Published 19 Mar 2021

Dealership Phone Best Practices | Automotive Professional Techniques and Insights

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Phone Best Practices

The Importance of Phone Best Practices

phone

Mastering dealership phone best practices helps you engage buyers, set more appointments, and improve your dealership’s show ratio! There’s no denying how vital phone best practices are to the effectiveness of any dealership. So, being prepared to handle any call with the appointment in mind can be a major determining factor in the number of cars sold later down the road. Whether an inbound, outbound, or follow-up call, how you interact with buyers over the phone greatly affects your success.

Yet, sales and BDC people will experience many different types of calls throughout their career. Therefore, it can be seen as a challenge to stay on track in different scenarios. However, the most successful of these will be locked and loaded with a variety of different call guides that helps them stay on process, overcome any objections, and move towards the appointment.

This blog will discuss the tips, techniques, and insights designed to help you set more appointments and become the master of the phone!

Phone Best Practices: Be Prepared

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Before a lead every comes in or the phone rings, it’s vital to be prepared to handle any situation. You are 100 times more likely to get in contact with a buyer if you call a buyer within the first 5 minutes of lead submission as opposed to 30 minutes. Speed is of the essence! Similarly, when a buyer calls you, being prepared to give the buyer needed information in a timely manner will improve the chances of an appointment being set.

The best way to always be prepared is to have a call guide in front of you whenever possible. A call guide allows you to handle any situation with ease while constantly progressing towards an appointment. For green peas, call guides are an extremely useful tool to help set appointments. Yet, call guides are still useful for any seasoned expert. It serves as a safety net, so if the deal ever gets off track, you have a way to easily get back moving towards an appointment.

For 30+ free call guides, click here!

Phone Best Practices: Attitude

A lot sales and BDC people sound depressed or annoyed to have the buyer on the phone. A tone similar to a call center agent who’s made the same call 1,000 times in a day is a huge turn off for buyers. So, before calling your buyer up, get your excitement through the roof! Imagine you are calling them to tell them they just won $10,000!

If you knew that your call would go perfectly, you had the exact car they were looking for, and you had the best price, you would be excited to share this opportunity with them! Imagine that’s the exact situation and call them with urgency! Put a big smile on your face and be happy when you get the buyer on the phone. Your attitude is everything when it comes to setting that appointment. If you sound depressed, bothered, or like it is not a great day, that is what the buyer envisions which can negatively impact your sales.

Phone Best Practices: The Double Call

A double call is when you phone a buyer, they do not answer, and you call them back immediately. You would be surprised how few people get upset from a double call. Remember, buyers spend a lot of time researching and the submit a lead; in other words, they want you to call them!

Have confidence in your product and believe in your great service. If you can do this, it's not "I should call the buyer", it's "I NEED to call this buyer". When you get buyers on the phone, be excited, be honest, and jump right into the information they want. Since they submitted a lead, if you jump right into the information, they will be happy to take your call. This is an extremely effective way to get buyers on the phone now! In the rare case that a buyer is upset, use any objections as momentum to move forward.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/462040120
Double Call by Webinarinc

Phone Best Practices: Increasing Your Show Ratio

Everyone has at one point or another experienced a no-show appointment. It’s an unfortunate part of business that happens to everyone. However, anyone’s show ratio can be improved with quality confirmations! This is perhaps the best way to get more customers on the showroom floor. Ideally, you would like to fully confirm 75% of appointments. It helps make the appointment feel real and gives the buyer the impression of 5-star customer service!

The best way to get a quality confirmation is to get a manager T.O. When your manager thanks your buyer for setting aside time to come in, it establishes great service, makes the appointment feel real, and gives your manager a chance to talk you up! However, there are a variety of other viable methods to use to confirm appointments. This includes making a confirmation call yourself, shooting a video with the car the buyer wants, texting the dealership address and appointment time, or emailing the information.

While performing your appointment confirmations, the main focus should be to make the appointment feel real to the buyer. If the appointment does not feel real, the customer is much less likely to show up. So, let the buyer know what to expect and give them any needed information for the appointment – including the address, special directions, where to park, what you will be wearing, where to find you, etc.

https://vimeo.com/417981742/49cef5f9f3
Don't Be Left Out in the Cold by Webinarinc

Diversify Your Follow-Up

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Phone best practices are important, but diversity is also crucial for reaching most buyers. Even though the phone is still one of the best ways to get in touch with the buyer, every buyer is different. So, you never know what will breakthrough to a buyer. It could be sending a text message, following them on social media, or liking their business page on FB. Since we do not know what will breakthrough, it is extremely important to diversify your follow-up. Spread follow-up out over multiple channels until you get in contact with the buyer. Having cool videos to send to the buyer is also an extremely engaging but often underutilized way to follow-up with buyers and stand out from the crowd!

Just Ask for What You Want

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With all the talk about phone best practices, it is surprising how many salespeople come into contact with a potential buyer and do not ask them for something to help the car deal. Oftentimes, salespeople fail to ask for the appointment just because of how they feel the deal is going. Yet, you must ask everyone to do business! Never hang up the phone without asking for the appointment. A salesperson might wrongly assume that the customer will not make the appointment, so they do not ask the buyer and lose out on the potential car deal. Remember, you cannot set an appointment if you don’t ask. Since we never truly know how the buyer feels, make sure you ask every single customer for the appointment and you will see your success rate improve considerably!

 

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  • Understanding Car Models: A Comprehensive Guide for Salespeople

  • Encouraging and Utilizing Customer Feedback in Car Sales

  • Navigating Car Financing: Tips for Sales Reps and Buyers

  • Effective Communication Strategies for Car Sales Professionals

  • The Ultimate Guide to Understanding Customer Needs in Car Sales

  • Provide Solutions: Focus on solving the customer's problems and fulfilling their needs rather than pushing for a sale.

  • Build Rapport in Car Sales: Establish a genuine connection with your customers.

  • Demonstrate Confidence in Car Sales: Project Confidence in Your Knowledge and Expertise

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