Jeff Kershner said:

"your presence is your leverage" - what do you mean @Alex Snyder ? This is my favorite line of all time!

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Sorry, Jeff. At one time "Your presence is your leverage" was effective. But now it's just a cliche. I stopped using it about 10 years ago after a customer flat out told me, and I quote, "You've got it wrong. My LACK of presence is my leverage." And he was right. If I'm a customer, and I contact 4 dealers, and all 4 of them use that same line, what use is it? Think of it like this: if you put a piece of tape on the back of your hand then pull it off, it's sticky. But if you do that 4 or 5 times, it's not sticky any anymore. The customer went online so they didn't have to go through what they perceive is a pushy experience and to put them right back in to that, and not differentiate yourself from the competition, you lose.

But we do have to have a replacement for that line. Every store I work with has online pricing and very few do not in this market. We have to be transparent. If you don't have online pricing, and your next dealer over does, you are at a disadvantage. So a customer asks, "What is your best price?", or something similar, try this line; "We gave you great pricing but we aren't unreasonable. If you have research showing you should pay less for this car, bring it in to my store and we WILL DO IT! Not a problem. We do your great price or you do ours. Either way, you win. No negotiation."

And we absolutely will do that researched price, as long as it's a legit source covering our specific market (Edmunds, KBB, a competitors Buyers Order, etc.), not a deal from CA in a NY market, or a blog, or your mother's cousins dog sitters best friend who claims to have purchased a $30k car for $12.5k. What almost always happens is that the customer brings their research and it's on a base vehicle meanwhile they are looking at a vehicle with leather and all the goodies. All you do is say that you will 100% honor the price they brought in, then add the difference in the equipment. Sign here, press hard, three copies. Move on.

I've used it for years and when done right is extraordinarily effective. One problem, however, is that experienced people weened on "Your presence is your leverage" almost always refuse to use anything else but that cliche, which is perfectly fine if they are performers but not for your regular rank and file. You would need to refrain from hiring any more experienced people, which is never a bad thing. A second problem is getting the sales floor to buy in, which shouldn't be an issue because you've removed the term "negotiate" from the vocabulary. The floor must be strong enough to present it the way I put forth. But if they do it right the gross goes up.

Anyways, this method does several things. First, it makes you stand out from the noise that is dealer competition. Second,, it puts some steel in to your pricing, and gives it credibility. By saying "your presence is your leverage" you are promising the customer a lower price through negotiation and your pricing credibility is shot. My way, I am asking the customer to prove to me that they should pay less and if they can there is no negotiation. As I mentioned earlier, "Mr. Customer, we will do your great price or you will do ours. Either way, you win". And, does it work on used cars? You bet it does, because you can always hit things like condition, miles, availability, Certification, and more.

john.quinn said:

This is IT, in my book.

Reality #1: EVERYONE buys cars. Dickheads included. And dickheads are the ones we talk about because they get under our skin... (BTW... "dickhead" is my wife's pet name for me... I use it here lovingly )

Sooo... the trick is to engage with more of the "Regular" peeps, right?

Reality #2: You can't establish rapport and convert unless you get them to Reply/Answer the Phone/Return a Voicemail. You get ONE shot -- your initial response. And to set the hook, you have exactly the amount of time it takes to see an email while stopped at a traffic light, before the light turns green. If the customer isn't interested in re-examining that email when they get to the next light, or at home, or at work, you're done.

According to Jon Berna and Driven Data, we fail about 95% of the time. Much -- and sometimes most -- of the time, we never even establish there's a human being attached to these BS ADF's that keep landing in our BS CRM... We never hear back from these leads. And blame the leads... Bad Leads.

It's crazy that the following statement requires a fundamental shift in Dealership Operational Ideology:

Make a great first impression, and you talk to more people. You talk to more people, you sell more cars. That's it. No rocket science. No mystery. No skullduggery.

But Reality #3: Just get 'em in. We're still here.

[@Tallcool1 --Clint, rant not aimed at you! Your post was a good excuse to unload some of this caffeine energy this morning!!! ]

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@john.quinn , I appreciate your rant, and want you to know that I have absolutely no problem if you WOULD have been aiming at me. If we want to improve and learn, we better be willing to take a little beating now and then! I appreciate your opinion here.

Just going to throw it out there because I can and I like being the dark cloud/negative/devil's advocate guy sometimes (all the time)

• I built an auto-responders that sent out triple net prices on new cars immediately after the customer clicked "Get Today's ePrice".........ZERO effect on closing rates
• I paid a company STUPID money ($1,000+) to send out even fancier, responsive, zip code based pricing, with 2 new and 2 used other option with prices listed, etc. etc. super duper emails.....din' do sh#t
• I turned all this off for 60 days and then counted all the eprice leads we sold. We sold more cars where we did not give a price than those that we did. AND....wait for it....we made more front on those deals

What does it all mean? It means that we need to train our sales agents on how to make a connection with the customer. Video, text, phone. The customers who only want a price - they are not buying.... IDC what anyone one says. they ain't buying Sh#t for at least 180 days, they are going to waste your time, and if you work in an import store with no VGP to hit - why take a looser deal if you dont have to?

There I said it...don't shoot me.

Tallcool1 said:

Where the challenge for me lies is establishing rapport... We (my store) need to get better at converting these invisible shoppers into buyers.

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This is IT, in my book.

Reality #1: EVERYONE buys cars. Dickheads included. And dickheads are the ones we talk about because they get under our skin... (BTW... "dickhead" is my wife's pet name for me... I use it here lovingly )

Sooo... the trick is to engage with more of the "Regular" peeps, right?

Reality #2: You can't establish rapport and convert unless you get them to Reply/Answer the Phone/Return a Voicemail. You get ONE shot -- your initial response. And to set the hook, you have exactly the amount of time it takes to see an email while stopped at a traffic light, before the light turns green. If the customer isn't interested in re-examining that email when they get to the next light, or at home, or at work, you're done.

According to Jon Berna and Driven Data, we fail about 95% of the time. Much -- and sometimes most -- of the time, we never even establish there's a human being attached to these BS ADF's that keep landing in our BS CRM... We never hear back from these leads. And blame the leads... Bad Leads.

It's crazy that the following statement requires a fundamental shift in Dealership Operational Ideology:

Make a great first impression, and you talk to more people. You talk to more people, you sell more cars. That's it. No rocket science. No mystery. No skullduggery.

But Reality #3: Just get 'em in. We're still here.

[@Tallcool1 --Clint, rant not aimed at you! Your post was a good excuse to unload some of this caffeine energy this morning!!! ]

"Your presence is your leverage"... I hate the line. Best customer response I ever heard to it was "you don't seem to understand. My LACK of presence is my leverage."

I am not saying that we shouldn't answer questions. I am not saying "Just Get Them In".

Where the challenge for me lies is establishing rapport, answering questions, negotiating if need be, estimating trade values, taking extra pictures, running our asses off to give the customer what they want, and then...crickets.

This week, guy offers $1,800 under what we were priced at. We answer all of his questions and fuck around for 2 hours. We accept his offer, schedule delivery, get the title information, get the vehicle cleaned up for delivery at 9:00 am the next day. We gave this asshole absolutely everything he asked for, and did it in a timely manner. We even offered to deliver the vehicle to his doorstep free of charge...200 mile round trip. Offered financing (which he declined because he was paying cash). All of this was handled through HIS preferred communication channel Facebook Messenger.

He messages at 4:30, says he got called into work, and can't make it out. No problem Don, what time do you want us there with the pickup? We got you!! Crickets. Nothing.

We call him up the next morning, and he hung up on us.

I realize it is 2020, and things have changed. I also understand why it is sure nice if a customer is sitting in front of us. I believe what happens in dealerships today is that everyone is busy! The desk manager has 5 deals in front of him and 3 hung up in finance. It is hard for some stores to get too excited about someone that MIGHT want to buy a car when they have 10 people in front of them that are actually TRYING to buy a car.

We (my store) need to get better at converting these invisible shoppers into buyers. Either that of learn to like being everyone else's pissing post.

I've been doing a lot of mystery shopping lately...It's a sad state of affairs. The first response I've been getting is when can you come in. How about answer my question first? Half the time I never even get an answer. If it's infuriating for me, imagine how it feels to be someone who is actually shopping for a vehicle. If someone walked on the lot and asked a question, how would you respond? This isn't rocket science people! Shoppers want to get basic answers like price, etc BEFORE they come on the lot. Answer questions and engage in a dialogue before you ask them when can they come in. Rant over.

Jeff Kershner said:

"your presence is your leverage" - what do you mean @Alex Snyder ? This is my favorite line of all time!

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It is mine too! ....if only the damn line worked

Happened to me recently... ended-up telling them to just "give me a good reason to come in tonight and I will -- I have to pick-up my son right around the corner anyway." They didn't. Said they wanted to make sure I liked the truck before we spoke numbers.

The next afternoon found me stroking a check at a dealer down the street. Still never heard back from that other Sales Guy. I must've been a Bad Lead

joe.webb said:

Good point. I almost never will call a number back that isn't saved in my phone if no voicemail comes with it. I doubt anyone does. I always advocate to leave a voicemail message every time you call a customer. If you craft your voicemail message correctly, it is completely acceptable to leave one on every call, and not be redundant or smothering.

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Voicemail is a great branding tool if anything.

Great stuff @joe.webb. Do you think this will lead dealers back to "ringless voicemail?" I wasn't necessarily a fan of that a few years ago, and still lean against it, but I can almost hear the pitch for it... "Mr./Mrs. Dealer, the phone isn't going to ring if you call anyway, why not skip the dialing? Consider it a process efficiency with no drawbacks."

joe.webb said:

Well said, Alex. Looking forward to go over some of these different voicemail messages on our Refresh Friday - but speaking clearly can't be emphasized enough.

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Tomorrow. Be sure to like DealerRefresh on Facebook and set it to give you notifications. You'll know when the broadcast starts that way.

joe.webb said:

Get amazing at lead management through email, text and video...

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And leaving the world's most compelling voicemail that transcribes well when your lead actually has a phone number.

"Good news [CUSTOMER FIRST NAME], the car you want is here and I have the numbers ready to go over with you. I'll follow this voicemail up with an email that also has my direct phone number. You're welcome to text me on that line if that's easier. Oh! I'm Alex Snyder from DealerRefresh motors - looking forward to meeting you!"

Or something to that effect.

Glad you're pointing this out @joe.webb :thumbup:

I am such a fan of having this feature on my iPhone to block the robobastards but had to turn it off so clients don't get auto-screened

P.S. you did say this too.

Wow... Blast from the Past!

OBVIOUSLY this is the post that started the revolution in the monumental shift in how we approach customers and the sales process!

NOT!! haha.

Man, methinks it's gotten worse... Really baffling to me how the industry -- for the most part -- tries to shove customers into this antiquated process. And it IS antiquated, because once you understand WHY the (APB, for example) process was established, you cannot but understand its current irrelevance.

Sigh.....

I went last year and it was nothing short of spectacular. Lineup was impressive, venue was beautiful, discussions were positive. Just made you feel good about yourself and your place. Highly recommend.

ryan.leslie said:

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Fixed it

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ed.brooks said:

You honestly EXPECTED some sort of well-thought-out, intellectually sound, rebuttal to be called a motherf@cker? Really?!
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You started it.

Alexander Lau said:

Yaaawn... what a terrifically boring rebuttal, you lemming. The blind allegiance to Pasch, inc. is simply astonishing. Back to the auto plantation with you, your master is a callin'.

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You honestly EXPECTED some sort of well-thought-out, intellectually sound, rebuttal to being called a motherf@cker? Really?!
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ed.brooks said:

Me?! Well!

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Yaaawn... what a terrifically boring rebuttal, you lemming. The blind allegiance to Pasch, inc. is simply astonishing. Back to the auto plantation with you, your master is a callin'.

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Fixed it

Alexander Lau said:

I dont like you. Haha! Plus, I've listed the VERY SMALL amount of groups that do a good job and you ain't included motherfucker.

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Me?! Well!

ed.brooks said:

I don't think @Alexander Lau likes ANYTHING
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I dont like you. Haha! Plus, I've listed the VERY SMALL amount of groups that do a good job and you ain't included motherfucker.

What's truly amazing, the pure fucking fraud that was committed by the guy. He's blocked me on LinkedIn, which tells me everything. I showed him his fraud stories, he didn't like it very much. Well boo fucking hooo!?

Let's see... SCAMS old ladies out of their money with his halfwit brothers (one who took the fall for the scams), gives out BOGUS awards to corporate companies that he wants to "sponsor" his crackpot events and does virtually nothing for dealers worth a damn, ohhhh yeah... and he pawns dealer "attribution" software that barely works and writes his own industry benchmarks. RIIIIIIGHT, GET FUCKING REAL! WAKE UP. How pathetic, disgusting and dishonest of you all. Blinded by the $ and notoriety eh!? It's called a vendor circle jerk. What in the fuck does a dealer get out of these conferences!? What a fat bill for software that's essentially unusable?

I do believe a SCAMMERS and LIARS thread is in order. I'll start it... PCG, SpinCar, Clarivoy. It's just too easy, Tognetti is always right. Get his opinion on Pasch. BWAHAHA!

Alex Snyder said:

...Despite whatever may be posted by Alexander Lau, this Alex believes Brian Pasch is doing a good service to our industry in having these events. I have enjoyed myself at every one of them and walked away with something of value. I'll be back.

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I don't think @Alexander Lau likes ANYTHING
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I'll be happy to take the Cold Weather venues, Bud