After coming back from a short holiday break and getting back to business I wanted to share what I recently discussed with our sales staff as we approach the final days of selling for 2011.  It isn’t anything new, just more of a “back to basics” session.  I thought it was important as many of our sales staff are close to hitting big bonuses, grabbing a place in a quarterly contest or at the very least may need a couple of units to make or break their paycheck.  The bottom line, emotions are higher than ever and we can’t let it get the best of us while conducting business with our valued customers.  I am not discouraging being assertive when selling, I am discouraging being aggressive.

We all know that when selling we need to be confident when engaged in conversation, be unafraid to ask questions and not be discouraged by a customer saying no.  It is very easy to come across as aggressive to the customer during these interactions when we really should be assertive.  Coming across to the customer in an aggressive way will certainly leave a lasting negative impression.  We want them to be excited during their shopping experience and positive about the vehicles we are presenting without letting our own emotions get in the way.   I refer to this as the “emotional season” as everyone is affected by other’s actions more than ever so we all need to be careful with our approach.

Having an assertive approach when selling isn’t portrayed as aggressive.  It’s about asking the right questions and communicating the right information with confidence to the customer.  The customer will certainly remember this and will be impressed with the presentation of the vehicle.  Remember aggressive sales tactics will not win the dealership sales.  It will ultimately ruin the reputation of the dealership.

The good news for those salespersons in our dealerships that present aggressive behavior on occasion, can be unlearned.  If we can get all of them to adopt the assertiveness sales skill, we will sell more vehicles with higher CSI scores.  Here are a few assertive behaviors versus aggressive behaviors that work great for role-play and don’t take up much time.  Concentrate on facial expressions, body movement and voice volume:

“Enthusiastic” vs “Fake”

“Genuine” vs “Manipulative”

“Direct” vs “Intimidating”

“Respectful” vs “Harassing”

“Understanding” vs “Uninterested”

When a salesperson is engaged with the customer, have them think of a family member being in the customer’s shoes.  This is an easy way for them to adjust their behavior if finding themselves anxious and off track.  It takes skill to put someone at ease and feel comfortable.  Until that happens, it will be very hard to close a car deal, as we all know.

We are professionals.  If we take our time, give the customer a chance to talk and then in a confident way show how we can help we will reach our goals much faster.  Here is to a strong close for everyone reading for 2011.  Have fun and good selling.  See you in 2012.

After coming back from a short holiday break and getting back to business I wanted to share what I recently discussed with our sales staff as we approach the final days of selling for 2011.  It isn’t anything new, just more of a “back to basics” session.  I thought it was important as many of our sales staff are close to hitting big bonuses, grabbing a place in a quarterly contest or at the very least may need a couple of units to make or break their paycheck.  The bottom line, emotions are higher than ever and we can’t let it get the best of us while conducting business with our valued customers.  I am not discouraging being assertive when selling, I am discouraging being aggressive.

We all know that when selling we need to be confident when engaged in conversation, be unafraid to ask questions and not be discouraged by a customer saying no.  It is very easy to come across as aggressive to the customer during these interactions when we really should be assertive.  Coming across to the customer in an aggressive way will certainly leave a lasting negative impression.  We want them to be excited during their shopping experience and positive about the vehicles we are presenting without letting our own emotions get in the way.   I refer to this as the “emotional season” as everyone is affected by other’s actions more than ever so we all need to be careful with our approach.

Having an assertive approach when selling isn’t portrayed as aggressive.  It’s about asking the right questions and communicating the right information with confidence to the customer.  The customer will certainly remember this and will be impressed with the presentation of the vehicle.  Remember aggressive sales tactics will not win the dealership sales.  It will ultimately ruin the reputation of the dealership.

The good news for those salespersons in our dealerships that present aggressive behavior on occasion, can be unlearned.  If we can get all of them to adopt the assertiveness sales skill, we will sell more vehicles with higher CSI scores.  Here are a few assertive behaviors versus aggressive behaviors that work great for role-play and don’t take up much time.  Concentrate on facial expressions, body movement and voice volume:

“Enthusiastic” vs “Fake”

“Genuine” vs “Manipulative”

“Direct” vs “Intimidating”

“Respectful” vs “Harassing”

“Understanding” vs “Uninterested”

When a salesperson is engaged with the customer, have them think of a family member being in the customer’s shoes.  This is an easy way for them to adjust their behavior if finding themselves anxious and off track.  It takes skill to put someone at ease and feel comfortable.  Until that happens, it will be very hard to close a car deal, as we all know.

We are professionals.  If we take our time, give the customer a chance to talk and then in a confident way show how we can help we will reach our goals much faster.  Here is to a strong close for everyone reading for 2011.  Have fun and good selling.  See you in 2012.

As "Social Dealers", we work everyday to engage, inform and hopefully entice prospective customers to buy our vehicles or use our service and parts departments at some point. I would think we are working to have them become not only brand advocates of our manufacturer’s brand but also advocates of our personal brand as a dealership in the community.

By now, many of us are using Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Foursquare, LinkedIn and Blogs to help make ourselves known and gain attention in the community.  Hopefully there is a plan in place on the content you are posting and when you are posting.  We definitely do not want to turn off those who have taken the time to be a part of our social community. There are few common mistakes a dealership can make that will lead to customers signing off and never to be seen again. They could also tell their friends or family about their negative feelings which as we all know will go much further than any message we could ever post.

Social Media is rapidly changing every day and many ideas that we use today may not be around next year. There is so much potential that many of us are constantly discovering everyday. Listed below are a few annoying things dealerships could find themselves doing which are mistakes we all want to avoid:

No Presence

These days it is unacceptable for a dealership not to have a presence online. Most consumers now will research a vehicle or dealership online before deciding which vehicle to purchase and from what dealership. If you don’t have your dealership(s) on the Internet, consumers will likely not pay any attention to you. I find it very frustrating when searching for a business, even just a phone number or address, and being unable to find anything. Keep in mind, if a prospective purchaser can’t find you online, their level of trust in your dealership will diminish and they will move on to your competitor’s sites.

Keep Focused

This is an easy mistake to make especially if you are using multiple channels or have several people posting content. With social media, us as dealers should want to be known as experts in our industry.  With that being said, what would our followers want to see from us? While you can inject some fun into it by tweeting about dealership activities or sharing photos of something funny, make the majority of your updates, tweets or posts about our industry.  It certainly is good to mix it up some but let’s not change who we are and what we are here for. Keep the conversation going and occasionally have a converting message in there. If you have more than one person running your social media accounts, be sure they all know what content has already been posted to avoid being repetitive and confusing your followers.

Don’t Make It Complicated

We all love a clever marketing idea, but there is a difference between being clever and being complicated. If you try and trick your prospective customers, like I have seen many times in the “newspaper days”, you will lose their interest. We are all striving to be transparent dealers, let’s be transparent with our promotions too. Our prospective customers are looking for an easy and hassle free way of doing business with us. If we don’t do it, I promise the dealership down the street will.

Stop Trying To Convert Everyone

Us as dealers should know that it takes the building of rapport and some sort of a relationship before a prospective customer will sign on the dotted line. Social Media isn’t any different and it too is about building a relationship based on trust.  We can’t build that trust by sending out constant promotional messages, coupons, and inventory links.  This road has been hard enough to get where we are today.  Let’s not push them away. What value can we as dealers add to our follower’s lives? Be conversational and very careful when trying to convert.

Inconsistent

Once you start a Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Foursquare, LinkedIn or Blog page, be sure to keep it going every day. There is nothing worse than a stale site. In my opinion it looks unprofessional and shows a lack of pride for your dealership and brand. If a dealership couldn’t be bothered to update their sites at least once a week, I would think they wouldn’t want to be bothered to give great customer service even if they had a great product to sell. The key is to post or update regularly and a little more often for those on Twitter.

Now many of you may be saying this is all common sense and for the most part I agree. It is still amazing though on how many dealerships do and will get this wrong. We have some super effective tools to spread our messages through social media. Don’t take it lightly and be consistent by all means. Results will come. 

As "Social Dealers", we work everyday to engage, inform and hopefully entice prospective customers to buy our vehicles or use our service and parts departments at some point. I would think we are working to have them become not only brand advocates of our manufacturer’s brand but also advocates of our personal brand as a dealership in the community.

By now, many of us are using Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Foursquare, LinkedIn and Blogs to help make ourselves known and gain attention in the community.  Hopefully there is a plan in place on the content you are posting and when you are posting.  We definitely do not want to turn off those who have taken the time to be a part of our social community. There are few common mistakes a dealership can make that will lead to customers signing off and never to be seen again. They could also tell their friends or family about their negative feelings which as we all know will go much further than any message we could ever post.

Social Media is rapidly changing every day and many ideas that we use today may not be around next year. There is so much potential that many of us are constantly discovering everyday. Listed below are a few annoying things dealerships could find themselves doing which are mistakes we all want to avoid:

No Presence

These days it is unacceptable for a dealership not to have a presence online. Most consumers now will research a vehicle or dealership online before deciding which vehicle to purchase and from what dealership. If you don’t have your dealership(s) on the Internet, consumers will likely not pay any attention to you. I find it very frustrating when searching for a business, even just a phone number or address, and being unable to find anything. Keep in mind, if a prospective purchaser can’t find you online, their level of trust in your dealership will diminish and they will move on to your competitor’s sites.

Keep Focused

This is an easy mistake to make especially if you are using multiple channels or have several people posting content. With social media, us as dealers should want to be known as experts in our industry.  With that being said, what would our followers want to see from us? While you can inject some fun into it by tweeting about dealership activities or sharing photos of something funny, make the majority of your updates, tweets or posts about our industry.  It certainly is good to mix it up some but let’s not change who we are and what we are here for. Keep the conversation going and occasionally have a converting message in there. If you have more than one person running your social media accounts, be sure they all know what content has already been posted to avoid being repetitive and confusing your followers.

Don’t Make It Complicated

We all love a clever marketing idea, but there is a difference between being clever and being complicated. If you try and trick your prospective customers, like I have seen many times in the “newspaper days”, you will lose their interest. We are all striving to be transparent dealers, let’s be transparent with our promotions too. Our prospective customers are looking for an easy and hassle free way of doing business with us. If we don’t do it, I promise the dealership down the street will.

Stop Trying To Convert Everyone

Us as dealers should know that it takes the building of rapport and some sort of a relationship before a prospective customer will sign on the dotted line. Social Media isn’t any different and it too is about building a relationship based on trust.  We can’t build that trust by sending out constant promotional messages, coupons, and inventory links.  This road has been hard enough to get where we are today.  Let’s not push them away. What value can we as dealers add to our follower’s lives? Be conversational and very careful when trying to convert.

Inconsistent

Once you start a Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Foursquare, LinkedIn or Blog page, be sure to keep it going every day. There is nothing worse than a stale site. In my opinion it looks unprofessional and shows a lack of pride for your dealership and brand. If a dealership couldn’t be bothered to update their sites at least once a week, I would think they wouldn’t want to be bothered to give great customer service even if they had a great product to sell. The key is to post or update regularly and a little more often for those on Twitter.

Now many of you may be saying this is all common sense and for the most part I agree. It is still amazing though on how many dealerships do and will get this wrong. We have some super effective tools to spread our messages through social media. Don’t take it lightly and be consistent by all means. Results will come. 

According to J.D. Power & NADA, almost 90% of retail customers are never contacted after delivery.  That statistic alone shows many dealers do not have a loyalty process in place.  It’s sad to see and hear.  As hard as we all work to capture someone’s business, we seem to want to continue to work just as hard to find another customer to earn their business and not focus on those we already have earned their trust and respect.  Not to mention it is 5 times more expensive to find that new customer.

Loyalty is very fragile and is earned at every customer touch point throughout their entire ownership.  Touch point is also known by a term you may have been hearing quite often lately, “moment of truth.” You see, somewhere in your dealership, you have a “customer loyalty bank” that is hidden and only your customers know where it is.  Each “moment of truth” is when a customer forms an opinion of your dealership through a recent experience.  Depending on that experience, the customer can either make a deposit into your “customer loyalty bank” or they could also make a withdrawal.  It’s more of an “emotional bank account” for them.

The road to keeping a customer once they have made a purchase with you should begin the day after they take delivery.  It’s nice to spend money on reminder cards, loyalty cards, or any other of those glitzy third-party mailings that make a dealership feel good because they are keeping in contact with their current customers.  It all sounds good, but does the client feel good about them? Thinking back to the dealerships “customer loyalty bank”, how many of the client’s “moment of truths” have been positive each time they have been in your dealership since taking delivery? Positive “touch points” keep the customer making those deposits into your “customer loyalty bank” which will make it easier to recapture that customer for their next purchase.

There are a few “leading practices” that show to produce the best results during the four phases of the customer buying cycle and can be tailored to each individual dealership.  They should be monitored by management on a daily basis and are a great roadmap for new hires. 

Here is how the following leading practices can be implemented to each phase:

PHASE 1: (0 – 1 Years) New Car Phase or the “Honeymoon Phase”

• Customer should be contacted immediately after delivery for satisfaction and reminded of the “New Owner Service Clinic” date and time.
• Customer should be met during each service visit to reinforce relationship.
• Customer personally contacted 9 times by telephone in the first year.
• Managers in the beginning before reassigning to another salesperson handle orphaned customers.

PHASE 2: (1 – 3 Years) My Car Phase or the “Comfort Years Phase”

• Sales Manager contacts customer to ensure satisfaction yearly.
• Customer should be met during each service visit to reinforce relationship.
• Customer contacted by salesperson 3 times by telephone during each of these years.
• Additional service contacts can be made supported by discounts.
• Begin the End of Term Process conversation during this period.  It will strike up questions and is a good time to discuss current programs and incentives.

PHASE 3: (3 – 4 Years) Just A Car Phase or the “Blah Phase”

• Sales Manager contacts customer to ensure satisfaction yearly.
• Customer should be met during each service visit to reinforce relationship.
• Customer contacted by salesperson 3 times by telephone during each of these years.
• Contact customer regarding End of Term Process and look to see what their intent is regarding next vehicle.
• Offer to give some pricing on current year models.

PHASE 4: (4 – 5+ Years) Next Car Phase or the “Shop / Divorce / Convert Phase”

• Sales Manager contacts customer to ensure satisfaction yearly.
• Customer should be met during each service visit to reinforce relationship.
• Customer contacted by salesperson 3 times by telephone during each of these years.
• It’s time to get serious with pricing new vehicles for customer and setting appointment to discuss next purchase if not recaptured already.  After all, you have earned every right to ask for the business once again after following the leading practices set forth during ownership.  The customer should have made more deposits into your “customer loyalty bank” versus “withdrawals.”

Not only will you have a better chance now to recapture the customer but will also give the dealership a reduced selling and marketing expense.  Many of us have heard the phrase, “cheaper to keep,” well it proves true in this case.  What else comes from recapturing the customer?  I can think of a few such as, improved closing ratios, improved preowned vehicle acquisition and an increase in fixed gross.

Whenever I hear the term, Customer Loyalty, I think of all that goes on during the phases of ownership from a dealership standpoint written above.  I don’t think of what can I have mailed to the customer that will hopefully make them come back and do business with me again.  It’s much more than that as you see and requires effort but not as much as you would have to put forth to a brand new customer altogether. 

Good Selling. 

According to J.D. Power & NADA, almost 90% of retail customers are never contacted after delivery.  That statistic alone shows many dealers do not have a loyalty process in place.  It’s sad to see and hear.  As hard as we all work to capture someone’s business, we seem to want to continue to work just as hard to find another customer to earn their business and not focus on those we already have earned their trust and respect.  Not to mention it is 5 times more expensive to find that new customer.

Loyalty is very fragile and is earned at every customer touch point throughout their entire ownership.  Touch point is also known by a term you may have been hearing quite often lately, “moment of truth.” You see, somewhere in your dealership, you have a “customer loyalty bank” that is hidden and only your customers know where it is.  Each “moment of truth” is when a customer forms an opinion of your dealership through a recent experience.  Depending on that experience, the customer can either make a deposit into your “customer loyalty bank” or they could also make a withdrawal.  It’s more of an “emotional bank account” for them.

The road to keeping a customer once they have made a purchase with you should begin the day after they take delivery.  It’s nice to spend money on reminder cards, loyalty cards, or any other of those glitzy third-party mailings that make a dealership feel good because they are keeping in contact with their current customers.  It all sounds good, but does the client feel good about them? Thinking back to the dealerships “customer loyalty bank”, how many of the client’s “moment of truths” have been positive each time they have been in your dealership since taking delivery? Positive “touch points” keep the customer making those deposits into your “customer loyalty bank” which will make it easier to recapture that customer for their next purchase.

There are a few “leading practices” that show to produce the best results during the four phases of the customer buying cycle and can be tailored to each individual dealership.  They should be monitored by management on a daily basis and are a great roadmap for new hires. 

Here is how the following leading practices can be implemented to each phase:

PHASE 1: (0 – 1 Years) New Car Phase or the “Honeymoon Phase”

• Customer should be contacted immediately after delivery for satisfaction and reminded of the “New Owner Service Clinic” date and time.
• Customer should be met during each service visit to reinforce relationship.
• Customer personally contacted 9 times by telephone in the first year.
• Managers in the beginning before reassigning to another salesperson handle orphaned customers.

PHASE 2: (1 – 3 Years) My Car Phase or the “Comfort Years Phase”

• Sales Manager contacts customer to ensure satisfaction yearly.
• Customer should be met during each service visit to reinforce relationship.
• Customer contacted by salesperson 3 times by telephone during each of these years.
• Additional service contacts can be made supported by discounts.
• Begin the End of Term Process conversation during this period.  It will strike up questions and is a good time to discuss current programs and incentives.

PHASE 3: (3 – 4 Years) Just A Car Phase or the “Blah Phase”

• Sales Manager contacts customer to ensure satisfaction yearly.
• Customer should be met during each service visit to reinforce relationship.
• Customer contacted by salesperson 3 times by telephone during each of these years.
• Contact customer regarding End of Term Process and look to see what their intent is regarding next vehicle.
• Offer to give some pricing on current year models.

PHASE 4: (4 – 5+ Years) Next Car Phase or the “Shop / Divorce / Convert Phase”

• Sales Manager contacts customer to ensure satisfaction yearly.
• Customer should be met during each service visit to reinforce relationship.
• Customer contacted by salesperson 3 times by telephone during each of these years.
• It’s time to get serious with pricing new vehicles for customer and setting appointment to discuss next purchase if not recaptured already.  After all, you have earned every right to ask for the business once again after following the leading practices set forth during ownership.  The customer should have made more deposits into your “customer loyalty bank” versus “withdrawals.”

Not only will you have a better chance now to recapture the customer but will also give the dealership a reduced selling and marketing expense.  Many of us have heard the phrase, “cheaper to keep,” well it proves true in this case.  What else comes from recapturing the customer?  I can think of a few such as, improved closing ratios, improved preowned vehicle acquisition and an increase in fixed gross.

Whenever I hear the term, Customer Loyalty, I think of all that goes on during the phases of ownership from a dealership standpoint written above.  I don’t think of what can I have mailed to the customer that will hopefully make them come back and do business with me again.  It’s much more than that as you see and requires effort but not as much as you would have to put forth to a brand new customer altogether. 

Good Selling.