Many businesses struggle with confessing they need improvement. Why is that such a bad thing to admit? The truth is, it’s not bad at all.

Acknowledging there’s room for improvement is a skill not many possess. This is by no means a weakness; it is most certainly a strength in your repertoire. This skill allows your business to be one step ahead, so why not start looking at it in a way that will help you and your team in the long run? 

You know there’s room for improvement, now what?

Improvement isn’t always immediate and drastic, especially in the sales industry. The most difficult part is knowing where and how to make corrections. It can take ages for the untrained eye to spot opportunities, weaknesses, and threats in your business that demand attention. Luckily, this is where a trusted vendor partner can assist, focus, and address. 

At Phone Ninjas, we offer results-oriented certifications. This ensures your team receives the necessary framework for continued growth and success. It’s relevant and situation-specific, allowing us to focus on the areas that need the most work. Our coaches can pick out the most overlooked flaws, improving a team from the inside out. 

Active Coaching 

Active coaching is one way we accomplish this. Active Coaching is performed through monitoring, scoring, and reporting on actual customer interactions. This helps your team enhance specific skills in areas that are not scoring well. Ongoing coaching fosters continuous growth, with appointments set, appointments shown, and appointments sold, thus having a direct impact on your bottom line.

This form of coaching also drives the right kind of traffic to your showroom. If you’re selling apples, you don’t want people coming in who only want oranges. It doesn’t make sense for either party. Our method will help you gain the right audience without compromising the number of genuine opportunities. 

Motivation is Key

Admitting your team would benefit from ongoing coaching may seem daunting initially, but making this a positive experience is easy. It’s always the “right time” for improvement, and everyone knows it. That’s why we make the opportunities for personal development fun and exciting.

In addition to our active coaching, we also provide regular performance evaluations. These allow us to continue to help coach effectively but also supply a benchmark for how your team has improved and where. It’s a mutually beneficial process, but it becomes even more appealing with our Perfect Score Contest. It’s critical to reward excellence! 

This contest allows your team to have five opportunities each year to win a trip to Hawaii! This serves as an extra motivator for your team to improve and perform at their very best! Active coaching will deliver a superior customer experience on top of a better paycheck. A trip to Hawaii makes it fun as well as competitive! Much like admitting a need for improvement is a strength, motivation shouldn’t come from a place of distress. When transforming experiences into favorable memories is this easy it’s hard to say no!

In the world of car shopping, a common frustration has emerged among prospects: dealerships that can't be bothered to answer your questions but have no problem flooding your inbox with unwanted marketing emails. This scenario often feels like a slap in the face to customers who simply want straightforward information, only to be met with a barrage of automated responses.

Imagine this scenario: you're in the market for a new car and, after some research, you find a dealership with what seems like a good lease special. You decide to take the next step and inquire about the payments. Here's a snippet of the email exchange that follows:

---

Customer Email

Subject: Inquiry About Lease Pricing

Hi,

I'm interested in the lease special you have on the 2024 Sedan X. Could you please provide the details on the monthly payments, the total due upfront, and any other costs involved?

Thank you,

Mr. Customer

---

Two days pass, and instead of a response to the specific question, Mr. Customer receives this email:

Dealership Email

Subject: Exclusive Lease Specials Just for You!

Hi Mr. Customer,

Thank you for your interest in our lease specials! We have amazing deals on the 2024 Sedan X. Click here to see our latest offers and find the perfect car for you.

Best regards,

ABC Dealership

---

Feeling frustrated, Mr. Customer checks the inbox again later that day and finds another email from the dealership:

Dealership Email

Subject: Is there anythinh I can help you with?

Hi Mr. Customer,

Is there anythinh I can help you with? We're here to assist you with any questions or concerns you may have about our vehicles or offers.

Best regards,

John

Sales Consultant, ABC Dealership

---

It's clear from this exchange that the dealership's processes have gone on autopilot. Instead of addressing Mr. Customer's specific question about upfront dollars, they send a generic marketing email and a poorly spelled canned response asking if there's anything they can help with—ironically after failing to help with the initial inquiry which actually offered all the answers on how to sell this prospect.

This lack of personalized attention (or let’s call it what it is, lack of reading) and the overwhelming reliance on automated emails not only wastes the customer's time but also leaves them feeling undervalued and ignored. It’s a glaring example of how some dealerships have failed to manage their internal processes effectively.

For dealerships, the lesson here is simple: customers appreciate timely, accurate, and personalized responses. Ignoring their questions while bombarding them with generic marketing emails is a quick way to lose potential business. It's time to put the "customer" back in customer service and ensure every inquiry is met with the attention it deserves.

Removing the people from the equation is a horrible idea and there’s no such thing currently as AI that can do it. So, rather than alienate prospects, why not train your people to do that which you hired them to do, engage customers!

For customers, this experience serves as a reminder to be vigilant and proactive. Don't settle for automated responses. Follow up persistently until you get the information you need, and don't hesitate to take your business elsewhere if a dealership can't provide the basic courtesy of answering your questions.

In a competitive market, the dealerships that stand out will be the ones that prioritize genuine customer interactions over automated marketing. Until then, the frustration will continue for many would-be car buyers like Mr. Customer.

Scripts aren’t just important, they’re critical! And it’s not just the importance of scripts themselves but the strict adherence to them with ongoing inspection and confirmation of progress to their correct deployment.

A strong process sets you free, we all know that. It’s proven time and again in the military, business, and academia. Successful people follow a process in almost every aspect of their daily lives, whether they realize it or not.

Scripts go hand in hand with every strong process if you wish to enjoy ultimate success. Most rank-and-file teammates simply don’t know what to say, when to say it, or how to say it… This is where a strong process accompanied by situational scripts comes into play. But again, not just scripts themselves; ongoing checks and balances to ensure strict adherence to them, pointing out successes and coaching through fumbles. Without the ongoing aspect of the inspection, you leave much to chance.

This week I was involved in three different (yet similar) occurrences where a customer’s experience was compromised and revenue was lost. These are things that happen more often than not and can be easily remedied with a process, a script, and checks and balances…

Situation 1: Sitting at a bar waiting for a table during happy hour…

I’m sitting by myself at the bar waiting for the rest of my party and our table. I was early. Watching the bartender go from patron to patron solely focusing on those seated at the bar made me realize there was no process, no script, and no rhyme nor reason to anything. Some people were told about the happy hour specials, some weren’t. Some people received water, some didn’t. Some were handed menus, others weren’t. Some had place settings, others were given silverware and a few had nothing.

The bartender asked me if I was there for happy hour, and I said I wasn’t. That didn’t mean I wasn’t going to order something, it just meant I didn’t want something off the happy hour menu. Then, she leaves me and goes to the next patron to take his order and she stops him with a warning “That’s not on happy hour…” to which he responded, “Is it not available at all? I still want it!”

So, what is there to learn from this dining experience? The lack of ongoing training, the lack of inspection coaching, and the lack of a process with script cost them thousands daily. Imagine if everyone was greeted properly: “Welcome to ABC Restaurant, my name is Michele, and here are our happy hour specials which end at 7. I’ll be right back with water and to take your order…” WOW! Now you know her name, what’s included with the happy hour, when it ends and you have water en route!

Situation 2: Standing at the hostess stand waiting to be seated (a different restaurant)…

I’m waiting in line to be seated and the hostess is on the phone with a customer. She wasn’t given any training, any scripts, or any semblance of a process. All roads lead to her, phone, fax (yes, they had a fax up there), and walk-ins. I’m pretty sure she also handles the online appointments.

Here’s what I heard her say: “2 pm Saturday? Yeah, come on in, we’re here…” The person on the other end of the call clearly confirmed a reservation wasn’t necessary and she then said “Nope, we’re dead on Saturdays, come on up.” Now, the person on the other end of the phone triple-checked due to the size of the party and she then said “Yeah, we’re good for 10 people…”

Uh…

·      WHY WOULD YOU NOT MAKE A RESERVATION?

·      WHY WOULD YOU NOT GET CONTACT INFORMATION?

·      WHY WOULD YOU NOT CONFIRM THE RESERVATION?

·      WHY WOULD YOU NOT CONFIRM THEY KNOW WHERE YOU’RE LOCATED?

Personally, and the same for at least two other people in line based on the looks we were giving each other, we’d NOT eat there. I’m now worried there’s a reason they’re “dead on Saturdays…” Is it cleanliness? Quality? Staffing? All issues that would ruin the meals of 10 people, right?

So, how should this exchange have gone? “It’s a great day at ABC Restaurant, this is Jill, are you calling to make a reservation?” Then, after they said yes, she should confirm the party size, and the time and repeat it back to them, not “2 at 10” but “10 at 2.” “What name shall we place this reservation under and what’s a good contact number for you? Is it textable?” Repeat it back and then call the day of the reservation to confirm as it’s a big party. The fact they’re “dead” at that time is all the more reason to secure a party that size!

Situation 3: The Rolex as a corporate gift…

A really good friend of mine owns a company that gifts tenured teammates a brand-new Rolex. The average price of the ones they buy come to around $15,000. Essentially the price of a car. I was in his office as he was making calls to secure one and he was on speakerphone. The first two calls were appalling.

They went like this:

Jewelry Store: “Watches, this is Jim.”

Customer: Hi Jim, my name is Gary and I’d like to purchase a stainless-steel Rolex for an employee.

Jewelry Store: “We don’t have any…”

Customer: I didn’t think you would but perhaps you could take my name and number…

Jewelry Store: “We don’t have a timeframe…”

Customer: I can give you a deposit over the phone, I don’t care how long it takes…

Jewelry Store: “You’ll have to come in…”

Now, when I tell you both calls were the same, I mean they were equally as horrible. This is a $15,000 watch and he usually buys two each year based on his staff size and length of employment. That’s a nice client to have in your pipeline... Imagine if these guys presented him with options, pre-owned, another brand of equal value, a waiting list, etc etc. Nothing.

So, on the third call, he finally found someone that handled the call properly. It was the owner of the store and we left to go directly there and purchase it. Now, while he was there, he also purchased his wife a significant piece of jewelry and when she went in to pick it up from being sized, she purchased their son a Rolex as a graduation present and she purchased herself a new Rolex as well. So that one call not only turned into a customer for life but went from a $15,000 sale to $100,000 in sales in a matter of 3 days.

A good acid test is to ask yourself, what would the owner do in that situation… If he wouldn’t do what you just did, then perhaps you need scripts, a process, and ongoing adherence coaching.

Don’t just wonder how your team does when you’re not standing over them, find out for certain! Let us MYSTERY SHOP you on the phone and the web for free and report back our findings. Zero obligation, zero cost, and zero hard feelings 😊

When it comes down to it, your dealership’s success relies fully on your ability to close sales successfully. There are various ways to accomplish this, but inbound and outbound sales have become the buzzwords of car dealership sales. But which one should you use, and how do you make them work for you?

Inbound vs. Outbound Sales

To understand how to use each sales method properly, you need to understand what they are. Inbound sales are when a potential customer reaches out to your dealership about buying a car or using one of your services. These customers usually come from marketing campaigns and other targeted materials that you use. They can also come from referrals from other satisfied customers. Outbound sales occur when one of your agents reaches out to a potential or returning customer about making a purchase they have not yet expressed interest in.

Sales Strategies to Entice Customers

To have successful inbound sales, you need to get your dealership name out there so people know who you are and want to visit your dealership. Inbound sales rely heavily on personalizing the experience and helping the buyer feel like their needs and concerns are at the center of the entire experience. This requires your sales team to work closely with the marketing team to create a seamless experience. Your marketing team puts the promotions out there that draw people in, and then the sales team delivers on the promises. This starts with the phone call experience. Some people will show up at your dealership, but others prefer to make an appointment ahead of time. 

Your sales team should tailor the appointment to the customer’s needs by ensuring they understand what they are looking for and what stage of their buying process they’re in. If they are only looking for information and aren’t ready to buy yet, avoid pushing to close the sale. This will more likely alienate them than to get a sale.

Methods of Identifying New Prospects

Outbound sales for car dealerships differ slightly from outbound sales for other companies. Most people don’t need multiple cars, so you must adjust your efforts to match their needs. One of the most valuable ways of drawing in new prospects for sales at your dealership is by pulling from the list of people who have already bought a car from your dealership. While you have already converted them to a customer once, you want to keep them. You can use outbound sales tactics to book maintenance appointments for past sales. Having someone call to schedule the oil change for their car is much more convenient than having to schedule it themselves, which means that they are more likely to book with you, especially if they had a solid experience before. 

You can also target past customers who have had their car for a few years by offering them trade-in deals and letting them know about the exciting deals you have on your lot. Not only does this bring you the benefit of new sales, but it can also lead to you acquiring their trade-in car, which adds to the valuable inventory on your lot.

Which Way is Best?

In the end, both inbound and outbound sales are a valuable part of your sales strategy that allows your dealership to be successful. You need both. There isn’t just one way to sell cars; focusing only on one area of your dealership sales means you are ignoring a large part of the population you could be reaching. But that doesn’t mean that everyone should do everything. You may find some of your agents are much more successful at outbound sales than inbound sales or vice versa. When setting your strategy, evaluating the strengths at your disposal and placing your employees appropriately is important.

Inbound and outbound sales are both successful sales strategies you should be employing, but you need to make sure you keep your market in mind. You may prioritize one over the other at different points based on the type of business you are looking for and what people are receptive to. Keep your finger on the pulse of the car market and adjust your strategy as needed.

Want your agents to be more successful in setting appointments? Click here to learn about our phone skills coaching!

As a customer, there’s nothing worse than being ignored or getting a response to your inquiry that doesn’t answer any of your questions. Before the world of Covid, many dealers heavily focused on answering leads in a timely fashion. Heck, even most, if not all, of the OEMs had standards in place to ensure that all leads were answered within a certain time frame. Yet during the height of Covid, when supply and demand weren’t equalizing, some dealers just didn’t answer their leads. Or if they did answer leads, it certainly wasn’t within ten to fifteen minutes. In fact, it was actually noted in a study that dealers slid significantly in 2021 in both response time and actually responding to a customer inquiry.

So, what happened if we know that it’s important to respond to leads and answer the customers’ questions? Well, we can’t fix what didn’t happen, but we can fix how we’re going to respond to leads today. To start, one of the best things you can do is review your CRM workflows. When was the last time they were updated? If it takes you a minute to think about it, it’s time to give it a look. After you’ve completed a check-up on your CRM workflow, take a minute to review the automated emails. Are the signature lines complete? Do your automated emails still make sense? Do all of the social media links work? It sounds simple, but some dealers are still sending out automated responses regarding Covid-19 and store hours!

Once you tackle the core basics with your CRM, meeting with your BD agents and Sales Consultants is best. A quick refresher never hurts. Once you’ve gone over what best practices are for responding to leads, it’s important that they’re held accountable. To hold your teams accountable, you can simply use CRM reporting to check on response time. The other thing to review is the actual response. We can all easily stop the clock. But we’re not all sending out the best response to the lead. Let’s ensure we’re answering the customers’ questions and providing the next steps for the customer. The end goal is to build rapport with the customer to increase the chances of earning their business. But we can’t do that if we’re not responding to the leads or if the responses we’re sending out don’t answer the customers' questions - failing to provide the next steps.

If your teams are still struggling with word tracking or how to best respond to customers' questions and objections - we can help with that. Knowing what to say and when to say it can make or break the chances of your dealership earning that customer's business.

If you’re still on the fence, take a minute and submit a request for a FREE Stealth Test! Once we’ve completed your stealth test, we’ll be in touch with very detailed results. Here’s to getting back to the basics and ensuring we’re proactive instead of reactive. Let’s start 2023 off on the right foot. 

With the constantly shifting car market, it is more important than ever to focus on the things that will make your dealership successful and allow you to continue business as normal. While there are plenty of things that you can do to keep your inventory up to date, it is just as important to invest time and energy into making sure that your employees stay up to date as well. Ensure they’re getting the coaching they need to succeed and keep your dealership running smoothly.

What Does Coaching Do?

Many people use coaching and training interchangeably, but there is a difference between the two that you need to focus on with your team. Training focuses on teaching your team information that they need to do their job. This could be focused on the systems they use, what you sell, or other information they need to complete a sale successfully. Active coaching focuses on teaching them the skills they need to be successful in real-world situations. This is often led by the coach - someone with experience and the ability to teach that experience to other people. Coaching your employees prepares them to adapt and deal with the demands of their jobs without feeling overwhelmed or unsupported.

How Often Should You Coach Employees?

The frequency of your coaching will depend on your employees, their individual needs, and the challenges your dealership is facing. The most important thing is that your coaching should occur regularly. Even the most experienced employees need support from their supervisor and team, and providing them with that support is a great way to keep them from feeling burnt out at their job. For newer employees, it may be helpful to have coaching sessions a couple of times a week. More established employees should have coaching weekly, perhaps not the same frequency as new hires. It is also beneficial to schedule coaching sessions for the whole team at least once a year to brush up on skills and try out new things.

What are the Benefits of Coaching?

The biggest benefit of coaching is seeing your employees be more successful at their job, which contributes to your dealership's overall success. Engaged sales reps should be able to set appointments for your dealership 80% of the time, which can bring in a lot of business. Additionally, coaching allows you to work closely with your employees and get to know them, what they do well with, and what they struggle with. These insights into your team allow you to recognize achievements and provide growth opportunities. Coaching also helps your team feel supported and valued. This is incredibly important, as feeling appreciated at work is one of the best ways to reduce turnover. With the constantly shifting job market, it can be hard to find solid employees, so holding on to the ones that you already have is a great win for your dealership.

How to Evaluate Coaching Success

Coaching without an end goal won’t accomplish everything you need it to. When your employees are working with a coach, make sure they take the time to identify specific outcomes that this coaching should help them with and set benchmarks to evaluate this progress. For dealership agents, appointment setting is one of the biggest skills that coaches can help with. You should have stats on how they are doing before the coaching, which will allow for specific goals for improvement. Ensure you’re following up on these goals and providing additional coaching and training to give them the tools they need to succeed.

The importance of coaching your dealership employees, especially phone agents and sales reps, can’t be overstated. While you may be lucky enough to hire some natural salespeople, most of them will need at least a little support to reach their full potential. With coaching, you can easily get them there.

Do you need help with your coaching? Click here to see what we can do for you!

With the holidays in full swing and plenty of shopping happening, it’s important for your dealership to get in on the action to close out the year with a bang. Cars are a fairly popular Christmas gift, so it is up to your dealership to find a way to get the maximum value out of this time of year.

Get Involved in Charity

Nothing promotes goodwill and a better impression of your dealership than using your resources to give back to the community, especially during the holiday season. There are plenty of ways for you to get your dealership involved that don’t take much effort but make a huge difference. You can host a food drive for the local food bank, participate in a toy drive, sponsor needy families, or even pledge a percentage of your monthly profits to a local charity. Your dealership is likely in a central location that many people know, so you can set up collection boxes for multiple charities. This allows people to make all of their donations at once and helps the charities have a well-known location to direct people towards. While the aim of participating in these charities should always be to give back without conditions, having more foot traffic at your dealership can provide more opportunities for sales. Additionally, advertising your charitable partnership can build a lot of goodwill in the community that can get you on potential customers’ radars.

Run a Special Event

Everyone loves a sale, so now is the perfect time to have a holiday-themed event! In addition to the normal Black Friday sale, you can host a December sales event to draw people in. The winter holidays often give people an excuse to buy something they’ve been thinking about for a while, so you need to be at the top of the list for people buying a car for Christmas. It’s also a colder time of year for many people, and they may find themselves longing for heated seats and steering wheels or other bells and whistles that make the cold drive more bearable. Make sure to get the word out about your sale and make the shopping experience a memorable one for them as well. You can even designate specific days during the month when there are extra perks to draw more people in.

Host a Contest

Getting people onto your lot and test-driving your cars is a great way to get them closer to making the purchase (the feel of the wheel will seal your deal), and having a contest or sweepstakes can sweeten the deal for those who are on the fence. You don’t want to have everyone entering if they aren’t going to bring in business, so if you decide to host a contest, it would be wise to make a test drive or a conversation with a sales rep part of the entry requirements. You can even give them more entries for larger actions, like actually buying a car from your dealership. There are plenty of prizes you can offer that would attract people, including cash, free oil changes, discounted tires, or other services your community cares about. You can also give away gift baskets.

Increase Customer Service

Shopping during the holiday season can be fun but can also become very stressful, especially on busy weekends. The experience you provide at every touch point for your leads and customers can make a huge difference for them and can do quite a bit to portray your business in the best light possible. While they may have to deal with a few Scrooges, it’s important to stress having the highest possible customer service from your employees during this time. When customers feel valued and taken care of at every stage, they are more likely to purchase from you and return in the future.

All of these strategies can have a great impact on the number of December sales you can close. Make sure to choose the ones that fit the best with your dealership rather than trying to implement all of them at once. 

Want to work on your phone agents’ customer service skills? Click here to see how our active coaching can help you!

The telephone is your most reliable source of leads. Inbound phone calls allow dealerships to gather more detailed information about a customer's needs, resulting in higher conversion rates. Since six out of every ten inbound calls to the sales department have intent to purchase, it's crucial to optimize them to close more deals. 

However, despite the rise in phone leads, phone performance is not necessarily keeping up. Many businesses are struggling to convert inbound phone leads into sales, largely due to a lack of proper training and resources. The inbound sales call is one of the most important aspects of sales and one of the most difficult to master. The good news is there's a huge opportunity to improve.

Here are 5 mistakes that sales reps make on inbound sales calls and how to avoid them:

Making a Bad First Impression

Making a bad first impression on an inbound sales call can negatively affect a company. Sales reps should strive to create a positive customer experience by listening to the customer and avoiding being too pushy or aggressive. Unfortunately, sales reps often jump right into their pitch without taking the time to introduce themselves properly or build rapport. This can be off-putting to customers and turn them off from the conversation. Avoid pressuring the customer into making a purchase and instead focus on building a relationship and understanding the customer's needs. It's also important to be mindful of the customer's time.

Failing to Ask the Right Questions

Asking the right questions can help uncover a customer's needs and wants, allowing you to tailor a car and a deal that is right for them. It can also help to learn about any potential objections or hesitations they may have. It's important to ask questions to better understand what they are looking for in a car. 

Lacking Confidence

When making an inbound sales call, remain confident and stay positive. Try not to be intimidated by the customer's responses, but use them as an opportunity to build rapport and engage in a meaningful conversation. Being confident in your abilities and knowledge of the vehicle you're selling is key. An automotive phone training script will help you cover all your bases and appear confident. Remember that even if a call does not result in a sale, it can still be a valuable experience. Use the call as an opportunity to learn more about your customer, their needs, and the marketplace. It's also a chance to gain insight that you can use for future calls.

Giving Away too Much Information

While answering your customer's questions immediately may seem helpful, it’s better to wait and try to save any details for when they come in and see you. If a customer receives too much information from a dealership over the phone, it can make them feel overwhelmed and unmotivated to visit the dealership entirely.

Not Setting an Appointment  

A well-trained and engaged sales rep can drive a 60% appointment set rate, with 50% of appointments showing. Setting appointments allows you to get face time with your potential customers, build relationships, and eventually close a sale. Plus, your customer is less likely to pick up the phone and call another dealership if they already have an appointment scheduled. When setting the appointment time, focus on what’s most convenient for your customer. It's also a good idea to walk them through what to expect. The more you prep them, the more likely it is to be a successful appointment.

By avoiding these mistakes and investing in the right tools to maximize phone performance, sales reps can ensure that their inbound sales calls are productive and successful.

Want to improve how your dealership handles inbound phone calls? We have the coaching experience and tools you need!

Using video to engage sales prospects is an effective way to provide information and enhance the customer experience. By creating engaging and informative videos, car dealerships can showcase their inventory, highlight features and benefits of specific vehicles, and even offer virtual test drives. This can help car dealerships position themselves as a trusted source of information and a go-to destination for car buyers.

Let's explore some of the reasons why your dealership should use video communication along the customer journey.

Build a Personal Connection 

Video is a powerful tool for car dealerships looking to jump-start and maintain the customer relationship. By using video chat or recorded video messages, dealerships can provide a more personalized sales experience, answer customers' questions, and address their specific concerns. It also offers greater transparency and feels more inviting to potential buyers. This can build stronger relationships with customers and increase the likelihood of making a sale. 

Showcase the Vehicle

Another way to use video to engage sales prospects is to offer virtual test drives. Using video chat, the salesperson can take the consumer on a virtual tour of the vehicle, showing off its interior and exterior features and highlighting key performance capabilities. This can give potential customers a feel for the vehicle without having to visit the dealership in person. 

Dealerships can also engage sales prospects by creating short, informative videos highlighting the vehicles in the dealership's inventory. These videos can be shared on the dealership's website and social media channels and can be tailored to specific vehicles or target audience segments. For example, a dealership could create a video that showcases the safety features of a particular SUV model, and target it to families with young children.

Reach More Leads

Customers are turning towards online sales to access more car inventory and find the dealers they want to buy from. This is especially beneficial for smaller dealerships that may have previously struggled to compete with larger, more established competitors in their local market. With the ability to reach more customers online, dealerships can now target a wider audience and potentially increase their sales and revenue. Using video can help streamline the car buying process and make it more convenient for customers.

Confirm Their Appointment

Video is an effective way to confirm an appointment for a car dealership because it allows the customer to see and hear the confirmation directly from the salesperson. This personal touch helps build trust and establish a connection with the customer, making them more likely to follow through with the appointment.

Using video for appointment confirmation also allows for a quick and easy way for the customer to verify important details such as the appointment date, time, and location. This eliminates any confusion or miscommunication and ensures that the customer arrives at the dealership on time and prepared for their appointment.

Say Thank You

Dealerships can also use video messaging to say thank you after a successful sale and at any time. Customers and prospects alike want to feel valued and respected. A thoughtful video message can be easier and more cost-effective than sending snail mail. Keep in mind that you don't need a sale to express your appreciation. Holiday greetings, birthdays, and special promotions are good occasions to reach out with a short greeting and thoughtful message.

Overall, using video to engage sales prospects at a car dealership is a powerful way to provide information, enhance the customer experience, and drive sales. By creating engaging and informative videos, car dealerships can showcase their inventory, highlight key features and benefits, and offer valuable advice and tips to potential customers.

Phone Ninjas can help with video and phone sales techniques for your automotive dealership. Check out our Automotive Phone Training or Active Coaching Services and see how Phone Ninjas can help you!

Have you ever really thought about how you represent yourself? How about how your company represents itself? Branding your business is now more important than ever. With the explosion of social media, there are now more ways than ever to show off your company and what you stand for. If you haven’t developed a strategy to engage customers at every turn, you are missing out on new business and maybe losing existing business.

NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOUR MISSION STATEMENT

I have seen so many boring presentations from sellers and they all begin with a PowerPoint slide showing their company's mission statement. News Flash: nobody cares. Your potential client wants to know what you can do for them. They want to feel heard and they want to know how you are going to help them solve their problem. Ask them questions and let them tell you what they need. Consider your branding the best way to prove your value. Gimmicks aren’t going to do it.

WHO IS YOUR AUDIENCE?

Today’s consumer is savvy. They have already looked at your website, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. They know the specials you are running and have an idea of what you have to offer before you even speak. Make sure your marketing is making them want to speak with you and not chasing them away. Don’t use the same post across all social media platforms. Nothing makes me stop following a business faster than seeing the same post 5 times a day. Each platform carries a different mainstream audience. Figure out who that audience is to you, and make them want to engage.

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

The more educated you are, the more comfortable you become in a relationship. This is true for a professional relationship as well as personal. Keep your client educated. Are you offering a rewards program or have new incentives? That is great branding, but only effective if they know how to use it. Is there new product info that you need to share? Make sure that info is reaching your client. What do you do better than your competition? Knowing that answer is so important; it is how you turn a new sale into a long-term client. In the end, you need to be a problem solver. Keep reminding your clients of the value you have to offer and make sure your branding is always selling your value.