The guest sheet offers you the opportunity to continue building a relationship with the customer or prospect. After all, people love talking about themselves, and if you’re sincere and show a genuine interest, this will go a long way.

The guest sheet enables you to learn what customers do for a living, whether they are married, have children, what they like about the vehicle they drive, as well as what they may be seeking in a new vehicle. The key is to keep the customer talking.

Many dealerships require that sales people ask for a prospect’s work number. While many sales people cringe at the thought of interrogating the customer by asking personal questions, others use the question to open doors to discover valuable information and build a relationship with the prospect.

Turn the simple task of asking for a work number into an interesting and informative conversation about what your customer does for a living, which then allows you to ask further if he or she enjoys what they do.

Open-ended questions are used throughout the sales process. For example, when presenting a vehicle to a customer, try this:
“How does this vehicle fi t your needs?” Using this expression will help you fi nd out the true needs of the customer while maintaining comfort.

Consider these non-confrontational, openended questions:

“What are some of the most important features your next car will have?”

“Who will be doing most of the driving?”

Open-ended questions are another great way to fi nd out valuable information about your prospective customer. Most sales people would love to know how long their prospective customer has been shopping for a car. Many customers are uncomfortable with this question because they more than likely have been asked this same question at each dealership. When used correctly, openended questions can engage your customer and provide more useful information than ever expected.

Here’s an example:
“How long have you been considering a new vehicle?”

Regardless of the answer, your response should be:

“What brought it to a head; why now?”

In addition to the time he or she has been considering a new vehicle, this will engage the customer to share with you why the time to buy is now. It could be mechanical problems or perhaps he or she will be giving the vehicle to a child who just started driving. In addition to providing you with priceless information, your customer will begin to realize he or she is in a safe place.

Hearing the answers enables you to discover the true purposes and not just the reason. At the same time, you will learn if the customer has shopped at other stores. Moreover, the information will assist you later in the sale when you present the features and the strong points of your product as they relate to the customer’s needs.

Every customer has a reason for buying a new car, and a sales person will fi nd this out. But there is something far more important — the customer’s purpose for buying the car.

Consider the parents of a young daughter starting college and in need of a car. Their reason, plain and simple, is transportation. But what is the real purpose of buying the car? Most likely, they love their child and want her to have a safe, reliable car that can be serviced locally where she will be attending school. As a result, her parents will feel at ease.

How many sales people actually tap into the emotional part of the experience?

Customers will talk about these things if you engage them, and if you do this, you become a friend and an advocate. You are then seen as a problem solver, not the problem.

Confi rm, confi rm and confi rm OK, you’ve found out what you need to know. Always confi rm that you understand what’s important to them.

1. Your customer will agree with the facts they already told you about themselves and will respond positively.

2. Since you understand their needs, their comfort level with you will increase.

3. You will know your customer is in stride with you.

Many sales people err in going through their pitch without knowing if the customer is in sync mentally until the end, which may be too late.

Consider that many customers will “yes” you and nod their heads, causing you to think they are interested and in agreement, which may be the total opposite. All the more reason to interject confi rming phrases such as:

“If I understand you correctly …”
“So, what you are saying is …”
“It sounds like you …”

Using these phrases will enable you to ferret out the accurate answers to the important questions posed about features, price, timetable, etc. It helps you show the right car with the precise benefi ts and features that fi ts the customer’s needs. Most important, if you can secure this information up front, then you are in control and well on the way to making the sale.