I remember one of my first years in the car business I met a gentleman named Sheldon. He was the best car salesman I have ever seen still to this day. He taught me so much like NEVER make excuses why you should work hard or sell this many. See it was January and everyone was hanging out dipping to the mall and I was following Sheldon. I saw his commission check so I wanted what he had. He was about 40 and I was about 20 or 21 at the time. Sheldon would sell about 30 or 40 cars a month. You say wow that’s a lot. Well it’s more than just a lot because he would take a week to 2 weeks off a month and still did those numbers.
His advice to me was
1) Know the flow of your store - meaning know if your store is a night store or if you have a day of the week that is heavy traffic.
2) Everyone is a prospect…..EVERYONE - meaning never discount the fact that everyone drives and needs a car or wants a new car.
This applies to what I want to talk about, trust me.
So I can tell you now that majority of your traffic to your site is between 10am and 2pm. You may also have a peak between 8 to 10pm. So what does that tell you? Be at your computer and schedule your appointments around those times. You are the manager of your time.
Secondly, every chat is an opportunity to earn business. A lot of Sheldon’s customers came from Service. So if you are taking chats why not take service chats and give them what they want but let them know you are here for them. Take every chat and work it to the end. I even suggest our rollover product because we answer the chats that you don’t get to. So if you can’t be available during those hours or you can’t give every chat the sufficient time to work it to the end, we can. (I know…this sounds like a bump to get rollover, but it is just an explanation of my examples above.)
One of the oldest adages in the car business states that if you don’t collect personal information on a phone call you have failed. Well times have changed. If you attempt to collect a name, phone number or email address before you have established rapport and trust you will fail. Let’s face it, everyone needs and answer to a personal uncertainty. If you request or demand personal information the customer will not give you the opportunity to answer their question. ContactAtOnce enables my dealers to address personal needs, build rapport and gain their trust.
IM/chat is the perfect tool for quick customer questions or exchanges of information, and isn’t meant to replace face-to-face meetings. A customer contacting you through the IM is a prospect. As a sales person your job is to assist the customer with their questions while attempting to gather the prospect’s information. There is no reason to carry on a conversation and give up all the information if you do not have a valid name and number, or e-mail address. The IM is just like a phone prospect, and needs to be handled the same way.
Always start out a conversation by introducing yourself, and asking how you may be of assistance. I found it easier to get prospect information during the introduction. Always immediately ask, “And what is your name?” Usually customers will at least give you their first name up front, and this breaks the ice a little by making the conversation a little more personal to the customer.
As a common courtesy to other sales people it is always nice to ask the customer if they have been to the dealership before, and if they are currently working with someone. I have seen it happen before, when a customer leaves the dealership and goes online, gets on the IM and another sales person makes an appointment with the same customer. It is up to you how honest you want to be.
Usually the customer will want to know three things.
- Is this vehicle still available? Always reply with excitement, with a big YES! As a matter of fact I know this vehicle quite well. In fact, CARFAX guarantees it as a one-owner vehicle. What type of questions do you have for me today? Try to indicate in some manner that you are somewhat familiar with the vehicle. As a side note, if you do not know your inventory, then you should not be using IM.
- The second most commonly asked question is usually something regarding the equipment on the vehicle. Again, it pays to know your inventory. A good technique, however (although I already stated you need to know your inventory), is to play a little dumb in order to get their information. For example, if a customer asks if a particular truck has running boards, tell them that you will have to check and see for yourself. Let them know that it may take a several minutes. Then ask the customer what is the best way to reach them with the information, by phone, or e-mail? The customer will either give you the information, or ask if they can hold. You want to provide information; however, once you have answered all the customers’ questions they have no reason to give up their information. You have to get the info before you answer all their questions completely.
- The third most frequently asked question is what is your best price, or something to do with price. The price objection is easy to overcome. Either you will have access to pricing or not depending on your level at your dealership. Either way the price question is the easiest way to gather the customer’s information. First, say no problem, I can get you the best price. However, I have to get with my manager. What is the best way for me to contact you with price, by phone or e-mail? If the customer does not want to give you their information and say they will hold, simply tell them that is fine, I can still get you the price. Then explain to the customer you can only give a price to a customer by e-mail, or phone. Nine times out of ten you will be able to get the information. If a customer does not want to share their information, you have nothing anyway.
If you find the topic at hand requires a more thorough conversation, then simply use IM to indicate that you’ll follow up with a call or e-mail. You can not make a car deal over IM; you need the customer sitting in front of you.
We learned quickly not to give too much information or you get no name and number and they say “ok thanks” and hang up. We give enough information for them to realize this is a real person at the dealership and not someone in India answering. Soon into the conversation we hit them with “My name is Dave and you are?” Once you begin using their name it is simple to ask for the number because you have earned the right to do so. Asking for information too quickly defeats the whole advantage to the customer because they want a level of anonymity until they are sure they want to deal with you.
When the customers come in to the dealership they are excited to meet us because they feel like they are comfortable with us and they have seen our picture and now they see that we really are the person they were chatting with. We have never had such a great response with a product so inexpensive to use.
