Most advice you’ll find tells you to look outside the box.  To change your thinking and do something different to improve your life.  What if you focused your energy inside the box, instead?  What if you put energy into getting better at the things you’re already doing (or should be doing) in order to get better, instead of looking for something on the outside?  In this article, we’re going to talk about three simple things you can do in order to think inside the box and sell more cars.

01 | Sold Customer Follow-Up

Every single vehicle that you’ve sold in the past is an opportunity to multiply that sale.

Every person who has purchased a car from you is going to use that car, especially this time of year, to go to holiday parties and visit family and friends.  Every time they do, they’re going to bring up their new car – and that’s the moment where magic can happen.

If you’ve done your post-sale follow-up.  If you’ve checked-in with the customer.  If you’ve made sure that they know your name, then every time someone asks, that customer will refer you to those people.

That single sale can become four or five or six sales, but none of that can happen, unless you’re following up.

Remember, when the sale is done, your job has just begun.

Post-sale follow-up starts the day the car is delivered to the customer.  Before they leave, you need to have them store your number in their phone as “car-yourname”.

Once you’re stored in their phone, it makes it simpler to reach out after the sale, and better yet; they’ll have your contact information handy when someone asks where they got their new car.

Storing your number is just the beginning.

After they’ve taken delivery, you need to make sure that you’re reaching out to that customer, at least once a month after the sale.  You need to check-in and see how they’re doing, and how they’re enjoying the car.  You need to find out if they have questions or concerns.

When you check in with them and try to help them after the purchase, you build trust, community and ultimately a network that helps you to sell more cars.

02 | Your Goals, Actions & Your Adversity Plan

If I had a dollar for every salesperson who starts their month without a sales goal, I’d be a very rich man.

Setting goals is such a simple thing that you can do (inside the box), that can make such a huge impact on your bottom line.

Goals are an anchor.  They’re how you stop yourself from drifting.  They are how you focus your energy, and ultimately, the building blocks that will get you where you need to be.

It doesn’t stop with simply setting a goal though.  Once you know what, the next question is how.  That’s your action plan.  It’s a roadmap that helps you figure out what steps you can take every single day, that will lead you closer to your goal.

Once you have a goal and an action plan to accomplish it, you need to create an adversity plan.

Maybe you’re having a bad day, maybe life knocked you down, or maybe you’ve just drifted away.  Whatever the cause, there will be days where adversity calls and you find yourself off track.  The question is…

What will you do when adversity comes?

How will you get back to your action plan? How will you right the course and get yourself back on track and headed towards your goal?

Knowing how you’ll handle adversity and distraction is the single most important step in goal setting, so make sure you’ve got a plan.

In the end, goals, actions plans and adversity plans are a simple way to think inside the box and make a big difference to your bottom line.

03 | Controlling the Controllables

We all spend so much time worrying about and trying to control the things that we can’t control, that we leave no time to control the things that we can.

You can’t control the price of gas or the inventory that you have on the lot, but you can control how much you’re learning, what goals you’re setting and what actions you’re taking.

You should be investing all that time and all that energy that you’re wasting on things that you can’t do a thing about and investing it in the things that you can.

You can control your actions, your education, the amount you grow and the influence that you have over your customers, but you’re too busy focusing on things that you can’t change, that you don’t have time left for the things that will help you.

Ask yourself….” Am I Aware?”  If you’re thinking about things that are uncontrollable, you’re not. You’re tied up in things that you can’t change and that can’t help you.

Be aware. Be focused. Control the controllables.