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    Sixteen Steps to Six Figures: A Game Plan for Sales Success
    Sixteen Steps to Six Figures: A Game Plan for Sales Success
    Sixteen Steps to Six Figures: A Game Plan for Sales Success
    Ebook145 pages1 hour

    Sixteen Steps to Six Figures: A Game Plan for Sales Success

    By Samuel T. Foust

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    About this ebook

    SIXTEEN STEPS TO $IX FIGURE$: A GAME PLAN FOR SALES SUCCESS is a humorous and insightful look at the extraordinary dynamics between the car-buying consumer and the automotive salesperson; a relationship that most often resembles a train wreck. SIXTEEN STEPS TO $IX FIGURE$: A GAME PLAN FOR SALES SUCCESS provides a structure for sales professionals to navigate the madness of the retail automotive industry and produce consistent six-figure incomes.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAuthorHouse
    Release dateDec 16, 2010
    ISBN9781452053196
    Sixteen Steps to Six Figures: A Game Plan for Sales Success
    Author

    Samuel T. Foust

    A Tennessee native, Sam is a graduate of Lincoln Memorial University and attended graduate school at the University of Tennessee. He is one of America's foremost authorities in professional sales with over twenty years experience in the automotive industry. With over seventy-five million dollars of sales production, he has garnered sixteen Salesman of the Year awards and achieved Salesman of the Month on ninety-eight occasions. Sam won the Volvo S80 Delta Region WALKAROUND championship in Birmingham, Alabama before a panel of automotive industry experts. He is a multiple President's Club and Executive Club recipient within the Hendrick Automotive Group. His career highlights also include a three year tenure in higher education administration and a two year stint as a Communications Representative for Motorola. In his spare time, Sam enjoys golf, photography, hiking, and watching his beloved Tennessee Titans and Nashville Predators.

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      Book preview

      Sixteen Steps to Six Figures - Samuel T. Foust

      © 2010 Samuel T. Foust. All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

      First published by AuthorHouse 12/14/2010

      ISBN: 978-1-4520-5317-2 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4520-5318-9 (dj)

      ISBN: 978-1-4520-5319-6 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2010918654

      Printed in the United States of America

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

      and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      This book is printed on acid-free paper.

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any Web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      SIXTEEN STEPS TO $IX-FIGURE$:

      A GAME PLAN FOR SALES SUCCESS

      Samuel T. Foust

      This book is dedicated to my son Andrew – and also to all who work in the retail automotive industry and DO NOT own a plaid jacket.

      Table of Contents

      1. Foreword

      2. Failure…

      A Step to Success

      3. Product Knowledge…

      4. Imagination…

      5. Words…

      6. Common Ground…

      7. The Assumptive Sale…

      8. Uniqueness…

      9. Value…

      10. Plan…

      11. Negotiating Skills…

      12. Adaptability…

      13. Believability…

      14. Niches…

      15. Resourcefulness…

      16. Presentation…

      17. Body Language…

      Conclusion

      Acknowledgements

      Foreword

      I once called my hottest prospect only to be informed that her kitchen had suffered spontaneous combustion the previous evening. I’m sure you’ll understand that a car is on the back-burner right now, I was told. Two days later, I pulled up next to her at a red-light. She was in a glistening new Toyota Camry (I was a Honda salesman) with a temporary tag in the back window. I waved; she waved. It was awkward.

      Obviously, hot prospects become cold rather quickly once they can no longer touch, feel, or smell the objects of their affection. Consequently, and unfortunately, the BE BACK BUS runs much more frequently in our imaginations than in real life. I believe, in fact, the BE BACK BUS ran the last time the Washington Generals defeated the Harlem Globetrotters in basketball.

      As professional sales representatives, we dramatically increase the odds for our success when we guide our clientele through a structured sales process in a timely manner that is compatible with the consumers’ analytical tendencies and their emotional states.

      In today’s ultra-competitive automotive industry, when we work inefficiently (without a GAMEPLAN) and without urgency, we quite frequently find ourselves a day late and a dollar short. In other words, we find ourselves making a lot of ya did! phone calls.

      The best prospect list is a short one. A long prospect list is indicative of too much selling and too little closing. As a matter of fact, too often, our prospect list is our competition’s SOLD list. In all seriousness, none of us are perfect and no sales associate closes every prospect. We should, however, expend all of our energies and all of our efforts to minimize the time frame of the sales process. To do so will lengthen our SOLD list and shorten our PROSPECT list.

      It is a little known fact that tragedy befalls prospects for an automobile at a much higher rate than those who have already purchased a vehicle. Nothing creates the propensity for an individual to contract whooping cough, typhoid fever, malaria, leprosy, TB, or incontinence like a car salesman calling on the phone.

      It is my hope that SIXTEEN STEPS TO $IX-FIGURE$: A GAME PLAN FOR SALES SUCCESS provides an ethically-based format and structure that will enable every automotive sales professional to dramatically improve his or her productivity, paychecks, and job satisfaction. I am also hopeful that SIXTEEN STEPS TO $IX-FIGURE$: A GAME PLAN FOR SALES SUCCESS promotes a paradigm shift within the automotive industry away from business as it has always been to business as it has never been.

      CHAPTER 1

      Failure…

      A Step to Success

      Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.

      - Truman Capote

      Aristotle once said, It is possible to fail in many ways… while to succeed is possible only in one way. The ways in which a salesperson can fail are too numerous to even touch upon. Anyone who has ever associated him or herself with a retail sales experience has seen sales associates shoot themselves in the foot more often than Deputy Fife as he guarded Otis at the Mayberry jail.

      The good news is: the definition of success in the automobile business is similar to the standard of success for Major League baseball players. Baseball Hall of Famers Yogi Berra (.285), Reggie Jackson (.262) and Cal Ripken, Jr. (.276) failed to get a hit in over seventy percent of their at-bats; yet, all three are esteemed as elite members of baseball history. In fact, Cal Ripken, Jr. received a higher percentile of potential votes for Hall of Fame induction (over ninety-eight percent!) than Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron, or Babe Ruth.

      It is a reassuring concept to be able to attain success while often failing and being unsuccessful over seventy percent of the time. The key to achieving a successful closing ratio (and a good closing ratio is imperative to success in sales) is twofold. One, we need to be fully aware of our ultimate objective as it relates to raising the closing ratio in an ongoing step-by-step process as opposed to some magical remedy. Closing ratios (the equivalent to batting averages in baseball) are increased through executing a GAME PLAN based on a series of steps carried out with consistency and in sequential order. Number two, a mastery of each step is equally essential if one is to inch his or her closing ratio up one percentage point at a time. It is important to note that just as a batter cannot take a batting average directly from .250 to .300 without first achieving .260, closing ratios move upward in direct correlation to one’s mastery of a step-by-step process.

      As mentioned throughout SIXTEEN STEPS TO $IX-FIGURE$: A GAME PLAN FOR SALES SUCCESS, a residential contractor knows through experience and common sense that he or she cannot build a roof before building a foundation. Too often in sales, steps are skipped, and we turn our attention to the roof before we complete a solid foundation.

      Another good example would be to think of the entire sales process as a tee shot in golf. The last step in a tee shot (the follow-through) cannot salvage an earlier hitch in the backswing. An incorrect grip or stance will likely doom later facets of the same shot. When we see our tee shot land in the woods (or water), we can safely assume something

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