Searching for the Truth

How to Get More Out of your Third Party Follow-Ups

Has your dealership ever experienced the following scenario?

A prospect walks into your dealership and leaves without buying a car. The Manager asks the salesperson why and they respond that the prospect couldn’t afford the car they wanted or he didn’t have the car the prospect wanted. A third party conducts a follow-up interview with the prospect and a completely different version of the interaction is revealed.

Sound familiar? The question now becomes: What should your dealership do with those third party follow-ups to improve sales?

I've studied this situation throughout dealerships across the country. Here’s what I found. The biggest difference between stores that increased sales and those that didn’t is what they did with the third party follow-up information.

I found that unsuccessful dealerships had the tendency to ask their staff for an explanation of the prospect’s survey and feedback before they called the prospect back. Salespeople and Managers tend to get extremely defensive when they learn that a prospect does not have the same perception of their visit as they do. I’ve personally witnessed them call the prospect “crazy”. They will make excuses...like, the prospect couldn't afford the monthly payment. If you go to your staff first, you’ve essentially tainted the effectiveness of the third party follow-up and, in all likelihood, you will not be able to effectively sell to that opportunity.

On the contrary, successful dealerships approach the third party follow-up as an entirely new opportunity. Since the prospect won’t come back to look at the very car they didn’t buy yesterday, the successful dealership has a plan to re-car the prospect. They use the information presented in the third party follow-up to get a better understanding of the prospect’s needs and determine a way to meet those needs by recommending other vehicles on the lot. They get excited about showing the prospect the vehicle that would fit their needs; stating that they “just got it" or that the staff last night was unaware of it. Additionally, if needed, they apologize for any poor service the prospect perceived to be unacceptable, offer a test drive the prospect perceived they were not offered, and express the desire to present an offer the prospect perceived they didn’t previously receive. Again, all of the dealership’s actions are based on the prospect’s perceptions that were ascertained by the third party follow-up.

At the end of the day, ask yourself one question:

Who do we sell to…Our staff? Or our customers and prospects?

Why get your staff's opinion of what happened when you have your prospect’s opinion of what happened? The very minute you get an "update” from your staff… the very minute you go to the salesman or the manager to "better understand what happened” is the very minute you taint your view of the prospect. To be successful, you must use the information from a third party follow-up without consulting your staff, as they will affect your perspective and strategy to “re-car” the prospect.

During the first opportunity your dealership had with this prospect your staff probably reacted to “what are you looking for” and allowed the prospect to control what vehicle you showed them. But now, thanks to the third party follow-up, you are in control. You know the prospect’s personal vehicle needs and their down payment and monthly payment budgets. You know your inventory. This time you can control which vehicle you show the prospect and you know what your profit margins will be when they purchase the vehicle.

Following a third party follow-up, make sure you implement two processes:
(1) Have a different manager and salesperson tackle this opportunity
(2) Have a “re-car” plan - Work the numbers on two separate vehicles that you know will fit the prospect’s personal and financial needs and will generate you sufficient gross profits before you call them back.

~ Steve Dozier, Sales Director @ DMEautomotive

Bio:

Steve Dozier brings 15 years of experience in the automotive industry to DMEautomotive. Before joining Full Circle Solution and DMEautomotive, he held upper level management positions in the retail industry. Steve also owned a consulting company that specialized in CRM and direct mail, which brought in $2 Million in Sales for approximately 5 years. While serving as a consultant Steve was consistently recruited by the top 3 CRM firms of that time.

Since starting with DMEautomotive Steve has held a managerial position overseeing the Dealer-to-Dealer team. He is responsible for the entire telephony sales department.

Steve is married with two children and enjoys scuba diving and boating in his free time.

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/steve-dozier/10/903/623

8 simple rules for navigating social media

Knowing how to navigate social media is similar to navigating your neighborhood streets. Just as you wouldn’t slam on the gas between two stop signs a hundred yards apart, you should be conscientious of the acceptable behaviors and expectations of participating in social media. Here are 8 simple rules for engagement in social media.

1. Social media is meant to be FUN! Inject some personality into your postings, be friendly and be entertaining. But remember to keep it clean.

2. Don’t push…Pull. Ask questions....don’t sell. Especially not right off the bat. Listen and learn from your audience. Build a rapport. Eventually you should be able squeeze some sales messages in without backlash. Promote your dealership in a non-intrusive way.

3. Be authentic. Be you. Be honest about who you are and what your intentions are.

4. Give up control! Let your followers and fans speak and share their experiences. Don’t restrict who can and can’t leave comments. When someone does share, be sure to respect his or her opinions.

5. Be realistic. Don’t expect immediate results. You can spend a half an hour a day on social media but understand that it will likely yield a very unsuccessful result. The more time and effort your dealership is able to dedicate, the better the engagement. Additionally, social media is aimed at building deep, meaningful relationships. And we all know that those don’t happen overnight. It’s been said that social media will never close a deal, but it can certainly create a buzz about your product. The deal must be closed once the prospect enters your dealership.

6. Address any concerns or negative feedback immediately. “When you respond quickly to a customer concern or complaint it lets the customer know what to expect when they do business with you,” according to Lori Vajda Social Media Coordinator for AutoNation. Not only is the timeliness of response important, but also the manner in which you respond. If someone posts a comment on Twitter, respond on Twitter. This ensures that the same people who saw the initial comment will also see your response.

7. Frequently update your profile with meaningful, relevant and timely information. A stagnant profile will scare off customers and prospects alike quicker than a salesperson in a vintage polyester suit.

8. Measure. Just as with other marketing efforts, don’t forget to track your progress. This can be done easily by tracking the number of fans you obtain, the number of Twitter followers, the number of times a tweet is retweeted, the number of blog subscribers or the number of video views. This information can usually be easily obtained. You can also use Google Analytics, a free tool used to track website and blog traffic (provided you don’t have something similar in place and/or you have someone who can set it up for you).

Though we’ve outlined the etiquette of social media above, if you need to remember just one rule-of-thumb in social media it’s that you should be yourself.

~ Missy Jensen, Social Media Manager at DMEautomotive.

Bio:

Missy designs, deploys and maintains the social media initiatives for DMEautomotive in an effort to increase brand awareness, distribute company and industry news, provide updates on products and services and promote consumer engagement. Missy enjoys the process of learning; researching and watching projects come to fruition!

Prior to her transformation into a web specialist and work with DMEautomotive, she has 10 years of experience in the marketing and communications industry. Missy served as the Director, Handicapping & Communications for a regional golf association and helped successfully launch and maintain a cutting edge technology-based ticket resale program on behalf of the St. Louis Cardinals

Missy attended St. Lawrence University where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BS in Psychology. She also holds a Master’s Degree from Miami University in Oxford, OH. She can be reached at missy.jensen@dmeautomotive.com

LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/missyjensen

Will Someone Please Answer the Phone?! Handling Inbound Phone Calls at Your Dealership

How many times have you heard this in the service department each day? If you are saying this on the dealership side then it means that the callers are also saying it on their side, which cannot be good.

Dealers often spend thousands of dollars per month marketing to their customers in an attempt to motivate them to call the dealership. Yet they struggle with answering the phone when those customers do call. Nothing can frustrate a caller more than being put on hold or having to leave a message when they are trying to spend money.

How does missing phone calls affect your dealership’s bottom line?
It could cost you up to $150,000 annually!

Ask yourself this, “How many calls to your service department each day are missed or mishandled that could have resulted in a service appointment and RO revenue?” Most dealers will say somewhere between 5 and 10 calls are missed for whatever reason each day. Let’s assume that only 3 calls per day are missed or mishandled that could have resulted in an RO. Using your own metrics, what would missing three RO’s per day mean to you? Better yet, what would 3 additional RO’s per day mean to your bottom line?

Let’s assume that your service department is open 6 days per week, average RO revenue value with parts and labor totals $225.00 and your Gross Profit percentage is 70%.

3 RO’s x 6 days = 18 weekly x 52 weeks = 936 RO’s @ $225.00 average each = $210,600 x 70% GP = $147,000 in your pocket.

If you expect the phones to ring make sure that you have the processes in place to effectively handle the callers. With the economy the way it is, dealers have reduced head count to stay profitable. That means fewer employees available to answer the phone which often forces the decision to either ignore the callers or the customers standing in the service drive. Which one is more important? Of course they are both very important and need to be handled promptly.

One solution dealers find attractive is contracting with companies that provide 24/7 inbound call “backstopping” services to answer the calls that are not being answered in a timely manner. These companies will perform as if they are employees of the dealership and will set service or sales appointments, transfer calls, or take messages. This service insures that no call is missed and that all calls are handled properly.

Finally… someone is answering that phone!

~ Gary Mitchell

Director, Telephony & Virtual BDC Products, DMEautomotive

Bio:

Gary has 25 years of experience in providing franchised auto dealers with marketing and technology solutions designed to increase revenue and overall profitability. Gary has held national positions with ADP Dealer Services, LML Technologies, and DMEautomotive. He is currently responsible for researching and designing new products and marketing campaigns based on industry trends and specific dealership needs. He directly interfaces with Development and Product Management to monitor market needs and requirements, taking into account emerging technologies, competitor products / services, industry trends, and regulatory / compliance changes for both OEM and regulatory bodies. LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/garymitchellauto

Following Up on Unsold Prospects

Since my last blog was about logging prospects via a "Master Log”, it's now time to talk about what to do with the log once you've got it. Traveling the country I've seen the problem over and over again. Management often doesn’t think they have a problem. I hear "That doesn't happen here" all the time. Most sales people and some sales managers know EXACTLY what to tell their bosses to make them go away. After all, sales people and some sales managers "know" who can buy a car and who can't and they "know" if the prospect they talked to yesterday could have bought a vehicle, they would have sold them one yesterday. So why follow up with them today?

First let's look at the reasons why your staff thinks people didn't buy a vehicle from them:

• They are too buried in their current vehicle.
• They don't have enough down payment.
• They couldn't afford the monthly payment on the vehicle.
• You didn't have the specific vehicle they were looking for.
• They were just looking.

Granted some people are too buried in their trade and some people are credit challenged. Those are the examples that your staff will want to talk about.

The successful dealerships look at those same reasons with what I call a "mirrored" perspective:

1. They are too buried in their current vehicle. That's true based on the vehicle YOU showed them.

2. They don't have enough down payment. That's true too, based on the vehicle YOU showed them.

3. They couldn't afford the monthly payment. Based on the vehicle YOU showed them this may be true, as everyone has a budget.

4. You didn't have the specific vehicle they were looking for. Some people do come to your store with a specific vehicle in mind. YOUR common response to "I want a CD player, white exterior and grey leather" is usually something along the lines of: "That's a number 4, we don't have one, but we'll find one for you". I've seen some salespeople even tell them what dealership they found it at! If your order taker would have applied some salesmanship, they could have asked " If I found white one and it had a CD player and I could save you $2,000 but the interior was brown, would you want a lower payment or grey interior?". Here's a great test, the next time your salesman gives you that reason for losing an up, ask him what part of the "package" was the deal killer. If we knocked off $2,000 did they really have to have a CD player or was it the grey interior that killed the deal? More than half the time YOUR salesperson/sales manager will say "What?"

5. People "look" at cars on the Internet! Most people don't have time to just go looking for a vehicle with no intention to purchase a vehicle either now or in the near future. Sure, people do tell your staff that they are just looking. What your staff doesn't understand is they are just looking FOR A VEHICLE TO BUY!

The art of actually selling a vehicle has been lost for years. Often the consumer knows more about the vehicle on your lot and what other makes/ models compete with that vehicle then your staff does. So what do managers do? They ask the wrong questions and don't inspect what they expect.

They ask “did you call yesterday's prospects back?”. The answer might be yes. They should ask “did you talk to yesterday's prospects?”. The answer will be no. I've actually tested this at several dealerships. Test it in your store! If you get the right answer more than 50% of the time then you're doing GREAT!

The second question must be “what did you talk to them about?”. The answer will be something like: "about the same vehicle they were looking at yesterday. Can they come up with $5,000 down? Can they now afford $700.00 a month?". The answer should be "about that vehicle and the back up plan to BRING THEM BACK IN THE STORE AND SHOW THEM ANOTHER VEHICLE!".

After you do this a few times, most of your salespeople/sales managers will change their answers. Again, generally speaking, people will tell you what you want to hear to make you go away. Then what do you do? YOU pick up the phone and do a test call. Tell the prospect that you’re the manager and your calling to make sure that when your salesperson called today, they were courteous and helpful and offered them an additional $200.00 if them could come back in. You will quickly find out if they called or not.

I'm assuming that most of the people who read this are actually "in" the industry and, at this point, literally saying to themselves that this WILL NEVER HAPPEN. If you're one of them, YOU'RE CORRECT. So what do the successful dealerships do about it? They have a third party do their follow up. People will tell a third party more than they'll ever tell you. You'll start understanding your customers’ perception of their visit. That is the perception you want to base your decisions on. Some deals don't happen; not because the prospect didn't like the salesperson (after all, we try to hire nice people), they don't happen because they didn't "click" with the salesperson. You'll never know that if you depend on your staff to follow up. You'll never know that they went to a competitor and got $200.00 more for their trade, you'll never know if they got a reality check and now understand they can't get a $50,000 vehicle for $199.00 a month. Why won't you know? YOUR STAFF thinks people don't buy vehicles because: They are too buried in their current vehicle, They don't have enough down payment, They couldn't afford the monthly payment on the vehicle, You didn't have the specific vehicle they were looking for or They were just looking.

Looking in the mirror is not easy for a salesperson a manager or a store. Once you have a third party providing real information to you there is still a lot of work to do. It will be very difficult to react to your prospects perception. Your instincts will tell you to ask the salesperson what happened before you call that prospect back…which means you really don't want to see what's in the mirror.

~ Steve Dozier, Sales Director @ DMEautomotive

Bio:

Steve Dozier brings 15 years of experience in the automotive industry to DMEautomotive. Before joining Full Circle Solution and DMEautomotive, he held upper level management positions in the retail industry. Steve also owned a consulting company that specialized in CRM and direct mail, which brought in $2 Million in Sales for approximately 5 years. While serving as a consultant Steve was consistently recruited by the top 3 CRM firms of that time.

Since starting with DMEautomotive Steve has held a managerial position overseeing the Dealer-to-Dealer team. He is responsible for the entire telephony sales department.

Steve is married with two children and enjoys scuba diving and boating in his free time.

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/steve-dozier/10/903/623