The best advice a truck salesperson can get

Successful truck sales require more than just a good product; the salesperson holds the key to sealing the deal or losing it entirely. JIM WARD shares warts-and-all advice that can turn a missed opportunity into a guaranteed handshake.

I was once asked to address the annual sales conference for a gathering of truck sales professionals. The brief was succinct: “What must we do to sell more trucks?” I was very familiar with the brand, and their vehicles were not selling well. This, in a nutshell, is what I spoke about that evening. I think most of it was well-accepted, although some parts may have smarted a bit. 

THE BUYER REGARDS EVERYTHING FITTED TO A TRUCK AS PART OF IT

If you utilise your own installers for any accessory or special equipment (usually because of the attractive margin), you must accept that it needs to be of comparable quality and installed to the same technical standard as the rest of the vehicle. 

Just because your favourite aftermarket agents can fit stone guards or spotlights doesn’t mean they can install a long-range 1,200-litre fuel tank or truck hydraulics. New trucks can break down on delivery to clients, because rust and dirt remain in tanks that were built for stock, left outside for years, and then not properly cleaned out before fitting. These things happen. 

Whether it is a pump coupling, a close-coupled compressor, a safety device, or anything else, any breakdown that happens on a new, ex-dealer truck becomes a label forever attached to that truck. Cheap is cheap for a reason.

If you let the client select the installer, aftermarket additions become their problem (not always covered by the OEM warranty). Sometimes, this is a better way to go, unless you are very familiar with the special equipment.

The days of dinosaurs have passed

When a salesperson gives feedback such as “The girls who do the quotes have already gone home, so I can’t get a price to you today; will Tuesday do?” they are revealing more than they may intend. 

If the client requests a price right away, they may need it for a meeting taking place that night, decisions being made over a weekend, or costs that must be sent to someone travelling overseas or in a late board meeting. They need them now. If you are unable to provide a quotation without admin staff to type them in this day and age, you are tragically behind the times (and, by the way, they are not girls!). 

Don’t clog up quotes with meaningless detail

I still see quotations for something costing R1,893,289.27, and then VAT and each accessory is priced similarly, with those pointless cents affecting totals on every line. Why?

If the customer is spending over R2 million on a vehicle – and ordering nine of them – can’t you round the amounts up or down, at least to the nearest rand, or preferably R10? Many dealerships even round totals to the nearest R100… and it makes sense. 

Shops have stopped using single cents. I have never heard anyone demanding the deduction of 38c from a R12 million total. Why even record it? It is pointless. The difference on the whole thing amounts to half a samosa; it clutters up the quote, makes it messy, and leads to finger errors that generate incorrect totals. 

Scrub all the cents completely – you aren’t selling chappies or oranges; you are selling trucks. When you spend a weekend finalising CAPEX applications and every line item includes the rand to two decimal places, you soon begin using very rude words about the supplier. Just stop it already!

Never badmouth your opposition

This is unprofessional. There will always be trucks that cost more and others that cost less; your client may have tried several trucks and is comparing them in a complex evaluation in terms of cost versus total benefits. 

One truck might have a better resale value, but costs way more; another offers a lower cost per kilometre (CPK) maintenance rate but has poor resale value. One is a reliable vehicle but there is insufficient stock.

One make is easy to sell; another, you can’t get rid of for love nor money – it’s the truck that stands around on flat tyres, covered in dust, auction after auction… overpriced, unloved, and unsold.  Nobody wants it; the truck’s flaws are well known. One manufacturer might have a terrific dealer network, well supported in all major towns, another might only have three full dealers, while the others are mixed franchises that aren’t networked, so spares, pricing, and communication are problematic. 

Purchasing is usually a balanced decision, and your opposition in the marketplace will be in the mix. All trucks have their space under the sun. 

If you dislike politicians who spend time slandering their opposition, don’t be like them. Focus on your own brand; the client may know things that you don’t.

Know your specifications

An enquiry might come in while you’re driving, checking in at an airport, or at a meeting in another customer’s office, far from your spec sheets. 

“Can we get that 350hp 6×4 rigid as a tipper chassis, with a slower diff ratio, metal bumpers, and tank guards?’”

You either know or you don’t. Not knowing can mean that your brand is excluded in a final shortlist for comparison, just because your costing wasn’t available for inclusion. Things happen fast. 

Your client may be under immense pressure to finalise projected fleet costs by close of business that day for final review the following morning. Their to-do list includes price, fuel consumption, maintenance costs, lease options, buy-back deals, distance limitations, aftermarket costs, a spares basket price comparison, availability of accident spares, dealer locations, vehicle lead times, vehicle specifications, payloads, route simulations, tyre options, cost of livery, tracking, and fuel theft protection. It usually entails collating large amounts of detailed information, in a short time. If you know your costs – because you know your vehicles – and can answer the questions on the move, it makes a big difference. They might really value the help.

Lastly, you can invest time in a complex deal, toiling away and providing endless quotes, seemingly getting nowhere for months, then suddenly the call comes on a Sunday night, during a New Year’s weekend: “The customer has returned from Spain and signed. We’ve got the contract – they want to know if we can have those 23 units with special equipment by next week?”

All the special vehicle equipment guys are closed until 15 January. That’s the way it goes; it’s not your client’s fault. They might have been trying to persuade head office that, unless orders are placed before 1 December, they will fall behind “NobleTrans” and their order for 25 trucks, and then you might only see the trucks by June… but no one listened. 

Now the customer has finally made a decision during their Mediterranean yachting holiday, while you were haggling over tyre discounts in Boksburg, and they invariably want the fleet now… as in tomorrow. Your relationship and all that groundwork clinched the deal, but it only came to fruition months later. 

Have faith, it’s a grand life if you don’t weaken.