Magazine for the professional tire industry
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MTD December 2016 2016 SEMA Show/Global Tire Expo e question you should be asking customers, a dealer in the hot seat, and lots of new products, too By MTD Staff M ud-terrain tires were among the hot products at the 2016 Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show , along with industry experts eager to answer all-important questions like how to sell more tires. For example, sales people should be asking customers "What brought you here today?" But no one is asking that question according to Karl Stearns, president of KMS Marketing Solutions. Instead, they greet customers with "How can I help you?" e oen-used greeting is a flawed selling tactic. "Asking how you can help lets the customer control the conversation," Stearns told dealers during "Improving Sales and Profits," a Tire Industry Association-sponsored educational session held during the Global Tire Expo portion of the SEMA Show. "If you demonstrate to customers that you are actually concerned about why they are there to do business with you instead of just taking an order from them, you are going to find your relationship with those customers will get very strong," he said. "ey will come back to you before they think of going anywhere else." He followed up with a question for dealers: "Wouldn't you like to know why they chose your store?" e FUD factor Stearns explained that everything taking place at the sales counter comes down to an interaction between two people. "You have to think about what's going on in this whole process. Marketers call it FUD: fear, uncertainty, and doubt." Fear of a tire failure may have pushed the customer to a tire store. "ey are uncertain your store is the best place to go. ey may doubt the person they are dealing with. You have all of this going on in a person's head while they are trying to transact business with you. Your counterperson is dealing with the same things while they interact with your customer," said Stearns. "You may think this is a friendly transaction. For the most part it is. But don't ever underestimate the fact that every customer that comes through the door has all kinds of doubts about doing business with you," he said. e PIPA process To help overcome cus- tomers' doubts and uncover their real need, Stearns advises a four-step approach to sales: present, interview, propose and adjust, or PIPA. In the "present" step, the sales person and customer get to know each other. e sales person checks the store's records and Bill Hagerty (left), a former tire store owner from Es- condido, Calif., who now offers tire forensics services, won a tablet following the "Improving Sales and Profits" seminar led by Karl Stearns, president of KMS Marketing Solutions (right). Mike Brown says marketing is a two-step process. First, nail your strategy. That means know- ing what your brand means and what is most important to your audience. Second, think about creativity. "And don't screw up the order." Zulma Flores from Montrose Tire & Wheel in Houston, Texas, volunteered to take the hot seat in Mike Brown's "Shoestring Market- ing" seminar to learn to "do new with less." feature 22