"Four Ways to Improve Your Meet and Greet Immediately"
 Sales people have been traditionally taught to walk directly up to people, stick out their hand, aggressively give a firm handshake, exchange names, and welcome them to the dealership. Let's review potential difficulties with the traditional meet and greet approaches and how to improve them.
People in our society have three general comfort zones, home, work, and vehicle. Most people spend about over 90 % of their time in these comfort zones. A dealership has never been considered a comfortable place to visit. When sales people greet customers too strongly and then invade their personal space by pushing their hand out towards them, they intensify the uncomfortable feelings that can occur. The old phrase, "You never get a second chance to make a good first impression," is true. You have to break down any existing barriers, and make clients feel as comfortable as possible, as soon as possible.
Solution #1 - Recognize proxemics (the relationship of physical distance among people and the resulting patterns of interaction and behaviors)
When a sales person reaches out to shake a customers hand when they arrive, it encroaches on their personal zone of space (about arms length). It can also increase the customer's feelings of apprehension and anxiety. Therefore, as a defense mechanism, the customer protects himself or herself by replying, "I'm just looking and shopping right now. But, I will come get you if I need you." To counteract this, try greeting the customer a little quicker with your words, eyes, phrases, and body language. Stop your physical approach about three to five feet away in the customer's social zone.
Solution #2 - Use the pre-framing approach to your greeting
If you know that more than 95% of customers usually reply, "I'm just looking and shopping," use their usual response in your greeting. For example, "Hi folks, are you out looking and shopping around?" This meet and greet pre-frames the usual negative response in a positive fashion. It now makes it hard for them to say, "No, we are just looking and shopping." Also, you have given the customer the impression that it is okay to look and shop. This makes the customer feel at ease and less pressured
Solution #3 - Wait to exchange names and handshakes if possible
Many times, when a sales person exchanges names and handshakes, neither the sales person nor the customer remember each other's names two seconds later, let alone an hour later. Because of the high level of apprehension and the human tendency to size each other up, neither the sales person nor customer is focusing on the names as they exchange them. Therefore, they can't remember what they don't retain. If you observe handshakes during most meet and greet situations, when the hands fall to the floor, so do the names. By waiting for the apprehension to recede and for rapport to occur while profiling and conversing, the chances of both the sales person and the customer now remembering each other's name increase dramatically. Try using the acronym 'CAR' - Concentrate, Attend to, Respond. Concentrate as you greet people; Attend to their name when you exchange them, and Reply numerous times using their name. Remember, contrary to popular belief, most people don't feel comfortable shaking your hand in the beginning of the meet and greet.
Solution #4 - Anchor yourself positively before approaching a customer
Your success as a sales person depends upon your ability to stay in a positive selling attitude and convey that to each customer. Many of the customers and situations you face are not positive in nature and don't result in a sale. Therefore, how you reprogram your brain immediately after a negative or lost sale is crucial. Before approaching customers, have a predetermined positive mental anchor to see in your mind's eye. In your mind, picture a customer who has bought a vehicle recently and was delighted. See them waving to you as they drove off in their new vehicle. As funny as that sounds, your actions and results in life are tied to your thoughts.
You must create as many RPE s, R ecent P ositive E xperiences, as possible. Positive mental pictures can help you put a little slide in your glide and a little pep in your step as you greet the customer. Positive strong emotions, enthusiasm, and humor are the keys to having your message heard. Positive anchors can assist you in better communicating with your customer through better voice tone, voice inflection, and body language. Remember, most sales are won or lost in the first five minutes! Continually look to improve your meet and greet to improve your results.
To find out more about Mark Tewart and Tewart Enterprises please visit www.Tewart.com .
Reprinted with permission from Mark Tewart & Tewart Enterprises Inc. 1-888-2-TEWART |
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