The Importance of Making a Strong Connection With Customers

Most RV dealerships today use a “selling system” for their sales staff to use with customers, offering a step-by-step approach that ensures consistency and reflects the customer service philosophy of their respective ownership.

However, with slower RV sales during the past few years, things feel a bit different now as customers are feeling a much greater sense of urgency from sales staff to make the sale. With interest rates being higher and money tighter than in previous years, this has raised the salesperson-customer tension level up another notch compared to what everyone was used to.

The result is that customer anxiety in those precious first few minutes of the meet and greet is at a much higher level than we’ve seen in a long time, creating new opportunities for mistakes that salespeople often overlook. The key to combat this is in the extra steps that need to be taken in the early stages to soften customer fears when working with a salesperson for the first time.

With that in mind, here are a few new priorities that have taken on new meaning in recent years. Not adjusting to these in the early stages can quickly make customer engagement feel like “predator and prey.”

Not Recognizing Customer Anxiety Early On

Most salespeople want to make a good first impression with their customers and are highly focused on that during the first few minutes. They want to look and sound impressive to prove to the customer that they are professional and knowledgeable. However, this heavy focus often makes them talk way too much and, as a result, listen far too little, especially if the salesperson is an extrovert. One of the biggest pet peeves customers have and are on the lookout for is whether their salesperson is listening to them, so this can create an unfavorable first impression for most and set off alarm bells for some.

Customers who have had a prior bad experience with a salesperson at another dealership will be hyperfocused with the next one they work with because those memories tend to stay with them. They will zero in on how the next salesperson conducts themselves, and everything they do and say, and whether they are actively listening to them is a major focus item.

Salespeople should not only listen intently to what a customer is saying but also look for customer verification with complementary body language cues. The anxious customer may say positive things, but will exhibit uncomfortable body language cues, such as not making eye contact, folding their arms, or exhibiting uncomfortable facial expressions that signal discomfort. Follow-up questions are needed here to confirm the customer is comfortable before proceeding.

Not doing so will only delay their discomfort to a later time, likely to arise again when the salesperson tries to close the deal. This will result in the customer saying, “I want to go home and think about it,” and no sale will take place … all because their discomfort in the early moments was never properly addressed or clarified.

Rushing the Meet & Greet

This is a major error that salespeople make every single day. For some reason, too many salespeople have a false sense of security and rushing customers out to the back lot to get in front of their product is a security blanket for them. Unfortunately, all this does is delay the critical work that must be done in the first few minutes of the meet and greet.

The anxious customer tends to say, “I just want to go look at some motorhomes,” and so many salespeople respond by leading them out into the lot to look at them before they know what they want, why they want it and how much they want to pay for it. In many cases, this is a diversionary tactic to hopefully avoid interaction with the salesperson, when most of the time, they’re just tagging along, not knowing what to show them next.

In this situation, any obvious customer anxiety never gets addressed, and the salesperson misses the chance of helping the customer relax enough to feel comfortable talking openly, not to mention building some rapport and trust with the salesperson.

I am aware of some dealerships that put time limits, often 15-20 minutes, before they expect the salesperson to go to the desk so that the sales manager can select three products to show the customer and send them out into the lot. This is a major mistake, as not many salespeople are adept at identifying customer anxiety, sufficiently relaxing them, and having them feel comfortable, honestly communicating all the information the salesperson needs to get them on the right product, in 15 minutes.

For the very nervous customer, it may take as much as 45 minutes to an hour to relax and feel comfortable communicating before handling the pressure of talking about RVs or money with the salesperson. If you watch top salespeople (in the top 10% of their dealership), they will relax and chat for as long as it takes before attempting to get the information they need to start the sales process.

This must take place even if the customer walks in the door requesting to look at a specific product they might have seen on the company website. Why? Not every customer is able to understand what they want versus what they need, and the salesperson will only be able to get that after helping the customer relax and be honest in communicating that.

The bottom line here is this: slow down. Stop rushing the meet and greet because the information you need and the customer comfort you need to achieve to get that is a pay now, pay later proposition.

Selling to Every Customer the Same Way

As stated earlier, most dealerships have some type of selling system, with specific steps and, in some cases, specific words (or word tracks) that they are required to use with every customer. Many of these systems are based on psychological science and/or consumer research and testing, which are memorized by company trainers and salespeople through daily or weekly practice sessions. Theoretically, they are very sound. Practically, not so much. Why? Because not every customer wants to be sold in the same way. Customers come with different interests, skill sets, ways of how they prefer communicating, and most of all, how they want to be sold.

The analytical customer doesn’t want to hear about all the good times you can have in an RV. They want specific details, facts, documentation and, if possible, handouts that verify what the salesperson talked about in their product demonstration. They tend to be more interested in the technical make-up of an RV, and why things work a certain way.

The expressive “good-time” Charlie customer doesn’t want to hear any of that. All they want to know is how many people they can entertain while camping, how they can cook up a great spread, and how awesome the stereo speakers are. Don’t bore them with facts and details — they don’t want to hear any of it.

If you slow down and build enough rapport with your customer, you can get a solid read on the type of customer they are. This will help you know what to say and how to say it. It’s the customer who will decide how they want you to sell to them, and not the other way around.

The steps laid out here are sequential and they aren’t intended to replace or downgrade any company selling system — they will make it more effective.

Recognizing a customer’s anxiety and taking steps to help relax them and feel comfortable will allow them to feel safe enough to pass along the information you need to do your best work for them. That can only happen by calming your enthusiasm a bit in those first few minutes.

Demonstrating and selling to a customer in the way the customer prefers, and not the way the company prefers, will increase your odds of hearing a “yes” when you’re trying to close the deal.