Digital Dealer - April 2018 - 11

ine because, by in large,
most people aren't aware
how much their actions,
language choices, and
verbal- and non-verbal
communications affect
how their communications
are received. The result
of this hit-or-miss interpersonal connectivity prevents a group from totally
harmonizing, and creates
unnecessary animosity among teammates.
Once your team grasps
the concept, continue to
challenge each person to
modify their interpersonal
communications to create
total team harmony.
Managerial Tip: The
tongue can be used either
as a weapon or a tool,
hurting relationships or
building them up. Sadly, it is often easier to
destroy than to build up,
and most people have
received more destructive
comments than those
that build them up. Every
person you meet today is
either a demolition site or
a construction opportunity.
Your words will make a
difference. Will they be
weapons of destruction or
tools for construction?
THE SECOND USE
FOR PERSONALITY
PROFILING IS WITH
YOUR CUSTOMERS.

The most basic foundation for selling and servicing vehicles is building
relationships with your
customers. If you don't
believe this, stop reading
this article and head back
out to coerce and hammer
on another fresh-up. However, if you're one of the
many dealerships to embrace this concept, personality profiling may be

the missing link. Several
years ago, CRM software
was touted as the key
to building and keeping
relationships, and it has
taken most of that time
for people to realize CRM
software only represents
10% of the solution. CRM
is there to facilitate and
help your people and
processes become better.
The missing link, however, was, and continues to
be, the human element,
and more importantly,
modifiable interpersonal
communications which
build relationships.
So here's the solution:
train your sales staff to
identify their own and
each customer's personality profile and adjust
their message accordingly
to each individual they
speak with. If they can
effectively, in a repeatable
manner, practice active
listening and message
modification, everything
will increase! Sales will go
up because more leads
will be converted to completed deals. Gross margins will increase because
the focus of conversation
will be moved off the
topic of price and onto the
relationship part of the
business. And CSI will go
through the roof because
customers will be sold
directly at the level they
are comfortable buying.
GETTING STARTED

Question: Do you believe that your dealership
has room to improve current performance in several areas? Most intelligent
leaders would quickly say
yes, absolutely.
A question you may ask
yourself is do I have the

LEARN MORE AT DD24 in Chuck
Barker's session, "Personality Assessment
& Adaptability: Foster Better Customer Relationships and Close More Sales," on April
10t, 10:05 - 10:55 a.m.

right people on board to
execute a value-added
relationship building type
business strategy? With
proper tools and training
in most cases, I believe
we do. The big challenge
and the $64,000 question
is: Do we have the leadership and the fortitude to
implement these changes
to streamline and improve
the employee and customer experience in our
showrooms?
I have worked with
both small, medium and
large dealerships in helping them identify multiple
things we could turn into
greater opportunities
because we (the dealer
and my team) worked
together as one team
looking in the same direction. The successes came
about because the dealer
wanted to improve and
sent a strong signal downstream that we would all
work as a single team to
ensure those successes
took hold for the long
term. I know if you want
to improve, it can be done
because I have seen
some great transitions
over the years even when
it looked gloomy. The single biggest preventative
factor getting in the way of
improvement is "starting."
You have to turn the ignition key to get the engine
started and same holds
true for any successful
strategy you employ.

Your concern should be
that if your store doesn't
implement these changes
then some other dealership will probably see this
as a great opportunity
to initiate those changes, improve the buying
experience, and by then
it could be a disaster for
change-resistant dealers.
If you have a regular
training firm, give them
a call to ask if they offer
a course emphasizing
personality profiling curriculum with communication
adaptability. However, if
you don't have a training firm, or if your firm
doesn't have an applicable course, e-mail me
and I can point you in the
right direction. The most
important item to take
from this article is that you
need to start embracing
personality profiling while
you're still ahead of the
curve. Make it a great
place to work and your
customers will make it a
great place to buy.
If you're attending Digital Dealer 24 in Orlando
and wish to learn more
how personality profiling
works, I will be presenting
on this very topic, April
10th at 10:05 a.m.
CHUCK BARKER is
President & Founder of Impact Marketing & Consulting
Group, located in Virginia.
EMAIL: Chuck@impactgroupcrm.com

D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

APRIL 2018

11
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - April 2018
