You see, most people think of sales as negotiations, when it is so much more than that. Sales has never been or ever will be a one step process, it has many stages with one stage leading into the next until a sale is made.  Our goal, as car sales people, is take an up, a referral, or a repeat customer and sell them a car. It’s just that simple, but to many car sales people make it tougher than it needs to be by cutting corners so they can get the quick sale and move on to the next.

SLOW DOWN! Take your time and find your customers hot buttons.  Stop rushing past the qualification step and putting your customers in a vehicle that they can’t afford. When you find the right vehicle make them love it, sell it. Make them excited about, make it an experience that they won’t soon forget.  If you can make the benefits of owning what your trying to sell them bigger and more important than the money they will be spending on it then they won’t ask for a price cut and I won’t call you a sissy.

Make yourself believe that every vehicle on the lot is worth 5 thousands MORE than what you asking for it. If you don’t and you are presenting numbers your customers will pick up on it. They will sense that you feel the car isn’t worth what you’re asking and will ask for a price cut. Don’t ever put yourself into that spot.

I want you to think about that a moment. We all have a tell that customers can pick up on a mile away, it doesn’t have to be as easily seen as a flinch, maybe just a tightening of the jaw or a widening of the eyes but rest assured the customer can and will see it. You have to be so sure of your price that you feel it’s a deal even if you’re asking 50 G’s for a 2002 Kia Sedona.

“Before you can EVER sell your customers on the price you must first sell yourself.”

I want you to believe in what you’re selling as well as the price of what your selling. Work on your walk around and make it pop, if your customers tongues aren’t hanging out of their mouth then you aren’t doing your job.  The goal here is to keep pressing your customers hot button, over and over this will ensure that when you sit down to talk numbers you will be the only one talking. Always, always, always remember that price cutting is for sissies, are you a sissy?

CAN YOU WILLFULLY FOCUS YOUR MIND TO GET THE LIFE YOU WANT?  WITH MENTAL FITNESS EXERCISE BRAIN TRAINING, YOU’LL MASTER THE SKILL!

Perhaps you are at a confident point in your ability to control your Mental Attention, already.  Great!  Then it is time to consider the bigger picture, which concerns establishing longer term visions for your life and ensuring that you don’t get lured or thrown off course, so that you move along the most efficient, quickest path in the direction of your objectives.  Many people who have no problem staying put on immediate tasks still have trouble achieving more extensive objectives because their Mental Focus continually shifts in response to changing external situations, and far less noticed but constantly ‘WARPING’ internal conditions in their own Mind.  As your mental capacity increases through Mental Fitness Exercise Training, you will want to master not only the art of formulating your own unique ideas, but the skill to resolutely keep those ideas center stage in your mind and in your actions no matter what happens around you.  What’s more, the development of the skill of Mental Focus will mitigate the common, hidden inner mental conflicts serving as the most insidious culprits that keep most people from moving in a straight line to their dreams!

STRENGTHEN YOUR MENTAL FOCUS THROUGH NEURO-SCULPTING EXERCISES!

Would you like better mental focus so that you can achieve your goals and have more success in all your activities?  As you continue reading, you’ll learn three important things about Mental Focus that will clarify what it is and how you can start improving it.  Also, you’ll find a fantastic mental fitness and brain training exercise you can use to begin aligning all your mental talents, your thoughts, and your emotions so that they work in unison to help you achieve your goals with greater speed and efficiency.

Concentration Is Not Mental Focus

Many of us have been told that being able to stay focused has to do with keeping our attention on a specific task, but that’s a common misunderstanding of the true nature of mental focus.  Mental concentration (specifically, ‘TASK CONCENTRATION’) is the cognitive function you use when you hold your attention onto an immediate task, whereas mental focus is the broad psychological function of your mind relating to what you intend to be, do, and have in your life today, next year, and far down the road based on your current point of view, which itself is based on your current level of intellectual knowledge and intuitive understanding of what you’ve experienced in life.  To your benefit, you can change your mental focus to ensure the attainment of a worthwhile goal.  Because skillful mental concentration is a prerequisite for effective mental focus, you should honestly ask yourself whether you’ve properly developed your power of concentration to a degree that would allow you to apply yourself to longer-term achievement.  If you believe you would do well to spend a bit of time pumping up your concentration muscles, we’ve got plenty of ways to help you.  See our

• DYNAMIC MENTAL CONCENTRATION – BRAIN TRAINING FOR STRONGER CONCENTRATION section and our
• DYNAMIC BRAIN TRAINING EXERCISES FOR MENTAL FITNESS.
• For more on brain training for Dynamic Mental Focus, read on….

Your State Of Mind Affects Your Focus

Mental focus is greatly impacted by established beliefs, conditioned thought patterns, and entrenched emotional habits.  In order to achieve a high level of success in life, especially in a specific direction, all these influences need to be aligned and pointing in the same direction for best results.  The beliefs you hold place a certain speed and distance limit on what you achieve because you generally stay within the fence of belief. Further, your conditioned thoughts echo your beliefs and keep you company all day long.  Because your actions tend to follow the thoughts that precede them, what you think directly affects what you do and how you do it.  Finally, your experience of life – whether you enjoy or despise your every moment – is based on your typical emotional associations and attachments.  When any of these factors conflicts with the others, the contradiction interferes with your success, whereas when they are all in agreement, it assures your productive accomplishment.

Align Your Desire, Thoughts, Beliefs, and Emotions

Greater life success requires a resolute mindset in which you know clearly what you want, sincerely believe that you can obtain it, are determined to make it happen in defiance of any obstacle, and passionately act with reliable consistency until your objectives are achieved.  That level of mental mastery can be attained by making dynamic mental fitness training a healthy part of your daily life.  When you take time to exercise your vital mental skills with the same care you exercise your physical body, you are certain to acquire the mental focus necessary to get more of what you want from life, with less struggle, and in quicker fashion.  Here’s a neat mental fitness brain exercise to get you started on the road to better mental focus:

MENTAL EXERCISE:  RESOLUTE ALIGNED MINDSET

This mental exercise is based on the NEURO-SCULPTING!© mental fitness approach and results in actual, physical changes in your brain structure that are conducive to managing your thoughts and emotions so that they align with your long-term goals.  Find a place where you can be alone, during a time you won’t be disturbed by anyone.  Take a deep breath and relax your body so that you can give the exercise all your attention.

Form a thought in your mind of something you want very much.  Try as best you can to make the image very clear in your thought.  That is your desire.  Next, hold that image steady as you allow yourself to feel a positive, pleasant emotion about the image itself, so that the image and the feeling combine into a single mental experience.  That accomplished, maintain that mindset for fifteen to twenty minutes.  If at any time you find yourself distracted, engaging in mental chatter, or discover that your mindset has wandered off into some other thought, stop the exercise and start over. with all your determination, keep the mindset from being corrupted by competing thoughts, conflicting emotions, or external distractions.  This brain training technique requires you to use all the same mental functions involved in super strong mental focus, and thereby builds your cognitive skills while preparing you for real-world application of what you learn in practice.

As with any NEURO-SCULPTING!© based approach, we suggest you do the exercise twice a day for 30 days for significant results, and keep notes of what you experience.

ARE YOU IMPROVING YOUR MENTAL FOCUS BUT STILL PUTTING YOUR GOALS ON PAPER?

The vital key for stronger mental focus is keeping your mind on course over the LONG TERM for steady, powerful momentum in achieving your goals, and that means the ability to CLARIFY what you want, WHEN you intend to have it, HOW you intend to get it done, including resources, people, and even how to overcome the obstacles that might pop up.  You want better mental focus because you are tired of being pulled off track, and you don’t want to wander right or left of dead straight center.  We understand what you’re tyring to do, because all of us have had the same types of experience.  The difference is, we found a tool that really, truly helps you develop your mental focus by allowing you to ARCHITECT and then SEE your goals and visions for your life right in front of your eyes, every single day, helping you stay on track with the right actions to support your success!

It has been said numerous times that “power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely,” and that holds true for master persuaders. A great American once said, “with great power comes great responsibility” (Uncle Ben, no not the rice guy!) so use what you are about to learn wisely, don’t persuade for the wrong reasons and always remember that morality above all else is what sets us apart from the afore mentioned cult leaders.

Have you ever wondered what these cult leaders had over their followers that would make them murder, steal and commit suicide? No, it’s not that their followers were stupid or even crazy, most of them are just like you and me. These followers were given something of tremendous value, a gift paralleled by no other, a gift more valuable than even life itself. Do you want to know what this gift was, it’s the gift of hope.

Now that does sound crazy doesn’t it? Hope. It’s a powerful motivator, it’s a release from the day the day to day, it’s a way out of almost any circumstance and it can be used to motivate almost anybody to do almost anything. Hope can be used to sell more cars and as you’re sitting there reading every word of what I’m about to say you’re going to learn how to do just that.

The Problem

Car shopping isn’t fun for most people, it’s downright frightening. It’s like preparing to jump into chummed waters when sharks are present, it’s not something most people would want to do. It’s a situation that most people would rather not have to go through, but something we know we must.

It’s in our nature to look for the easier way out, we don’t like to go against the stream and if something looks in the least bit difficult we don’t even want to do it. Having said that, each time we get ourselves in a predicament that we don’t want to be in we tend to lose hope, if only somebody would come along and find it for us…

There’s Persuasion in Hope

Do you know what it’s like to find hope after living without it? It’s as if a veil has been lifted and you will do anything, ANYTHING not to lose hope again. That’s where your power of persuasion will come from and that’s what I’m about to teach you. Three steps to building hope are:

Step 1: Begin with an Incongruity

If you can show a prospect that you are different without saying that you are different your prospect starts believe that you are different. Remember that people will sometimes believe what they are told buy will always believe what they conclude.

Try saying something different to bring them to the conclusion that you are different, something like:

“I like to be as up front as possible and I want you to know that my goal is NOT to sell you a car today, I’m not even going to try. My goal is to answer all of your questions, show you a few cars and if you want to buy, then see to it that it’s the one you want, that it’s affordable, but most of all that your happy with your decision.”

Can you imagine the look on their face when you say something like that! That is the absolute last thing anybody would ever expect a car salesman to say. You’re now that much closer to your prospect hoping that this time will be different.

Step 2: Bring Their Fears Out into the Open

People want answers, no they need answers and they will do anything to gain a sense of hope. Frustration causes stress and stress makes people do crazy things so it’s your job to confront those frustration and push them aside. Here is an example of what can be said:

“Owning a new car is one of the most exciting moments in anybody’s life but the whole car shopping process can be a bit tedious and frustrating. If it wasn’t such a necessity most people wouldn’t even want to go through it. Just so they wouldn’t have to deal with pushy sale people looking for a commission check, I know firsthand because I bought cars long before I sold them.”

What? Did a car sales person just say that to me? If you can voice what they are thinking then they are going to conclude that you are different, especially if it’s something that could potentially paint you in a bad light. I purposefully didn’t put in there to say, “I’m different, I’m not like that,” because if you did they wouldn’t believe you.

Step 3: Paint a Picture of Understanding

People like to be understood, they like to know that they aren’t alone and that their feelings do matter. Don’t discount anything that they say let them know that you understand what they are feeling and they are right to feel the way they do.

If you haven’t had a chance to read “Increased Rapport and Trust Building” or the “Non-Verbal Meet and Greet” make sure that you do and you will be on your way to creating a fanatical cult-like following!

The car business in general is typically five years or so behind most other businesses.  This is why I study other business tactics and try to incorporate them in ours. The future of the car business lies on the web more specifically, it lies in Web 2.0.

I am not sure how many of you have heard this term but once you hear more you will know what I am talking about. Web 2.0 is the concept of social networking on the web. It is the Facebook, Myspace, and Twitters of the world. All of these sites are free and could be used as a way to create new business.

The one question is how will you get customers to your site? That is why The National Association of Car Sales Professionals (TheNACSP.com) is the future of the car business. Salesman can have your own website to attract customers and then let the strength of our search engine optimization team drive customers to your site!!!!

Try this Google search: 2009 dodge ram Houston TX

The first site to come up is my test site. I get leads on this every month and pass it on to a friend in Houston.  The city of Houston has roughly 30 Dodge dealerships in the area and they sell a heck of a lot of trucks!

The possibilities with your own website, or digital sales resume’ as I like to call them, are endless. Imagine getting a sales call and when you’re done, telling the customer to go to your own site. That screams professionalism!!!! When they are there, they see testimonials from past customers, pictures of your family, and blogs about the great dealership family you work for. Do you think the odds of that customer showing will increase?  We all know that an appointment that shows is a lot more likely to sell.

Your TheNACSP.com site can hold inventory pictures or videos, video testimonials or just a video of busy day in your life at work.

We all know that creating rapport with customers is one of the hardest things to do with a fresh up. What if they get to know you before they ever show up at your dealership? Do you think that will help you sell more cars?

Have you ever stopped for a minute and thought about what a customer is doing when they are shopping for a new car? They are shopping for a salesman. They can buy that same car at a dozen dealerships for virtually the same price but they decide to do business somewhere because of the salesman.  Make your first impression one that will make the customer take notice.

Stick out from the crowd with your professionalism and in the process be ahead of all your competition. Web 2.0 is here and it is here to stay. It is time to embrace it and capitalize on it.

TheNACSP.com will put you ahead of the competition and your product in your customers driveways!!!!!

Rob Hagen
The Special Finance Coach

Not many people think about it but its very important how you carry yourself during this time. Most car salespeople feel nervous or jittery others can feel over confident and cocky. How should you carry yourself? How do you feel during these moments? Keep reading to find out exactly what you should be doing.

Kenrick Cleveland teaches something called the Unconscious Hello. Simply put it’s the non-verbal way to say hello. For the next couple of days I want you to pay close attention to how people greet each other from a distance. Pay close attention to the body language, the way they turn their body, the nod of their head, the opening of their arms and their facial expressions. Take a look at how both strangers and friends greet each other; you will notice a big difference.

Persuasion, in any sales environment, should be happening at all times, during every moment of the sales process. Every movement of your body, every hand movement and facial expression should do that one thing, persuade. The Unconscious Hello can happen 20 or 30 feet out from your contact with the prospect. Smile and nod your head as if you are walking up to shake the hand of your best friend. This may seem small to you but it speaks volumes to your prospect. They are nervous enough when they see a car salesperson walking up to them, do whatever you can to ease that nervousness, to initiate the rapport and trust building process.

That’s why I asked you to pay close attention to how people greet each other from a distance, so that you can better mimic those moments. Have you ever been in the mall and noticed a good friend walking toward you, how did they look when the noticed you for the first time. Did their eyes widen, did they smile and start to walk faster? That’s what I want you to do; I want you to act as if you are familiar with them; smile warmly, nod your head and quicken your pace just slightly. Your prospect will do the same; they will nod their head, smile back and will return your non-verbal greeting.

Don’t miss this moment, do it every time and you will be much closer to closing the sale because you are persuading. After the unconscious hello go right into pacing and remember that if you expect above-average results you must learn, implement and perform above-average concepts.

“If you expect above-average results you must learn, implement and perform above-average concepts.”

Pacing, matching or mirroring, whatever it is that you want to call it, has been around a long time. As sales people, we have all at one time or another read a book, listened to a CD or attended training of some type where we were told of the importance of it and of the positive results it can have on our sales.

Briefly, Mirroring is a human behavior characterized by copying someone else while communicating with them. It could mean the copying of postures, tone of voice or gestures; it could also be the mimicking of movement, body language, expressions, eye movement, breathing, tempo, attitude or any other number of things.  Think of it as follow the leader or do as I do.

There are a number of reasons why this rapport building concept is so powerful and many reasons why you should be doing it everyday with every customer. If you think of communication as a type of dance, a dance between two people, then imagine a partner that has never danced a day in their life. Imagine having your feet stepped on and your tempo thrown off as your partner fails to take your lead. Now imagine a partner that follows you step for step, turns left when you turn left, spins when you spin, its harmony and you feel at ease with your dance partner.

Communication can be tense and awkward between strangers or it can be lively and comfortable, it truly is all up to you. People are generally much friendlier when you mirror their expressions, hand gestures or body movements. For instance, when a prospect walks on the lot and they have their arms crossed, you do the same. If they talk slowly and deliberately you do the same. Same goes for hand gestures, if they talk with their hands so do you. A lot of people will feel awkward when they pace a prospect too closely, you must get past that. You won’t be caught and you will be able to create a solid foundation of rapport and mutual respect quicker than with any other “communication technique.”

“To the extent you can match another person’s behavior, both verbally and non-verbally, you will be able to increase your level of rapport and trust.”

Taking the analogy that communication is like a dance one step further, a good dancer can switch from following to leading without their partner ever being the wiser. This is exactly what I want you to be able to do. I want you to be so versed, so good at matching that you can switch from being the follower to being the leader without your prospect ever being the wiser. In fact if you have mirrored close enough your prospect will be more than happy to let you lead because they feel a connection with you, they are beginning to trust you.

Teaching when to switch from following to leading is no easy task because each situation is different. Sometimes the switch can happen in a matter of minutes, other times it can be longer. A good rule of thumb is if you start to lead and the prospect doesn’t follow, go right back into pacing, but most of the time you will know when the right time is. Be subtle at first then increasingly more blatant as you lead the prospect toward the sale. If at anytime during the sales process you prospect stops following, you know there as an issue, stop right there and address it, slipping back into matching as you do so.

Start practicing pacing as soon as possible, with everybody you meet. Pace body language and speech patters, try to get caught so that your confidence will grow. This is a very powerful tool, one of the most powerful weapons in any sales person’s arsenal, why aren’t you using it?

Congress approves a measure to subsidize car purchases – consumers can get as much as $4,500 to trade in old cars. Vehicles bought after July 1 eligible.

By Catherine Clifford, CNNMoney.com staff writerLast Updated: June 19, 2009: 3:53 PM ET

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney.com) — A $1 billion Washington program to give vouchers to consumers who replace junky cars with fuel-efficient models is likely to ramp up very soon.

Congress passed the “cash for clunkers” measure late Thursday night as part of the $106 billion war spending bill. President Barack Obama plans to sign the bill into law.

“We are gratified that the Congress delivered on this administration priority, and President Obama looks forward to signing it into law,” according to an administration statement.

Vehicles purchased after July 1 will be eligible for the refund vouchers worth as much as $4,500 to turn in gas guzzlers and buy new cars that are more fuel efficient.

The agency in charge of administering the program, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, will work out all the details within 30 days of enactment, according to Rae Tyson, spokesman for NHTSA.

Meanwhile, car dealers may honor rebates starting July 1. The federal agency needs the 30-day window to implement regulations to safeguard the program from fraud and abuse, Tyson said.

Among the issues regulators might address: Does the consumer hold a valid legal title to the car he is seeking to trade in? Will the clunker be appropriately disposed of so that it can’t be cashed-in again?

The agency on Friday was scrambling to launch a Web site, www.cars.gov, to provide consumers with information about the program.

The bill’s passage comes as welcome news to automakers, which are struggling from a dramatic plunge in sales.

“We really appreciate Congress’ efforts to move this quickly across the legislative finish line,” said Mike Moran, spokesman for Ford Motor Co (F, Fortune 500).

Boosting the economy: Cash for clunkers proponents in Congress said the subsidies will spur sales.

“The simple fact is that we need to get Americans into car showrooms and this is the bill that will do it,” said Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., in a statement.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said the program will boost jobs in auto states.

Michigan’s unemployment rate, the highest in the nation, hit 14.1% in May, the government reported Friday.

“This program will provide an economic stimulus at a time when hardworking families need it most,” Stabenow said in a statement.

Still, cash for clunkers drew opposition from lawmakers who were opposed to spending more money on the auto industry.

The move deepens the federal government’s involvement in the auto industry. The Obama administration has said it will provide General Motors (GMGMQ) with another $30 billion in addition to $19.4 billion previously provided.

How program will work: Clunkers eligible for the program must get 18 miles per gallon, or less, in combined city and highway driving.

The subsidy ends up benefiting more owners of light trucks, SUVs and mini-vans more than it would owners of regular old passenger cars, auto experts say.

A $3,500 subsidy can be used to purchase cars and vans that are more fuel efficient than the older clunkers by four miles per gallon. A $4,500 subsidy can be used toward purchasing cars and vans that are more fuel efficient than older cars by 10 miles per gallon.

However, cars that have not been insured for the past year, or those that are older than 25 years, are not eligible to be traded in for vouchers.

The supplemental bill approved Thursday sets aside $1 billion through fall. The program could make available as much as $4 billion in subsidies.

The House passed a cash for clunkers plan Tuesday by a vote of 298-119. Congress could appropriate more funds for the program in the fall.

Environmental lobbying groups had been pushing for a tougher bill sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., geared more toward cutting carbon emissions.

So what do you think? How is this going to aid you in selling more cars, how do you think its going to affect the economy? Speak up and be heard!

We have all heard it before, “The economy sucks, people are keeping their cars longer and longer and the market keeps getting smaller and smaller.” But we, and by we I mean you and I, we know better than to listen to the naysayers because we understand that in order to get ahead we must think ahead. That’s why the National Association of Car Sales Professionals has devised a sure-fire way to build loyalty, increase repeat customers, and earn referrals at a much higher rate than you ever thought possible.

In short, people do business with people that they like, know and trust. But, before we dive into the simple, yet powerful, Loyalty Formula it’s important that we first talk about the two phases of the buying cycle. Just by you knowing that there are two very important phases to the buying cycle puts you ahead of most other car sales people. If you want to go further than that and become one of the elite, read every word that is to follow and take action!

The two phases of the buying cycle are the buying phase and the ownership phase. Most people are quick to discount the ownership phase as being part of the buying cycle but it’s the ownership phase where the one sale you made during the buying phase can be multiplied ten fold if you follow the process as outlined in this article.

As you notice in the diagram above the buying phase of purchasing an automobile always leads to the ownership phase, the ownership phase to the buying phase, the buying phase to the… well you get the picture. If you want to sell more units and make more money in the coming weeks, months and years all you need to do is position yourself at the very moment when the Ownership Phase becomes the Buying Phase, this is called repeat business. Again, I’m guilty of over simplifying things but I promise you that before the end of this article I will spell it all out in easy to follow steps that will make you a believer!

The Buying Phase

Now, let’s take a closer look at the individual steps, or processes in both the Buying Phase and the Ownership Phase to better understand how this whole process ties into the Loyalty Formula. Before the Buying Cycle ever began there was a Need, a Need to purchase an automobile. The Need to purchase isn’t necessarily part of the Buying Phase, just the catalyst needed to start it. It’s the Need that helps to form the decision that it’s time to buy an automobile. The next two processes, after Need has been established, are Research and Decision.

Research is the part of the Buying Cycle where the customer researches make, model, trade allowance, and budgets. This research can be done in just a few hours or weeks and months. Some people will go online, consult with friends, call dealerships or visit them in person. There are hundreds of different ways that people research before buying an automobile but once they find what they want or what they think they want and the price they can afford to pay or put down they have a decision to make; which leads us to the Decision process.

The Decision process, for some, can be a very personal decision or completely random, it just depends on the individual. It’s during this step that the actual decision “what to buy and from whom” is made. Sometimes this can happen as the person is researching at a dealership and gets snagged by a salesperson but this is a definitive step in the process.

After the Decision process is the Purchase process which include all the steps to the sell that you learned in Auto Sales 101. This is the step where the car is test driven, numbers are worked and paperwork is signed. Below you will find the Buying Cycle with the individual processes that make up the Buying Phase put into place.

The Ownership Phase

Ahhhh, the Ownership Phase. It’s the phase in the Buying Cycle that separates the Car Sales Professional from the wannabees. Let me ask you a question, do you follow-up? Oh no, it’s the dreaded ‘F’ word! If you answered yes to that question then let me ask you another, do you follow-up consistently?

Odds are you don’t, but as I said in the preceding paragraph the Ownership Phase separates the professional from the wannabees. It’s the professional that understands the value of repeat business and referrals. It’s the professional that works by appointment only and still makes a good paycheck when traffic is down in the store; it’s the professional that gets perfect CSI scores and makes sales with seamless ease.

Do you really want to be chasing lot traffic year after year, working 12 hours a day 6 and 7 days a week? Of course you don’t so let’s break down this Ownership Phase like we did the Buying Phase so that we can better understand how loyalty is formed and how we go about building it with ALL of our customers.

Here we end part 1, next week we will go over exactly how loyalty is built and a fail proof process on ho wits accomplished.