Southern California has always been a hot market for vehicles, including new and used cars and trucks. Among salespeople, then, there is no small amount of competition—so how do you distinguish yourself? How to you rise above the pack and become a salesperson of distinction?
There’s no magic formula, and it’s not going to happen overnight. With the right mixture of hard work and strategy, however, it’s certainly possible to elevate your abilities to attract customers and close deals.
10 Ways to Become a Better Orange County Car Salesperson
- Get involved in the community. Being a presence at local sporting events, charitable organizations, church functions, and chamber of commerce meetings is a great way to make yourself known, to build relationships and to foster trust.
- Connect with the biggest employers in town. Find the five largest ones, and request meetings with their HR teams. To the meeting bring a plan for an employee car buying program that you can offer them. Be diligent in spending time with those people and making yourself known as the car dealer for the employees of those five companies.
- Become friends with local insurance agents and Realtors. Pick a few of them you can work with, and send them referrals whenever you can. That kind of goodwill seldom goes unreturned!
- Be professional, especially on social media. Review all your public profiles and make sure they portray the kind of person you want to be known as.
- Spread your name. Spend a bit of money on some custom, branded trinkets—pencils, calendars, Frisbees, mugs—and give them away to people. Digital brochures and business cards are also worth pursuing.
- Solicit reviews and testimonials. Ask your customers to let you know what they thought of your service, sharing their feedback at online review sites. If you get kind words in an email or private message, ask for permission to repost it on your website.
- Do email marketing. Follow up with customers and leads via email, which continues to be one of the most effective of all digital marketing tools.
- Take advantage of live video. Facebook Live and Periscope are just two tools you can use to broadcast yourself simply being real—talking directly to customers, letting them know what they can expect from your dealership, ultimately humanizing yourself.
- Always be networking. Use LinkedIn to connect with other business owners in town, and use Facebook to like and comment on posts from other businesses within your community.
- Connect with a local networking group. Be active in a professional association that meets throughout the year; involve yourself in mentorship groups, accountability partnerships, etc.
These tips won’t produce results right away, but they certainly provide a road map to success. We hope you’ll find them to be useful, and that you’ll follow along with Get My Auto for more dealer tips!