Picture this…you are a sales consultant working at a dealership. You have gone through all of the steps and you are going through the negotiation process. After all is said and done the customer decides that it is time to leave and a deal cannot be made. It got down to the customer not being satisfied with the trade or the deal that is being offered to them.
Does this sound familiar? It should. This is what we deal with the most in our business if we are not making deals. There are many reasons why customers end up not making a deal on the spot. In some cases, sales consultants or BDC reps end up trying to get the customer to come back. In other cases, the customer leaves and never gets contacted again. This all depends on how the dealership is structured with process, CRM, and management styles.
I remember as a sales person I would have a manager sit down with me just to make sure that I am pounding the phones. I believe that this can be extreme in some cases. A sales person needs to be dedicated and care enough about their career as well as their livelihood. Successful sales professionals still use the telephone and innovative methods of communication to follow up. A few months ago, I wrote an article about the number one sales person in the country for Hyundai. The man sells 60 units per month consistently and makes twice what his sales manager makes. He is dedicated.
Now comes the interesting aspect of this article. How do we follow up with these customers that did not buy? How do we create a process to ensure 100% follow all of the time?
I recently had a dealer client ask me to create some processes for different objections for why people did not buy. After evaluating their dealership, their product, and how their staff operates I was able to create a custom process for various objections. It adds a few more calls per day to the BDC but will create more be-backs. My thinking is that every action needs a reaction. If they do heavy follow up, make a lot of calls, send properly crafted emails, engage in social media follow up, you will create a big enough buzz to get these customers to come back and make that deal.
It is all about process, process, process, process, and you guessed it PROCESS!!! Along with process comes the training on handling these opportunities. Along with the process and handling these opportunities comes effective communication between sales and BDC departments in order to have effective follow up.
Now let’s think about this for a second. What do we do when we get a fresh internet lead? We follow up with a solid phone call, email, and social media engagement process for a set amount of days, right? If we are serious about initiating contact with the prospect, why are we not serious about getting a bigger interest out of them after we have engaged them and had a chance to build rapport face to face? Why not create a similar type of strategy for someone who already has your attention? Shouldn’t it be easier to sell them a vehicle at this point?
It might be a great idea for dealerships to consider having a process for handling customers that did not buy with a solid, mandatory follow up plan. Since it is a numbers game dealers will see tremendous results and a better be-back ratio. This can be done for customers that do not buy due to trade issues or pricing issues. If the OEM makes positive program enhancements, it might make sense to create a process to engage those prospects that left and did not buy. Dealers and managers need to remember that persistence pays off big dividends. Think about it.
Stan Sher is the founder and president of Dealer eTraining, a premier automotive internet sales and digital marketing consulting company. For more information, please feel free to call 732-925-8362 or email stan@dealeretraining.com .