your subordinates who have the best ideas in a specific project.

6. Get the best people! This is a must especially if you do not have the best qualification for a specific project. All the financial resources the success requires the thorough knowledge and experience of the experts in order for the venture to succeed. You can always find partners who have formal training or education in the field, persuade them to work for you as partners or as full time employees.

7. Know the value of your investment. This is perhaps one of the common mistakes that entrepreneurs commit especially those who do not undergo a personal coaching session with an expert. Every investor should know that money matters when it comes to product development, marketing and in generating the expected revenue. It is always encouraged that businessmen build something instead of establishing a unit model that can be scaled especially on B2B.

8. Keep in Mind that All Industries are Different. While our world gets bigger and bigger, the marketing community gets borderless. However, the methods in selling and approaching your market should be as unique as your industry. Thus, experts in the industry suggest that an entrepreneur should master a vertical approach first before moving on to a new one.

9. Hire Carefully but Let Go Fast! Firing someone helps you move and look for a new and more competent one while helping the person to move on as well. While employees may have dreams and aspirations, their stay has a corresponding cost that you are shouldering while running the business. So do yourself a favor and allow changes within your organization to take place.

Making mistakes while building a stable position in the industry is normal, this is a work in progress that cannot be achieved overnight. It requires tons of works to be able to reach the goals.

In the automotive industry, the challenges and marketing hurdles are mainly concentrated in identifying whether the operation should focus in making exemplary sales or in designing excellent customer service processes that will generate more clients to the firm. The problem, is combining both in the operation seems to sacrifice one.

According to automotive experts, most of the firms in this segment are more sales driven than a purpose driven organizations. In 2005, a decline of 11.7% in automotive advertising had been noted. This shows that concentrating in one strategy is posting a significant disadvantage in the overall performance of an organization.

There is an immense difference between a sales driven organization and the purpose driven firm when it comes to timelines and primary goals. Each company type has its own way of defining success in accordance with the business goals and the strategies that are being implemented to achieve these goals. Primarily, a sales-driven organization thinks of strategies that are short term in nature especially in setting-up the objectives. Meanwhile, a purpose driven automotive dealership organization sets long term goals and benchmarks.

Which is better for your organization?

Sales-Driven Businessman

A sales driven businessman’s primary goal is to grab maximum return on his investment, for the firms, shareholders, and the rest of profit stakeholders in an organization who has infused a capital to the company. In the concept of pragmatic marketing, that focuses mainly on marketing training and product managements. A sales driven business structure is designed so that its business department and leadership provide maximum support to its sales team. This leads to the creation of promotional campaigns that intend to stimulate consumer interest on the product and service offering. This way, the company is able to achieve the highest possible profit within a short period of time. This kind of leader is not focused with the long term sustainability of its service and product offerings.

The fact is market research and customer feedback are very important aspects in a sales-driven company. The feedbacks are important to gauge on the needs of customers within a given market. This way, the sales driven businessman will be able to develop products and services that its customers will be purchasing. Moreso, market research helps every business organization determine the attractive price level and on how automotive parts, vehicles and customer services shall be priced and marketed according to the income of its consumers within a target area.

In addition, the sales driven businessman devotes significant portion of the company’s operational budget to promotional events and advertising. However, risks should be considered as achieving long term success is difficult in this kind of organization. The heavy focus on profit generation and pricing strategy makes it difficult for the operation to sustain longevity which will separate the organization apart from its competitors.

Purpose Drive Businessman

Meanwhile, a purpose driven businessman develops activities, business strategies and product offerings according to the wants and needs of its customers within a target area. Definitely, this kind of businessman intends in making a profit, but efforts are not mainly focused in allocating resources on short term goals and making profits as much as possible. Instead, the leader seeks to develop product lines and services which will be of interest to its clients in a long term basis. Thus, business strategies of the company are filtered through the consumer’s interest and opinions.

In this kind of business organization, a careful methodology especially in the implementation of strategies is very important. The company should employ a clear and rigid communication hierarchy structure so that the development of the products and services are controlled.

This kind of leader does not rush to market with an objective of making a quick profit. Practically, the purpose driven businessman is focused in developing a tailored made operation that will meet the needs and wants of its customers. This strategy, according to a number of automotive dealers, leads to the generation of higher revenue and growth potential which will ultimately result to becoming the market leader.