Importance of Building Your Reputation

I currently work in a field that doesn't have the best reputation or track record. For years, and still today, car salesmen have taken a bad wrap for being dishonest or thieves. Granted, back in the day and even some today, deserve to have that stigma but not everyone does. Back in the older days there was much more emphasis on word of mouth business and that is also mainly how one's reputation got around. Today it is bigger than it has ever been when it comes to getting the word out about a person or a business.
Today, we are in a very technological world that depends highly on electronic gadgets to just get by day to day. I am a firm believer that some of these same gadgets have actually made us dumber since we don't have to remember things as much anymore. But that doesn't change the fact that they are here and here to stay. There are so many ways to get information nowadays from phones to tablets and watches and it's still growing. You may be asking yourself "where in the world is he going with this?". Well, my point is this, if there is so much technology out there and every person has some form of it just about then why wouldn't someone be concerned about their reputation? If any person at any given time can do an online search and find out just about anything about anybody then why wouldn't you be concerned about what they might find?
Now, granted, there are many jobs that one may have that may not be affected so much by a good or bad reputation but that's not the majority. Even if you are job hunting your reputation can either help or hurt you. If you are trying to grow a business with new business it can too be affected by a good or bad reputation. So, I am always baffled when I here someone say "I don't care what people think about me" or "I'm not concerned about my reputation". Ideally, just about everyone has some feelings about what people think about them. They try and play it off like they don't but they really do. I'm always amazed at the amount of people that walk around with a chip on their shoulder because they can't find a "decent" job and they like to say that they are being treated unfairly. There may be some times that they may be treated like that but a lot of times they have just had a bad reputation following them. Whether they are a job jumper or they don't come to work on time their reputation follows them. Most of the time it's their fault and they like to blame others.
Ideally, in order to be truly successful, you need to have a very favorable reputation. Whether it's looking for a new job, or trying to excel in your current job, having and building a good reputation is vitally important. If you are trying to get ahead at work by hard work then you want to be known as a hard worker and someone who can get the job done. If you are applying for a new position or a new job then you want that same reputation to follow you. Let's face the fact that many businesses search potential applicants online to get more information. You can lie or stretch the truth a little on a application and get away with it but it's hard to get away from the published truth online so you need to make a valiant effort to be reputable online.
 Search yourself online and see what you find. Do you find good or bad things about yourself? Do you find anything at all? Because not finding anything can be bad at times too but we will talk about online presence at a later time. Make sure you are being noticed but that you are being noticed for the right things.

Thanks for reading!

Fist Pump Guy out!

#thefistpumpguy #buildingyourreputation #getsresults

Fishing with the wrong bait?

Many know that I have been training on Building your Reputation and how important it is in any kind of sales position. I have been tying in different topics to try to show you how to build your reputation effectively. Today I am going to briefly talk about the topic I trained on yesterday in the meeting that I am certain is vitally important in sales but especially in the car business.
Selling cars can be easy and hard at times but far too often salespeople make it harder than it needs to be especially new salespeople. It's made hard by a simple mistake and that is they might be Fishing With The Wrong Bait. What do I mean by that? I will tell you in a second. But let me ask you something first. Have you ever spent an excessive amount of time on the lot showing a vehicle, or multiple vehicles, and get the customer inside and they do not close? There can be a few different reasons why they don't close but many times we blame it on the price or they may even say it's the price. The fact is that many times, though we or they might say it's the price, we are on the wrong product/vehicle.
Fishing With The Wrong Bait means you are trying to sell them the wrong product/vehicle. If you haven't gone through the correct steps and asked the right questions then you can find yourself trying to build value in the wrong thing. That's not to say that you should always give too much credibility to all they say they "want" as I said in my last post but that you should listen and then follow their request with "what about this particular vehicle are you attracted to?" or "how important is this feature to you to be on your next vehicle?". These are just examples of coarse but you do need to know why and what they really need so that you make sure you are showing the right thing because you don't want to be on too much vehicle but you also don't want to be on too little vehicle. You can also ask them "what do you like most/least about your current vehicle?" or "what would you like to have on your new ride that you don't have now?" and other questions like that but you also have to take into account what their budget may be if you know because too much vehicle will blow them out to another dealership, probably to buy the exact lesser model car you are trying to switch them back to.
Another important step to make sure you are on the right product/vehicle is to model up/model down them. This means that you need to either show them a model up from what they are wanting to look at or show them a model down or maybe even do both. The reason is because that it helps you build more value in what you are really trying to sell them or it helps you find out what is really important to them, based on what they told you they wanted, and it sets you up with a switch vehicle or two just in case the payment is too much or the money isn't right for them then you can say something like "you remember that other model I showed you? It would be closer to your range/payment than this model is". This will help you close them on the car they are in finance on or it will help you switch them to the car you probably thought they should've went with in the first place. Either way you do two things, you find out what is really most important to them and you build an extreme amount of credibility and value in yourself which is also highly important in any sales position which ultimately leads to building your Reputation and gives you more/higher Results/Rewards.
My ending thought is this, make sure you are asking the right questions and showing the right amount of interest in your customers. If you actually listen then you will have an easier time distinguishing what they really need and an easier time picking out the right product/vehicle. Remember, you are the professional so act like it. They look to you for answers many times and you need to be able to solve their problem and answer their questions. Many times the customer needs to be led, if not every time, because all too often they do not even know what they want or what's best for them. It's up to you to make the difference which is why it's so important to make sure that you are Fishing With The Right Bait!

Thanks for reading!

Fist Pump Guy out!

#thefistpumpguy #fishingwiththewrongbait #buildingyourreputation #getsresults #followthefistpumptoenterprise

Pleading Your Case

I have recently been training on building your reputation and how it important it is especially in the sales industry and how it leads to Results/Rewards that you desire. I also trained on the ability to adapt or change into what the customer needs you to be through The Phone Booth Salesman. Then I trained on QDR which was Toyota's focus when they started building vehicles and continues today and how using these same guidelines to show people your Quality, that you are Dependable and that you are certainly Reliable.

Yesterday I fed off of these training topics and taught on Pleading Your Case to the customer. Much like how an attorney gathers the facts and is able to build a story to convince a jury or a judge we, in the sales industry, must be able to do the same. We start off by greeting the client/customer and then gathering facts by asking questions and finding out what the customer's true needs are and not necessarily their wants. It's fine to listen to all of their wants and desires but sometimes they aren't necessarily things they MUST have and it's our job to find out what they need instead of all they want. Simply put, if a customer comes in and says " I want so and so fully loaded" doesn't always mean they want the top of the line. They may just mean they want alloys and leather which may be on a lesser priced vehicle. It does no good to try and build value in something a customer doesn't need unless, of coarse, it's the only one you have and then you need to exceed the value. This is just an example of coarse and I'm just using it to show you what I mean. 

My whole point is that in order to build value and sell a car you must be able to Plead Your Case about whatever vehicle you are showing and in order to do that effectively you must ask the right questions and gather the correct facts. If you don't gather the right facts then you may be wasting your time and therefore you may be Pleading Your Case on the wrong item. If you are able to put them on the right item and then Plead Your Case effectively it will eventually end in a deal and therefore it will build your Reputation and Respect because, sometimes, those are more important than the monetary Reward/Result. 

Thanks for reading!

Fist Pump Guy out!

#thefistpumpguy #buildingyourreputation #pleadyourcase #getresults 

The Phone Booth Salesman

When I came up with this training title I was telling myself how dumb it may sound to the sales staff. I was thinking that they would think I was some kind of idiot.....though I think I am a little. I think many of them tune me out anyway so I decided to train on this topic regardless.
I am a huge Superman fan. He was always my favorite superhero. I was always amazed at how he was able to keep his identity a secret but yet able to change into his superhero dress while needing little time or cover to do so. This is where I came up with the idea of The Phone Booth Salesman.
You might be asking "what in the world is he talking about?" a Phone Booth Salesman? Yea, I know, it sounded a little dumb to me when it was running through my head as I came up with the material to cover in the meeting under this title. But I started to think what this could mean in the sales force. Superman was able to step into a phone booth and change in less than a few seconds....in the older episodes anyways. He was able to change when there was trouble or someone was in trouble. He was able to "adapt" into what people needed him to be.
That's what I think is necessary for the sales force, especially in car sales. We are approaching a time when the majority of any kind of sales will be done online, at least the searching part anyways, and it will be necessary to stand out and be noticed. As I've discussed before, building your reputation is very important and can lead to you being needed in sales. So, being able to adapt to a customers needs or being able to adapt to a different time is very necessary now for sure.
What do I mean by being able to adapt? Well, for starters, we must adapt to the times. In a growing age of technology we have the opportunity to be lost in the chaos. It's becoming less of a face to face business and more and more of a face to screen business but no matter if you are on the other side of the screen or if you are the one on the lot you need to make sure you have a good reputation and you are relevant. Being able to adapt helps make you both. If you are able to answer all questions and handle all issues you will be needed. If you are able to show that you are the one to call when a customer has a problem or if you are simply there to set an appointment for them you will be needed. In the past these things weren't necessary but now they are very necessary,  especially in the automotive business. If your service dept can't figure out a problem on a car then you want them to be able to call you for the solution. Who knows?....you might even pick up a customer in the process. Whatever is going on you need to be involved and you need to be able to adapt to that situation. It will only make you more needed and wanted. You need to make yourself a necessity and not a liability, no matter what your chosen profession or job happens to be.
I see, especially today, that many people don't want to change. I get it. I didn't either. I am older than I once was and I for one can see how much technology has actually hurt how we live but that doesn't change the fact that it is here and we must adapt to the situation. Much like how Superman was able to change into his superhero dress we must be able to change into what the customer needs us to be. It may be hard to even want to change but there's a time coming when you need to make sure you are different and indispensable.
At the end of the day you want the customer/client to think of you with all of there automotive needs, or whatever your job is, no matter if you are able to directly help them or not. Adapt and succeed or don't and eventually fail. We all miss it sometimes and fail but you must always continue pressing forward towards the results/rewards.

Thanks for reading!

Fist Pump Guy Out!

#thefistpumpguy #phoneboothsalesman #buildingyourreputation

Questioning integrity

I want to talk about a situation that happened at work yesterday but first let me do a summary of my training from last week. If you read my last blog post then you will see that I trained a lot on how important one's Reputation can be, especially if you're in any kind of sales or if you own your own business. Basically, without going through every point, your Reputation is built through effort of your own to earn Respect and ultimately earns you Results/Rewards. Now, having said that, I am a big proponent of honesty in the workplace. I don't really care what kind of business you have but I believe that trust, honesty and integrity are some very important qualities that one can have. Granted, not all think like I do, especially in the car business, but that's who I am. So, when someone questions my integrity I get a little upset.

Now, to the event yesterday. I was confronted about a situation that happened with a customer I had just sold. Now, just a thought, if you assume something without having the facts it can lead to a serious situation so don't do that. Also, if you have an issue with someone then you need to find out the facts and then try and find out what happened instead of accusing someone. Because, though you might think they did something to deceive another doesn't always necessarily mean they did. What I mean is that things aren't always what they appear to be on the surface unless that's what you've already made up in your mind has happened. So, I guess where I am going with this is the fact that because my integrity was questioned in a public environment without allowing me time to explain what happened and when I do get somewhat of a chance to explain I then am basically called a liar and compared to those that do things purposely to deceive others when I didn't even do what I was being accused of. So, needless to say I got highly upset. Those that know me know that I don't get upset often especially to the point where I am actually angry. That happened yesterday. For that I am sorry. I apologize to any employee or customer that may have heard the commotion when I lost my cool. I am truly sorry that I let my emotions get the best of me. I really got too upset over an issue that, first of all didn't happen but second of all wasn't worth the time it took to get that mad. But had the person asked me about the situation instead of accusing me then I don't believe that it would have taken place at all. But instead of doing just a little bit of research this person jumped to conclusions and questioned my integrity which I take to heart. That's no excuse for me losing my temper like that and again I am sorry for that. 

So, now I am going to offer some helpful tips to anyone that suspects something dishonest is going on and the steps to handle it. First, take a look at the Reputation of the person you're about to accuse. See, what kind of example they have been and their track record. Are they someone that has done these things before multiple times? Are they someone that is always trying to deceive others or stealing from them? Has it been proven at other jobs that they are that type of person? Second, do your research. Look into the situation first and gather the facts. Give the benefit of the doubt if you have no proof. That's better than making yourself look like an idiot because you accused someone of doing something they didn't do. Third, gather those facts and make sure they are accurate. Sometimes, "taking a witness' word for it" may not be good enough since they may have their own agenda against that person too. Forth, after you have gathered all you think you need, or even if you have found no evidence, go to the person in private and try and talk it out. That would be much better that confronting someone in front of co-workers because they will definitely go on the defensive real quick. If you truly want to know the truth then you will actually listen. If you have already made up your mind then you won't hear a word they say and will probably either cut them off or not let them talk at all. Not doing these things to handle a situation correctly can and will ruin work relationships especially in the car business since we spend more time with they guys and girls at the dealership than we do with our own families. Now, I understand that we spend 10-12 hours a day with each other and we can act like brothers sometimes and fight but it doesn't need to be over something that isn't true and petty.

Just a side note, you notice I didn't mention going to a manager for help. The reason is, in the car business anyways, because they don't like handling these types of situations. A lot of times they have their own agenda against the same person and won't handle the situation correctly either. Besides, as long as the car gets sold they don't care who sells it even if it was done dishonestly....in most cases anyways. So, going to a manager isn't always they best way to handle a situation. My theory on this is that though a manager may have one or two they can count on to get a job done or get a customer served others may see that as favoritism and therefore develop and agenda that is obvious. So, just use common since when going to a manager even if it just for advice because, though many of them are knowledgeable in what they do many haven't been trained how to handle people and learn how to deal with situations nor do they want to. 

So, to make a long story short, do your research and give people the benefit of the doubt especially if you know them to be an honorable and respectful person instead of accusing and confronting them for something they might not have done. 

Hope this helps! Thanks for reading!

Fist Pump Guy Out!

#thefistpumpguy #findthefactsfirst #checkthereputation 

Buidling Reputation leads to Results!

This is the topic I trained on this morning during our sales meeting. Soak it in and allow it to help you no matter what type of sales you are in! Don't let anyone tell you that your reputation isn't important because everyone has one. You have to know if yours is negative or positive and how you can improve it in order to earn Respect and get Results!

Thanks for reading!

Fist Pump Guy out!
#thefistpumpguy #buildingyourreputation #getsresults #followthefistpumptoenterprise

Returned from the PROS Banquet

Well, we made it back home late yesterday afternoon and we have just been being lazy today before we both go back to work tomorrow. Needless to say we had a great time and wished it didn't have to end so soon.

When I first got the news that I had made it to the banquet I was a little excited. I mean, I was suppose to go a couple of years ago and didn't go but now I wish I had. I didn't really know what to expect until I finally got there and realized that it was a big deal. I'm not even sure I realized how big this thing was until the last night of the Boots and Bling Banquet and I was able to see the amount of time and money invested by Southeast Toyota to recognize a few elite salespeople. It was quite impressive. I looked at Talitha while we were sitting at dinner that last night and said, "I knew it would be somewhat a big deal but I didn't realize it was going to be this big of a deal". I still feel like that. It takes a lot to impress me but I was impressed. Talitha looked at me after I said that and said to me, "It is a big deal and you should be proud". I don't really get proud about much but when this was going on you just have to sit back and look at the sacrifice you must go through with the amount of hours worked and time away from family, though I'm sure there are many out there that work more hours than I but you get my point. To be recognized for your work is, I think, one of the most underrated ways to build morale that there is. Sometimes people just want to be told thank you and Southeast Toyota did it in a big way and I am so thankful. I wish everyone could experience what I have just experienced. If you work for Southeast Toyota I recommend to work your butt off to try and make it to this level. It is so worth it. Think about it. We stayed at a 5 STAR hotel on the Disney property. Pretty much all the stuff is paid for and they give away a bunch of money at the end. That is something that you almost have to see to believe. Even as i was sitting in this beautiful room the 1st day I didn't know what to expect and now that I'm back I still don't really know how to handle all that went on. The only regret I think I have is we would've kept the room for one more day and I would have met a lot more of the salesmen and ladies there. I am somewhat shy and felt a little out of place the first day but warmed up by the end but I didn't meet and talk to near enough of the people there and that I am sorry for but other than that it was a great time. I can only pray that I am blessed like this again but if I am not I am very thankful that I got to experience. Maybe the next time I go I can be recognized as an Elite Pro and get the jacket. Kind of like the ceremony they give at the Masters when the winner gets a green jacket except theirs are black but it's pretty cool. 

I  want to thank Southeast Toyota one more time along with my home dealership, Bondy's Toyota for this opportunity and now I just have to try harder to make it to the next level!

Thanks for reading!

SET Pros banquet

As I sit here watching TV waiting on this shindig to begin I can't help but be thankful that I'm here. I don't know if I will make it back here but I'm very thankful for the Lord blessing me with this opportunity. Especially the fact that my wife is able to come with me. I can see the excitement in her eyes. We don't get to get dressed up often so I know she is going to do it up bigtime(pictures to come soon). As a married couple with kids we don't get out much so, for us, this is a huge thing we are included in. It may not mean much to some of the guys and girls here but it means alot to me. This is my 1st one actually attending but my 2nd year as a Pro so I am just experiencing this for the 1st time and Southeast Toyota does it up bigtime. It kind of reminds me of all the meetings I had to go to when I was a manager with Walmart though theirs wasn't near as fun. Theirs felt more like work than anything. This is actually fun so far. Maybe next time we stay a couple extra days here and just enjoy our time together since we don't know when we will get it again. Stay tuned for updates and pictures from The Fist Pump Guy!