Ep. 651 - From Bank Robber to Car Sales Master, with Luke Lunkenheimer
In this episode, my guest is Luke Lunkenheimer, the President of Paid to Persuade, and let’s just say… his road to success wasn’t exactly a straight line. Before becoming a persuasion expert and sitting at the table with guys like Tai Lopez and Brad Lea, Luke took a few, uh… detours but we’ll get to that.
But here’s the crazy part—his past is exactly what shaped him into the sales and leadership expert he is today. We’re talking about a guy who went from getting locked up to unlocking next-level sales strategies—and his journey will make you rethink everything you know about persuasion.
In this episode, we uncover:
How Luke went from incarceration to industry leader (his story will leave you speechless)
Why most salespeople get persuasion wrong—and how to fix it
The BIG 3 questions that make closing effortless
How trust and authenticity will outsell any gimmick
The real reason people hesitate before buying—and how to break through it
This conversation is real, raw, and packed with insights that can transform the way you sell, lead, and do business. Plus, Luke drops some absolute mic-drop moments that will have you rethinking how you approach deals.
Episode Brought To You By FlexDealer
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Episode Transcript
MC: 0:00
(Episode Sponsor)This episode is brought to you by FlexDealer.
What's up, auto industry? I'm sitting down with my new pal. He's our guest today, Luke Lunkenheimer. He's the president of Paid to Persuade. He's a car guy. He's been all over the place. If you follow him on social, you're going to see him sitting down with the Tai Lopez's, with the Bradleys. We're going to be talking about the transformative power of authentic persuasion. Luke, thanks so much for joining me on the Dealer Playbook.
Luke: 0:37
Brother, I'm happy to be here. This is a good car guy podcast. Oh man, tell me if I'm wrong I saw from criminal to car dealer. Yeah, there was the early stage of criminal, then we graduated to full-blown bank robber. But yes, sir, I am once incarcerated. Now out of the rat race.
MC: 0:55
And bank like we're talking about the 1800s bank robbers.
Luke: 0:59
Well, you know, we didn't roll in on black Kawasaki ninjas with the bandanas, it was more of a. It was the culmination of a decade of drug addiction and debauchery. And you know, high school athlete turned injured. Athlete, injured, ego turned, you know, find a place to work. For a while Family was in the car business. I went in the car business, discovered I had a talent for it, did well, got the insurance. Got the shoulder fix, want, wanted to go try play football again. Surgery didn't go well, got hooked to narcotic painkillers and then, after about 10 years of living that life, we decided some sort of intervention was necessary and the bank robbery was the intervention.
MC: 1:37
Wow, you know it's funny, because I mean in the car business, we tongue and cheek talk about how this is one of the only industries, maybe the only industry, that accepts from all walks of life and where I've heard this sentiment a lot, especially in the last year which is that the car business has no ceiling, but it also has no floor, Not even a basement brother, Not even a basement. So here you are now. On the tail of all of that, You've accomplished some pretty incredible things. What are the pivot points for you along the way where you started picking up momentum?
Luke: 2:12
Yeah, man. So it's a great question and that's something I love to speak on because there was really a lot of that for me. You know, when I was younger I came from a very small town, a very, you know, simplistic think. You know even my father, who I love to death, who's a great car guy, you know he never, he never pushed me to be anything more than general manager. You know I was the guy that was like dad, we should own a Ford franchise, like let's, let's own a few dealerships, let's give Billy Fusillo a run for his money. He was a big local dealer and you know dad always said no man, if the, if the crap hits the fan, it hits the owner. You want to be, you know, management. You want to be top tier management. You want the key to the building. You want the demo of your choice. You want to be able to order your demo. You know you want control. You want to be over, you know, touching every portion or component in the dealership, but you just don't want to be the top rung on the ladder because that's the most dangerous. So that's kind of how I grew up. Okay, you know, fly below the radar, become a manager. 80 to 120 grand a year company car, that's it. That's life made. So it was beautiful.
Luke: 3:11
When you know, before I turned 20 years old, I achieved that. You know, I, I, uh, my trajectory was very strong in the car business, but it also gave me this feeling of, well, what's next? I mean, I did it, you know, and that's not braggadocio, that's just. You know, I was in an environment where I excelled quickly and once you hit what your, your, you know mentor at that time has told you is the top rung of the ladder, it's kind of like, well, what am I supposed to do with the next 60 or 70 years of my life, you know? So what that did for me is it caused me to, very early on, have a misunderstanding of life and leadership and entrepreneurship and all these things that I could aspire to. So I was very lost for a while.
Luke: 3:50
Kind of a big epiphany moment for me was when I was working for a guy selling automotive aftermarket and he had. He offered me an investment to partner with me in a car venture and I asked him I'm like well, what are you like? Why are you doing this? You know, I'm a felon, I'm a bank robber, I have this terrible record. I have this history with drug addiction. You fired me before why are you offering me a couple hundred grand to open a car dealership? And he said you know that there was certain things about me that he saw that that could potentially be great. And for the first time in my life I had somebody not telling me to suppress the flame but stoking the flame and telling me I should be doing more and there should be more runway ahead of me. So that was a big deal for me. It was intervention from somebody else.
Luke: 4:34
Another, I guess I would say substantial epiphany moment for me was when I changed dealerships. When I was starting to use drugs. I went, you know I was burning bridges. Essentially, if we're going to be, you know, forthcoming about it, I was coming into a dealership like a whirling dervish, becoming the top guy within, you know, one to two months and the next thing, you know sneaking away to the bathroom, hiding in the back of a trade-in. You know, snorting pills, doing drugs, and you know I would burn a bridge.
Luke: 4:59
I started working at an organization in central New York, a very well-known, very reputable, very astute, tight-knit, razor-sharp organization, not the type of cowboy operation that I was used to working for and I met professionals. I mean, these were guys that did the follow-up to a T. They filled out every line of the four square. They made sure they filled out the first and the second address and potentially the third address if there wasn't two years worth of work history, you know these were managers that made them go out and broom snow off of cars in cyclical fashion to make sure everybody did their duty.
Luke: 5:39
That's what the car business was to getting a very distinct taste of a very different ecosystem where there was professionalism and there was real hardworking, educated men executing. And then I think I realized at that point that the car business kind of like cocaine dinners, you know, crazy evenings, hangovers and sell as many as you can by the end of the week and try not to get arrested. That's what the car business was and that's kind of, you know, that's kind of the way it had been explained to me when I was younger too. You know dad was a partier, all his buddies were partiers. It was, you know, sell all week, work hard and party on the weekends. But that was my first taste of it could be something else and there were people out there doing it a very different way.
MC: 6:33
Um, so those were three very significant moments for me in kind of the come up, you know what. What stands out to me, you know, is that person who gives you permission to give yourself permission. You know like no, actually it's okay to want more. It's okay to want more. It's not okay to think you should just expect more without putting in the work, like which, which to me, as you're talking, I'm like those are two very different things. Your pivot point is like giving yourself permission permission, but it's also the fact that you were willing to put in the work.
MC: 7:07
And then the other thing that stands out to me is the acknowledgement that a mentor can remain considered a mentor, even though they may only get you to a certain place before you need another mentor. You know, like I think about that for my dad. I'm like my dad the lessons he taught me as an entrepreneur, he's still a mentor. It's not an if this, then that he can remain a mentor in those things he taught me, while I continue to bring on other mentors who can teach me from a different angle, and that stands out to me as well, this acknowledgement that you brought up of you know I learned what I learned from him, but now here's a new mentor that's also helping me take things to another level.
Luke: 7:54
I couldn't agree with you more, brother, and I think that not only is that good that you spotted that out, I think people need to understand that that's necessary, right? Because you know, for instance, when you're younger you's not you cannot extract all the value that a high level mentor has to give. For instance, if Jeff Bezos entered my life at 18 years old, I would not be able to receive the frequency that he was putting out. You know what I mean. I think we have tears. It's like tiramisu. There's layers, and you know, as a young kid, you know my dad was a great mentor. He was able to put it in Crayola crayons for me, and that's not to imply that he wasn't an educated guy, it's just.
Luke: 8:33
You know, when you're raised by wolves, you behave like a wolf, and you know I was a very tenacious young kid. I got in a lot of trouble, I was kind of a scrapper, and so that type of hard nosed school, of hard knocks type education was very fitting for me and I received it well. But as I became more of a refined individual and as I discovered different you know different ponds to leap to and places to educate myself as I grew well, then there's you know, there's a different need there that comes to the surface and I think people enter your lives at the moments they're supposed to enter them. And I think we emit energy. I mean, it's a reality. You know, I'm not super educated on it, but enough to know that there's certainly a frequency that we emit. And I think that when we emit that energy, you know, certain people decide to interact with it.
Luke: 9:23
For instance, one of the mentors that I have now. His name is Dave Shiroff. He's a CEO several times over, of many successful companies and very large exits. He's currently, by choice, a lawyer and, I believe, a CTO of a large mattress company. And, shout out, dave Shiroff, incredible human being.
Luke: 9:44
This is a guy that when I worked for him, I was employed by him he used to call me as Michael Jordan. He says you know, I call you Michael Jordan. I said why he goes? Because I have to put you in the damn game, because you win every single time. He says, but none of the other players can stand to play with you. You're so volatile.
Luke: 10:01
So, you know, we went from that relationship to you know. Now, these days, we meet a couple of times a month, sometimes once a month for a Zoom call or lunch when he's in town and we have incredibly high level entrepreneurial conversations and he's elevating me and helping me get to a plane that I I wouldn't get to without that influence. So, to your point, I think that I don't think you seek a mentor. I think you can and I think it's effective to do so, but I think, if you understand that, you just simply push out into the atmosphere and what is necessary will come to you, as long as your intentions are pure and as long as you're, I think the most important thing to me is as long as you're willing to provide reciprocal value. If you're just looking to get from somebody, you're going to attract the wrong kind of energy.
MC: 10:49
But if you're willing to give to somebody to receive in return, that's where a lot of good relationships start. Oh well, what a perfect segue into what I wanted to ask you. You know, in our companies we've got a software company and a marketing agency, and one of our core values is BRT build relationships of trust and what you're talking about here really resonates with me, because when I realized that the focus should not be the sale, it should be the building of the trusting relationship, it's like that's when the sales actually started happening more free flow than ever. You talk about authentic persuasion, so I want to tie this all together and first just get your take on. What do you mean by authentic persuasion?
Luke: 11:36
That's a great question and I love to speak on it. So in Paid to Persuade, we say authenticity sells and confidence closes, and I will take that with me to the grave. There's certain things that change over time. There's certain things that change over time. There's some things that remain timeless. That is one of the things that will remain timeless. And the question is why?
Luke: 11:52
What is authentic persuasion? Well, if you were to come look at a vehicle and you test drove the vehicle and you said hey, luke, man, that seems like a real badass truck. Would you buy that truck? If you wouldn't buy that truck, most salespeople go are you kidding me, man? That's a sweet truck. Hell yeah, I'd buy that truck. I just I can't afford a truck like that. That's why I drive a Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Luke: 12:16
Okay, that's inauthentic persuasion. That's just trying to BS somebody to get a deal. Right Now, what would I train you to say? Or what would I train you to say? Or what would I help you or assist you into learning to say? I would say yeah, you know, bill, honestly, I wouldn't, I would, I wouldn't buy that truck. Or if you're asking if I would buy that truck, the answer would be no.
Luke: 12:33
And then silence and that's very effective because that shows that you're being completely authentic. Well, why not? Well, I mean, brother, frankly I don't tow anything. I don't live in an area where I would warrant four-wheel drive. My commute's incredibly short and I'm not a big guy, so I really don't have need for a truck. But if you're asking me if what I did on a daily basis facilitated the need for that truck or I was in the same position as you, I don't think there's a better vehicle you can buy, frankly. But I'm not going to lie to you and say I'd buy it, because that would just be a lie. But is it a hell of a truck? It's a hell of a truck.
Luke: 13:05
What happens when you communicate that authentically? What people think? What superficial salespeople, rookie salespeople and, quite frankly, superficial sale trainers not to throw darts, but there's a lot of them out there they're going to teach you to always maintain an agreement state with the customer. Like, no matter what, make sure you maintain agreement. Well, if you have to tell a lie to maintain agreement, the lack of authenticity, the deficit of authenticity, far negates the agreement state, meaning it is by far the greater of the two evils. Okay, to tell somebody the truth.
Luke: 13:38
Even if it doesn't follow an agreement state with a line of questioning or with the sale flow, it's perfectly okay, because your customer isn't there thinking that every answer is going to be yes, and that's what most salespeople don't understand. It's so sad because it's so very simple and it's so much easier to do it that way. Right, if you just be honest with your customer, you're going to find your conversational flow goes so much better. And your customer is not expecting to walk through the door and hear every single thing they want to hear. They're on a discovery mission.
Luke: 14:03
When your customer is not expecting to walk through the door and hear every single thing they want to hear, they're on a discovery mission. When your customer comes into your dealership or engages with you about a product or service, they're on a discovery mission. They have a preconceived notion of what your product or service is going to afford them. They're there to discover if their preconceived notion is correct and, if it's correct, if they want to engage and if they want to engage, if it's affordable to do so. So if there's a few no's in the pot on the way there, their human being is going to be perfectly okay with that.
MC: 14:36
(Sponsor Ad Mid-roll)Hey, does your marketing agency suck? Listen before we hop back into this episode. I know you know me as the host of the Dealer Playbook, but did you also know that I'm the CEO of FlexDealer, an agency that's helping dealers capture better quality leads from local SEO and hyper-targeted ads that convert? So if you want to sell more cars and finally have a partner that's in it with you that doesn't suck, visit FlexDealer.com. Let's hop back into this episode.
I love how you put it. I mean unless, of course, you're me I'm just a lay down dude, I just walk in and I go.
Luke: 15:11
That means you're a good salesperson, brother. All good salespeople are lay downs.
MC: 15:15
That's true. I just don't want to put up with the hassle. I'm like, give it to me, put the full warranty, like, just like-.
Luke: 15:20
Make a few bucks, get me out of here in less than two hours. Yeah, exactly, time is more valuable to you that's, uh, I would agree with you.
MC: 15:28
Do you think it though it's? You know, I'll have to admit I feel kind of sheepish in admitting this. When I was looking through, as we were prepping for this conversation, and you had you had written focus on building trust, I actually found myself, after all these years selling and building businesses and talking about it, on the show that the operation, the operative word here, is not build and it's not trust, it's actually focus. And it hit me for the first time and and I feel sheepish now as a 40 something year old dude going wait a minute how come this is hitting, striking me in such a different way? What do you recommend for the frontline guys or the managers where it's all about putting another number up on the board, where they're just focused on get them in, get them in, get them in, get them in Through the lens of they're there on a discovery mission. Help those listening shift their focus from get them in or put another number up on the board to the human being that's standing right in front of them.
Luke: 16:45
That's a great question. So first you got to understand that 90% of customers that visit a brick and mortar establishment have made a buying decision already. They're not. When I say made a buying decision already, I don't mean they've chosen Wolfsburg edition plaid seats with, you know, heated tech package. I'm saying they've made the decision they're going to engage and buy an automobile or whatever it else is that you're selling.
Luke: 17:09
When they visit your establishment and this is for you know, tangible assets at a brick and mortar establishment they're there and your job is not to go sell them something and that's where people get it so wrong man. Your job is not to go out and push words down their throat and push value down their throat and push warranty and service and sell the house. You don't really need to sell anything. What you need to do is you need to go on a discovery mission. You don't really need to sell anything. What you need to do is you need to go on a discovery mission and the focus needs to be how do I make this process as seamless and cohesive for this customer as humanly possible? You look at really, really high level entrepreneurs and this is where I think salespeople do them, especially in the car business, brother, they do themselves a terrible injustice. They say, well, we're just car sales, brother. They do themselves a terrible injustice. They say, well, we're just car salespeople. This is just car sales. And when I say something like, well, compare what you're doing to somebody like Richard Branson or Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos dude, we're just car salespeople. Okay, Well, elon Musk is just sending rockets to the moon and Jeff Bezos is just selling paper cups and paper towels to a billion people on Amazon. You talk to a guy like Jeff Bezos and he'll tell you listen, if you want to remain successful, remain trying to satisfy your customer. Remain facilitating the wants, the needs, the desires of your customer. Make buying easy for them. Okay, so your focus in sales is not how do I shove words down their throat, how do I use my word tracks to convince them? How do I get them nodding and yesing and logic trap them into a? Yes, it's very simple and it's. This is where it ties into. You know, a little shameless plug here for P2P, we have something that we call the big three framework, the big three questions. Okay, now, this is for tangible assets and, frankly, very relative to the car business. Okay, three things, not three questions, not three word tracks, just three things you got to solve for and your sale is 80% done.
Luke: 19:05
Number one what brought you here today? Why are you here? Well, they're here shopping for a car. No, I get it, mr Customer, but most people drive by the dealership. They don't pull in. You chose to pull in today. Why did you pull in? Well, because I want to look at trucks. I hear you, mr Customer, everybody that comes here looking at trucks wants to look at trucks. But you drove here, you today, today, for a particular reason. Why? Well, I'm about 1,600 miles, I'm going to be out of warranty on my pickup truck and I like to be. Oh look, golden nugget.
Luke: 19:34
Now we know there's some urgency, right. And when you go on this mission of discovery and compassionate interrogation, you unearth literally everything that you need to create a non-objectionable close. So, as a school or, excuse me, as a student of the car business, okay, the things that we want to discover do they have a trade-in? Do they owe money on the trade-in? Why did they come today? Is there some urgency? Are they on their lunch break? And this is where this framework is incredibly effective. First thing what brought you here today? This is what we need to solve for before we even show them a vehicle.
Luke: 20:05
Number two what is your buying power? Not? Do you have good credit? It's very simply. Do you want to leverage the power of a bank and pay over time? You know, and it's all in the verbiage Do you want to leverage the power of a bank and pay over time, or is this something that you like to take care of all at once? It's very, very simple. And when you can do that conversationally and this is what people don't understand the people that are listening a lot of listeners right now are probably going oh well, if in say to you hey, man, you're looking for a pickup truck, awesome, okay, well, let's go take a look at a few.
Luke: 20:39
I noticed that you drove a pickup truck here. You're going to replace that one. Yeah, I'm going to replace this one. Okay, cool, when you comes off, very easy, very conversational. That's what's selling it, not. How smooth can you say the word track, how conversational can you be in extracting information?
Luke: 21:01
And then the third thing, man, is very simply what did you hope to accomplish today?
Luke: 21:05
And I don't mean word track, what did you hope to accomplish today? I mean so listen, bill, you know I want to be as efficient with your time as possible. Sounds like you're going to be here for a few minutes. What can I do in that time frame to make this process as seamless as possible for you and get you exactly what you came for as quickly as possible? Well, I wanted to drive one and maybe see what some numbers were on my trade-in. No problem, I can get that done for you. If I get that done for you, are we going to consider today a win? Yes, you with that. Now the customer goes from a frame of well, I'm here being sold a vehicle to well, you know, I'm sure the pitch is going to come at some point, but right now it looks like he's just trying to help me walk along the path and when the guard remains down and it remains conversational, the selling is a hell of a lot of you yeah, I love it too.
MC: 21:45
I love that you even call out the the naysayers, um, because often those naysayers are going to say, well, no, like you can't just say that, what are we supposed to do next? And what you're supposed to do next is learn how to be a good human being. Like. Nobody can teach you that part, nobody can teach you the mechanics of being a good human being.
Luke: 22:04
You just have to, like, have that moral compass you know, what's incredible about what you're saying is if people could simply just buy in. Just yeah, the same way that they believe that the gossip they read about the Hollywood actors is true, the same reason they believe the nonsense that is spread with political agenda. They just buy into it. If they could have that same faith and buy into what you just said and, for 60 days, just say I'm just going to be a good person, I'm going to genuinely care about my customer and what they're trying to accomplish and I'm going to ask logical, conversational questions. I'm going to genuinely care about my customer and what they're trying to accomplish and I'm going to ask logical, conversational questions. I get salespeople that will come up and you know, when I'm doing like a, like a, like a guest training, or I'll do like a sale with a team, I get the salespeople that come and they're like yeah, well, you know, the guy wants to be under 500 bucks a month, that guy that's got to sleep on it, who doesn't exist, by the way and I go down to my TO of the deal and I say hey, brother, just out of curiosity, I mean when I need to make a sandwich and I'm hungry and I got four bucks in my pocket and I walk into Walmart, I walk out with bread, so you wanted to be under 500, you wanted to spend 2, just realistically, what you're not just not here for a truck today. Well, no, I do need a truck. Well, let me ask you this question, that the question to a salesperson is what do you want to know? Well, I want to know why they're not buying. When they said, if we did these things, they would buy. Well, wait a minute, did they say they would buy if you did those things? Or did they say that's what they're looking to accomplish? Well, yeah, he told me that's where he wanted to be. But did you ask him, if I do all these things Very commonsensical, if I do all these things, are you in fact going to sign on a dotted line and buy a vehicle today? Well, no, not today. Oh, ok, why?
Luke: 23:44
And the whole point is that comes in the compassionate interrogation process and there's a you know there's additional components to it where, if they, if you don't get what you want, because everybody's listening right now saying, well, luke, they're not always going to say the things you want them to say in the beginning of the conversation. No, kidding. That's why there's contingencies for everything. We have time gates, which is a process that we use to take a human being who says, no, I'm not going to do it today, and give them a few options that save them a tremendous amount of money. That are implied. They're not actual price points, they're not actual deals, it's just an implied statement.
Luke: 24:13
Hey, if this certain situation were to transpire today, do you think you'd possibly engage? Well, if that happened, then yeah, I would. And just to reiterate so, if this and this were true, you actually would do something today. No, I would, even though the way, not that, if it was like that, I would do it. Now you have intent. This individual can buy without the third party.
Luke: 24:33
And once you get and what people don't realize is when you just get the customer to admit those things at the outset of the conversation, using inferred situations, they're in their head. They've now released that burden, they've now allowed themselves to detach themselves from that objection and it will never rear its head during the rest of the sale. And that's what a lot of people don't get, man. And the funniest part about all of it is it just comes from being conversational. Ask the thing you want to know in a respectful, compassionate way. Hey man, you know I sell cars and I make a commission when I sell them. You told me boom, boom and boom, or where you wanted to be we're at boom, boom and boom, but you're not fine. Just out of curiosity, you know, is today just not the day. Well, no man, you guys just don't have a blue one, and you'd be amazed how quickly people will tell you exactly what you need to know when you're just conversational and honest with them. And I think that's the point you're making.
MC: 25:24
Yeah, yeah, I mean I couldn't agree more. It's funny that when you just show genuine care and concern for somebody else, I love how you said release that burden Because it is. Maybe they don't even classify what they're feeling as a burden, but when they let go of it it sure feels like a release.
Luke: 25:44
You want to know what one of the most effective ways to get your customer to advance the sale is. Tell them they're in no danger of buying anything. Mr Customer, it seems like this is a little bit stressful for you and I've been asking some pretty significant questions. This is an expensive vehicle. I get it. Let me ask you a question how about we just not put you in any danger of buying anything today? Can I take the salesman shoes off? Can I just show you some stuff, give you a card with some numbers on it and send you out the door today with some stuff to think about? Would that be okay with you? Yeah, honestly, that'd be great, awesome. Let's do it that way. Let's just proceed. You're in no danger of buying anything. I'm the consultant who's just giving you information. The only thing I ask if I do that for you, when it comes time to actually buy something, would you be willing to give me a shot at your business? Oh, I absolutely would.
Luke: 26:34
Okay, well, now here's the nefarious part. Guess what? You're still going to try to sell them something today, but what you've done is you've released them completely. Ok. If you walk into the hospital, the doctor says you know what I'm going to wave a magic wand and there's no way you're going to catch any germs, there's no way anybody's going to cough on you, there's no way you're going to slip and fall and there's no way anybody's going to give you a hard time from the psych ward. But if you, just if they were to say that to you all of a sudden, your waltz through the hospital is far more comfortable and right.
Luke: 27:02
What most people don't realize is when you and this is again the naysayers they'll say well, dude, if you say that, well, then they're not going to buy anything. And then it's like okay, well, let me ask you a question. If I said to you, no matter what I say, say no. Okay, the sky is blue. No, the grass is green. No, I'm handsome. No, take this check for $10.7 million. Oh look, all of a sudden the game has changed. Right, it doesn't matter what the precursor is. When the value proposition exceeds the ask, you're going to engage. It's just a tool to get your customer to relieve themselves of the anxiety and allow you all the way in, and it's incredibly effective. As we wind down here, I want to try themselves of the anxiety and allow you all the way in and it's incredibly effective.
MC: 27:42
As we wind down here, I want to try and bring this together, and I can't help but think about what limiting beliefs we generally harbor or hang on to that are preventing us from doing the things that you're saying.
Luke: 27:58
Well, the first one is sales has been purported to be this thing for, you know, ever since Henry Ford put the crank in the first Model T. We think we're supposed to shake a hand, build rapport, showcase a product, trial, close and then overcome objections. Every sales training in existence I don't care what one it is, what label it is, what brand it is If you unpackage the training and you actually look at it, that's what you have. Now there's a million different things they call it, but it all starts with meet and greet, light conversation, qualifying, building rapport, then showcase the product to service, know your product, then close whatever form of close or trial close that they teach you and then overcome objections. I mean, let's be honest, what is every video on social media that's getting a million views from the, the youtube famous sales trainers of the world? What does it do? It's a logic loop that overcomes one objection and returns you into the sales conversation. Well, that's not teaching you how to sell. That's teaching you a cute thing to say when somebody says they want to talk to their wife Right, when we completely re-understand what selling is, we can be far more effective, and the limiting belief is that that is the process Meet the customer, meet and greet, showcase the product, trial. Close overcome objections. The overcoming of objections should never take place. Close overcome objections. The overcoming of objections should never take place. It should be the elimination of objections at the outset of the conversation.
Luke: 29:26
Now, if you're a brand new salesperson, you've never sold a car in your life is a word track going to be helpful? Of course it is. When you're nervous, you're socially awkward, you don't know the product, is it helpful to? Hey, mr Customer, my name is Bill. Welcome to ABC Motors. Is there anything I can help you with today? Sure, okay, and then, hey, so I could get you all the information you need regarding your new pickup truck. Do you mind if I ask you a few quick questions and a quick benefit request to help get them inside? These things are helpful, of course, okay, but the limiting belief is that has to showcase the product and then, once they look at it, they test drive it, they fall in love with it, then ask them to buy.
Luke: 30:02
Trial close hey, mr Smith, go park it in the sold row. There's a nice spot right there. Well, wait, I'm not ready to do that quite yet. Well, why is that? You said you loved it and you said your wife didn't need it and all these things. And then we're playing word games and what are we and forth with the customer and we immediately go into an adversarial arrangement. These are the same guys that tell you to stay in an agreement state with your customer, but they teach you logic cues, logic traps and word tracks that maintain an argumentative state with the customer.
Luke: 30:30
Objections should be handled at the outset of the conversation and there's a way to do it, and that, my friend, is why I exist. That is what paid to persuade. It is a completely different process of selling that includes a compassionate interrogation process and a framework that gets it all done at the beginning. Literally, the only thing that your customer can object to is the product, meaning Chevy has a three-year 36,000-mile warranty. This has a three-year 36 with limited roadside.
Luke: 31:00
I mean, I'm talking the minutiae of objections that, as long as you know your product, you know are usually just negotiating points. They're not deal breakers, they're just somebody looking for a few bucks off. If somebody wants to buy something, they're going to buy it. And as far as the limiting beliefs go, man, any deal that has intent and money can be closed. Very simply, you just have to guide the customer where they already want to go. Too many salespeople think their job is to handcuff the customer and bring them where they need them to be. You're never going to bring somebody somewhere they don't already want to go. Ask yourself if you walked into Macy's and you needed a black sweater to match your motorcycle, and somebody goes dude. I'm telling you, we got a great deal on a pink negligee. Are you walking out of there with a pink negligee? And the answer is of course not. Okay.
MC: 31:49
But if I am, then I'm going and selling my motorcycle exactly.
Luke: 31:53
Or getting a different kind of motorcycle, maybe. But the the question then, because, well, could I maybe be upgraded to a black crew neck leather jacket from Nautica? Maybe I could, yeah, and I might be compelled to do the Macy's card and get the rewards and put it on a credit account. I could be compelled to extend my spend and do those things, but my fundamental goal is not going to change, and when a salesperson understands you're never going to get somebody to engage in a purchase that they're not already planning on engaging in your life becomes a lot easier when you move with the grain. So that's what I would say would be my two hardest points as far as limiting beliefs.
MC: 32:31
Wow, well, I've taken a lot of notes here. I love this conversation, definitely love to have you back on the show in the future. We got to pick up this conversation where we left off for now. How can those listening and watching connect with you?
Luke: 32:46
Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate that man and I'd love to come back. It's a great show. I could talk cars all day. Luke Lunk L-U-K-E-L-U-N-K. At Luke Lunk on your Instagram, your TikTok, your Facebook, youtube is going to be paid the number to persuade and then if they're interested in getting some sales training, if they're in the car business or any type of sales, and they want to look us up and have a conversation about sales training, it's paid the number to persuadecom.
MC: 33:11
There you have it, man. Thanks so much for joining me on the dealer playbook podcast.
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