Automotive Industry Sales Training: Gaining Commitment

AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY IMPROVEMENT IN CRITICAL SALES SKILL #5: GAINING COMMITMENT GAINING COMMITMENT is the ability to complete sales calls with a commitment that moves the sales process forward. The Application data shows that prior to training, 64% of sales calls end without the salesperson asking for a commitment. Since the ability to gain commitment is key criteria for hiring salespeople, it appears that nearly two-thirds of salespeople are not doing their job. Training remedied this with a whopping 120% improvement in salespeople Asking for Commitment. REMARKABLE FINDINGS ABOUT GAINING COMMITMENT SKILLS IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

1. The Automotive Industry showed higher Pre-Sales Training scores in both Knowledge and Application. It appears that Automotive had prior training in how to effectively Gain Commitment (close).
2. With such a high improvement in Application, Automotive salespeople showed that there was a significant opportunity to improve the ability to Ask for Commitment.

The Automotive Industry started with selling skills that were generally below the Universe. An exception to this was Gaining Commitment were salespeople had significantly higher pre-sales training scores. It appeared that automotive salespeople were being trained to be closers without enough training on the other critical selling skills. This creates selling situations where pressure is applied (rather than persuasion). Once the additional critical selling skills were more fully developed, sales growth rates in the Automotive Industry improved by 6X previous rates. This clearly demonstrated the need to develop a well-rounded set of sales skills.