1 of 20
All I Really Need to Know I Learned as a Car Salesman
Published on Nov 18, 2015
No Description
MORE DECKS TO EXPLORE
PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Untitled Slide
Good evening, Seattle! My name is Sol—like the sun or the beer, depending on what you prefer—and tonight I’m going to share with you some timeless lessons I learned in my early 20’s and that I’ve used almost every day of my life since then.
this was me in 2003
For tonight, all you need to know about me is that from August of 2002 to December of 2003, in addition to still having hair, I sold cars at a Ford dealership in Burien. I was pretty good, too—as I used to say, you can’t spell “Sold” without the “Sol” :)
have i got a deal for you...
And have I got a deal for you :) Tonight only, the most important lessons I learned as a car salesman, which have been instrumental to my life for the last 11 years, can be yours for the low, low price of only 5 minutes of your precious time.
Photo by dogwelder
life is like a car deal
Now I’m not going to try to convince you that most car salespeople are good people—even though they are—but I am going to try to convince you that what they do has some relevance to your life. And that’s because, as Forrest Gump here would say, life is a lot like a car deal.
Photo by Shing Yan
it's all about getting what you want
BY HELPING OTHER PEOPLE GET WHAT THEY WANT
It’s all about getting what you want by helping other people get what they want. That’s what life is really all about, regardless of who you are or what you do for a living; selling cars just makes it explicit and puts it right on the surface…which is why it was such a great learning experience for me.
Photo by tribehunter
in 4 easy lessons
NOW HERE'S 1.5 YEARS OF WISDOM
So I think that’s enough by way of setup and introduction. Now…without further ado…I present to you…1.5 years of wisdom…in 4 easy lessons.
Thanks to everyone on Facebook who helped me narrow these down.
Thanks to everyone on Facebook who helped me narrow these down.
Photo by larryontheprairie
1. listen more than you talk
Lesson #1: Listen more than you talk. That doesn’t mean “take some time to think about what you’re going to say next while the other person is talking”; it means really and truly listening to what they’re saying and how they’re saying it. I guarantee you the smoothest talkers you know are also the best listeners.
Photo by bmhkim
"I WANT A PONY!"
Now most people aren’t as straightforward as this baby when it comes to telling other people what they want, but 9 times out of 10—99 times out of a hundred, probably—someone will tell you what they really want if you pay attention to what they’re saying and ask the right questions.
Photo by carvalho
be this excited about listening
Click to add more text here
In order for this to work, though, you have to be as excited about listening as she is. Active listening is really important—reflecting back what someone’s said to you so they know you’ve been paying attention. If you don’t know what someone wants, it’s impossible to help them get what they want. But you can’t get what you want if you don’t ask for it…
Photo by Very Quiet
2. Always be closing
In order for this to work, though, you have to be as excited about listening as she is. Active listening is really important—reflecting back what someone’s said to you so they know you’ve been paying attention. If you don’t know what someone wants, it’s impossible to help them get what they want. But you can’t get what you want if you don’t ask for it…
Photo by Cinema em Séries
give people a chance to say yes
And we love saying yes!
Wasn’t that #HowSeattleRiots hashtag awesome?
Doesn’t it feel great to be a Seattleite?
I want you to stand up, right now, and give the person next to you a big hug!
Wasn’t that #HowSeattleRiots hashtag awesome?
Doesn’t it feel great to be a Seattleite?
I want you to stand up, right now, and give the person next to you a big hug!
Photo by @Doug88888
WHAT'S THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN?
[lots of people actually do it!]
I wasn't sure if that was going to work! Like my dad always said, though, it never hurts to ask--the worst someone can do is say no.
And if they do say, no, of course, that's rejection.
I wasn't sure if that was going to work! Like my dad always said, though, it never hurts to ask--the worst someone can do is say no.
And if they do say, no, of course, that's rejection.
Photo by Pixland
rejection sucks
And rejection sucks, right? One of the great things about being a car salesman is that you can’t do the job without getting really comfortable with being rejected, which is great preparation for life. This is the most effective mantra that I’ve found for dealing with rejection.
Photo by tanjila
3. ALL IT TAKES IS ONE
All it takes is one. Don’t think about the person who just rejected you; think about the one who’s going to say yes instead. Our natural tendency is to take each rejection personally, but everyone doesn’t have to say yes to you for you to get what you want.
SO HANG IN THERE!
We have a certain degree of control over what happens to us, but we have near-absolute control over what we choose to focus on, and there are few things more powerful than the stories you tell yourself. When it comes to rejection, focus on the “yes” in your future, not the “no” in your past.
Photo by Latente 囧 www.latente.it
This is grant cardone
This last one is one of my favorite quotes of all time, let alone sales quotes. It comes from a trainer named Grant Cardone, and if I had to condense the entire discipline of sales down into 14 words, these next 14 words are the ones that I would choose.
Untitled Slide
#4. When you meet someone who has more conviction than you do, you get sold. You say “yes” to them instead of getting them to say “yes” to you. The reason that’s so important is that conviction is at the heart not only of sales, but of life.
so always have more conviction
If you’re not convinced, to your core, of whatever it is that you’re trying to share with the world, you’re not going to convince anyone else, either. When someone says to “fake it ‘til you make it”, the “it” they’re talking about is conviction. So always have more conviction.
Photo by stevendepolo
to recap
- Listen more than you talk
- Ask for the close
- All it takes is one
- Always be the one with more conviction
To recap:
Listen more than you talk. [and really mean it]
Ask for the close. [you’re not going to get it otherwise]
All it takes is one. [don’t worry about the rest]
When you meet someone who has more conviction than you do, you get sold…so always be the one with more conviction.
Listen more than you talk. [and really mean it]
Ask for the close. [you’re not going to get it otherwise]
All it takes is one. [don’t worry about the rest]
When you meet someone who has more conviction than you do, you get sold…so always be the one with more conviction.
SOL VILLARREAL
@solv17
That’s it—as you can see, all I really need to know I learned as a car salesman :) My name is Sol Villarreal; I’m on Twitter at @solv17. Thank you very much, come talk to me at the break…and enjoy the rest of the show in the meantime.
