Dealer Consultants

What makes a great salesperson?

Steve LemcoWhile flying home to Seattle from doing a sales hiring and training job in New York, I was talking to the man sitting next to me. I told him what I did for a living. He had a simple question that required me to think deeply about the answer. He asked me what makes a good salesperson.

I thought about it and reflected back to all the salespeople and sales managers I have trained over the past 30 years. I have met some amazing, great salespeople all across the U.S. as well as England, France, Wales, New Zealand and Australia. Yes, I have met many top salespeople.

My first reply to my fellow passenger was in order to be a top salesperson, you should be genuine, true, honest and sincere. You should have a burning desire to help customers live the dream by helping them buy the bike they have been dreaming about. But these qualities will not come together if they are made up and don’t come from the heart. You can only put on an act for a short while before your true nature is revealed.

I have coached many salespeople who could put on an act but fell short when it came to getting the sale because the customer felt like the salesperson was not sincere and only trying to get the sale. Nobody likes to be sold. People want to feel like they bought the bike, and I am sure you would too.

There are two concepts that the salesperson must believe:

  1. The winner is the buyer, not the seller. You will sell a ton of bikes over the years. The dealership needs to move several bikes a day, so the one bike you just sold did not change the lives of you or the owner of the dealership. But, my friends, you changed the life of the customer. You did a very good thing. Life is short. Riding time is even shorter. You have taken a dreamer and fulfilled their dream. You do not sell a bike; you help people buy them. If you will be true and have a strong desire to help someone have a better life, then you will find that you get many more sales. Also, the customer who believes you are their friend, because you are, will be a loyal customer for life and many, many times send in friends and relatives to buy a bike from you.
  2. You must believe that people do not shop for what they do not want. Yes, most customers say that they are just looking. But what they are looking for is a trustworthy salesperson that is also just looking. The salesperson is just looking to make their customer’s dream come true.

So what makes a good salesperson? Basically a good person. One who is honest and true to their word. Now, if they speak true words with a Gotta-Wanna attitude, good things have to happen. The beauty to all of this is that everyone has control over being a good person. Yes, life is hard. The trick is to roll with the punches and not let the dog crap of life change you. Don’t let it get the best of you. Let it help you to be stronger and bring out your best. Sometimes bad things do happen to good people. That’s life. But if you wipe it off and put on a smile you have learned the biggest secret to life. You will also be a much better salesperson.

We all know what a good person is. If you have fallen short on this attribute, you have also fell short on sales. It has to work that way. The best part is that if you know you need to make some changes with your life, then you are 100 percent in control to make those changes. You just Gotta-Wanna. I mean, who can stop you from being a good person?

Steve Lemco is the youngest brother of the late Ed Lemco and has been doing sales training and hiring for motorcycle dealers since 1983. Steve has trained in every state in the U.S., as well as England, France, Australia and New Zealand. Steve incorporates motivational boards and games along with his training and hiring because he believes the best way to get the job done is to make it fun.
Contact: 
stevelemco@aol.com
Website: www.stevelemco.com
Phone: 253/826-6110

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