Digital Dealer - July 2018 - 15

THINK ABOUT WHAT IT IS ABOUT YOUR
ATTITUDE, YOUR KNOWLEDGE, YOUR SKILLS, THAT
CUSTOMERS WITH WHOM YOU ALREADY WORKED
BEFORE, FOUND USEFUL."
managers, sales and service associates to set higher
objectives. It helps companies to maintain healthy
competition, which leads to
progress and development
of products and services
that serve and improve
quality of life.
FOMO helps to motivate
many employees. Some
employees will work longer
hours and more days
because they are afraid
to miss out on a greater
paycheck. Other employees
will dedicate themselves to
learning about the dealership's sales and service
process so that they can
perform more effectively and
efficiently because they are
afraid to miss out on recognition from their manager.
Like with anything else,
there are always two sides
of the same coin. When
associates are too focused
on their FOMO on making
extra money, they tend
to take less care of their
health in lieu of taking extra
customers. They could skip
on eating healthy, resting,
or working out, which could
later make them agitated
and rude with colleagues
and customers. Other
associates would focus on
spending more time on the
job because they are on
commission-based pay and
have every incentive to work
more. It becomes a problem
when they disregard their

family needs to the point
of having family conflicts,
which later takes the associate's attention off work.
The goal needs to set
healthy objections that are
relevant for each associate,
each manager, and each
department. Objectives
based on individual performance levels rather than
someone else's.
There are two simple
steps to set personal objectives: (1) assess and (2) do
more of what works.

esting to customers. When
you dedicate too much time
to be like someone else,
rather than yourself, you
become fake and customers
can sense that fakeness
from a mile away. No one
wants to work with a fake
person because it is hard to
trust someone who is fake.
When I was selling cars,
my most promising customers were housewives.
Because I am a woman,
they were naturally able to
connect with me on a level

THE GOAL NEEDS
TO SET HEALTHY
OBJECTIONS THAT ARE
RELEVANT FOR EACH
ASSOCIATE, EACH
MANAGER, AND EACH
DEPARTMENT."
In terms of assessment,
no matter how, as a service
writer, you want to be better
than the top service advisor
at your dealership, make
more money for your family
than your own parents, and
receive the most recognition
in the region, when it comes
to setting personal objectives, you want to begin
with evaluating yourself in
comparison to yourself. This
is as true for the top guy as
much as for the new guy.
Your individual skills,
knowledge, and abilities
make you unique and inter-

that would be challenging
for my male counterparts.
Being myself and utilizing
my ability to speak in a soft,
non-threatening, and patient
manner helped me stand
out and connect with customers in a unique way.
There were also times
when, by looking at the top
sales guy at our dealership,
who was much taller, at
least twice my weight, and
had a dominant presence,
I would try to be direct like
him and it would turn out
a failure every single time.
This is because it was not
D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

who I am, and customers
felt it.
This moves me to the
second point, do more of
what works.
When trying to improve
your skills, begin by thinking
what worked for you the last
time during the sales or service process. Think about
what it is about your attitude,
your knowledge, your skills,
that customers with whom
you already worked before,
found useful. Do more of
what has worked before.
For instance, I noticed
that my customers would be
very appreciative of me answering my phone right the
way. I actually made some
sales only because I would
answer phone calls from
my customers in front of
new customers and the new
customers would buy from
me because "I want you to
answer my calls too when I
call you in the future."
So, let others look at you
and feel the fear of missing
out, while you are paying
attention to yourself. Let
them question what you
have that they don't, while
you are being your own best
teacher.
KATIA TIKHONRAVOVA,
Ph.D.(c), LMFT is a business
and relationships coach who
specializes in automotive sales
and service relationships. She
is an owner of Corporation
Clinic.

J U LY 2 0 1 8

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - July 2018
