In sales and service, there are times you know a customer just isn’t going to buy. There’s no way. Sometimes you can tell by reading their body language, and others outright tell you they don’t plan to buy today. They might tell you they plan to buy a new car in three or four months, or they’ll perform that necessary service add-on during the next visit.

What happens? As commission-based sales professionals, those are leads that should be followed up on. More often than not, they’re swept under the rug and the service advisor or salesperson chases the next carrot they see, and that customer never buys.

I’ve done it myself on both sides of the coin: sales and service. In extremely rare instances, with customers that you’ve obviously connected with well, they return to you and request the sale. 99 percent of the time it’s a lead gone cold.

The cost is great, though – much greater than the single sale that isn’t made. That’s because it happens with most salespeople and service front-end staff, compounding the problem.

There’s Evidence!

I have another client in a dealer group that is on the verge of proving it. It’s all relative to website traffic and how follow-up call campaigns are performed.

The scenario is this: a dealership notices their sales numbers are slipping and renews a fervent push for their staff to make follow-up calls. That’s common practice in the automotive industry. There may by a spike in delivered units, but that’s not the metric that’s being watched.

Three to four months after the strong push for follow-up, online traffic reaches an all-time high. The reactionary follow-up campaign has had limited immediate success, but it certainly has an impact months later. Customers, especially repeat website visitors, can be reached to generate future sales also.

The numbers? Three months after, traffic is higher than ever. Four months after follow-up, website traffic is dropping up to 15 percent per week. That say a lot when you’re receiving hundreds or thousands of website visitors per say in an urban area.

What’s the Message?

You already know this. Follow-up is important. For dealership success and sales success for individuals, follow-up can’t be a campaign. That’s what my client is trying to prove to his management.

Reaching out to leads that aren’t ready to buy today isn’t annoying. Sure, it takes time to complete, but most salespeople have the time to invest in a few calls every day. Customers appreciate when a salesperson follows up to make sure you haven’t bought yet, let you know of a unit you might be interested in, and casually asking for referrals. It’s part of a relationship that started the first time the customer contacted YOU.

It’s not the easiest thing to train new habits into seasoned salespeople, but follow-up is one aspect they likely understand and see value in. For new hires, follow-up training should be done under supervision, helping them properly engage with previous leads and keeping the dealership at the front of their mind.

There’s no need to test the numbers. We all know the value in follow-up. Make it part of every day for every customer-facing team member in your store.