Outbound calls are a frequent activity at any dealership, but your teams are often met with a voicemail greeting rather than a customer. This can happen for many reasons and during any part of the sales cycle, but leaving a confusing or enthusiastic message is a surefire way to lose business. Like they would with other phone interactions, your sales team needs to come prepared using tight scripts that tell them what to say and how to say it.

We want to help your associates tackle tricky voicemail scenarios, so we’re sharing 3 of the best voicemails to leave for sales success. You can tailor these templates to suit your unique branding and style, using them as inspiration for your own messages.

Before we dive in, let’s talk about what these voicemails have in common. These traits are essential for ensuring any script is built to sell, but they’re especially crucial to consider in a voicemail.

5 ELEMENTS EVERY SALES VOICEMAIL SHOULD HAVE

Countless variables affect the quality of your team’s phone communication—their cadence, tone, and sense of urgency, for example—but these aren’t the stars of your voicemail. The following five factors separate “meh” messages from those that get quick callbacks:

1. Concision: When leaving a voicemail, sales agents should respect the listener’s time. They should also be mindful that customers are more likely to hang up on a recording than a human—unless the message grabs their attention right away. Your team should know what they will say before they say it. Rule of thumb: the best messages can be consistently delivered in just a few breaths.
2. Urgency: This doesn’t mean sounding like you’re running up a flight of stairs. It’s demonstrating time-bound value that requires the prospect to take action. “Please call me back” is a polite and useful closer, but a CTA like “Lock in your price now” before your signoff drives action.
3. Relevance: Your team is not calling for their own benefit. The customer showed interest or made an inquiry, and you’re here to help them simplify their experience. As sales guides, they are reaching out to respond to a customer’s needs. This makes the customer feel like they’re valued rather than being pressured into a sale.
4. Details: Sales agents should communicate who they are, who they work for, why they’re calling, and what they want the customer to do next. Every voicemail should contain this information. If you leave out any of these details, you’re giving the prospect reasons to not continue because they didn’t write your number down, or they’re unsure what the next step is.
5. Confidence: Confidence isn’t just how you sound on the phone, although a steady and relaxed voice doesn’t hurt. Showing your confidence through word choice is equally important, which is why scripts can help eliminate inconsistencies in vocal presentation.

These traits are shared by all the voicemails we’ll be reviewing, so look for them in the following section. The first voicemail we’ll examine should be a familiar one: The Introduction Voicemail.

THE INTRODUCTION VOICEMAIL

No matter what your product or service is, the first touch with a new customer is crucial. You’re setting the stage for every interaction you’ll have. In this scenario, we’re responding to an inbound lead, but we might not have all the customer details. Focus on what you do know, like the action the customer took to initiate your call, and stay consistent even when you don’t. Here’s a simple yet strong introduction voicemail that exudes professionalism and helpfulness:

Hello, [Customer Name], this is [Your First Name] from ABC Motors. I’m calling in response to your [contact form/phone call that expressed interest in a product], and I would love to schedule a convenient time for a visit so I can hear more about what you’re looking for. Please [Call/Text] me back at [Phone Number]. 

This is a tight voicemail that achieves three specific goals. First, we acknowledge the customer’s interest or connection with the brand: “I’m calling in response…” tells someone that you’re not just “calling for the fun of it.” Next, we immediately bring up scheduling an appointment. We keep it simple here; all we want to do is learn about the customer’s preferences, so it’s not a commitment to buy. Finally, we remind the customer of our contact information and let them know we’re here when they’re ready. 

THE LIMITED-TIME OFFER VOICEMAIL

The best voicemails to leave for sales often specialize in one of our five principles. This one aims to create a sense of urgency that goes beyond responding to a customer’s previous interest. It’s honest but time-bound, and it shows a genuine desire to help the customer out:

Hello, [Customer Name], this is [Your First Name] at ABC Motors. I have some exciting news about [the product the customer was interested in]. There’s currently a promotional discount, but it’s only available until [the end date of the offer]. I would love to schedule a visit to provide more details and lock in this offer before it’s gone. Please call me back at [Phone Number].

Just like the last voicemail, we’re tackling three key objectives: we say why we’re calling, why they should move fast, and what to do next. You don’t need to spill all the offer details; that might overwhelm them (and make for a long voicemail). Instead, you keep things vague so they’re curious about what’s in it for them.

THE CHECK-IN VOICEMAIL

The Check-In is your team’s chance to re-engage with customers who have interacted with your dealership in the past whether they made a purchase or not. These could even be customers who shopped for parts at your business but didn’t purchase a vehicle. Here’s a simple yet super-effective check-in voicemail script:

Hello, [Customer Name], this is [Your First Name] from ABC Motors. I’m reaching out to hear how the [part/vehicle/search for a vehicle] is treating you. We recently [launched promotional discounts/got a new model in stock/began a new maintenance program], so I’d love to schedule a convenient visit to [check up on your vehicle/part/learn about your search]. Feel free to call me back anytime at [Phone Number].

Once again, we’re cultivating urgency, providing clear next steps, and stating the reason for our call. All five features we discussed are here, ensuring customers feel cared for but not pressured into calling us back.

PHONE COACHING FOR VOICEMAILS

Even equipped with three of the best voicemails to leave for sales success, your team will consistently run into situations they don’t feel prepared for. That’s why Phone Ninjas’ active coaching methodology combines engaging, focused scripts with real-world scenarios. We don’t constrain learning to classrooms or conferences; instead, we tailor individual growth plans for each of your sales agents in bite-sized sessions week after week.

Don’t drive business away with inconsistent messages. Start leaving voicemails that sell with Phone Ninjas. Reach out now to learn how to receive two free mystery shops for your online and phone sales channels.

Why you need Quality Assurance Training…

When you want to improve the quality of your phone calls, it can be challenging to know where to start. Even if you have standardized procedures and phone scripts, every phone agent operates a little differently. To improve outcomes, you need to know how to use quality assurance training and what some of the outcomes you should be looking for are.

What is Quality Assurance Training?

Quality assurance training focuses on making sure that your phone agents are having successful phone calls with customers and potential customers. Depending on the type of phone call they are conducting, this means that they should be able to resolve any concerns, answer questions, and set appointments with the people to whom they are talking. It can also focus on phone skills, conflict resolution, or any other important metrics to you and your dealership. Quality assurance training is most effective when the employees are not aware that the phone call they are currently on will be used to evaluate them and provide the basis for training. This can give you a clearer picture of what their usual phone calls contain.

How to Conduct the Training

To conduct quality assurance training, you need to start by establishing benchmarks and metrics that employees need to hit to be considered successful. The more clearly defined you can make these metrics, the better because these provide the basis for evaluation and training. Once you know what you are looking for, you should select random phone calls to record and evaluate each phone agent. These phone calls should be evaluated against the established criteria, and feedback should be noted immediately. This immediate feedback can serve as the basis for training if the phone agent doesn’t pass the evaluation, or it can be used to provide feedback and praise to phone agents that do pass. Once you have gathered the data about your phone agents, it can be used in two different ways for training. First, this information should be used to evaluate the success of each phone agent individually and provide them with steps they can take to improve their performance. It can identify areas of weakness before they cause too many problems. Second, this data, in aggregate, can help you see how your dealership is performing and what patterns are emerging. This should inform your overall training and where you should focus your efforts for improvement.

Increased Appointments

Appointments are one of the best ways to bring in new sales. People who show up to look at vehicles without an appointment can be converted into a sale, but if you know someone is showing up intending to buy a car during their appointment, you have a greater chance of success. And with so many dealerships competing for a limited pool of customers, you need everything you can get on your side. This is why ensuring your phone agents are successfully setting appointments is crucial. If you are effectively using your quality assurance evaluations and training to focus on this, you should see an increase in both appointments set and appointments that show up. 

Decreased Escalation

One of the biggest things that lead to conflict over the phone and phone calls that need to be escalated is ineffective phone agents. Customers often get frustrated when they feel like they aren’t being listened to, when no one can answer their questions, or if they are left on hold for longer periods. These issues can be reduced if phone agents are trained properly in more than setting appointments. Quality assurance evaluation and training can help you pinpoint what is frustrating customers and require phone agents to escalate a call to the next level. While you won’t be able to avoid all need for escalation, reducing the number of calls with frustrated customers is important for your reputation and overall customer satisfaction.

When used effectively, quality assurance training is one of the best tools that you have to help your phone agents be successful at their jobs and to keep your dealership running smoothly. Setting clear metrics and understanding what success looks like is key to getting the results you want.

Do you need some extra assistance with your training? Check out how our active coaching can help!

Many dealerships have started using a Business Development Center or BDC to bring in new business and to increase the effectiveness of the appointments that their sales agents have. If you have never used a BDC before, you may not see why it is important or if you have worked with an ineffective one, it might be frustrating to think about dealing with that. Luckily there are some things you can do with training to make your BDC a profit center for your dealership.

What is An Automotive BDC?

Your BDC is the center of all of your phone business operations. Your agents who work in the BDC have two primary responsibilities. They are responsible for making outbound phone calls to bring in new opportunities. They also manage the inbound calls from these opportunities to set appointments for the sales agents that work the front of the store. Because these sales agents specialize in phone conversations, they are better equipped to deal with the challenges that come up on phone calls, and you can always be sure that there is someone to take the phone calls that come in. Specialized customer service that starts from the first call is important for setting your opportunities up to eventually become a sale.

How to Set Up Your BDC

Because the agents who work in the BDC are in charge of setting appointments and finding opportunities, rather than selling cars, you want to focus on hiring different people than you would for car sales. Car sales agents are great at what they do, but that doesn’t always translate well to the BDC. You want to focus on finding people who are skilled communicators on the phone and who specialize in setting appointments. You should also make sure that the compensation is properly set to incentivize your BDC employees. This will need to be different from the compensation you use for your sales agents because the outcomes are different. The focus is on setting appointments and creating successful early touches, so the metrics for your BDC agents need to match this.

How to Train Your Agents

Once you have the BDC agents hired and you are ready to start running, you need to make sure that your agents have been empowered to be successful in the work that you are giving them. Over 60% of service advisors fail to ask the customer for an appointment, so phone training via active coaching is crucial. If your agents haven’t been properly trained, your BDC could actually end up costing you more than it brings in. The point of a BDC is to develop your business even further and to bring in more business than your current lead generation methods. In order to do this, the first thing you should do is make sure that you focus on standardizing your procedures and training each BDC agent in these procedures in an ongoing manner. Phone Ninjas specializes in certifying and coaching phone agents to set more appointments and to be more effective when interacting with prospects to get them to actually show up to the appointments. This ongoing training is invaluable for seeing success grow with your dealership.

Following Up on Training

Once you have finished the initial certification and your BDC agents are starting to successfully bring in new leads, you need to make sure you follow up on the training that you have been providing to make sure it is effective. Your BDC agents should be regularly evaluated against the key metrics that you set, both in terms of the quality of their phone conversations and the success they have in setting appointments. One of the best ways to follow up on the training that you have provided them with is to give them the resources they need to properly apply this training. Tools like phone scripts are useful for keeping BDC agents on track and making sure they aren’t missing the important steps that make their appointment setting more effective. Not only should you be looking at how many appointments they are setting, but you also need to see what percentage of those appointments actually show up. Regular evaluations give you an opportunity to provide feedback and catch problems early on.

In order to make sure that your BDC is a profit center, it is important to make sure that your BDC is properly set up and that you have provided the agents with the proper training. These first touches are crucial to setting expectations and bringing in leads that you would otherwise miss.

Are you trying to help your phone agents improve the quality of their calls? Click here to see some of our great resources!

One of the most important things that you need to focus on with your phone agents is making sure that they are performing up to expectations and that their phone conversations are effective. Effective calls lead to more sales, which means greater success for your dealership. One of the best ways to evaluate the success rate of these phone calls is by using call scoring.

What is Call Scoring

Call scoring is a popular way of evaluating the success of phone agents by evaluating their performance on calls. For this evaluation to be successful, the calls that you are scoring need to be recent calls that actually happened. The calls evaluated are recorded and compared against a predetermined set of metrics and key performance indicators.

How to Properly Score Calls

When preparing to score calls for your agents, it is important to set up the right environment and choose the right calls to score. It is important to use recent calls and to review them with the employee as quickly as possible afterward. It is also much more useful to score calls that actually happen with customers rather than role-play calls. Using old calls means you won’t get an accurate picture of how your sales agents are performing right now, and using simulated calls instead of real calls drops the stakes and changes the environment. 

Once you have the recorded calls, you can compare them to the metrics and KPIs that you decided on ahead of time. Make sure you assign a numerical value to each metric so you can create an aggregate score. You should also include comments about why you gave the specific score that you did so that you can give specific feedback to the employee about what did and didn’t go well.

How to Use the Scores

Once you have the scores, you can use them to focus your training efforts, both collectively and individually. You should take some time to look for any patterns in the scores for your phone agents. You should be able to identify, from the scores, what the strengths and weaknesses are for the group and for individual contributors. You should schedule review meetings to go over the results with each employee. While it may take a decent amount of time, the sooner you can review the results with the individual sales agents, the better it will be. If the phone call is fresh in their mind, they can provide context for their decisions, which will help you provide the right training to help them improve. Scores over time can also help you track progress and see whom you should promote and who might eventually need to be removed from the phones.

If a majority of the team shows a below-average score in specific areas, this shows a gap in their training that you need to address. If you work with an outside agency like Phone Ninjas to conduct your call scoring, they can also provide resources to help you actively coach and train your employees. Ongoing coaching is the most effective means of driving results as it will allow the phone agents to make the changes that they need to in order to be more successful and to do so in an ongoing manner.

Other Methods to Consider

While call scoring is an effective way to get a view of how your team is performing, it shouldn’t be the only method of training and evaluation that you use with your team. Regular skills and team training are an important part of development, with Active Coaching being the best and most effective. You can also employ phone scripts to give your team more tools to make their sales calls successfully. When it comes to one-on-one training, this has been proven an effective way to help newer or inexperienced employees develop the skills that they need in order to be successful. Having them work with a coach helps them see how they can implement the things which are being taught and what’s expected of them.

Nothing happens overnight, but it won’t take forever, either. Call scoring is one of the most effective ways of evaluating the performance of your sales agents. It also provides you with the insight you need to make sure that your training is properly focused and effective. Make sure to implement it regularly to keep your eye on the bigger picture.

Do you need help training your agents? Click here to learn more about our active coaching!

It’s a check and balance, something that we do on a regular and ongoing basis with our athletes, whether they’re just starting out in T-ball or all the way up to our professionals. A coach is there to lead players through drills and game-time scenarios. Athletes practice regularly to maintain their already honed skills and work on improving skills that may need some work. With that being said, why wouldn’t we want to maintain that same expectation of excellence in the other aspects of our lives? Let’s be honest; there’s only a small percentage of athletes that will continue to perform on an athletic field for their entire career. Most of us will choose another path to spend our time committed to that pays the bills. But that doesn’t change the fact that each position we hold has a required set of skills that may not always come naturally to us. So, PRACTICE and having a COACH are imperative to continued success in our respective fields. 

When starting out in any position, we need to have a basic understanding of what the job is and what is expected of us. Then we pick up processes here and there that help round out our duties as a whole. We may have a review here or there with a manager about our performance, or we may not. But we will never improve our performance if no one points out where we can strengthen our game or fill in any gaps. Active coaching in any position will assist an associate on many levels. Some of the most important “coaching” can be done by making sure that the company’s set processes are being followed, and if they aren’t, we have an opportunity to take corrective action. In an industry that deals with customer service, every customer interaction is different. We need practice with different scenarios and the ability to review scenarios to improve (drills and game day reps). Why not review a scenario that we experienced firsthand?

Just like shooting free throws in basketball practice or kicking field goals in football, we need to feel the right things physically, but we also need a coach to see things from a perspective we cannot see alone. We can take a step back and review our performance, listen to the coach, self asses for future situations and focus on consistent performance of the right moves. Daily reps and performance assessments are a great way, and really the only way, to continuous improvement in any skill set. Bringing that philosophy into the workplace means we ARE going places. Get the entire team on the same skill level, and improve daily, and our business is on FIRE (in a great way). 

Really the only way to be excellent is by getting active coaching on our primary skill set regularly. And the old saying really does still ring true “practice makes perfect.”

When you work in customer service for a dealership, one of the goals you may have is to set appointments for people to come and test drive new cars. If you are new to the dealership, this may seem like a waste of time, especially if there are people walking in to buy a car regularly without an appointment. However, appointment setting is one of the most valuable ways you can contribute to the dealership’s bottom line.

WHY SET APPOINTMENTS?

Even if your dealership gets a lot of walk-in traffic, appointments are an incredibly valuable way to make sure a sale occurs. People who walk in off the street are often window shopping. They may have an idea of what they are looking for, but they may not be ready to buy yet. If they test drive a couple of cars and decide to make a purchase somewhere else, then the salesperson has wasted their time. On the other hand, someone who calls to set an appointment is more serious about their intentions to buy a car from your dealership. Setting the appointment allows you and the sales team to prepare for them. Think of setting an appointment as a pre-closing deal. You are one of their first contacts, and the experience you give them can be a deciding factor in whether or not they actually end up buying a car from you.

COLLECT THE INFORMATION

One of the big benefits of setting an appointment with a customer is that it allows the sales team to prepare for them and make sure they place the right cars in front of them. As part of your phone call, you can gather important information, such as their budget, what kind of car they are looking for, features they want, and even colors. Many people do their own research ahead of time and come with cars that they want to test drive, but having this information can help your team place other cars in front of them that they have missed. Being treated as a valued customer is a great way to make the right impression in order to close the sale.

CLOSE THE DEAL

While you may not make the final sale on the phone, you can prime them to close the deal with every part of your interaction. Using the phone script will help you cover all your bases and appear confident. Make sure you answer all of their questions thoroughly and that your questions are more open-ended, rather than simple yes and no questions. All of these things will give the potential customer more confidence. When setting the appointment time, focus on what works best and is most convenient for your customer. Working on their time makes it more likely that they will actually show up to their appointment. It is also a good idea to walk them through what to expect in terms of reminders and at their actual appointment. The more you prep them, the more likely it is to be a successful appointment.

TRACK METRICS

In order to make sure your phone calls are as effective as they can be in setting appointments, it is important to track the right metrics. The ratio of phone calls to appointments set and the ratio of appointments set to appointments that actually happen are both important measures to make sure that everything is working properly. If there aren’t a lot of appointments being set or if a large number of the set appointments don’t actually happen, it points to an issue with how the phone calls are going. This could require more training or an adjustment to the phone scripts that are being used. These metrics can also be used to identify the top performers. For your top performers, analyze what they do that works and see if you can implement that with the rest of your team.

Appointment setting is one of the most powerful pre-sales tools in your arsenal for selling cars. With the proper training, these phone calls can set the sales team and customer up for a successful visit and leave a great impression. Focus your efforts on making sure you are optimizing your phone calls.

To effectively scale up your business you need to focus on the big picture; not get bogged down in the day-to-day minutiae of staffing and scheduling management. What does it mean to ‘scale’ up your business though? In short: maximizing your growth while minimizing your efforts or in other terms, maximizing revenue by minimizing expenses – read on to see how a virtual outsourced Sales/Support team can help scale your business.

1. Increased Talent Diversity – Utilizing a remote workforce grants you access to the best candidates to fill your needs, not just the best in your local area. Having available staff in varying time zones allows you to provide 24/7 phone responses to your customers without having to physically man your location.
2. Customer Service – Consistency is key to good customer service. A virtual/outsourced Sales/Support team that utilizes proven scripting provides just that. Consistent customer service increases customer retention and solidifies your business’ reputation.
3. Company Image – The person on the phone is often the ‘face’ of the company. Automated reception systems still have their place; as a backup, but many consumers find them impersonal and frustrating to navigate. By working with a virtual/outsourced Sales/Support team you can set your business apart from the pack by always having live agents available to answer and direct calls.
4. Increased Productivity – Recent studies have shown that despite conventional thought; remote workers are more productive than their on-site counterparts. Unburdened by the distractions of the constant ‘hum’ of the office happening behind them; remote staff is better able to focus on and process the call in front of them. A virtual/outsourced team is able to distribute many accounts’ calls across team members ensuring consistent service during both low and high-volume times; without the waste of extra hands on-site ‘just in case it gets busy’.
5. Reduced Overhead – Partnering with a virtual/outsourced Sales/Support team can save you exponentially on your overhead expenses while helping you increase your revenue. Eliminating the need for dedicated office space; furniture; equipment; supplies; etc. Reducing overall payroll expenses; the cost per month of the average service package is far less than the payroll for the average staff. This also alleviates a number of HR concerns: training; scheduling issues; sick days; vacation time – coverage of staffing holes etc.