Cold calls are one of the toughest sales pitches in any business. They are fraught with unknowns, and employees have to be prepared to answer sharp questions and navigate interactions on the fly.

They’re also a solid part of any sales plan, and if your team is close to a monthly goal, they can be the difference between clearing the bar and falling short. But how can you make the most of these unpredictable opportunities?

It turns out the best answer is also a little counterintuitive: scripts! Even though you’re going in blind, all the sales fundamentals and best practices still apply. Armed with well-thought-out cold calling scripts for car sales, your employees will have a solid roadmap that keeps them moving efficiently toward closing and maximizes potential revenue opportunities.

WHAT DO I NEED TO INCLUDE?

Whether you’re leaving a message or answering impromptu questions about the most minute details of your inventory, the basic structure will follow predictable patterns that any associate can learn to follow. Every business is a little different, but all cold-calling scripts for car sales should use a branching outline that covers the basic scenarios your associates are likely to encounter. These include things like greetings, common questions, and guidance for turning pushback into productive conversations. 

And remember: anything can happen, and a cold call can end immediately or result in a same-day sale. Your team will need to be on top of their scripts and on their toes to convert these conversations to sales. 

MAKE AN INTRODUCTION

This may seem obvious, but it’s very easy to get off on the wrong foot—especially on a cold call. How your team handles these important details can impact the later phases of the experience, and getting it right can be the difference between a hot sale and an icy fail:

The Greeting: Salespeople should politely and concisely introduce themselves, the business, and (if applicable) their department.

Establish a Relationship: A great script will guide employees through making a connection, as well as support using the customer’s preferred title throughout the call. 

Hook your Lead: When you make your initial pitch, keep it short, informative, attractive, and benefit-based.

Listen and Take Notes: Even though you’ve never met, this call is all about the customer! You’re going to need to find out exactly what you can help them with, and that means careful listening and taking notes. 

Cold calling scripts for car sales give your sales team a clear, repeatable, and professional outline to deliver consistent messaging every time. Whether they’re leaving a voicemail or speaking to a live customer, they’ll hit everything essential without any distractions. 

TRANSITIONING TO CUSTOMER NEEDS

Once they get past this tricky initial phase, a sales associate can move on to the heart and soul of the call. They’ll need to find out what value they can offer as quickly and efficiently as possible. After all, time is money, and that goes double for the customer holding the credit card. 

Qualifying Questions

Once introductions are made, a great script will start guiding a sales associate through the discovery process. Because you called them, these questions are critical to contextualizing the call and presenting a customer with exciting opportunities they don’t know about. 

Crucially, make sure you don’t leave questions open-ended! Customers will need clear choices they can respond to with definite answers to feel comfortable, less pressured, and in control. 

Appointment Requests

When you’ve established they’re interested, it’s time to invite them into the showroom to explore. Cold calling scripts for car sales should offer prompts for firm times, dates, and contact information that are followed up with polite confirmation. 

Vague language that prompts responses like “maybe next week” or “if have time after work tomorrow” should be avoided, and if customers are non-committal it may mean they need time to think. A script should be prepared to support that choice, but it shouldn’t be shy about specifics. 80% of customers feel more comfortable with a business if they can schedule an appointment. 

Confirm and Close the Call

“Thanks for your time, and we’re really looking forward to seeing you!” may sound like a decent enough way to end the call, but without a few core features this friendly closing has the potential to evaporate your lead! 

Be sure your scripts touch on the following important details:

Let them know you’re about to confirm and invite them to get a pen and paper. A missed appointment can make them feel awkward, and it’s always worth making the appointment easier for them to keep.

Make sure they know the name of the salesperson they’ll be meeting at their visit—especially if it’s you!

Provide the address and customer-relevant directions to your dealership.

Confirm the appointment time, date, and location.

Promise a follow-up call to further confirm the appointment.

Thank the customer for their time.

Including these points in the closing of your cold calling scripts for car sales will give the customer everything they need. Attention to detail lets them know you care about their business and value their time. 

COACH YOUR EMPLOYEES

To make sure your cold calling scripts for car sales work as intended, your team will need training, feedback, and lots of practice. Ideally, this will include mystery shops, active coaching from dedicated auto phone sales professionals, and repeated contact over time. 

One excellent method professional phone sales trainers use to get a team comfortable is called the “Leapfrog Technique.” It builds familiarity with your script and gives them a dynamic understanding of how to use it. It’s ideal for cold-calling scenarios that can require pivoting at a moment’s notice. 

First, number every sentence. Then, have your employees practice it in the following ways:

Read each sentence in order.

Read just the even numbers…

…then the odd numbers…

…then in reverse order…

…then evens and odds in reverse order.

Now, they can make the script work in any order circumstances may require.

ASK FOR HELP WHEN YOU NEED IT

As you can see, writing and coaching cold calling scripts for car sales is involved and time-intensive. Sometimes it makes sense to bring in outside help from professionals who write these scripts for a living. 

At Phone Ninjas, writing phone scripts and training employees to use them is our bread and butter. We deliver hand-tailored scripts for your business (not recycled sales jargon by big-box sales generalists) from our team of automotive sales champs who bring over five decades of combined experience to the table.

Even better, we take care of all training, actively coach your people over time with weekly sessions, and use mystery shops to evaluate their skills in real-world scenarios.

Let us turbocharge the performance of your dealership with our cold-calling scripts for car sales. We’d love to chat and demonstrate how to set your cold-calling game on fire.