A Summer of Sales

A few summers ago I was given the challenge of learning to sell automotive paint. Coming into this, I had no prior knowledge of the product that I was selling and I also had no experience in sales. This was an extremely trying summer for me but also a very beneficial one. The lessons I learned have stuck with me and will continue to in the future. Below are a two of the key lessons that I learned.

1. Personalized Sales Experiences Go Further- Coming into this position, I was given 4 key questions to ask every customer who came in to buy automotive paint. I had no clue of how to act in a business transaction and I had no clue how customers would react to me. I was a young girl in a store that primarily sold to men (repair shop owners, DIY customers, dealership employees). Initially I stuck to my 4 questions. I had to find out the year, make, model, and color of the car so that I could look up the color code of their vehicle and custom mix their car paint. In the beginning, I was often overlooked. I didn’t know much, and I didn’t know how to interact with and sell to our customers. Very quickly I learned from my co-workers that building a relationship with our customers was crucial. So over time, as I became more knowledgeable about our product, I began to build relationships with our customers. By the end of the summer, we had a few customers who became “regulars” who would come to the paint desk specifically to talk to me, because I knew the most about their projects and what they needed. Focusing on getting to know customers and their pain/what they need other than focusing strictly on the sale is crucial.
2. Transparency is Important- Within the paint department of the company I worked at, we sold 2 different brands of paint. The higher end/more expensive paint always matched the cars original color to a T. The cheaper brand of paint that we sold was very hit or miss. Frequently I noticed we would get phone calls of customers complaining that their paint didn’t match their car. Nine times out of ten it was because they went for the cheaper option in paint. Once I realized this, I made it a point to make sure that our customers knew that their was a significant difference in the quality of the two brands of paint. I would make it a point to understand what repair they were making and to the type of car they were working on. From this I tried to help them make the most economic and effective decision for their project. If it was an expensive car, and the match was crucial, I would advise that they went for the better paint. If it was a situation in which the match wasn’t as crucial and they just needed to touch something up, I would lead them towards the cheaper version of paint. Many times customers would knee jerk towards the cheap option and have to come back to get their paint remixed. When they came back they would tend to ask more for my recommendation because they knew that I had repetitively tried to lead them in the correct direction. They began to realize that I had their best interest in mind, and this made a significant difference to them. Transparency in sales can help build trust with the customer.

Coming out of this experience, I have learned a lot. These are only two of the many lessons that I learned over the course of a summer. Sales is not easy, but can be very rewarding. Each customer and each sale is different, and you must be flexible in how you approach each situation. These are skills that continue to grow over time, and apply to more than just sales. They can be helpful in day to day life.