After two tours of the Sistine Chapel, what I learned about the value of the personal touch

Hey folks, this is Lenny Lawson again, the car guru, and I have a little story to tell

you, and it is going to transition into a place that you didn't think I could get to.

But I'm pretty adaptable, so here goes.

So way back in 2000, probably 2004, my parents put their heads together and put a lot of

money together, and they wanted to take my brother's family, so it was he and his wife

and his four children, and my family, me and my wife and my three children, to Italy for

two weeks, and that was their dream.

And they pulled it off, and I'll try to make this quick.

Our first stop was in Venice, and we spent, I think, three days there, and then we got

on the train, and we rode to Rome, and that was fascinating.

We get to Rome, and one of the plan stops, one of the days was to go to the Vatican,

and I'll never forget that morning.

We get there, our tour, well, we had a private tour, basically, up to that point.

They dropped us off, and we stood in line.

We were outside for a good, I would say, an hour to an hour and a half before we got inside.

But once we got inside, there was more waiting, more waiting in line.

Finally made it up through the museum, and we got to see a lot of stuff, but it was

just so crowded.

And then we start proceeding down these hallways, and they're just unbelievable if you've been

there, you know what I'm talking about.

But all of this led to the Sistine Chapel, and I think most people have heard of the Sistine

Chapel because the whole ceiling was painted by Michelangelo.

So as we're coming in, we notice, well, all the lights are off.

I mean, it's daytime, and there's light coming into the place, but it's dark, really,

and it's just wall-to-wall people.

We have to squeeze our way through it, and all I hear are people going shh,

and you hear this mumbling of voices, and then shh, quiet.

You know, it was a little disconcerting.

Uh, you couldn't take any pictures.

Cell phones were banned.

No photographs.

It was very much controlled.

And then we went into the Basilica, and that was fascinating, too.

Well, fast forward about, let's say, probably six years, we went to Italy again.

This was a different group.

This was actually one of the, one of our dealership groups.

Started in Monaco, and then went to, well, started in Nice, France, and then Monaco,

and then all around.

And we ended up back in Rome, back on another tour of the Vatican.

But this time it was different.

This time it was a private tour.

I won't have any idea how much they paid for this, but it was way better.

Because when they let us out, all the, all the crowds were gone.

This was after hours, but we went straight in, walked up, went up the escalator,

went through the museum pretty quickly, and just really, we were on our own,

and we all proceeded to the Sistine Chapel.

We walk into the Sistine Chapel.

The lights are on.

There's people in the, probably, I don't know, 30 people?

No more than that.

And they're taking pictures, and they're talking like, you know,

like they're in some kind of a big meeting hall.

And it was just a totally different experience.

We sit down with our tour guide.

We had our personal tour guide, and we just all sat there and looked up.

I got my neck got stiff looking up all the time, because that's the only thing in there

really worth looking at.

And she told us the story just went all the way through all the tapestries,

and all the paintings, and all that stuff, and what all these different sections meant.

And it was just so much better, you know, with that degree of personal attention,

the information that was provided.

I knew so much more about that place.

When I came out of the Sistine Chapel that time, then the previous time,

the previous time was very uncomfortable, too fast, not fun, amazing.

But, you know, you just didn't really appreciate it as much.

I like the private tour better.

Wouldn't you have, wouldn't you've enjoyed the freedom and the flexibility,

and be able to take pictures?

I was just looking at my computer.

What made me think about this is one of my screenshots.

I've got this rotating screen on my Apple computer,

and it just kind of rotates for all.

I've got a bunch of pictures in there from the past.

And one of them that always pops up, it's one of the 30 or so pictures that goes through there,

is of the Sistine Chapel, the ceiling, one of the pictures that I took when I was in there.

You know, I just thought about that.

Might be offensive to some people if they're a Catholic.

But I apologize for that.

A bunch of Protestants, who I guess were in there taking pictures.

So forgive me.

But it was a personalized experience.

And see, and that's what needs to happen when you're, yep, we're going to transition now,

when you happen to be buying a car.

You don't want to feel like cattle being herded through a process

where they're not really listening to you.

There's no time taken to explain to you the features and benefits of the

vehicle that you're thinking about buying.

Most salespeople rush through the process because they want to get to what they think

really matters.

And that's the price.

And really, to most customers, they want to know the price at some point.

Some of them have done a lot of shopping, either online or maybe going from dealership

to dealership.

And maybe they know the product good enough.

They know exactly what they want.

And they just do want a price.

But one of the things as a small business owner, the owner of a car dealership is,

I want you to buy from me.

And how do I make sure that that happens?

If you've shopped at four or five other dealerships and been online,

you've got no loyalty to me.

You don't know me.

How am I going to make you want to do business with me?

Well, that's one of the things that I try to educate my salespeople.

I was talking to one of my newest members of our sales team.

And before he came to work for us, he had a mowing business.

Before that, two different jobs or three different jobs before that,

he was working in a factory.

Now, which one of those jobs are between working in a factory and mowing yards is the

closest to selling cars?

Well, neither one of them are really close, except as a lawn person,

he had to go from many times door to door and solicit business.

Hey, you need your yard mode?

You know, it's a sales job, right?

And that has to happen in order for his business to grow.

But he said he had so much competition that he just decided it was just too hard to make money.

Well, at that point, I had, well, I felt obligated to let him in on a little secret.

There's a lot of competition in the car business.

Don't think that you're getting away from that because you're not.

And so you're going to have to figure out a way to differentiate yourself

from every other salesperson that's out there.

Now, hopefully, if you've purchased a car, well, most of you have, I'm sure,

but when you purchase a vehicle, you either purchase it from somebody you know,

somebody who's maybe even a good friend or a total stranger.

And of course, you feel a lot more comfortable with, hopefully, with people that you know,

or somebody that's a friend, a total stranger.

You know, they're at a disadvantage at the get go.

So how do they become a friend?

How do they become somebody that you as a buyer respect?

That's the point that I had to get across to him.

And I'll show that with you here in just a minute.

Okay, I am back.

One of my favorite motivational speakers in the early years of my career

was a guy named Zig Ziglar.

You may have heard of him.

If you haven't heard of him, just go to YouTube and play one of his.

I'm sure it's a video now.

He's all over it.

But most people today have no clue who Zig Ziglar was,

but he was a highly successful sales trainer, but before that, a salesman.

And he sold a little bit of everything.

And he had a couple of sayings that really stuck with me over the years.

One was, I get what I want by helping other people get what they want first.

I like that.

That said a lot to me.

And then another one, he said,

people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Now, what that said to me is that, Lenny,

you may have the most product knowledge of any of the other salespeople,

which I did in my early years.

I mean, I was just a kind of a student of the business.

And it was just really interesting to me.

I was not a good salesperson because I didn't have a clue

what to say when certain, you know, the customer says,

well, we'll go home and think about it.

You know, I had no idea what to say or I don't like that color.

You know, we learn in the car business how to address those complaints

or those positions that the customer is taking.

But I didn't have that skill,

but I did know everything about everything as far as the cars were concerned.

And my sales manager at the time said, Lenny,

you know, you're missing the boat here.

You're not closing deals because you're just spewing a bunch of information.

And you don't even know if it's important to the customer.

And I said, you know, you got a point there.

And so I quit acting like a know-it-all when it came to the product

and I started asking questions first.

I want to know what was important to the customer.

What features and benefits were they looking for?

What were they trying to accomplish?

You know, one of the things that I preach on this radio show is

that the average customer needs to go home and think about it.

One of my salespeople at the dealership listened to one of my podcasts

and he said, how can you tell people that?

We want them to buy today, don't we?

And I responded, yes, it would be great for them to buy today.

If they're ready, you know, if they have done all the research that they need to do,

they feel comfortable with the transaction.

They like you.

They like the dealership.

They like everything going and coming.

And if they're ready to say yes, then absolutely.

You know, why postpone it?

But sometimes people just don't feel that way.

And I think that it's incumbent upon us to open that door for them.

Say, yeah, it's fine.

Go think about it.

It's a big decision.

You know, if I was thinking about buying a car and wasn't 100% sure,

or at least 90% sure, I probably wouldn't pull the trigger.

And I think what that does for people is they relax.

They say, wow, okay, haven't heard that from anybody.

And more than likely when they go home and they do think about it,

they're going to come back and buy the car from you.

It's just, it doesn't always happen.

Maybe they go shopping some more.

People are different, right?

But salespeople have to understand that it's that personal touch.

It's taking your time.

It's slowing down.

They'll enjoy the experience more.

They'll respect you more, just like I did at the Vatican.

You know, I enjoyed the Sistine Chapel the second time.

The first time was kind of stressful.

It was too fast.

It was too dark.

I wanted to take pictures and they wouldn't let you.

And you know why they, why they wouldn't let you take pictures?

Because the Japanese government, yep, the Japanese government

paid to have the Sistine Chapel ceiling restored.

And because of that, they owned the rights to any photographs taken of the Sistine Chapel.

And matter of fact, they left one little corner in the Sistine Chapel unrestored.

So you could see how bad it was before they restored it.

I took pictures of that too the second time.

So yeah, if you're a new salesperson, I don't care if you're selling,

selling machines or furniture or washing machines or vacuum cleaners door to door or cars,

you have to approach every customer just about the same way.

You have to sell yourself first.

You sell your business second.

You sell your product third.

And then you ask for the business

because you've earned the right to ask for the business at that point.

I mean, it's okay to look at somebody say, are you ready to do this today?

I mean, that's not offensive, is it?

It's on the buyer and I encourage people say, if they are ready to do it today, do it today.

If you're not, then go home and think about it.

If there's any uncertainties, can we really afford this?

Does this really fit our needs?

I mean, should we really be buying an SUV when a mini van would work better?

Or should we really be buying a four-door car instead of this two-door Mustang?

I mean, as far as our lifestyle is concerned, yeah, the Mustang would be cool.

It'd be fun.

But would we get tired of it?

It's possible.

If you don't have those decisions made and you haven't gone through that thought process, then

absolutely don't buy the car today.

But what you never want to do is let some salesperson push you or some manager.

I mean, if he can't close the deal, a lot of stores, the manager will come over and talk to you.

Then if he can't close the deal, here comes another manager.

They just keep throwing bodies at you until you say yes.

And really, until you tell them to stop, they're just going to keep doing that.

And they're just going to keep throwing argument after argument in favor of you taking the car home today.

You know, if you're in that kind of a situation, that kind of a store,

I mean, you're the ones that can put the brakes on that.

You're the only one.

Say, folks, I'm done.

I really don't want to hear anymore.

I'm not buying the car today.

I'm going to go home and think about it.

Matter of fact, if you send somebody else out to try to close me today, I won't be back.

I mean, sometimes it gets ridiculous.

You all have been there.

You've seen it.

And so anyway, if one of my salespeople listens to my radio program,

they're going to hear me say things that are much more on the side of the consumer

than on the side of a salesperson who needs to sell a car to feed his family.

And, you know, customers, they can smell that desperation.

They can see it.

They can smell it, and they don't like it.

They'll walk away from it unless they just cannot get away from the pressure.

They'll just allow themselves to be pushed.

So don't do that.

Be strong.

Get a copy of the My Car Guru guidebook.

It'll help you.

It gives you, well, it empowers you to say the things that need to be said,

to get these yahoo's off your back when you're out there.

You're just, you know, you're just looking at cars.

You're not ready to buy a car yet.

But they think, the salespeople think, and the managers think,

because they put a bunch of balloons up,

and they have that money machine that you can stand in and grab dollar bills

and look like a fool, then you'll probably buy a car.

Or that, you know, that little skinny man out front to blow up guy that waves back and forth.

You know, that's really going to convince me to buy a car.

Oh man, they got a floppy man.

Where's this Nissan Sentra?

I got to buy one.

I mean, I got a guy in my town.

He puts up this big, massive, it looks like it's about 30 feet tall.

It's this big old, well, I think it's a gorilla, but I'm not sure.

And he's holding a car up between his hands.

And, and I think there's a sign that says monster sale.

Yeah, that's going to do it for me too.

You may remember Cal Worthington.

You ever heard of that name?

Well, he was a, he was one of the first dealers in the country to do crazy stuff.

Cal Worthington had a pet.

His name was Spot.

It was an elephant.

And he would ride it around the lot and he's dressed up in a cowboy suit.

And he had the craziest commercials.

And people would go in there just to see Cal Worthington act crazy.

And then they would, they would succumb to the pressure.

And he was a very successful dealer, long gone now.

But, you know, a lot of those sales tactics are still there.

A lot of people think, well, you know, car dealership should be a circus atmosphere.

Really?

Should it be?

I think that's one of the reasons why companies like CarMax,

and they're struggling right now, but CarMax, Carvana, you know, a lot of the ones,

they have creative advertising, but they just don't do crazy things in the business itself.

It's not a carnival.

It's a car dealership.

You're there to buy a car.

Yeah, it's more complicated than ordering something on Amazon.

But it doesn't have to be this pressure cooker.

And, you know, where customers feel like they, they just got to do something right now.

Just push them through, push them through.

Doesn't have to be that way.

Okay, I'll be right back.

See, it doesn't take much to motivate me to talk about something on the show.

But what did it was?

The picture of the Sistine Chapel and then having that conversation with that new salesman

and explain to him all the things that he's going to have to know.

I mean, I said, does this intimidate you?

And he said, no, not really.

It's a lot.

I said, yes, it is a lot.

And a lot of dealerships, they hire salespeople.

They'll hire 10 at a time knowing that one or two will make it.

And they just show them where the keyboard is, where their desk is, and out there's all the cars.

Go sell them.

And that's the training program.

And they wonder why eight out of 10 fail.

Well, I don't want eight out of 10 to fail.

It's too hard to get anybody to come in that's got any skills at all anyway.

I mean, you should see some of the applications that we get when we run an ad for a salesperson

and what these people have done and not done.

And it's funny that the, well, it's not funny, but the age of the people that are applying

are way up there.

I'm getting close to 30 years old and even over 30.

And the only places they've ever worked are fast food and some retail stores that don't pay anything

and had long periods of time where they didn't have a job at all.

So it's, it's different.

It's hard, but it's doable.

We can find the right kind of people, but we just got to educate them

and help them build a career or at least be on a path to one.

You know, I have no illusions about the way people move through the workforce.

There's a lot of people that if they come to work here, this is just a stop in place for a while.

Their ultimate goal is, is something else, maybe to own their own business

or to, you know, get this education that they need to move on and do greater things.

And I think that's wonderful and I want to help them do that.

I just want to know it going in.

You know, if you're going to work for somebody, share your vision.

Well, first you got to have one before you can share it.

And most businesses appreciate an ambitious person wanting to improve themselves.

And there, there'll be some say, well, I'm not going to hire you just to see you leave five years from now.

Well, that's short-sighted.

Maybe they'll stay, you know, one of my favorite people, as far as business leaders,

is pal Barger, the founder of pals.

And, you know, if you're listening to this podcast, Google pals fast food and read the story

about this little fast food place in East Tennessee that became a powerhouse money machine

because of pal Barger and a guy named Tom Crosby and all the people that they have hired in this

and the processes and the training and everything that they do to,

I think they were the first food services company in the United States to earn the Malcolm Baldrige

Award, which is the highest award given to a business by the federal government.

And it does mean a lot.

You had to meet a lot of very high standards to win that award and they did.

And pal couldn't understand why people fuss so much or other businesses fuss so much about training

their people.

And he said, I'm not worried about training people and them leaving.

What I'm worried about is not training them and they end up staying.

And I just think that's absolutely brilliant.

Well, thanks for listening to this edition of my car guru.

If you need me, text me 423-552-2020 or send me an email to Lenny Lawson 2020 at gmail.com.

And I'll see you next time.

After two tours of the Sistine Chapel, what I learned about the value of the personal touch

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Ford Mustang

Nissan Sentra

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