Beware of Cheap Imitations


Contribued by John Brentlinger

There is nothing as bogus as a cheap imitation of sincerity.

You should have already learned this at home, from your spouse, your children and your in-laws, especially from your in-laws.  How long do you think it takes for your mother-in-law to tell when you are being sincere, or just lying through your bleached whitened teeth?

How about your spouse?  Do you actually think you can fool your wife or husband?

And your kids; do you really think you can fake sincerity with a teenage son or daughter and get away with it?

Then what makes you think you can fake sincerity at the dealership with your salespeople and customers?John_Brentlinger

From the fake excitement in the voices of  the silly, childish behavior of owners and managers in the fake nonsensensical radio and TV commercials; as in: “I am so excited about our new car sale,” to the fake greetings at the dealership, “Hey how are you, great to see you, I’m great but I’ll get better “————- what nonsense, what expensive nonsense!

By now you should know that every customer, from the least to the greatest, can see right through that b.s.  So they glance at each other as if to say, “See, I told you they would act stupid.”

This is not 1965.  Half the country, and a majority of your prospects have heard the Dale Carnegie, Zig Ziglar and Tony Robbins shtick for at least twenty-five years now, and they do not believe it.

What would be wrong with just being honest and sincere?

How easy would it be to just hire good salespeople and  let them be themselves, and work with the personality that God gave them?  Why do we keep hiring neophytes with no sales training or ability, and then tell them what to say, how to say it, when to say it, and force every newbie into the dealership mode and make everyone sound and act the same?

Then, when the newbie by simple human nature slips up and reverts to his/her natural sincere self, the manager takes them aside and tells them they are not being a team player, and if this behavior continues, they need to find another line of work.

Just last week, in a large southern city, I met one of your newbies.  I asked him how many cars he sold the first month.  His reply?  Twenty.  Twenty.  Twenty!   And how many the second month?  His reply?  Ten.  Ten.

I get it, it happens all across the country.  The first month, his manager left him alone, just to see if he could make it.  The second month, the manager “took him under his wing” and decided to “help him get better.”

So now, the manager has another “team player,” created in the image of the manager, who will last maybe four or five more months, when with his average of 6 or 7 sales a month,  he will be “let go” for being a non-producer.  Then the manager will hire another newbie who will sell another twenty the first month.

And as you all know, whether you will admit it or not, the rest of the story.  The newbie leaves, thinking he is a failure at selling.

He is not.

His manager is a failure at managing.

John Brentlinger is a sales and management trainer for companies and organizations. He is also the author of The Little Blue Book of Selling. His articles have been published in various auto industry publications including Dealer Magazine and Auto Success Magazine.