Can one decision boost profitability by 301%, in three months? I would’ve doubted it until it happened with a team I was working with.
I don’t teach people selling techniques or process. I teach them how to gain control of their mind and entrepreneurial business. For three months, I provided group training and individual coaching to a small team of five sales reps, plus the general manager and sales manager, in a well-established car dealership. The purpose was to increase each team member’s selling confidence and ultimately boost sales. The team loved the confidence techniques, and we had a blast during the trainings. As you might expect with salespeople, they said what was on their minds. Unexpectedly during a group session, they leveled up the whole process! I can’t take any credit for what they did; it was their decision. Here’s what happened….
We were beginning to work with a destructive-thought-replacement technique that had four steps:
- Notice when you’re having a destructive thought.
- Stop! Stop the destructive thought.
- Replace it with a positive, constructive, true thought.
- Acknowledge your accomplishment, such as saying to yourself, “Awesome, I just took control of my mind!”
As we discussed how to apply this technique, a sales rep leveled up what we could do: “TC, we constantly say negative things about the cars we sell, our customers, our managers, one another, and just about everything else! We rarely make positive comments among ourselves. Our whole culture is based on complaining.”
I needed a moment to digest what I’d just heard. Before I could say anything, the sales rep continued: “We need a whole mindset change. We need to replace all our negative comments with something positive and constructive. It’s not just our thoughts. Our thoughts become our words, and we’re spreading our negativity to one another and creating a culture of negativity with all the nasty things we say.
Everybody acknowledged the truth in the sales rep’s statement, how destructive it felt to them, and how they’d love to change it because it was creating considerable anxiety and even some depression for each of them. They realized that most of their interactions with one another were complaining, blaming, and making excuses.
So they all immediately changed their mindsets (which continued); it was phenomenal to observe! They decided to use the cue word Oreo® because they all loved Oreo cookies and the word was associated with positive thoughts in another confidence-building technique they were using.
From that moment on, if they caught themselves having a negative thought, they’d say “Oreo” to themselves or out loud and replace the thought. If anyone heard another team member say something negative or destructive, they had permission to say “Oreo.” Then that person stopped what they were saying and rephrased it to be positive, constructive, and true. It worked magic. They loved their new positive, uplifting, supportive culture and mindset!
The culture change was enormous. Not only did they react differently to their customers, but their customers also reacted differently to them. The sales team was loving work and enjoying working together in a way they’d never experienced. That quarter, they had a 26.5% increase in gross revenue, which amounted to a 301% increase in net profit.
Their marketing and sales metrics measured everything. When they compared quarter to quarter, the quarters were statistically identical. The amount of marketing dollars spent was essentially the same, as was the number of walk-ins to the showroom, inbound phone inquiries, and test drives. The market for their cars was flat, and they were the only dealer in their area to have a significant increase in sales.
Only one thing changed: their mindset. And that increased their close rate and profitability.
And that’s how one decision increased profitability 301% in three months.
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