Most people attracted to sales as a career choice, if they’ve gone through any sort of vetting process, are natural salespeople. They’re the type of person who’s what their yearbook probably described as “a real people person” or “everyone’s friend.” If these natural salespeople are nurtured rather than trained, they will usually go far. Often, however, sales training methods will crush their natural abilities in favour of regimental “proven” strategies for “step-by-step sales success.”
A good example are car dealerships. Sales forces are usually trained in a specific sales process – it’s basically the same no matter if the dealership sells luxury cars in New York or entry-level compact cars in Vancouver. The steps begin with “qualifying your lead” (i.e. the prospect on the lot), then “determining their needs”, then “wow them with options” and finally “closing.” This might work for those who are not naturally good at sales; which, frankly, is true of most car lot salespeople. But it will stifle the natural salesperson.
Most customers are familiar, at least in general, with the way the car lot operates and how the sales personnel will act. They are used to being “sized up” when they enter the lot and being asked, within moments of interacting with a salesperson, how much payment they can afford. This is a turn-off for many and explains why a lot of car lots are seeing more and more online customers showing up to physically look over the cars, but make their purchases online rather than in person. Statistics show that car dealerships are seeing far more test drives per buyer (on the lot) than they used to.
On the other hand, a friend told me about a salesman she met on a car lot when she was looking to purchase a replacement for her aging sedan. Rather than going through the usual motions, he instead asked her if she wanted to test drive anything on the lot and was genuinely excited about the cars they had and had fun things to say about them. He also wasn’t afraid to point out any perceived negatives should they apply to her. For example, she’s rather tall and the salesman pointed out that one model, while very good-looking, is short on headroom inside and might not be a good fit – despite the fact that this car sold for several thousand more than the alternative he offered. Needless to say, she purchased a car that day from this natural salesman.
Sales managers should allow their sales teams and individual sales people to have some free reign to be themselves and act on their own instincts. Of course, this isn’t always possible in every scenario; some items are extremely legal in nature and salespeople must tread lightly in their remarks, but even then some leeway is likely available. The natural salesperson will quickly become your superstar if you allow them to be.