Many dealers across the United States will be closing out a great month of sales today and all of you should be congratulated for the efforts put forth.  It’s not over yet.  The great news is that we still have this wonderful Saturday to dig down deep and make it a month we haven’t seen in some time. Again, well done.

Now that we lived that moment for a few seconds, what is your game plan for April? Do you have one? Do you approach the day wondering what will become of it or do you approach the day having a pretty good idea what will become of it? Are you spot on with every customer interaction, product presentations and handling objections the proper way rather than on the defensive?

I have noticed over the years, in all capacities, that customer’s objections haven’t changed much yet dealer personnel still stumble many times when challenged. Especially in one of our biggest profit centers:  The F&I office.

Most of the objections we are confronted with can fall in one of the four categories:

• Affordability
• Product Misconceptions / Lack of Information
• Need Perception
• Fear Of Making Poor Decision

This upcoming week is one of my favorites for sports ending with The Masters golf tournament so naturally I have to throw in a sports analogy.  Imagine you are the basketball coach for one of the Final Four teams playing.  It is your job to prepare and condition your “team” in the fundamentals, develop a winning game plan and execute that plan properly.  A big part of this game plan is to know what your team will be up against.  If your team has been beaten by the same four plays, game after game, you need to start questioning ability.  To all the F&I professionals out there, you have watched the game films, gathered your important information and also had a chance to see the playbook ahead of time.  How do you plan to win?

It is very important to understand how customers like to make a purchase.  Intangible products sold in F&I are made by a transfer of beliefs and enthusiasm mainly, in my opinion.  It involves a super star presentation that is based on solid product knowledge developed with empathy for the customer.  If you approach your presentation in this manner, you will sell the way they want to purchase.  Your customer’s are buying a majority of the time because they want to, not because they need to.  I can think back on many occasions when I have put off making a purchase on something that I needed but didn’t want, compared to how many times I have purchased something I wanted but didn’t need.  Anyone else? I think selling is more motivational rather than persuasive and knowing that will help close more sales.  We have heard over and over that people make a purchase when their perception of value exceeds the “cost.”  Cost can be in terms of money, time or aggravation.  Without a perceived need, all of the features and benefits of any product create no value and without value, no pricing will be cheap enough for the customer in front of you.

You see, each time a purchase is made; an internal conflict takes place with an emotional desire to have the product and the fear of paying too much or being taken advantage of by the seller.  Customers then search for answers to help resolve this conflict by a series of questions listed below but not limited to:

• Do I or can I trust this sales person?
• Reputation of company?
• Will the product serve my needs?
• Does value exceed price?
• Do I want it now?

Looking at these questions, we need to ask ourselves if these are logical or emotional decisions.  Is there any logic in trust?  The customer may have your trust but their spouse may not.  Your dealership’s reputation is subjective too.  This is definitely an emotional thought process and value is the customer’s personal judgment.  Customers are buying emotionally with just enough logic to justify their decision.  Knowing this, is your F&I presentation built solely on facts, features and benefits?  Many times I can remember as an F&I manager thinking if I can explain enough features and benefits, I will close on more products.  Then “menu selling” made its way into our dealerships that taught F&I managers to present 100% of products, 100% of the time to 100% of the customers.  Now please don’t get me wrong, I believe features and benefits along with a proper F&I menu presentation are key but “value” is created only when the product presented fulfills a desire or solves a problem.

With all this in mind, presenting that beautiful, well-prepared F&I menu and overloading your customer with features and benefits will only get you so far.  Sure you are going to sell a few products but you will definitely end up with even more lost opportunities unless you, the F&I manager, take the time to sell yourself and the dealership.  It’s time to truly identify “buying motivations” and demonstrate how the products presented can satisfy your customer’s perceived need.  If you help your customer answer the five questions I mentioned earlier in a positive way, you will increase your chances of closing on more products.  Only then will you no longer be in a win or lose situation with the customer but both of you will have won with you closing on more products and helping the customer by solving a problem.

Close strong and make it a great April 2012.

BDC / Internet operations are near and dear to my heart and I wanted to post this article I wrote for the DrivingSales Dealership Innovation Guide 3rd Quarter 2011 [ http://goo.gl/Lxu8t ] for those who may have missed it:

"How many customers do you lock in your showroom at night?"

This is a question that I enjoy asking dealer contacts around the country when I hear there is not a process in place or a process isn’t followed consistently to respond to customers on the other end of the telephone or the internet.  Believe it or not, as many of us are running full speed with our BDC departments and have been for years, there are still dealers around the country that either do not have such a department or have a half-functioning one.  For those dealers that fall into the latter two categories, it is time to step back, take a deep breath, and get a plan together to maximize on the opportunities that are there just as a customer standing in the showroom.  I have a strong passion for BDC department operations as many of you already know and my goal is to get dealers to read, get the ball rolling for their store and achieve immediate results.  To many, this article may seem elementary but every dealer isn’t running at the same pace.  My goal is to get more dealers in the race.  It is incremental business that is being missed.  Complacency has no home in automotive retail and nobody wants to be left behind.  The good news is that it isn’t too late.

I am a firm believer that the customer standing in the showroom and the customer sitting at home on their computer or calling the dealership on their telephone is no different from one another.  Yet I still see or hear about it happening everyday that the customer at home gets pushed to the back burner until actual showroom floor traffic dies down or maybe not even responded to at all.  Why does this happen? Is it lack of phone training or poor follow up skills? Or is it that old school mentality of unless the customer is standing in front of you they aren’t a serious buyer?  It is probably a little bit of all of the above.  The truth is that almost all customers that eventually walk into the showroom have already been on the Internet researching, comparing and gathering all of the necessary information that they require until comfortable enough to call or pay the dealership a visit.  By putting a BDC department in place and managed right, a dealership will significantly increase appointments which will lead to increased showroom traffic.  So why not “up” the customer before they arrive and increase the chances greatly of closing the sale?  The excitement and energy put forth with the customer on the lot should be just the same with the customer online or by telephone.

Now that it has been established that there isn’t any difference between the customer at home and the customer standing in the showroom, it is now time to have the desire to focus more attention on the BDC department in the dealership and commit to it.  Going through the motions and responding to leads only one time with a price quote will not do a bit of good.  If I were in the market for a product and every company I contacted sent me a price quote when I inquired in general, I would keep shopping until I eventually got the lowest price and all others would never hear from me again.  The goal is to sell the appointment and not the vehicle.  It is very hard to build value in something over email. If the customer does not provide a phone number and requests information, a call to action to the telephone should be clear asking the customer to call the dealership so the information requested can be discussed in detail. 

Proper phone training is needed in order to consistently sell the appointment and have the customer actually show up.  Just as there is a process and steps to the sale with the showroom customer, there should be a process and steps to the appointment once the customer is on the phone.  There are many call guides available to help pace the customer and keep control of the phone call also in which selling the value of the dealership can be included.  Please remember they are guides and should be followed but do not remove personality from the equation.  When on the phone, never stop smiling.  Customers can hear that smile over the telephone and it makes for a better phone call experience for both parties hands down.  Phone skills are the most important and dealers should be sure to have the right staff in this position.

I am sure by now dealers reading are pumped up and feel the excitement they will create when going full force with the BDC department.  It is a full time job and should be staffed as such.  It’s time to stay focused, do a virtual walk-thru of your website and make sure all inventory has pictures with the most up to date information.  We are in July and nobody is interested in the sale that went on during the second week of June.  The website should be monitored daily.

Finally, be prompt in getting the information back to the customer and answer their questions.  One thing I dislike is someone ignoring a question I asked in the beginning.  The more times a customer has to ask the same question, the less likely they will ever step foot into the showroom.  One of the biggest complaints from customers is not getting a response at all from the dealership they inquired with.  That is the same thing as going home at night and locking a customer in the showroom.   

What current processes do you have in place that are working well? 

I was first introduced to the “Dealership BDC” module back in 2000 under the watch of a gentleman by the name of Chuck Barker.  As a salesperson, I spent a 90-minute shift in that department each day and couldn’t wait to get back out on the lot and sell a car.  In order to be on the sales floor come Saturday, I also needed an “x” amount of confirmed appointments throughout the week.  I know this will not make sense to any of us now, but I was not a fan in the beginning.  It didn’t take long however with some coaching, call guide practicing, appointments being set and selling those appointments that I was hooked.

The BDC/Internet department has certainly come a long way since then and so much is going on within it.  The one thing that hasn’t changed is that there are still phone calls coming into this dealership.  Although I am involved with much more now than in the year 2000, I am not afraid to get in the mix and take a customer from start to finish in the showroom, jump in the F&I seat, or take that very important phone call and sell an appointment along with the rest of my BDC/Internet staff.  I am a salesperson.  I don’t claim to be the best, but I certainly strive to keep the importance of the call I take at the very top and do what I can to make the appointment happen.  I can become so much better and more consistent.

Consistency is important and without a guide and plan in place, it is hard for the human brain to keep on track by “winging” a phone call.  If your staff is “winging” the dealership’s phone calls, I suggest you stop immediately and get a new process in place.  I consider myself a “student of the process” and always want to be better at what I do so I decided to share a couple of calls with you of mine, which is the significance of this post title.  If you like them, hate them, want to critique them please do so.  We are all here to learn and I certainly encourage all of your comments.  Very brave of me, I know.  Enjoy.

New Car Call

Used Car Call

I will be the first to admit that I am usually in a hurry and want results immediately.  In our industry we all seem to want immediate results right?  It can be discouraging for many of us with that mindset and it affects more than we know in both our personal and business lives.  I am going to take a moment and write on how over the last 100 days, being in a hurry kept me from having success with a product I am using:  Autotrader’s “Trade-In Marketplace.”

This is not a “pitch” by no means.  All of us here use DrivingSales.com to share best practices to help the entire industry get better at what we do and I wanted to share something working for me.

I want to first share a few points of being in a hurry that have helped me refocus and take a different approach:

• Try to figure out why you are in such a hurry.
• Pinpoint the triggers that often influence you to lose patience.
• Look for patterns.
• What processes do you have in place now?
• Write these down on a scrap piece of paper or whatever to embed in your mind.

After I assessed the above, I then took the next steps:

• Change your attitude, relax and overcome these bouts of impatience.
• Let go of anything you have zero control over.
• Remind yourself that some things take time and keep focus on the BIG PICTURE.

Now in regards to the “Trade-In Marketplace” leads, it definitely was our approach and process in converting these leads into appointments.  This is not to be combined with how we use it in the showroom. Coming from the BDC/Internet world, we have been approaching these leads in the wrong manner.  I am accustomed to receiving a lead, followed up with a personal response via email / video and then an immediate phone call or text unless the client requested email communication only.

With the above approach, I encountered very little contact and think many others witnessed the same.  I became discouraged because I am eager, in a hurry if you will, to make contact and close the appointment.  Now I am not saying that I never made contact with any but the percentage was much lower than the others.  It didn’t make sense.

I then realized, which was tough for me that these leads have to be higher up in the sales funnel. Really?  They are online, took the time to enter their information, and are not ready to buy now? I will say yes.  They aren’t much higher up the funnel but definitely are.  So what did we do to change our results?

• AUTO RESPONDER – we killed it to all incoming “TIM” leads.  I know everyone has their opinions on auto responders; we use them except on this program.

• PERSONAL RESPONSE – not extensive, simple, to the point and lightening fast.  Many I am in contact with haven’t truly selected a vehicle to replace their current vehicle with.  I wanted more responses and achieved them with this:

Hello Chris,

I recently received notice that you are looking to sell your 2007 Infiniti FX35.  Is it still available?

I see you received an electronic quote. I now have the "real time" ability to get you the most for it by allowing millions to see it and bid.  During your visit it will take only minutes and is a guaranteed.  This, without question, will ensure you get the best value.

I will be in the office until 9PM and look forward to your call, text or email.

Regards,

Chris Costner

                757.289.1860 wireless / text

                ccostner@greenbrierlynnahven.com

FAQ's http://goo.gl/jy02u

• TEXT (if applicable) / PHONE CALL (only if landline phone)  –

Hello Chris – this is Chris Costner following up on my recent email on the availability of your 2007 Infiniti FX35 – still available?

These two subtle adjustments in our approach have increased contact dramatically.  Now its time to overcome the normal objections we all hear and close on the appointment.  This was the point with these leads I was looking for and didn’t get to it with normal, “Thank you for choosing…” approach used with other opportunities.  In addition, with my experience, bringing the client further down the sales funnel immediately.

I have had more contact, appointments set, shows and deliveries over the past two weeks than I have had since inception.  Will it work for you? 

Good Selling Everyone.

I have been running across articles and video over the past month or so that dealers now are “forced” to look at their service drive for vehicles because of the big shortage of used vehicles unable to be found from trade-ins or auctions.  My initial thought is if a dealer had a process in place for working current service customers, they may not be faced with the inventory problems they talk about.

A big concern of mine is that I have also ran across quotes of dealer personnel explaining once vehicles become easier to obtain, their plan is not to put as much effort into working the service drive.  Are you kidding me? A majority of the customers in the service department have already met you, liked you and purchased from you.  I cannot even try to imagine taking the service drive out of the “bag of opportunities” and sure hope other dealers wouldn’t either.  Also for those attached to the sales department that currently do not have a process in place for working the service department, it is time to get one going. 

A well thought out process for service will give you a better chance to recapture the customer or gain a new one.  Also reducing your selling and marketing expense, increasing your sales volume and increasing your preowned inventory. 

Keep in mind that we never want this approach to be overwhelming to any of our customers in service waiting on their vehicle.  One of the easiest ways to keep the relationship warm with those who have purchased from us already is to meet them in the service department whenever they are in.  Even if they purchased just six months ago, how hard is it to walk back and say hello, ask how things are going and even answer a question or two they might have? This will not only make it easier for you when you are ready to remarket on a future service visit but will also make a positive impact regarding loyalty further down the road.  Each “touch point” or “moment of truth” is key throughout the ownership period.

Many CRM systems will show the service appointments scheduled for the following day and the next few steps will require a little effort the night before but are well worth it:

• Print list of service appointments for the following day and make note of which customers purchased from your dealership and those who haven’t.
• Make note of which of those customer’s that did purchase from you still have their salesperson working for you.
• Purchase details from prior purchase are great to have.  Now if they purchased six months ago, working a new deal may not be the best idea.  Seasoned loans or leases can also show if any “cancelable products” are available to help make deal.  (F&I managers don’t worry, you will get another shot at selling more products.)
• Service appointments without a prior purchase from you should be treated the same as those you plan to present a new or newer vehicle to and work figures.

Now we have all the necessary information for each customer to get the right game plan together.  If the plan is to present a new or newer vehicle to them and work a deal I like to continue with the following the night before:

• EMAIL (if possible): Explain whom you are and that you understand they will be in for service the following day.  It isn’t bad to note that it is hard to find quality preowned vehicles and that theirs could be worth more than they think.  Continue to explain that rather than waiting in the service lounge for their vehicle work to be completed, you would like to show them a new or newer vehicle of their choice and present no-obligation figures to help pass the time.  Who can argue that?
• PHONE CALL:  Follow up after the email with a phone call to help reinforce the content sent and to help set the stage for the following day.

I believe this approach is more effective than doing an appraisal when the vehicle comes in and leaving a “we want to buy your vehicle” voucher on the dash for the customer to see when they are leaving. How many of them are going to cancel their next set of plans to spend even more time at the dealership to find out more information?  I would say not many of them.  Or even better, walking up to the customer sitting in service and hitting them up with what I stated above out of nowhere.  Get ready to hear “NO” more than ever I promise.  The biggest reason is that it is very “pitchy” delivered on the fly and nobody took the time to explain ahead of time catching them off guard.  Immediately putting the customer in a defensive frame of mind.  It is about the process, approach and delivery.

As we all know there will exceptions just as in anything else but having a solid process in place and sticking to it will result in better results.  Of course this isn’t the only way and I am sure many dealers out there have some great processes as well.  My reason for sharing is that I believe this variable should not be absent from our everyday business.

Good selling.

I doubt there will be any argument from anyone engaged in social platforms that they are finding themselves pursuing topics and posts of interests from others they know.  I find myself doing it numerous times a day on a very broad spectrum of topics.  Why do we do it? What compels us to click that link our friend or family member posted twenty minutes ago? The number one reason hands down that link was shared or liked is content and for dealerships today, this means we all need to work a lot harder to engage with their audiences with our social content.

I started thinking about social efforts or the lack thereof and cannot stress enough that there has to be a plan in place especially with the content we deliver.  Without one, I can promise the results will be wasted efforts and we all work too hard for that to happen. If we want our dealerships and brands to be more relevant in the social community, we need to deliver genuine content that will connect to our audience without coming across as too promotional or pushy.  If your content is right in your social platforms, it will definitely be more effective than any traditional website because of the peer interaction and word of mouth.  Please understand I am not saying social is the only medium we need to focus on, but for those in the game, this approach is key.  Always make an effort to deliver your content in a conversational manner, which will increase audience engagement from those who find interest in it.  If you find little engagement with your posts, they may be coming across as too promotional.  Without any conversation, you have nothing.  So don’t think just because you posted something to Facebook, Twitter or any other platform that it is reaching other’s interests. 

Here are a few ideas to help deliver the right content:

• Make sure your content is genuine and tells a real story.
• Know your target audience.
• Avoid being overly promotional.
• Don’t over complicate and keep it short. Quicker your audience can view and understand the better.
• Keep a conversational tone.

Remember that our dealerships and brands are best known with our social presence online.  It’s time to get real with our audience and stop wasting time posting arbitrary links and content that even we don’t care about.  How can we expect engagement from our audience if we could care less about the content we posted.  It’s time we stop making those “feel good” posts and get real.

That is my simple take on social content.  Would you suggest anything different?  I encourage anyone reading to share his or her thoughts.  I would like to hear if any others agree or disagree.

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. 

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. 

I do hope this posting finds you all closing out a great October and you are ready to move into November.  After all it is the first of the month right?

I consider myself a student of the process in this business and crave new knowledge daily to become better at what I do in which I can then help others become better as well.  At the end of each month, I like to take a mental snapshot of each department and look at what made them successful or what may have hindered their success and think of ways I can apply it to my department or leave out if need be.

Looking at our sales department over the past eleven months and how the BDC / Internet department has become a cornerstone to the success as whole, I enjoy seeing how the two departments keep the two-way communication going on a daily basis. 

It begins every morning in the managers meeting as we discuss the previous days appointments and outcome plus the current days appointments and what the game plan is for each.  This is key as now you have everyone on the same page and if you are a dealer that is having trouble getting the sales managers on your side, this will begin to change their thought process and will look towards the BDC / Internet department as a key to their success. It’s a relationship that needs to be developed but don’t waste time doing it because it has a huge impression on the client once they arrive for their appointment set by the BDC / Internet department.

By now I hope that dealerships with a BDC / Internet department have a good understanding of what is going on behind the scenes.  This staff spends a majority of their time of generating and cultivating the leads received online or by telephone and eventually turning them into an appointment.  Sometimes it happens the same day and other times it could play out over a series of weeks or months.  Nevertheless it takes time and effort to get the client standing in your showroom.   The first thing I would like to say is all managers should be aware of this client arriving before they get there as I discussed earlier about the morning managers meeting.  If the appointment is made after the fact, let’s get the correct sales manager up to speed prior to their arrival.   Now my question is:  What type of reception does the client receive upon arrival?

Once the client arrives, MAKE IT A BIG DEAL.  Why wouldn’t you?  I consider it an honor to be of service to anyone that chooses to stand in our showroom and is considering doing business with us.  It shows you played a great game the first half and now its time to keep it going through the second half and win the game or what we know as selling a vehicle.  Now your BDC / Internet member should be notified on the arrival of the appointment immediately. We have a BDC in one area of all of our showrooms with an appointment board so a staff member is always available right away. Whether it’s myself or another staff member, we always greet the client with a big smile and thank them for coming in.  At that point, offer them something to drink, sit them down and go get the sales manager that will be involved.

Now at this point we have the client, the BDC / Internet member and the sales manager that knows exactly what the client is looking for.  I like at this point for the sales manager to reset the stage with the client giving them the assurance that we are all on their side.  This can also be a time to take a few minutes to answer any urgent questions the client may have.  Now these few minutes that just went by upon the client arriving and what they encountered with the staff shows hands down that this dealership they are at is totally committed to their positive experience and understand what they are looking to accomplish.

Finally, right before the customer is paired with a sales consultant, the sales manager should make it known that they will be the one working all the details once the client finds the vehicle they like and have driven it.  It can be summed up in one little word track that can be similar to this:

“Mrs. Anderson, I want to first thank you for visiting us today and let you know that I will be the manager involved working out all the details on the vehicle you select.  Do me a favor, once you find the vehicle you like and drive it, I will be happy to get you all the special pricing, payments, interest rates and if you have a trade I will get you figures on that as well.  We don’t pressure anyone to buy and you will certainly see why we don’t have any competition. Fair enough?”

How many other dealers out there have similar processes as the one I have discussed?  Would like to hear your best practices on what you see working or doesn’t.  Here is to a HUGE November 2011 everyone.

Good Selling.