One of the biggest mysteries in this business is trying to find the decisionmaker at the dealership who can buy or use your services. If you stacked up all the agents who gave up because they couldn’t reach the decisionmaker to make an appointment, get them to take your call, get hold of them, get them to respond, call you back, meet you in person, do a presentation, or break their meeting with you and so on, the bodies would reach the moon and cast a shadow that would bring darkness to our planet.

OK, it might not be that drastic, but if you are an agent, you know exactly what I’m talking about. The game is the chase!

You need to develop a steel tummy for this biz and always remember that effort doesn’t require any skill at all. Don’t let rejection or a blow-off ruin your day. You are better than that. Plus, some of the dealers in this business, are so pathetic when it comes to playing hide-and-seek. A great deal of them are experts at it. I say, some will, some won’t, so what, so move on.

They Can't Hack It 

The problem is that most agents can’t hack the sales aspect of the job. They can’t seem to overcome the types of rejection they face in their business. My question to you is, what kind of sales training have you ever been through — not product training, but sales training? If you don’t have the skills, you probably can’t pay your bills.

Now you’re probably thinking, who the heck is this guy? It’s not a secret. I have been selling training, consulting, online sales training and other products to dealers for over 20 years. The good news is I’m still alive and so are you. I have heard every excuse or reason in the book. Check this out!

• They are in a meeting.

• They said to call back.

• They are not interested.

• We are stuck with a company we can barely stand.

• We do our own thing here.

• Ol’ Bob has been our agent for over 20 years.

• We have a family member who does that for us.

• We are too small for you.

• See us in Q2; we might consider it then.

• Our guys are good and we don’t need you.

• Our dealership has been in the middle of a sale for three years or so.

• We are very comfortable with what we are doing.

• Let me call corporate on this.

• [Dial tone]

I could go on, but I’m already getting bored with all of this. What about you?

So how do you make sales to a dealership? You have to be a hunter first. Your goal is to locate the decisionmaker and then find out how to break through and reach them. Easier said than done!

New Hunting Grounds

Hopefully you are an agent of change and are willing to do something different than the old conventional ways. “Cray cray” as it sounds (and is that even a word?), a lot of my recent successes have come through social media. I can normally get to a dealer within seconds. As a matter of fact, I reached out to a dealer today for a huge deal, and within 60 minutes, they responded. Now the chase turns to contact, visit, phone, FaceTime, presentation and, finally, close the sale.

As a sales trainer, I can tell you this: You have to have the same focus when you are closing the appointment to meet in person as if you were actually closing a sale! Don’t forget that! I have called this dealer, texted him, emailed him and connected on LinkedIn. I finally got him on Facebook. Who knew?

Now, of course, sometimes the old ways still work when trying to reach the decisionmaker. But if your own kids won’t answer the phone, do you think the dealer is going to answer it? Get to the receptionist and find out how the decisionmaker likes to be contacted.

For agents, the road to the sale is changing. You have to master the art of communication. Once you get them to see you, then you get to determine needs, wants, and their motivation to use your products. Always ask for the sale.

So let’s wrap it up: Pick up the phone, call, text or email them right now. Don’t wait, because your competitor is probably picking up the phone, texting or finding them on Facebook right now, because you are procrastinating. Do it now!