Walk In Customers who leave and do their " Homework "

[ddavis]

Kelly, four months? At most stores, they have the 72 hour rule. No contact in three days and you're out. I can't imagine a salesperson trying to lay claim to a customer that they hadn't contacted in four months.
Marking a customer "contacted" didn't mean anything unless the call was recorded. When I was at a store, I listened to every call coming into sales. I furnished the GM a spreadsheet of all calls made the previous day and MTD. That was all salespeople and managers.

 

[Kelly Wilson]

Oh Doug! Shades of Gray - if it was one of the top guy's past sales it's their lead - if it was a long term prospect & it's been a slow process with documented communication w/a future contact scheduled it's theirs - if it is a lead that came in last month and worked with a new kid & was forgotten it's ours. I think I'm going to start a gorilla call listing campaign to your other point. However I only get to count email leads for Internet leads/sales. It's an interesting place here under the rock! I love to hear about the way the rest of the world functions

 

[ddavis]

Kelly, I believe that you will find that the 72 hour rule is extremely common among dealerships. By allowing what they are doing, they are encouraging poor follow up. Classic case of the inmates running the asylum.

I have been the top salesperson at some very large stores. Right or wrong, just raise your voice, and you usually get what you want. As a manager, I was considered very demanding. I've not only heard every excuse, I have used them.

 

[Alex Snyder]

Back in the days before the sales staff truly utilized the CRM system, and I was a "cradle to grave" Internet Manager using AVV, I ran my GM through the logic of what was going on....

"Hey boss - I keep getting these leads from people who have been working with ____ and ____ and ____. They're telling me ____ was too rude and ____ just wouldn't give them pricing. Boss, is it their job to broom customers because that's what it sounds like is going on. We're lucky enough that these customers are giving us a second shot. I'll take care of them, but if you get my back on not splitting the commission with these guys then they'll think twice about brooming someone again. I need you to make sure the sales managers are on board with this too because they're going to have to listen to the crying. I've got plenty to work with, so I'm not doing this for the money - let's teach these guys a lesson!"

That worked for me, and over time I got less leads from people who "visited the floor" already. It takes a strong leader to stick to a policy like this though, and I was fortunate to have a great GM.

When we put a policy in place that said you can only take credit for a sale if you've shown some sort of provable communication attempt in the CRM within 72 hours we watched significant CRM utilization increases.....but you need a CRM to help with that first.

 

[ddavis]

It's like running a Daycare. Salespeople take the direction of least resistance. Doing things the right way has to become the easy way. If a sales call isn't logged into the CRM, there is a 100% chance that you will hear from the Internet Director when he/she listens to the calls. If a customer comes in and doesn't ask for you and you haven't followed up ...you're out. What is in the CRM is the guide. Nothing to discuss.

 

[damdifino]

We suffered from this problem earlier this year and have since fully integrated with VIN Solutions. All Driver's Licenses are scanned into the CRM and the worksheets are printed out of the CRM. The problem came after integration when a salesperson would skip the DL scan before the test drive, work a whole deal, close the customer, and finally scan the customer when it was time to start printing contracts only to find that they had a split deal. It was hilarious to watch the transition in the salesperson thinking:

Before - "Oh WOW, this CRM is going to rock! I won't get skated anymore."
Then - "This is total BS - I keep having to give away half deals."
Then - "EVERY TIME I scan somebody they are another salesperson's customer - this is total BS!"
After - "I'm scanning EVERYONE as soon as I talk to them."

As you can see, the end result is what we want. Maximizing customer data entry and more accurate showroom activity in the CRM. However, to get to this point, you really have to implement and stick to your guns on a "if it's not in the system, it didn't happen" policy.

Without a CRM, your internet sales reps are going to get skated over and over again, there really is no way around it.

 

[Matthew Danskin]

I'm all for using a CRM system to ensure that customers stay with one salesperson and are followed up on but what happened to getting a commitment to buy TODAY before discussing figures? In a market this competitive, you are really doing yourself a disservice to discuss trade, rate, term, payment until they give a solid commitment to buy if figures are agreeable.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

"have you folks been researching your next vehicle purchase very long? Oh really how long?"

A simple question like this one can guide you and set you up for overcoming the objection of "we need to go home and think about it".

Often when a customer says this - what they're really saying is "I'm not confident in making this purchase with you".

9 times out of 10, you've missed something.

Another option: the customer came in on one vehicle only to realize they were wrong in their selection (no matter how much online research they did). This often results in the customer feeling they need to "start over".

Consumers are visiting less than 2 showrooms before purchase. That's a 50% closing ratio by default. That's something to really think about if all your customers "have to home and think about it".

 

[Jeff Kershner]

"have you folks been researching your next vehicle purchase very long? Oh really how long?"

A simple question like this one can guide you and set you up for overcoming the objection of "we need to go home and think about it".

Often when a customer says this - what they're really saying is "I'm not confident in making this purchase with you".

9 times out of 10, you've missed something.

Another option: the customer came in on one vehicle only to realize they were wrong in their selection (no matter how much online research they did). This often results in the customer feeling they need to "start over".

Consumers are visiting less than 2 showrooms before purchase. That's a 50% closing ratio by default. That's something to really think about if all your customers "have to home and think about it".

Another note after reading through some of the previous comments - I believe everything I said here supports Alex's response. Sales people are too quick to broom the customer, always looking for the lay down. If a customer jumps back on your website - I firmly believe and have witnessed for years, the dealer is extremely lucky to get another chance with this customer. It's likely they would rather work with someone different at the dealership. Maybe it's time for a "manager" to step in.

 

[Alex Magnan]

Thanks everyone for your input. It's greatly appreciated. Jeff I have to tell you I remember posting this thread thinking how I was going to handle the problems of internet customers slipping through the cracks and vice versa. And now 5 months later were already into our fifth day with VinSolutions CRM and what a difference its already making.