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Let’s Remember Who It’s About: Not You!

Have you ever listened to a profressional salesperson? No, no, really. Have you ever listened to a proferssional salesperson? Those skilled in the trade are fantastic about doing one thing extremely well: allowing the customer to understand that it's about them, what's in it for them and how important they are. Those with truly exceptional skill allow people to talk themselves into buying.

So why in the heck have trainers and consultants been ruining it for customers walking into dealerships by knocking some of the following word tracks and customer approaches into salespeople's heads:

"I will do whatever it takes to earn your business"

"I've received your information, I've checked that the car is still here, I've spoken with my manager about the price and I only need to know right now if you have a trade in"

"I need to know what it will take to get you down here right now"

"I will answer all of your quesitons and I hope to meet you soon"…

In visiting and mystery shopping dealerships all over the country, it is more apparent than ever that salespeople not only like to talk about themselves, they're trained to. The less skilled they are, the more it happens. That's got to be worth everything from the OEM-paid local course, to the $1,500 conference, to the $5,000-10,000 per-day in-house super-duper-trainer with 30 years experience.

Folks, who is everything about? The customer. You will never make it about the customer talking about yourself. Ever! And that is what 3-month newbies to 25+ years veterans do all day long. And if the communication is over the phone or email versus face-to-face, add even more to the irritating factor. Can we all agree that, for the most part, the person that a prospect is talking to is assumed to be their salesperson or at least a sales contact? OK, now that we are passed that, move the focus from you to them…

For the past seven years, the education we bring to dealers and the coaching we bring to sales teams is consistent:

!. Eliminate "I" and change your word tracks to "you"

2. Make everything about the customer, first.

3. Change the delivery to talk about what the cusotmer receives, how it benefits them, when they'll get it, how they'll get it and, absolutely last, who they'll get it from.

Nothing turns people off more than hearing about someone they don't know or care about tallking about themselves, what they're doing, what they need, what they can do and can't do, and how much they want to sell a car. #yawn

Changing communication and contact practices will increase contact, ppointment and how rates. Oh, and that sell more cars. Period.

 

Best Practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

September 5, 2014 by Gary May 0
Water The Tree…Then Turn A New Leaf

Many people in training and consulting today focus almost entirely on the 'what-to-do-now' with a few fundamentals which can work well for some dealers, even those that are struggling with online marketing, lead handling and brand extension/equity.

That can be absolutely fine, turning a new leaf and running down after what's next. Do that without watering the whole tree…and the leaf dies with the tree. Your wonderful new iPhone, Storm or Omnia are wonderful, technological wonders…that can't stop you from having an entire conversation of "uhhs, umms, ahhs and ya knows".

Dealers, it's time to get serious about the help you need, not the help you think you need. Hot on vSEO to drive organic traffic? How many more leads can you take when your current ones are being answered effectively? Paying more to market your pre-owned vehicles so more traffic sees your inventory? Only for the public to see mediocre (or no) pictures and realize that you haven't taken the time to focus on keywords and correct descriptions? Guess what…your competition got it right! Afraid to ask your next customer for a recommendation? How then can you get it online?

It's past the time to seriously look at everything you are doing today and how to improve those before you go onto the next thing that can mask an inadequacy. Not that you're expected to be perfect, nobody is going to ask you of that…gosh, consultants and trainers aren't either!

But you have to absolutely do the fundamentals consistently and as correctly as possible before you spend the extra $2,000 a month on the new whippersnappermagicaldoodah. Water the whole tree and every leaf gets lifted higher and everyone gets to grow together (and stay around a little while longer).

Best practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

December 12, 2008 by Gary May 0
If You’re Living By Service…Don’t Die By Service

We don't touch on service much here…time for a little breather!

More dealers than ever are floating (or simply sinking slower) on the revenue from their service department. This trend should be supported with an overwhelming conviction to completely satisfy customers. The risk is just too large to lose clients both on the front and the back end of the store.

Things being what they are, it should come as no surprise that achieving such a goal is as far away as the next 20 walk-in customers. Equally as daunting, many service directors have had their budgets and discount capabilities slashed when exactly the opposite should be done. At the same time, it would be great to report that at least some budget has been thrown over to the web for marketing. But the jury that we could ask on that one was laid off.

Folks, don't kick the gift of traffic in the mouth! By the same token, don't give away the farm either. Instead live by balance, planning (yes, plan ahead, execute on the plan and don't change the ding-dang plan) and accountability. Make sure that your service marketing completely and clearly explains the benefits of servicing at your dealership, tangible perks (VIP club, fixed pricing or discounts, upgraded loaners, pick-up/drop-off, etc), guarantees and anything else that puts you up a level.

Get your customers to write up their positive experiences (and to offset the bad ones) on sites like DealerRater, CarFolks, MyDealerReport, Yelp, Google, etc. Provide maintenance clinics at your store (since you're already doing new owner events every one to three months, right?) to help your customers get more for their money and feature your parts and accessories. And then set up service scheduling on your site to make it easier for your customers (TimeHighway, XTime, UDC, MyCarPage).

This is not rocket science, it's customer sense. Over the past two days I've been told about two completely different examples related to service departments:

One via a friend in Michigan talking about his BMW. The service light came on, he called the dealership 30 miles away and the service writer informed him how to avert the visit (the 'fix' worked). He could have still had my friend drive to the dealership, get a complimentary inspection, spend time at the store with -insert a salesperson's name here-, and sent on his way with a $30+ charge. Instead they created a customer for life (with the exception that the service writer didn't get his email/text address, log the call in the CRM and create a GREAT follow up for the event).

The other you'll have to read for yourself here on Edmunds' Inside Line which is just plain astonishing.

Now is the time to go the extra mile, not cut off a few inches. There's nothing worse than stepping over a dollar to pick up a penny. Do what it takes to deliver the best experience everywhere in your dealership. And start with your next customer…

Best practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

December 10, 2008 by Gary May 0
Tear It Apart and Rebuild It…Better

Most of us who have spent any amount of time in sales realize that our
database/contact/Rolodex carries an incredible amount of value, in many
cases more than our skills or abilities. With the prevalence of CRM and
other database software, many believe that the job is done. Nothing can
be further than the truth.

Today it's more important than ever to continually tear down the client
database and make sure it delivers the most value and revenue possible.
Auto retailers are notoriously bad in this area and, quite honestly,
deserve the reputation. When we send the same newsletter, flier, direct
mail, etc to every customer/prospect, what type of message are we
delivering?

Better put, consider John Doe who's shopping for a Heeker Shnazer Beta
1. He sends two leads directly to two Heeker Shnazer dealers and also
requests quotes from dealers through CarsStink.com and
DontBuyACarHere.com which send the leads to three more Heeker Shnazer
dealers. When he doesn't buy for a few weeks, every dealer sends him
virtually the same eNewsletter linked to the same site with the same
content! It's great to be fast, respond, ask questions and try to get
the appointment but what are we really doing to connect with our guests?

If you are not segmenting your database and your customers, specifying
your content and setting expectations, someone else will. Or worse yet,
the lacking experience continues to validate consumers' opinion of car
dealers.

So, what does it take?
1. Start understanding why your 'ups' are in the market and actually put that info in your CRM
A. Empty nesters
B. Soccer mom
C. Petmobile
D. Weekend driver
2. Create a field so you can segment your database based on those categories
3. Set certain fields in your CRM that must be completed
A. email and/or text (customers cell & service carrier allow you to text message for free)
B. Reason in market
C. Follow up parameters
D. What they do (work, leisure, family, etc)

Remember, contextually relevant content will bring a person back. If
they don't open your first three emails/eNewsletters, they most likely
won't open one 36 months from now (if they don't unsubscribe in the
first place) when they're in market again. Don't blame your email
marketing company, you're the one that bought the same service your
competitor did. Remember: YOU are the marketer. Not the brand you sell.

Don't waste all of the data that you get when you're qualifying,
walking and delivering your customers or store it in the computer
behind your eyes. Work your database, update your database, market your
database and use your database effectively.

If you regularly check and rebuild your database, it will pay you back
handsomely. Do it yourself so you are not depending on something or
someone else to do it, which is the road to failure. Once you start
being really relevant, you won't believe where all the customers came
from.

Be smart, be efficient, be relevant, be timely, be smart…be successful.

Best practices: Professional Insight, Powerful Results

December 8, 2008 by Gary May 0