Would you believe me if I told you that I had an incredible experience buying my car? In today’s episode, I’m sharing the story of Steve the car salesman and why purchasing a car from him was the best buying experience of my life. I’m also sharing three marketing lessons that I learned from Steve.
The Shoot It Straight Podcast is brought to you by Sabrina Gebhardt, photographer and educator. Join us each week as we discuss what it’s like to be a female creative entrepreneur while balancing entrepreneurship and motherhood. If you’re trying to find balance in this exciting place you’re in, yet willing to talk about the hard stuff too, Shoot It Straight Podcast is here to share practical and tangible takeaways to help you shoot it straight.
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This episode is brought to you by The Aligned Photographer, my online course that will help you shape and expand your photography business to feel uniquely yours. Course modules include information all about pricing for profit, marketing, setting goals, creating a sustainable schedule, email, boundaries, and more. The course also includes monthly live Q&A calls, where you can get all of your business questions answered by me, Sabrina Gebhardt.
Review the Show Notes:
The car salesman story (1:55)
The best buying experience (6:19)
Sell with confidence (12:46)
We have to connect with our clients (15:21)
Support your clients every step of the way (17:55)
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The Aligned Photographer coupon code for 10% off: podcast
Lifestyle Lessons Weekly Newsletter
Review the Transcript:
Welcome to the shoot it straight podcast. I’m your host, Sabrina Gebhardt. Here, I will share an honest take on what it’s like to be a female creative entrepreneur while balancing business, motherhood, and life. Myself, along with my guests will get vulnerable through honest conversations and relatable stories because we’re willing to go there.
If you’re trying to find balance in this exciting place you’re in, yet willing to talk about the hard stuff too, The shoot it straight podcast is here to share practical and tangible takeaways to help you shoot it straight.
Welcome back to the shoot it straight podcast. My friends today, I’m doing something a little, a little bit different. I am actually sharing a story with you that I shared with my email list a couple of months ago. And I have been, let’s see, I’ve been intentionally email marketing now for, About five years.
And I love to tell stories. If you are not on my email list, you should totally get on there. It is, I call it lifestyle lessons. It’s a Monday morning email that is meant to be encouraging, inspirational, and just kind of a little nugget to like start your week off. Right. And it’s definitely. Not just for photographers.
I have a lot of solopreneurs. I also have a lot of my personal photography clients on this list because they have told me that the stories still resonate with them and their particular business. So anyways, this is an, this is a story. That I told my email list a couple of months ago and in all of the years that I have been doing email marketing and telling stories, this is the most responded to email that I’ve ever gotten.
So I thought I’m going to bring this story to the podcast. Okay. I’m going to tell it over here because I want more people to hear it. And well, I guess it resonated with a lot of you. So here we go. The story is this back in February. I finally, finally, finally, finally got to buy a car. I mean, I had a car, but I had been driving the same car for 10 years and it had 159, 000 miles on it.
It was in Laughable condition, laughable condition. My friends we’re talking, I mean, I don’t even know if I want to say this out loud, but we’re talking like hail damage that had never been repaired scratches. There was a dent on the back. The leather seats were like ripping in some places, the leather on the steering wheel was like coming off.
There were parts missing. I mean, it was. Laughable. Okay. But I’m a mom and we road trip and I’ve got three kids and we have a lot of carpools and I just, you know, it was one of those things that was like, it’s running, it’s fine. It’s a nice big car. And so I was able to like cram a lot of people and a lot of kids and a lot of stuff.
So we just made it last as long as we could. Well, last summer, um, on two of our road trips, we had to have my car serviced. And not just serviced, but like we had to have maintenance done while we were on vacation just to get it to come home. So we knew that my car was not going to make it through another road trip, right?
That we had to replace it before our next road trip. Well, we knew that we were driving to Florida for spring break, um, in March. And so February was the timeline of it’s time to get Sabrina a new car. And to be quite honest, I was not planning on buying a brand new car. I was planning on buying one that was a couple of years old.
Uh, cause that’s just what we do in our house. We buy cars that are a couple of years old and then we drive them until they no longer drive. Okay. So I wasn’t planning to buy a new one and I knew exactly what I wanted. I had been doing research. I literally bought the new version of the car I already had because I loved it.
So Anyways, I have been looking around for cars and kind of doing my research and due diligence and all of that. And back in February, I had a, an experience with a car salesman in this process. And if you have ever bought a car before, um, you probably are cringing because it’s just not a fun process.
Right? Like going to the dealership is not fun. Dealing with car salesmen is not fun. Dealing with the financing is just not great. Right? Like it’s long and boring and the salesmen are pushy and the funding just takes forever. It’s just not, is not up there with what people enjoy doing. Right? Generally, when you think about buying a car, there’s like this audible groan of like, ugh.
That’s the last thing I want to do, right? I’ve definitely been there before I have bought vehicles before. So this wasn’t new to me. And you might be wondering, why are you talking about a car? Sabrina, why are you talking about this experience? I promise you hang with me because this is going to relate to your business.
This story is going to relate to how you sell in your business. Okay. So. I went to this car dealership and, um, I was dealing with a salesman and his name was Steve, which is ironic because that is my husband’s name, but I’m going to venture to say that I don’t think I have ever had a better experience buying anything than this car buying experience, which is absolutely bananas.
Another part that I need to insert here is that my husband did not come with me for this experience. My teenage daughter and I went, okay, so I didn’t even have like my wingman of like the guy with me in this situation. If you are a woman and have ever made a major purchase or dealt with cars, you know where I’m going with this as much as I could get into the patriarchy and all of that, which we won’t today.
Buying a car, dealing with car stuff without a guy present is just not fun for a woman. It’s just not right. Anyways, this experience was phenomenal and I’m going to give you a couple of reasons why and then I’m going to tie it in to your business. Okay. First of all, my, this car salesman that I was dealing with, his name is Steve.
He literally went against the car salesman grain of like, he just was not a typical car salesman. He was not pushy at all. Like not even a little bit, just not even a little bit. He was so confident that he had a top notch product that he just shared the features of the car in like a super chill, but confident way.
And it made you like excited about hearing about them. Right. You weren’t sitting back there like uncomfortable thinking, okay, stop talking. Okay. I get it. It wasn’t that it was like the way he was sharing about his product made you like excited and want to hear more. Okay. He was not pushing this product down my throat.
Okay. That was really, really surprising. Another part of this phenomenal experience I had is that Steve shared common life experiences with me in a way that he knew was going to connect. Okay. He was more focused on connecting with me as a human than he was selling me a car. Uh, I found out that he is a dad of three, just like I am.
His kids are girl, boy, boy, boy, boy. Just like minor. Okay. Um, he played volleyball in high school, just like my daughter does who was with us for this experience. He was willing to get really personal and have these like deeper conversations throughout the entire experience that made it feel like a relatable relationship type, natural conversation.
Okay. The whole time I was test driving this car, we’re talking about kids and volleyball and he’s talking with my daughter and we’re talking about. His youngest had just been born. We’re talking about how hard the transition is from two to three and the sleepless nights and all this. And every once in a while he’s throwing in a like, Oh, and this, you know, here’s how the blinker works and here’s how the, you know, screen works and whatever.
And he’s just kind of slipping in little parts of the car as I’m driving, but we’re really just having a conversation. It was so chill. Another part of this experience that was really surprising is that Steve supported me in every way possible during the process. He answered a ton of questions without acting annoyed or overwhelmed.
Okay. And when I say a ton of questions, let me remind you that my husband was not with me. So while I have gone through the process of buying several cars in my life, I had never done it alone and never to this, this financial commitment. Okay. It’s a very expensive car that I bought and I was by myself.
So I had a lot of questions and I just wanted to make sure that I was making a very smart decision that I knew everything I needed to know. And he was not overwhelmed or anything about the fact that like some lady was here asking what were probably really silly questions to him, right? He also sped up the financing process to a level I never thought possible.
He appreciated the fact that I was there alone with my daughter on a Saturday night and that I did not want to be there other than the fact that I’d, you know, get to leave with a fun new car, but nobody wants to be like participating in financing on a Saturday night, right? Especially when it takes hours and hours.
Uh, my financing experience from start to finish was under 45 minutes. Which is like mind blowing if you’ve ever bought a car. Okay. He also took the time to set up all of the tech and the features in my car before I drove off the lot. This may sound really silly to you, especially those of you that have had a new car for several years and you’ve had all this tech, but let me remind you, my car was 10 years old.
So I was coming from a car that didn’t even have Bluetooth. Okay. My car didn’t even have Bluetooth. It didn’t have any of the screen fanciness. It didn’t like have car play. It didn’t do all these things. And my, my car now does all of that. And then stuff here I am a couple months later, still finding out like new little fun things that it does.
Okay. But he got me set up. Before we left, he connected my phone. He got my, me set up with the app with the remote start. He showed me how everything works. He got my preferences for like all of my menu boards set up. It was crazy. And again, this was a Saturday night. Okay. They were like wrapping up to leave and shut it down after me.
And he was just super patient making sure that I was completely happy with the experience. My experience with Steve, the car salesman was so pleasant that I came home and was not only gushing about my new car to my husband. I was gushing about Steve. Okay. It was absolutely so surprising friend. If you have a brand new photography business, or maybe you have been in business for a few years, but you aren’t thriving.
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So here’s what my experience with this car salesman can teach you about how you’re selling your brand and your services. I hope you’re still with me. Okay. Number one, I want you to ask yourself, are you confident in your final product and your experience that you’re selling your clients? Okay, are you confident in the experience and the final product that you’re selling your clients?
If so, you should be selling and marketing from this energy, this confident energy, this confidence of, I know that my final product is incredible. I know that my customer service is incredible. I know that the experience my clients will have is incredible. You should be selling from that energy and not the desperate sales energy, right?
You should be selling from this confidence instead of this. I have to get a client. Where’s my next client? I’m not going to get another client. That fear, that scarcity, okay? I want you to talk about your business with pride, not fear. Talk about what you charge and what your rates are with confidence instead of uncertainty.
Okay. This is that whole adage that if you don’t believe in your business, no one else will. Okay. And my experience with this salesman is the perfect example of that. He was so confident in his product, in his service, in the experience I would have at his dealership that he didn’t have to have any fear, any scarcity, any pressure or anything because he knew, look, if you decide to buy with us, you’re going to be thrilled.
Period end of story and receiving being on the receiving end of that energy felt so good. It felt so good. The same goes for you. If you are constantly selling from that scarcity space, if you are constantly selling from that desperate energy space. The people on the receiving end can feel it. They can tell when you are trying to grab them and pull them in, drag them in as customers.
They can tell when you are just chasing the money. Okay. But when you can sell from that quiet confidence of I am 100 percent certain about the experience and the final product you’re going to get when you can sell from that place. You bring people in people flock to you. Okay. It is a totally different receiving experience for your potential clients.
The second thing that we can gain from Steve, the car salesman, is that we have to connect with our potential clients. I say this all the time, but it is so important not only to talk about your business, but also your life. Your audience not only wants to know about your services, sure they do, but they also want to like you.
Okay. They want to like you. And respect and appreciate the people they’re going to work with the people they are going to spend money with. Okay. Don’t be afraid to share your love of baking or plants or books, share your latest vacation or homeschool curriculum, give people a way to connect with you outside of just the product or service that you’re offering.
Okay. It goes beyond a photo session. It goes beyond your, you know, whatever your creative endeavor service is. People want to connect with you. We have so many choices of who we can shop from, buy from, spend money with, and work with. Okay. There are umpteen photographers. There are umpteen artists. There are umpteen interior designers.
We have choices. You know why we make the choices we make because we connect with people. So if you are not giving your potential clients and your audience a chance to connect with you, you are literally shutting the door to any chance that they’re going to choose you over someone else. You have to give people an, a way to connect, connect with people outside of just your business.
It is so much more than selling. It is so much more than getting on Instagram and saying, here’s my availability this week. Here’s my availability this month. Here’s what special offer I have going on. Those are great things. I want you to share about your availability. I want you to share about ways people can work with you, but you also have to connect.
You have to show up and tell stories. You have to show up and say, what’s going well, and what’s not going well. You have to show up and share the little snippets of your life in between moments. No, you do not have to do a day in the life every single day where you share every single detail all the time.
That’s not the level I’m talking about, but if you’re not sharing anything, Other than your product service and availability, you are missing an opportunity to connect with people. We have to give people a way to connect with us. Number three, the, uh, the last thing that I really learned from Steve that I want to share with you is are you supporting your potential clients every step of the way?
Please, please, please don’t just take people’s money, make them so happy that they have paid you. Okay, I want you to support them beyond just bringing them in and having them submit an invoice or pull out their credit card or whatever. I want you to support them so that they are thrilled that they have paid you.
Yes, you’re going to give them a great experience because you provide that for your customers. Yes, you’re going to give them a great final product because that’s what you do, but can you make it even better? Okay. Can you answer all of their questions before they even ask the question? Can you make your clients feel seen and feel heard?
Can you surprise and delight them at every turn? Can you tell them what, what comes next in the process so that they feel prepared and supported? All of those things will take your client experience from good to phenomenal. And when you can take that client experience to a phenomenal new level, people are thrilled to give you money.
They’re not just happy. They’re not just, you know, okay, that was a good experience. We got good photos. They become loyal. They share your name. They brag about you. They get on a podcast and talk about their experience buying a car from you. Do you see that? Do you see how when you have an incredible experience, no matter what the price is, okay?
I want you to hear me say that. I paid Steve and his car dealership an obscene amount of money. Okay? Obscene. And yet I am still a couple months later talking about how phenomenal this experience was. And I’m also thrilled to tell you that I have had several interactions with Steve post car buying, you know, picking up my plates and having this one thing tweaked that I had to go up there for having a question where I texted him.
His service has continued to be incredible. And he already has my money. Technically, he doesn’t have to serve me anymore, but he continues to. That’s what I’m talking about. Can you take your client experience to a whole new level on a whole different planet than you’re on now? Make them happy to have paid you where they won’t even consider working with somebody else in the future.
Right? So I hope that you hear the story and some light bulbs have gone off for you. Is there something that you need to change about how you’re selling and marketing your services and your product in your business? I hope that this has inspired you and encouraged you, and I would love to hear from you.
If you listen to this episode and you have thoughts and you have comments, come find me on Instagram and send me a DM at Sabrina Gebhardt photography. I really do love to hear from you and I would love to hear, um, what your thoughts were from this episode. That’s it for today, my friend, we’ll see you next week.
Thanks so much for listening to the shoot it straight podcast. You can find all the full show notes. And details from today’s episode@sabrinagehart.com slash podcast. Come find me and connect over on the gram at Sabrina Gehart Photography. If you’re loving the podcast, I’d be honored if you hit that subscribe button and leave me a review.
Until next time, my friends shoot it straight.
