I love to talk, which is why, I suppose, I’m in this business.

I love talking about all of it. I’m always being asked 'which dealers are doing what' to increase sales and gross. I debate about which new makes and models will excel this year. I offer my ideas on how the new consumer-finance bureau czar will affect our business. I look forward to making phone calls to chat about Tom Brady or Tim Tebow…before getting to my point, how I might help a dealer improve his or her processes. 

All my talk can seem productive, but there are times….

….when I hear a whisper of that old proverb, “When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise.”

Why is that so hard to do, restrain the lips?

Why is this advice so hard to apply after we present the customer with our first price? Why is the urge to talk during this critical presentation so strong and soooo hard to resist?

How uncomfortable those seconds are. How much we hate that silence. How much we want to rescue ourselves from the emptiness of sound between us. We even want to offer the customer an out. “We can come off that, of course,” you nervously mutter to break the discomfort of silence.

Speak first and you lose. This principle is a first lesson learned in any art of negotiation class. We wrongly believe we are controlling the situation when we’re talking. We’re not; we’ve already lost control.

Keep quite. Let the leverage of silence work in your favor. Fight the urge to remind the customer how much they said they liked the vehicle, loved the color, and how affordable it was.

Even if the wife chats with the husband at this time, look elsewhere while biting your lip. Wait for the customer to break the silence. What they say then, if not yes, is the sticking point – and what you must overcome. This objection most likely is one your discussion on the lot, during the test drive or the negotiation failed to uncover and address – and pops up at this crucial point.

The tendency to keep talking right through this critical decisioning point plagues most green pea sales associates. Learn to be still, to understand that the more we talk we often talk ourselves into traps. At minimum, when we’re talking we’re not listening, and the only true way to serve our customer properly is to ask the right questions in the right way and then zip the lips and listen keenly. If your associates are plagued by the sin of too many words at the wrong times, consider a refresher course for them on sales and sales negotiation basics.

I love to talk, which is why, I suppose, I’m in this business.

I love talking about all of it. I’m always being asked 'which dealers are doing what' to increase sales and gross. I debate about which new makes and models will excel this year. I offer my ideas on how the new consumer-finance bureau czar will affect our business. I look forward to making phone calls to chat about Tom Brady or Tim Tebow…before getting to my point, how I might help a dealer improve his or her processes. 

All my talk can seem productive, but there are times….

….when I hear a whisper of that old proverb, “When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise.”

Why is that so hard to do, restrain the lips?

Why is this advice so hard to apply after we present the customer with our first price? Why is the urge to talk during this critical presentation so strong and soooo hard to resist?

How uncomfortable those seconds are. How much we hate that silence. How much we want to rescue ourselves from the emptiness of sound between us. We even want to offer the customer an out. “We can come off that, of course,” you nervously mutter to break the discomfort of silence.

Speak first and you lose. This principle is a first lesson learned in any art of negotiation class. We wrongly believe we are controlling the situation when we’re talking. We’re not; we’ve already lost control.

Keep quite. Let the leverage of silence work in your favor. Fight the urge to remind the customer how much they said they liked the vehicle, loved the color, and how affordable it was.

Even if the wife chats with the husband at this time, look elsewhere while biting your lip. Wait for the customer to break the silence. What they say then, if not yes, is the sticking point – and what you must overcome. This objection most likely is one your discussion on the lot, during the test drive or the negotiation failed to uncover and address – and pops up at this crucial point.

The tendency to keep talking right through this critical decisioning point plagues most green pea sales associates. Learn to be still, to understand that the more we talk we often talk ourselves into traps. At minimum, when we’re talking we’re not listening, and the only true way to serve our customer properly is to ask the right questions in the right way and then zip the lips and listen keenly. If your associates are plagued by the sin of too many words at the wrong times, consider a refresher course for them on sales and sales negotiation basics.

No doubt, things like bad breath can be a turn off. However, most of the time a customer walks without buying isn’t because of halitosis across the desk.

For sure, sales associates must attend to personal hygiene matters, dress appropriately for the market and clientele, and communicate in a respectful and gracious manner to everyone, especially customers.

So why then do customers leave without buying? Are the reasons they give to our sales staff for walking the real ones? It’s kinder to the ego to believe they left to check with a spouse or for other excuses than for the “Real Reason versus the False Excuse.”

While many believe the highest percentage of customers leave due to lack of time or that they need to speak with another decision maker, a recent study found that the real reason is that there was some problem in the sales process, commonly known as the “Road to the Sale”.

At 27%, Sales and Management Staff issues ranked as the highest single reason customers abandoned the sales process at dealerships. The Sales and Management Staff issues reported by the survey respondents broke down into the following top five reasons customers give for walking unsold:

1.Feeling disrespected

2.Sales person doesn’t know his or her product

3.Being handed off to another associate

4.Ignoring and therefore not recognizing the influence and power of the female partner in a buying duo

5.The TO becomes a confrontational and uncomfortable experience

By far, these types of fixable issues make up the single-largest group of reasons customers walk from the dealership sales process without buying. None of these reasons is unfixable. You can address them through training and by insisting managers hold staff accountable for following processes in place at the dealership.

According to the report by the Unsold Research Call Center, the top reasons customers walk (other than Sales and Management Issues) aren’t nearly as correctable or important:

1.    Shopping another vehicle – 21%

2.    Vehicle price – 12%

3.    Finance issues – 12%

4.    Inventory – 9%

Want to know more about improving sales, be-backs and decrease third-party leads, click for the report, “An Auto Dealer’s Guide to Outselling the Competition.”

No doubt, things like bad breath can be a turn off. However, most of the time a customer walks without buying isn’t because of halitosis across the desk.

For sure, sales associates must attend to personal hygiene matters, dress appropriately for the market and clientele, and communicate in a respectful and gracious manner to everyone, especially customers.

So why then do customers leave without buying? Are the reasons they give to our sales staff for walking the real ones? It’s kinder to the ego to believe they left to check with a spouse or for other excuses than for the “Real Reason versus the False Excuse.”

While many believe the highest percentage of customers leave due to lack of time or that they need to speak with another decision maker, a recent study found that the real reason is that there was some problem in the sales process, commonly known as the “Road to the Sale”.

At 27%, Sales and Management Staff issues ranked as the highest single reason customers abandoned the sales process at dealerships. The Sales and Management Staff issues reported by the survey respondents broke down into the following top five reasons customers give for walking unsold:

1.Feeling disrespected

2.Sales person doesn’t know his or her product

3.Being handed off to another associate

4.Ignoring and therefore not recognizing the influence and power of the female partner in a buying duo

5.The TO becomes a confrontational and uncomfortable experience

By far, these types of fixable issues make up the single-largest group of reasons customers walk from the dealership sales process without buying. None of these reasons is unfixable. You can address them through training and by insisting managers hold staff accountable for following processes in place at the dealership.

According to the report by the Unsold Research Call Center, the top reasons customers walk (other than Sales and Management Issues) aren’t nearly as correctable or important:

1.    Shopping another vehicle – 21%

2.    Vehicle price – 12%

3.    Finance issues – 12%

4.    Inventory – 9%

Want to know more about improving sales, be-backs and decrease third-party leads, click for the report, “An Auto Dealer’s Guide to Outselling the Competition.”

An in-depth report based on interviews with 250,000 customers of more than 250 dealerships tells us customers most often walk without buying because we wandered off or away from our Road to the Sale.

We’d like to believe customers’ excuses for not buying – “It’s not in my budget” or “I'll be back tonight with my wife" – but the facts say differently.

A report by an Unsold Research Call Center found that 27% of customers who left without buying did so for reasons within dealership management control. Ouch!

Here’s what real customers said about why they left a dealership without buying:

•           Rude and disrespectful treatment by sales personnel

•           Sales staff not being knowledgeable about product or

financing information

•           Appointments not kept by the proper sales staff member that customer was expecting to meet with

•           Condescending attitude and not working directly with or talking to a female when a male was present with her

•           Not being respectful of customers’ time by back and forth communication with sales desk manager

•           Manager who took a turn seen by the customer as rude or too pushy and lacking empathy

Without commitment to (and accountability for) following your Road to the Sale with every up, the entire sales process falls apart. How is yours? Here’s what research tells us are the most frequent missteps:

·         The product presentation

·         The demo drive

·         The service introduction and walk

·         The manager TO interview

Take detours on this road at your own risk. Want to know more about improving sales, be-backs and decreasing third-party leads, click for the report, “An Auto Dealer’s Guide to Outselling the Competition.” 

An in-depth report based on interviews with 250,000 customers of more than 250 dealerships tells us customers most often walk without buying because we wandered off or away from our Road to the Sale.

We’d like to believe customers’ excuses for not buying – “It’s not in my budget” or “I'll be back tonight with my wife" – but the facts say differently.

A report by an Unsold Research Call Center found that 27% of customers who left without buying did so for reasons within dealership management control. Ouch!

Here’s what real customers said about why they left a dealership without buying:

•           Rude and disrespectful treatment by sales personnel

•           Sales staff not being knowledgeable about product or

financing information

•           Appointments not kept by the proper sales staff member that customer was expecting to meet with

•           Condescending attitude and not working directly with or talking to a female when a male was present with her

•           Not being respectful of customers’ time by back and forth communication with sales desk manager

•           Manager who took a turn seen by the customer as rude or too pushy and lacking empathy

Without commitment to (and accountability for) following your Road to the Sale with every up, the entire sales process falls apart. How is yours? Here’s what research tells us are the most frequent missteps:

·         The product presentation

·         The demo drive

·         The service introduction and walk

·         The manager TO interview

Take detours on this road at your own risk. Want to know more about improving sales, be-backs and decreasing third-party leads, click for the report, “An Auto Dealer’s Guide to Outselling the Competition.” 

Industry stats show that 80% of your ups will walk without buying. Yet if you can re-contact them within 48 hours and address their real reasons for not buying, the evidence shows you’ll get 33% of them back into the store and convert approximately 67% of them into sales.

For many dealers, this extra effort to pursue shoppers who left, and convert them into be backs, can net you up to 50 or more additional units per month. In any economy, that’s great incremental business!

Here’s how you can enjoy this success at your dealership:

a) Determine to pursue every unsold. Build this objective into your sales plan and your pay plans.

b) Devise a process for ensuring this pursuit; here is where using a CRM to scan or enter contact information on every up is going to be a critical step. Without complete customer data in the CRM, it can be impossible to really measure and understand who was an up and who wasn’t – and what happened and why.

c) Establish that every unsold will be re-contacted within 48 hours or less of their leaving your store by a designated unsold follow-up specialist.

d) Determine who this pursuit specialist or specialists will be. The right individual or individuals need not necessarily be strong sales-types, but should have warm, engaging and curious communications styles that will enable them to disarm shopper reluctance to learn their real reasons for walking.

e) Depending on how the dealership is structured, this re-contact function may be more productive when outsourced to a vendor skilled in making the kind of delicate calls required to successfully interview these customers and get them back into the dealership.

Dedicated pursuit of unsolds may also produce valuable business insight that can help improve ongoing sales and marketing efforts.  Asking the right questions to these shoppers can give you invaluable information:

          i) What the advertising source was that brought the customer into the dealership?

          ii) Why the customer did not buy – what was their true objection or barrier?

          iii) Did the dealership sales representative and sales manager follow the correct steps in your      Road to the Sale process?

If you want to close more units per month without having to generate more ups, put in place and then practice a dedicated unsold follow up program. The resulting surge in retail sales that can result (up to 100% increase in sales to showroom traffic) will sure look good on the monthly sales board!

Industry stats show that 80% of your ups will walk without buying. Yet if you can re-contact them within 48 hours and address their real reasons for not buying, the evidence shows you’ll get 33% of them back into the store and convert approximately 67% of them into sales.

For many dealers, this extra effort to pursue shoppers who left, and convert them into be backs, can net you up to 50 or more additional units per month. In any economy, that’s great incremental business!

Here’s how you can enjoy this success at your dealership:

a) Determine to pursue every unsold. Build this objective into your sales plan and your pay plans.

b) Devise a process for ensuring this pursuit; here is where using a CRM to scan or enter contact information on every up is going to be a critical step. Without complete customer data in the CRM, it can be impossible to really measure and understand who was an up and who wasn’t – and what happened and why.

c) Establish that every unsold will be re-contacted within 48 hours or less of their leaving your store by a designated unsold follow-up specialist.

d) Determine who this pursuit specialist or specialists will be. The right individual or individuals need not necessarily be strong sales-types, but should have warm, engaging and curious communications styles that will enable them to disarm shopper reluctance to learn their real reasons for walking.

e) Depending on how the dealership is structured, this re-contact function may be more productive when outsourced to a vendor skilled in making the kind of delicate calls required to successfully interview these customers and get them back into the dealership.

Dedicated pursuit of unsolds may also produce valuable business insight that can help improve ongoing sales and marketing efforts.  Asking the right questions to these shoppers can give you invaluable information:

          i) What the advertising source was that brought the customer into the dealership?

          ii) Why the customer did not buy – what was their true objection or barrier?

          iii) Did the dealership sales representative and sales manager follow the correct steps in your      Road to the Sale process?

If you want to close more units per month without having to generate more ups, put in place and then practice a dedicated unsold follow up program. The resulting surge in retail sales that can result (up to 100% increase in sales to showroom traffic) will sure look good on the monthly sales board!