Your presence is your leverage

[ChrisR]

People can shop prices, so why bother playing games? @Chris Vitale GM'd two stores in a row that we took over together and we did what we did with volume, not with making one home run deal... Is gross important, sure it is. But not if you can't substantiate it, not if you can't do so via the web or text... Not today. And especially not if you can't drive consistent reasonable profits. It's 2020, evolve or die.

I would rather have 100+ happy customers a month, than rip a couple faces off. More sustainable with an army of happy drivers out there.

 

[Tallcool1]

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.

 

[Baron Ringler]

"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."

 

[Tallcool1]

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.

 

[Baron Ringler]

"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."

 

[john.quinn]

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

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!!! ]

 

[john.quinn]

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

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!!! ]

 

[John V.]

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.

 

[John V.]

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]

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!!! ]

@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.