Your First Response - what are you trying to say?

[Jeff Kershner]

@yagoparamo -

Far too often, salespeople responding to internet leads have never even been taught, much less understand, much less care (gasp) what the lead source is and how it should affect their response! In my not so humble opinion (and none of my opinions are humble, in case you were wondering) this is the most critical area in which we fail the consumer, ending up over promising and under delivering rather than the reverse.

Bumping this thread because @Stauning posted a relevant article over on the blog around the first response and OVERTHINKING your emails and templates. Read it here.

@eddyshaf - Since coming back to the dealership, I've made it my mission to train my sales people that not all leads are the same. ESPECIALLY leads from legacy websites and services i.e. USAA, Costco etc. I've been changing up our templates to correspond to the lead source. I'd love to have the ability to easily set up our auto email to also cater to the lead source but too often our CRM's don't provide such granular capabilities.

Has anyone had measureable success by acknowledging the Lead Source (and not so much the dealership) in your first email and phone contact?

 

[Alex Snyder]

The best advice I ever received on this topic was from Tom Harsha. He said "never send an email that couldn't be read at a stop light." Most dealers I encounter still send novels that take longer to read than "War & Peace" that are filled with crap about how they want the customer to shove themselves into the dealer's process. The better ones might be a lot of *why buy* things, but few are short and image-less.

One sentence acknowledging and thanking the customer. Then a yes/no question to finish. Keep all the photos and logos out. Your goal is to get a yes or no response back from the customer. Once you have that, you have a conversation rolling and active customer. Isn't that all you really wanted anyway?

 

[Steve Stauning]

@Jeff Kershner, As you've said to me, we've all been in this business such a long time that we assume all of this 101 stuff has been played out. Between those new to the industry/Internet sales and those old-schoolers who tend to overthink the simple stuff, we can always use a few refreshers.

 

[Rick Buffkin]

I completely agree with you guys 10,000% about keeping the emails short and simple. One of my biggest obstacles I run into is the manufacture's and those guys dictating what they want sent out on a first response and all the key points they want included in the email. Ex: offer an optional vehicle, highlight a special feature of the car they inquired about, talk about the 2 yrs of oil changes, did you provide a quote, why by from you and so on. If your mystery shopped and those items aren't included, your penalized on the shop and then they want to show your MS scores in a list thats sent out and compared to your District and then the region. It's extremely frustrating!!!! With want they want, it will take 4 -5 stoplights to read. Not one.

 

[Alex Snyder]

Nobody ever said an OEM knew how to sell a car. They sure build them fine :thumbup:

Just send two emails for the OEM-leads. One they want and a second one that actually works.

 

[LargeB]

I'd have to agree with everyone, keeping it short, sweet and succinct, although I've had success trying to trigger an initial objection with asking for and east/west appointment. At best case, they agree to an appointment, at worst case, it's a conversation starter.

 

[Alexander Lau]

Artificial Intelligence can assist in increasing closing rates and the smarter it gets, the better.

Tools like https://www.conversica.com.

Whether through AI or manually, the key is responding based upon the intent of the lead submitter, with clarity and simplicity. Maybe I am overstating the obvious...?

 

[simpledealersuite]

As a car buyer, I pretty much ignore all automated emails from the CRM. (Most of us can spot a hand-written email vs a automated email)
From what I see on news feeds, text messaging seems to be the new big thing with millennials.

Automated chat bots are cool, but I think they are ways away from having a meaningful conversation.

Alternatively, you can make it a guided conversation asking prospects to select options vs open text to make the conversation more meaningful.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

As a car buyer, I pretty much ignore all automated emails from the CRM. (Most of us can spot a hand-written email vs a automated email)
From what I see on news feeds, text messaging seems to be the new big thing with millennials.

Automated chat bots are cool, but I think they are ways away from having a meaningful conversation.

Alternatively, you can make it a guided conversation asking prospects to select options vs open text to make the conversation more meaningful.

1. Make your auto-response come across more hand-typed. I've been using a variation of the same auto-response for over 10 years. And it still freaking garners the highest response rate and ANYTHING else I've ever used or been forced to use.

2. Automated chat bots SUCK!

We use a combo of inhouse and outsourced chat. I have a BDC manager that rocks the chat but I have to admit our outsourced chat (picks up when in-house isn't available) is quite stellar.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

I have an analogy that I've been using for years when I consult with dealers or teach sale people on how to effectively utilize email. Especially with a room of men.

It's all about breaking the seal. You're out for the night and you have 6 beers in you. You know, if you go to the restroom JUST ONCE, you're gonna break the seal and all of a sudden you're taking a piss after every beer. You're job with email is to break the seal. Go after the volley. Once you break the seal you can transition to a conversation (via email or phone) - but you NEED TO BREAK THE SEAL!!

...This typically (always) done with the right questions. Be short and sweet.

If you're in the dating scene... you NEED to understand this. It's no different. Laugh if you will, but it's true. Use simple questions to build curiosity.