They are tired of doing so much work.

After 250+ mystery shops I think I can safely speak for the group when I say that my mystery shoppers are exhausted.  Their eyes hurt and their heads ache.

And all just because they try to launch buyer/seller relationships with car dealers.

If you’ve ever tried researching and selecting a new car or truck online you know that it’s not as easy as one might think.  A typical outing starts with a Google search the leads you down a labyrinthine path through dozens of sites and pages.   Eventually you reach a vehicle (or a retailer, or both) and are given the opportunity to type in your name and contact info with the promise of getting something of value in return. You comply; hit “Submit” or “Get Your Free Internet Price Quote” or “Make An Offer” or “Get More Information” or whatever, then sit back and wait to see what happens.

We think this is the end of the hard part.  But it's not.

The first response emails that land in my eager mystery shoppers’ Inboxes can range from a few lines of painfully pecked-out plain black & white text to big, bulky HTML pages that scroll on forever and contain so much info they can’t be read on a smart phone screen.   

Big or small, HTML or text; the emails are usually difficult to read, and often amateurish in appearance and execution. Rarely does my shopper get a first quality response (FQR) email that is concise, informative, attractive and professional-looking. Why is this?  Why do we make our customers work so hard for the information they request?

If you are online and send a request to Home Depot, L.L. Bean, Target, Amazon, Cabela’s, J.C. Penney or any one of hundreds of other retailers the email you get in reply is likely to be clean, understandable and pleasing to the eye. Even if the item you inquired about only cost $2.99.  Do the same at a car dealership and the email you get in reply is likely to be fugly – and the product you inquired about this time probably cost $29,999.  Or more.

Of course, the difference here is that Home Depot, L.L. Bean, Target, Amazon, Cabela’s, and J.C. Penney are big, national retailers with big national media departments. And your dealership is just one little bitty local store.  Agreed.  But the thing is, in this amazing new world of Internet communications, a world in which all the word and image creation and delivery tools one could ever need are attainable somewhere for cheap to free, the hard cost to produce concise, informative and attractive FQR emails and the cost to produce amateurish and hard to read emails is exactly the same.  

It’s not a money thing any longer.  It's a people thing.

The future belongs to the communicators.

###

http://www.ordiway.com/BestPracticesBlog.html

They are tired of doing so much work.

After 250+ mystery shops I think I can safely speak for the group when I say that my mystery shoppers are exhausted.  Their eyes hurt and their heads ache.

And all just because they try to launch buyer/seller relationships with car dealers.

If you’ve ever tried researching and selecting a new car or truck online you know that it’s not as easy as one might think.  A typical outing starts with a Google search the leads you down a labyrinthine path through dozens of sites and pages.   Eventually you reach a vehicle (or a retailer, or both) and are given the opportunity to type in your name and contact info with the promise of getting something of value in return. You comply; hit “Submit” or “Get Your Free Internet Price Quote” or “Make An Offer” or “Get More Information” or whatever, then sit back and wait to see what happens.

We think this is the end of the hard part.  But it's not.

The first response emails that land in my eager mystery shoppers’ Inboxes can range from a few lines of painfully pecked-out plain black & white text to big, bulky HTML pages that scroll on forever and contain so much info they can’t be read on a smart phone screen.   

Big or small, HTML or text; the emails are usually difficult to read, and often amateurish in appearance and execution. Rarely does my shopper get a first quality response (FQR) email that is concise, informative, attractive and professional-looking. Why is this?  Why do we make our customers work so hard for the information they request?

If you are online and send a request to Home Depot, L.L. Bean, Target, Amazon, Cabela’s, J.C. Penney or any one of hundreds of other retailers the email you get in reply is likely to be clean, understandable and pleasing to the eye. Even if the item you inquired about only cost $2.99.  Do the same at a car dealership and the email you get in reply is likely to be fugly – and the product you inquired about this time probably cost $29,999.  Or more.

Of course, the difference here is that Home Depot, L.L. Bean, Target, Amazon, Cabela’s, and J.C. Penney are big, national retailers with big national media departments. And your dealership is just one little bitty local store.  Agreed.  But the thing is, in this amazing new world of Internet communications, a world in which all the word and image creation and delivery tools one could ever need are attainable somewhere for cheap to free, the hard cost to produce concise, informative and attractive FQR emails and the cost to produce amateurish and hard to read emails is exactly the same.  

It’s not a money thing any longer.  It's a people thing.

The future belongs to the communicators.

###

http://www.ordiway.com/BestPracticesBlog.html

Imagine that you run a restaurant.  

Out in the dining room it’s nothing but surprises: you open each day with no idea how many people are going to come through the doors, what they are going to order, whether you have too much or too little staff or food on hand, etc. etc. etc.  Anything goes, and that’s what makes it fun.

But back in the kitchen there must be order and process: if the kitchen is not systematically organized and operated the dishes will not make it out to the dining room on time (if at all) and the restaurant will crash. 

The dining room makes money out of chaos, the kitchen makes money out of order.

I think the dining room is analogous to a dealership’s sales floor.   And Internet-based car sales is the kitchen.  An Internet department (whether it is standalone, integrated, BDC, or whatever) requires process, method and consistency in order to supply the dining room (new and used car sales departments) with qualified customers.

One of the most difficult things I have to do is tell DPs, GMs, and SMs that, if they want to establish a bona fide Internet-based sales program for their store, they must first 1). Make the commitment to embrace system and process, 2). Put these systems and processes into place, and then (and this is the really difficult part) 3). Leave them alone!  

I tell them, “Do NOT, under any circumstances, change the plan, rip out the process, restructure the department, gut the program or otherwise re-org in any way for a minimum of 90 days.”  For many guys this part is the hardest because it runs so contrary to their nature and store culture.  But experience has taught me time and time again that it is absolutely essential if their freshman Internet-based sales effort is to take root and grow.

Which is why it is so gratifying when we see a store actually make a plan, stick to the plan, and succeed with the plan.  I have one in my Region right now that, with great difficulty, resisted the urge to upset the apple carts during the critical first 90 days. They committed to change, launched the program and steadfastly stuck to it.  Today, less than 180 days into this noble experiment, their average lead response time is well under 30 minutes, their closing ratio is already up 1.1%, and their share of eLead RDRs (leads to this store closed by this store vs lost to a rival area Ford dealer) has jumped 15%.

I love happy endings.  :-D

Imagine that you run a restaurant.  

Out in the dining room it’s nothing but surprises: you open each day with no idea how many people are going to come through the doors, what they are going to order, whether you have too much or too little staff or food on hand, etc. etc. etc.  Anything goes, and that’s what makes it fun.

But back in the kitchen there must be order and process: if the kitchen is not systematically organized and operated the dishes will not make it out to the dining room on time (if at all) and the restaurant will crash. 

The dining room makes money out of chaos, the kitchen makes money out of order.

I think the dining room is analogous to a dealership’s sales floor.   And Internet-based car sales is the kitchen.  An Internet department (whether it is standalone, integrated, BDC, or whatever) requires process, method and consistency in order to supply the dining room (new and used car sales departments) with qualified customers.

One of the most difficult things I have to do is tell DPs, GMs, and SMs that, if they want to establish a bona fide Internet-based sales program for their store, they must first 1). Make the commitment to embrace system and process, 2). Put these systems and processes into place, and then (and this is the really difficult part) 3). Leave them alone!  

I tell them, “Do NOT, under any circumstances, change the plan, rip out the process, restructure the department, gut the program or otherwise re-org in any way for a minimum of 90 days.”  For many guys this part is the hardest because it runs so contrary to their nature and store culture.  But experience has taught me time and time again that it is absolutely essential if their freshman Internet-based sales effort is to take root and grow.

Which is why it is so gratifying when we see a store actually make a plan, stick to the plan, and succeed with the plan.  I have one in my Region right now that, with great difficulty, resisted the urge to upset the apple carts during the critical first 90 days. They committed to change, launched the program and steadfastly stuck to it.  Today, less than 180 days into this noble experiment, their average lead response time is well under 30 minutes, their closing ratio is already up 1.1%, and their share of eLead RDRs (leads to this store closed by this store vs lost to a rival area Ford dealer) has jumped 15%.

I love happy endings.  :-D

It’s odd how, in the fortnight that passes between these lite essays, the theme for the next one always appears out of recent dealer visits.  For example, if I write about lead response times it’s because, unexplainably, LRT became an issue multiple times in my visits during the two weeks prior. 

The issue that revealed itself this time is Over-Thinking The Lead.  I had some poor mystery shops, and from stores that should know better and do better.  When we looked for a cause it was, in most cases, because the salesperson overanalyzed the eLead instead of just responding to it.  And the more they analyzed it the worse the initial response and follow-up!

One example: my mystery shopper used a phone number that, to my surprise, was still in the store’s CRM from a shop a year earlier.  (My bad).  Their CRM caught the match (though nothing else – name, address or email address – was the same).  The salesman’s first response to my shopper was a phone message saying “I see you have shopped with us before.  The salesman who helped you before is no longer here, but I’ll take good care of you.”   Then I never heard from him again!  To this salesman I have to ask, “Is it not possible that my shopper was a real prospect who accidentally typed in the wrong phone number?”

Another grievous example: my mystery shopper used a phone number with an area code outside the state where the shopped store resides.  The salesman receiving the eLead ignored it altogether.  When questioned on it, he said his logic for ignoring the eLead was, “This guy is from out of state.  I can’t get him here for the appointment, so he’s not really a buyer.” Um, dude, it’s 2011.  Have you never heard of cell phones and a migratory workforce?

Of course, you already see where this is going.  By over-thinking (or dumb-thinking, if you want to look at it that way) the leads, the salespeople are actually cherry-picking.  With potentially fatal results.

The exact opposite is occurring at a local Texas store I am helping and watching with interest.  There’s no cherry-picking whatsoever here because the people responding to eLeads don’t know how.

The GM staffed a quasi-BDC with young women with no retail car experience of any kind. The belief being that, because they come with no preconceptions, they can be trained in the correct eLead response & follow-up process, and they won’t over-think or question the process.  So far it appears to be working.

We are only 30 days into the experiment, so I am reserving any conclusions until we hit the 90 day mark.  But I am very encouraged.  Keeping the young ladies on target requires a lot of daily monitoring and training, to be sure.  But most days I discover that the majority of leads that came in got a correct first quality response (FQR) email and a day one phone call.  Why?  Because the BDC girls were taught that lead response is a process, and that, without exception, they are to always follow the process.  Don’t think too much about it; just always complete the steps.

Since these girls knew nothing about initial lead response procedures we wrote out the process and taped it to their desks.  It is reproduced below:

***************************************************

1.     Respond Quickly.  Responding to a fresh lead via email in less than one hour greatly multiplies your chances of a reply.  Internet shoppers want info NOW, not 5 hours from now.  If an hour or two has passed and they haven’t heard from you they move on – and you are toast.  He who responds fastest wins. 
2.     Read the Lead.  With few exceptions (Autotrader T.I.M., Sam’s Club program, ZAG/USAA and/or other special purchase programs) all eLeads fall into one of 4 categories.*  Take the time to read each lead, determine which of the 4 categories it falls into, then send the appropriate response.  Don’t send the same response to all leads; one size does not fit all. 
3.     Fill-In the Blanks.  If you are using a template be sure the correct sections have been filled-in and any non- applicable wording removed before sending the email.  1^st Quality Response templates usually have sections that must be completed by you before sending.  Take the extra couple of minutes and tailor the template to each customer’s request. 
4.     Personalize The Email.  We can’t stress this enough; your efforts will fall flat if the prospect feels that he has received a form letter 1^st response.  (Day 1 prospects are looking for a relationship 1^st, and a car 2^nd.  Form letters do not create relationships).  Find some way to add a personal line or two to the email, even if the lines are unrelated to the car deal.  Say something/anything to let the prospect know that a real person has taken the time to read his inquiry and is replying with a personal touch. 
5.     Give A Price.

 - Not every eLead we get requests a price, true.  But do we always know what “Submit” button the prospect pushed and on what site they were on when they pushed it?  (Can we state with absolute certainty that the button they pushed did not say, in some form, “Get Your Internet Price Quote”)?  And how far along the path to the sale can you get before price comes up anyway? Instead of avoiding the inevitable, let’s present it proudly and be the first to do so. 

 - For those who do request a price you have no choice but to comply. If you withhold the info the prospect wants unless he agrees to come in, he won’t come in.  Period.  
But, there is good news: the strong majority of new car leads are non-VIN specific, therefore, we only need to give them price ranges for their vehicle of choice.  You can’t get in trouble doing that.  Also, when a prospect asks our price on a specific VIN he is often just trying to understand how we price the cars.  (Most people do not end up buying the car they 1^st requested a quote on anyway).  And, of course, price is a compelling factor for the used car buyer.  So never be afraid to send a quote via email. 

*4 types of eLeads: 1). New Car General Inquiry, 2). New Car VIN-Specific Inquiry,  3). Used Car VIN-Specific Inquiry and 4). Credit App First.

******************************************************

We are working now on getting their Day 2 – 5 follow-up as good as the Day 1.  In a couple months I’ll let you know if the noble experiment is a success.

www.ordiway.com/BestPracticesBlog.html

It’s odd how, in the fortnight that passes between these lite essays, the theme for the next one always appears out of recent dealer visits.  For example, if I write about lead response times it’s because, unexplainably, LRT became an issue multiple times in my visits during the two weeks prior. 

The issue that revealed itself this time is Over-Thinking The Lead.  I had some poor mystery shops, and from stores that should know better and do better.  When we looked for a cause it was, in most cases, because the salesperson overanalyzed the eLead instead of just responding to it.  And the more they analyzed it the worse the initial response and follow-up!

One example: my mystery shopper used a phone number that, to my surprise, was still in the store’s CRM from a shop a year earlier.  (My bad).  Their CRM caught the match (though nothing else – name, address or email address – was the same).  The salesman’s first response to my shopper was a phone message saying “I see you have shopped with us before.  The salesman who helped you before is no longer here, but I’ll take good care of you.”   Then I never heard from him again!  To this salesman I have to ask, “Is it not possible that my shopper was a real prospect who accidentally typed in the wrong phone number?”

Another grievous example: my mystery shopper used a phone number with an area code outside the state where the shopped store resides.  The salesman receiving the eLead ignored it altogether.  When questioned on it, he said his logic for ignoring the eLead was, “This guy is from out of state.  I can’t get him here for the appointment, so he’s not really a buyer.” Um, dude, it’s 2011.  Have you never heard of cell phones and a migratory workforce?

Of course, you already see where this is going.  By over-thinking (or dumb-thinking, if you want to look at it that way) the leads, the salespeople are actually cherry-picking.  With potentially fatal results.

The exact opposite is occurring at a local Texas store I am helping and watching with interest.  There’s no cherry-picking whatsoever here because the people responding to eLeads don’t know how.

The GM staffed a quasi-BDC with young women with no retail car experience of any kind. The belief being that, because they come with no preconceptions, they can be trained in the correct eLead response & follow-up process, and they won’t over-think or question the process.  So far it appears to be working.

We are only 30 days into the experiment, so I am reserving any conclusions until we hit the 90 day mark.  But I am very encouraged.  Keeping the young ladies on target requires a lot of daily monitoring and training, to be sure.  But most days I discover that the majority of leads that came in got a correct first quality response (FQR) email and a day one phone call.  Why?  Because the BDC girls were taught that lead response is a process, and that, without exception, they are to always follow the process.  Don’t think too much about it; just always complete the steps.

Since these girls knew nothing about initial lead response procedures we wrote out the process and taped it to their desks.  It is reproduced below:

***************************************************

1.     Respond Quickly.  Responding to a fresh lead via email in less than one hour greatly multiplies your chances of a reply.  Internet shoppers want info NOW, not 5 hours from now.  If an hour or two has passed and they haven’t heard from you they move on – and you are toast.  He who responds fastest wins. 
2.     Read the Lead.  With few exceptions (Autotrader T.I.M., Sam’s Club program, ZAG/USAA and/or other special purchase programs) all eLeads fall into one of 4 categories.*  Take the time to read each lead, determine which of the 4 categories it falls into, then send the appropriate response.  Don’t send the same response to all leads; one size does not fit all. 
3.     Fill-In the Blanks.  If you are using a template be sure the correct sections have been filled-in and any non- applicable wording removed before sending the email.  1^st Quality Response templates usually have sections that must be completed by you before sending.  Take the extra couple of minutes and tailor the template to each customer’s request. 
4.     Personalize The Email.  We can’t stress this enough; your efforts will fall flat if the prospect feels that he has received a form letter 1^st response.  (Day 1 prospects are looking for a relationship 1^st, and a car 2^nd.  Form letters do not create relationships).  Find some way to add a personal line or two to the email, even if the lines are unrelated to the car deal.  Say something/anything to let the prospect know that a real person has taken the time to read his inquiry and is replying with a personal touch. 
5.     Give A Price.

 - Not every eLead we get requests a price, true.  But do we always know what “Submit” button the prospect pushed and on what site they were on when they pushed it?  (Can we state with absolute certainty that the button they pushed did not say, in some form, “Get Your Internet Price Quote”)?  And how far along the path to the sale can you get before price comes up anyway? Instead of avoiding the inevitable, let’s present it proudly and be the first to do so. 

 - For those who do request a price you have no choice but to comply. If you withhold the info the prospect wants unless he agrees to come in, he won’t come in.  Period.  
But, there is good news: the strong majority of new car leads are non-VIN specific, therefore, we only need to give them price ranges for their vehicle of choice.  You can’t get in trouble doing that.  Also, when a prospect asks our price on a specific VIN he is often just trying to understand how we price the cars.  (Most people do not end up buying the car they 1^st requested a quote on anyway).  And, of course, price is a compelling factor for the used car buyer.  So never be afraid to send a quote via email. 

*4 types of eLeads: 1). New Car General Inquiry, 2). New Car VIN-Specific Inquiry,  3). Used Car VIN-Specific Inquiry and 4). Credit App First.

******************************************************

We are working now on getting their Day 2 – 5 follow-up as good as the Day 1.  In a couple months I’ll let you know if the noble experiment is a success.

www.ordiway.com/BestPracticesBlog.html

Are you still debating whether to employ text messaging in your eLead response process?  This story may get you off the fence.

One day a couple weeks ago, as I do most days, I was sitting in a General Manager’s office reviewing his store’s recent mystery shop. 

When I told him the Lead Response Time (LRT) was a disappointing 5 hours 36 minutes he immediately went to his CRM to verify.  To my surprise, the CRM said the response time was 41 minutes.

Hmmm, OK.  So, was the First Quality Response (FQR) an email or a phone call?  (In Ford-world, only an email stops the clock).  It was an email, and a manually written and sent email at that.  (In Ford-world, autoresponders and other auto-sent emails do not stop the clock).  So everything checks out to support the 41 minute LRT story.

Then the problem is on my end.

My mystery shoppers always have gmail.com or yahoo.com email addresses and I have all mail to these addresses forwarded to my main Inbox in MS Outlook.  When I opened the mystery shopper’s Gmail account in a browser I discovered that the LRT was indeed 41 minutes!  So, either Google did not forward the email to Outlook for 5 hours, Outlook did not pull down the email for 5 hours, the email floated in cyberspace for 5 hours, or some combination of these events took place.

All of us have experienced occasional problems with our electronic communications: the email that appears in our smart phone but never makes it to our PC, the email forwarded by a friend today that doesn’t arrive until tomorrow, emails from trusted senders that unexplainably go into our Junk/Spam folder and escape detection for days/weeks/forever.   It happens every day.

With a fast Lead Response Time being so critical (is there anybody reading this who does not believe that LRT is critical?) a 41 minute response time perceived by the customer to be a 5 hour 36 minute response time can be fatal.  So why not take an easy preemptive step to insure that your prompt LRT is recognized?

Send a text message.

In the example above, imagine that the salesperson, after sending his FQR, sent a quick text message to the shopper saying “Hi ________, Joe at ABC Motors here.  Got your request, already replied.  Check your email.  Let me know if you do not receive.  Thanks.”

What a difference that could have made!

At the very least I would have seen that text (and how do you NOT see a text message?) and made a mental note that the dealer had contacted me promptly.  At most I would have gotten the text, immediately checked Outlook, and when no email was seen, called/emailed the dealer or checked my webmail to hunt down his missing response.

Granted, not all leads come to us with a cell phone number (or a phone number at all).  But when we do get a cell number, why not utilize it?

Here’s some quick tips:

 - If you don’t know if the prospect’s phone # is a cell phone or not just go to www.whitepages.com/reverse_phone and find out. Takes 20 seconds.

 - If it is a cell number, and your CRM is incapable of outgoing text messaging, go to www.joopz.com and send a free text-message from your computer. Now you have a record of the text that you can copy and paste into the prospect’s profile in your CRM.

You can do the same with Google Voice but I prefer the way Joopz messages appear in the smart phone’s window.  Experiment with it a little bit until you get things to appear the way you like.  And did I mention that Joopz is FREE?

At last November’s Digital Dealer Conference I heard a presenter state that the average email receives a reply in 48 hours – and the average text message receives a reply in 4 minutes.

Which do you like best?

###

http://www.ordiway.com/BestPracticesBlog.htm

Are you still debating whether to employ text messaging in your eLead response process?  This story may get you off the fence.

One day a couple weeks ago, as I do most days, I was sitting in a General Manager’s office reviewing his store’s recent mystery shop. 

When I told him the Lead Response Time (LRT) was a disappointing 5 hours 36 minutes he immediately went to his CRM to verify.  To my surprise, the CRM said the response time was 41 minutes.

Hmmm, OK.  So, was the First Quality Response (FQR) an email or a phone call?  (In Ford-world, only an email stops the clock).  It was an email, and a manually written and sent email at that.  (In Ford-world, autoresponders and other auto-sent emails do not stop the clock).  So everything checks out to support the 41 minute LRT story.

Then the problem is on my end.

My mystery shoppers always have gmail.com or yahoo.com email addresses and I have all mail to these addresses forwarded to my main Inbox in MS Outlook.  When I opened the mystery shopper’s Gmail account in a browser I discovered that the LRT was indeed 41 minutes!  So, either Google did not forward the email to Outlook for 5 hours, Outlook did not pull down the email for 5 hours, the email floated in cyberspace for 5 hours, or some combination of these events took place.

All of us have experienced occasional problems with our electronic communications: the email that appears in our smart phone but never makes it to our PC, the email forwarded by a friend today that doesn’t arrive until tomorrow, emails from trusted senders that unexplainably go into our Junk/Spam folder and escape detection for days/weeks/forever.   It happens every day.

With a fast Lead Response Time being so critical (is there anybody reading this who does not believe that LRT is critical?) a 41 minute response time perceived by the customer to be a 5 hour 36 minute response time can be fatal.  So why not take an easy preemptive step to insure that your prompt LRT is recognized?

Send a text message.

In the example above, imagine that the salesperson, after sending his FQR, sent a quick text message to the shopper saying “Hi ________, Joe at ABC Motors here.  Got your request, already replied.  Check your email.  Let me know if you do not receive.  Thanks.”

What a difference that could have made!

At the very least I would have seen that text (and how do you NOT see a text message?) and made a mental note that the dealer had contacted me promptly.  At most I would have gotten the text, immediately checked Outlook, and when no email was seen, called/emailed the dealer or checked my webmail to hunt down his missing response.

Granted, not all leads come to us with a cell phone number (or a phone number at all).  But when we do get a cell number, why not utilize it?

Here’s some quick tips:

 - If you don’t know if the prospect’s phone # is a cell phone or not just go to www.whitepages.com/reverse_phone and find out. Takes 20 seconds.

 - If it is a cell number, and your CRM is incapable of outgoing text messaging, go to www.joopz.com and send a free text-message from your computer. Now you have a record of the text that you can copy and paste into the prospect’s profile in your CRM.

You can do the same with Google Voice but I prefer the way Joopz messages appear in the smart phone’s window.  Experiment with it a little bit until you get things to appear the way you like.  And did I mention that Joopz is FREE?

At last November’s Digital Dealer Conference I heard a presenter state that the average email receives a reply in 48 hours – and the average text message receives a reply in 4 minutes.

Which do you like best?

###

http://www.ordiway.com/BestPracticesBlog.htm

This week a wonderful thing happened.  I got to see real salesmanship in action.

Here’s the set-up: I only mystery shop Ford dealers, and I almost always mystery shop for an F-150.  But this week I got the wild urge to do something different.  I had two stores to shop so I sent the same request to both: the female shopper clicked the “Get  Info” button on a specific 2012 Ford Focus in the dealer’s inventory and, in the Comments/Questions box, wrote “Does this one have a sunroof?”

Here is how Store # 1 replied:

Mystery Shopper,

This particular Focus doesn't have the sunroof.  There are only a couple hatchbacks in entire country with sunroofs right now.  Is there any other design that  you want, or did you want me to notify you when we come across one?

Dealership Salesman

Ouch!  He pretty much shut me down, didn't he?  He said “No” to my question (This particular Focus doesn't have the sunroof), then told me “No” again (There are only a couple hatchbacks in entire country with sunroofs right now), then drove the ball back into my court (Is there any other design that you want, or did you want me to notify you when we come across one?). 
 
In this situation, the shopper’s path of least resistance is to simply hit “Delete” and walk away from both this dealership and further interest in the 2012 Ford Focus. :-(

So imagine my utter surprise and delight when, a few minutes later, Store # 2 replied like this:

Good morning Mystery Shopper!  

Thank you for your inquiry on the 2012 Ford Focus.  I did check the availability on this unit and as of now it is available.  We do however have customers looking at it, but no strong deals as of yet.  You asked if this unit had a sunroof, but it does not.  It is a beautiful vehicle and very well equipped for an SE.  I don't think you will be disappointed with the new Focus.  Have you have the opportunity to drive one yet?  If not, can you stop in this morning for a full demo and test drive or would this afternoon be better for you?  Please give me a call and I'll answer any other questions that you may have.  Thanks Mystery Shopper and I look forward to hearing from you. 

Dealership Salesman

Wow!  Same car, same shopper, same exact situation but two completely different replies.  Salesman # 2 is so upbeat and smooth and has so much forward momentum going that I’ve already forgotten about the sunroof.  He is selling urgency (…it is available.  We do however have customers looking at it) , he is selling the product (It is a beautiful vehicle and very well equipped…) and he is selling the appointment (Have you have the opportunity to drive one yet? ).  A three pointer!

In this situation, the shopper’s path of least resistance is to go with the salesman’s momentum and accept an offer for a test drive.  (In fact, I’ll bet if she was too busy to come to the store that day Salesman # 2 would bring the car to her home or office instead).

If I can find any fault in this letter (and, sadly, I must) it’s that there is no reference to price or price range.  So he loses a point for that, but otherwise, I think this is a great FQR (First Quality Response) letter.  Anyone agree?  Disagree?

I know without question that Salesman #1 was trying to be helpful and did not intend his reply to come off the way it did.  But, unfortunately, it did.
 
So here’s an idea: before we hit the “Send” button, let's pause and ask ourselves, “After he/she reads my email, what will the recipient’s path of least resistance be?  To bail on me?  Or  to go with my momentum?”

As my friend Ronnie Cohen used to say, “Are we making it easy for people to buy a car from us?”

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www.ordiway.com/BestPracticesBlog.html 

This week a wonderful thing happened.  I got to see real salesmanship in action.

Here’s the set-up: I only mystery shop Ford dealers, and I almost always mystery shop for an F-150.  But this week I got the wild urge to do something different.  I had two stores to shop so I sent the same request to both: the female shopper clicked the “Get  Info” button on a specific 2012 Ford Focus in the dealer’s inventory and, in the Comments/Questions box, wrote “Does this one have a sunroof?”

Here is how Store # 1 replied:

Mystery Shopper,

This particular Focus doesn't have the sunroof.  There are only a couple hatchbacks in entire country with sunroofs right now.  Is there any other design that  you want, or did you want me to notify you when we come across one?

Dealership Salesman

Ouch!  He pretty much shut me down, didn't he?  He said “No” to my question (This particular Focus doesn't have the sunroof), then told me “No” again (There are only a couple hatchbacks in entire country with sunroofs right now), then drove the ball back into my court (Is there any other design that you want, or did you want me to notify you when we come across one?). 
 
In this situation, the shopper’s path of least resistance is to simply hit “Delete” and walk away from both this dealership and further interest in the 2012 Ford Focus. :-(

So imagine my utter surprise and delight when, a few minutes later, Store # 2 replied like this:

Good morning Mystery Shopper!  

Thank you for your inquiry on the 2012 Ford Focus.  I did check the availability on this unit and as of now it is available.  We do however have customers looking at it, but no strong deals as of yet.  You asked if this unit had a sunroof, but it does not.  It is a beautiful vehicle and very well equipped for an SE.  I don't think you will be disappointed with the new Focus.  Have you have the opportunity to drive one yet?  If not, can you stop in this morning for a full demo and test drive or would this afternoon be better for you?  Please give me a call and I'll answer any other questions that you may have.  Thanks Mystery Shopper and I look forward to hearing from you. 

Dealership Salesman

Wow!  Same car, same shopper, same exact situation but two completely different replies.  Salesman # 2 is so upbeat and smooth and has so much forward momentum going that I’ve already forgotten about the sunroof.  He is selling urgency (…it is available.  We do however have customers looking at it) , he is selling the product (It is a beautiful vehicle and very well equipped…) and he is selling the appointment (Have you have the opportunity to drive one yet? ).  A three pointer!

In this situation, the shopper’s path of least resistance is to go with the salesman’s momentum and accept an offer for a test drive.  (In fact, I’ll bet if she was too busy to come to the store that day Salesman # 2 would bring the car to her home or office instead).

If I can find any fault in this letter (and, sadly, I must) it’s that there is no reference to price or price range.  So he loses a point for that, but otherwise, I think this is a great FQR (First Quality Response) letter.  Anyone agree?  Disagree?

I know without question that Salesman #1 was trying to be helpful and did not intend his reply to come off the way it did.  But, unfortunately, it did.
 
So here’s an idea: before we hit the “Send” button, let's pause and ask ourselves, “After he/she reads my email, what will the recipient’s path of least resistance be?  To bail on me?  Or  to go with my momentum?”

As my friend Ronnie Cohen used to say, “Are we making it easy for people to buy a car from us?”

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www.ordiway.com/BestPracticesBlog.html