Aussie car salespeople better than US

That's the view of leading global sales guru, Tom Stuker, who will speak at the Australian Automobile Dealers' Association conference in Melbourne this week.

Stuker wants to change the consumer perception of car sales people as being untrustworthy. He believes sales folk and dealers are their own worst enemies when it comes to reputations. They can join the ranks of the respected occupations by adopting some commonsense sales methods, he says.

Among them are simple tips like following up calls, being easily available to customers and following through with any requests.

“It's not just about the reactive side of the business but the proactive side, which is how to network a body of customers to maintain and develop a continual growth of sales and income over a period of time,” he says.

For Stuker, most car selling practices are so ingrained, it is hard to change bad habits.

“It's the most important purchase after a home but the sales approaches are not good,” he says. “The public deserves salespeople with higher standards.”

Of all the brands, he says Lexus has managed to succeed by having a respect for its customers based on building relationships. Stuker has been visiting and preaching his views to the Australian car industry for 20 years and he sees some change for the better locally.

“I find the average Australian dealership and salesperson to be more ethical and fair-dinkum that their contemporaries in the US,” he says. “I think there is more professionalism in the average Australian dealership. “Not necessarily street smarts but professionalism.”

However, he says bad sales habits are not just restricted to one country. “It's the same in the US as it is in Australia,” he says.

Stuker says sales people must also cope with better-informed buyers. “Today's customer is not necessarily smarter about buying a car but they are better informed,” he says. “In the US 92 per cent of people will go to the internet before they make a purchase,” he says.

Among his desires is to make the dealers see their salespeople as assets, not just employees. “Dealers will have to start training their sales people and investing in them like assets,” he says.

Otherwise their businesses will suffer. He also believes recruits should look at car selling as a career, not just a job. Ultimately too, dealerships have to find a way of not only finding a way of not just improving the buying experience but the ownership experience through relationship building, he says.

“After all we are in the customer service business,” he says.

Stuker has been involved in most dealership activities, from retail sales and management to sales training and management consulting for more than 20 years.

The AADA conference starts on Thursday.

Stuker is also planning to return to Australia in October to hold a 10-day sales training course for dealers and their employees.