January 29, 2015~ Who’s changing the Auto Industry Today for the Better – For Everyone’s Benefit ?

Today’s acknowledgement goes out to Joseph Menasian, Sales Manager~ Aloha Auto Group, Hawaii

“In the past I have always felt that gaining the respect and trust of a customer was very important but frankly, through the years I had lost the habit of getting to know the customer on a personal level, and it showed in my performance. I now get to know the customer better through common interests and finding out what is important to "them" outside the dealership to better establish a lasting relationship, which leads to more referrals because the customer trusts me. Both my staff and I are taking more personal notes so that when we do follow up it is on a personal level showing that we care and I am sure this has led to a better and more profitable way of doing business.

We have been implementing the "make it all about the customer and not all about the product" approach. When you have such a great product to represent it is very difficult to focus on building a personal relationship with the customer so we have been role playing this scenario, and it is working (and is definitely more fun!). The customers are more receptive to the follow up when you ask them about something specific that we had talked about such as pets, kids, sports etc. We now encourage each entry in to the CRM to include a lot of personal notes so we all can be on the same page, and the customer feels as though the whole store is one big happy family. Each of our salespeople have increased their baseline sales and profit averages and they continue to increase! I really like the "solve 80% and sell 20%" approach.”

Congratulations Joseph! Thank you for representing our industry well, and changing it for the better!