F&I and Showroom, December 2015

40 F I and Showroom December 2015 Mad Marv His Madness says being a top F I professional requires more than just skill and talent its how one rebounds from a bad deal day or month that separates the best from the rest By Marv Eleazer I m sure youve heard a trainer or mentor utter the following at some point in your career Your attitude determines your altitude Its a reminder that we must check our egos and personal issues at the door because success can only be achieved by someone with a strong positive and resilient attitude With that said I must admit that my own attitude has gotten me hauled into my dealers office on more than one occasion The usual complaint my dealer hears is this Its not what he said that upset me Its how he said it He was condescending My teeth are grinding just typing that So yeah my body language and tone are the usual suspect They tend to betray my true feelings no matter how hard I try to hide them But each incident reinforced the meaning behind those five words I previously mentioned that my outlook on things would do more for my career than any skill or technique Ive picked up over the years But its not always our fault Sometimes even the best of us can have our patience tested It could be that third baseman who told your last customer not to buy anything because its all a rip off And dont get me started on those customers who object to the menu before youve even presented They know the drill theyll tell you and they arent interested Combine a few of those D type customers with what might be a bad day week or month maybe your boss has already reprimanded you for your performance and its easy to let some of that pressure seep out through your body language and voice inflections Again Ive been there but Im also here to tell you that you need to do everything in your power to get a handle on your emotions One of the things I learned selling cars was to never get emotionally involved in the sale because customers can sense it And once they do its like sharks smelling blood in the water And consider this Dealerships devote a lot of time effort and marketing dollars trying to convince customers that were going to do the right thing Once we get them in its our job to make sure every customer is completely satisfied so theyll come back for service hopefully buy their next vehicle and then tell their friends and family about the great experience they had at Langdale Ford I also believe that customers come to the bargaining table with a reasonable amount of trust in us Why else would they be here right And thats why we must strive to deliver an award winning experience They work hard for their money and expect to be served a fair deal from a professional And isnt that what weve been trained to do no matter how bad things are going And heres what Ive learned When we do something unprofessional like making customers feel uncomfortable because they dont see things like we do that reasonable amount of trust they walked in with is broken Nobody wins when that happens Yeah they might come back and buy another car from your store but you can forget ever getting them to listen to your F I presentation again Think about the last time you visited a nice restaurant or clothing store and the server or sales clerk wowed you with amazing service You probably didnt mind their prices and you probably overtipped or overspent Thats the experience you want to replicate in your office And remember you dont know what kind of pressures your customers are facing Maybe they were waiting on a tough to please customer before they came to your dealership Maybe they were stiffed on a tip The one thing you can be certain of is this Like you they know that the customer always comes first They may not always be right but they are still the customer And as my dealer has told me many times Marv I dont care how much money you make on them just make certain they leave with a smile on their face Nuff said Good luck and keep closing Marv Eleazer is the F I director at Langdale Ford in Valdosta Ga Email him at marv eleazer@ bobit com Watch That Attitude One of the things I learned selling cars was to never get emotionally involved in the sale because customers can sense it And once they do its like sharks smelling blood in the water