Work the service lane! Work the service lane. Work the service lane? It’s been a standard training theme for years in our industry.
Have you ever actually stood in a service lane trying to make conversation? Does if feel awkward, uncomfortable, wrong? Do the service advisors want you there? Do you bring value to their relationship with the customer? Do you think the majority of customers are excited to visit with a salesperson as they figure out why their car is broken? —Everyone in that lane knows exactly why you’re there, and it challenges any chance of a real conversation before it starts.
Damian Boudreaux says stop working the service lane; work the service lounge.
Damian’s advice is almost absurdly simple: go sit in the service lounge. Get yourself a coffee, a Coke, a hot cocoa if that’s your thing. Sit down. Read a magazine. Don’t approach anyone. Don’t pitch anyone. Just be there, relaxed, with zero agenda.
Here’s what happens. The room comes to you. People sitting in a lounge waiting on their car have nowhere else to be and nothing else to do — and a relaxed person nearby, not trying to sell them anything, is far easier to talk to than someone working an angle. Conversations start naturally. Eventually, someone asks why you’re there, and that’s the moment — completely organic, zero pressure — where the conversation can go anywhere.
This isn’t a trick. It’s the opposite of one. It works precisely because there’s no hidden agenda to detect. Give it two weeks, Damian says, and it pays off — not because you pushed harder, but because you finally stopped pushing at all. Ask yourself, If the customer initiates the visit does that work for the human? Does it make more sense to you the salesperson? Does it work for the company? Is it an honest approach to a conversation?
This kind of counterintuitive, low-pressure prospecting is exactly what’s covered in Module 4 of the 100 Car Club. [See what else is inside https://100carsclub.com/]