Share Your Excitement, Salesmen can Handle it!

We are considering a study to uncover why people rarely share the whole story after having made a purchase somewhere else.  This phenomenon isn’t exclusive to the automotive industry either.  Today we have choices around every corner and on numerous websites.  It is bound to happen, a lot. Our sales prospect is in multiple discussions with many vendors. Only one salesperson will be rewarded with the sale.  We all know this.  Why are they elusive with the details when they break this exciting news that they are going a different direction?  

Here is an example of a real email that we received from a customer that explains what we mean. 

Hi Jason,

Thanks for the note.  Unfortunately I am no longer in the market for a truck.  Thank you for your time and I wish you well.

Regards,
Todd M.

What does this type of response tell us?  We sense a friendly tone.  He shares that he is no longer in the market which is helpful new information, but where’s the beef?  Jim Rohn is always saying, “The drama is in the details.”  This email response (numerous lifeless similarities exist) leaves salespeople wondering if they bought a vehicle.  If not, why are they no longer looking and when will they resume their search?  If they did buy, what did they find? Where did they buy it?  Was it something I said or did?  Did they find a possible better value elsewhere?  

Wouldn’t it be nice to correct this phenomenon?  I believe that people really are mostly thinking of themselves and do not feel they owe the salesperson an explanation.  The salesperson is there to assist them regardless of if they make a purchase or not.  Once we are no longer needed, a simple I am no longer in the market means stop contacting me.  In sales, it is our roles as sales professionals to care immensely about our prospects interests and well-being. However, when we sign up to sell a product we must understand that this in not going to be reciprocated. 

If you still have to know what happened, here are a couple tips to help you hear more details from your prospect and thus rest easier knowing more of the story. 

1. Begin in a friendly way
2. Tell them you are excited to hear they found something
3. Ask what did they end up going purchasing?

Even if they did not move forward with a purchase, humans have a habit of arguing that will surface in this sitatuation.  The prospect often cannot resist writing you back and setting the record straight.  Especially if you are nice.  Remember, the key is to be excited for them.  If you are truly in sales for the right reasons, you are here to help people.  Celebrating with them, when they make a purchase designed to improve their life, should be easy.  Good luck on using this simple step to uncover the details!  

Email Strategy – Planting Seeds

The importance of ensuring a customer has all the information and resources they need when making a big decision is crucial to turning a stand-offish prospect into a smiling cornstomer. We are in Iowa, of course we use corn references. Keep reading to learn the meaning of cornstomer.

Occasionally, OK, often we hear from our prospects about sad news that is keeping them from moving forward with a purchase.  As many Americans fall on harder than average times, one common objection is they aren’t able to finance a vehicle. We examine one way you may handle this without being pushy.  The final draft in this example uses a technique we refer to as “planting seeds”.  As you will read, we aren’t asking them for anything or demanding they do something for us.  Remember, they just wrote us to break up.  Tear.

Here are two attempts.  The first one is pretty standard to the industry and the second one relates while planting a huge seed at the end of the email. As you read these two examples note that we are not sad for them.  In fact, we are upbeat and suggest that we may still be able to assist them.  Of course, this will be different if we already have their credit information and agree that they are beyond help at this point in time.  Until we know for sure, the aim is to be solution oriented.

Examples:

Prospect wrote: 

Thank you for your note.  I wasn’t able to place an “X” in front of my answer on your note so I am responding directly.  I am no longer looking for a car due to my credit rating and lack of funds!!

Thank you for your help anyway.  After saving some money, I will certainly check out your pre-owned autos.

Thanks,

Draft

Thank you for letting me know you plan on hold off on your search. I would love to help you in any way that I am able to help you find your next vehicle. Would you be interested in filling out a credit application? This way we will be able to determine what we are able to do with your credit and possibly achieve a payment that works for you! >>Click here to fill out our application for financing<<

The first sentence isn’t really something to be super thankful for, but we ran with it in both. Sentence two in the draft is lengthy and repetitive. The third sentence is a question that we don’t want the answer to and it is buried with the logic/agenda.  It is better (but less natural) to put that information before the question or direction we use to end the email.

Final

Thank you for letting me know you plan on hold off on your search. I am sorry to hear that your finances aren’t where you would like them to be to move forward with a different vehicle.  If you would like for us to check into a second opinion and work for you to arrange financing, please let me know. We are often able to help people when their local banks will not.

In the first email, we do not show empathy towards the customer and his financial situation. We do offer help, but after being turned down by their own bank, the customer may have a negative image regarding applications for financing and not want to put themselves through the rejection again.

In the Final email, we relate personally to the customer and offer to truly put forth additional effort to help rather than taking an easier route by only sending a link to our credit application. The final line of the second email demonstrates our capability well and inspires the customer to put trust in our ability to help people like him or her.  We plant a seed that we will be able to help when others have not. If they truly want our help, he would respond. If his credit is truly that bad, he knows it and does not feel obligated to email us.

Key Strategies:

1. Avoid questions you do not want the answer to.
2. Plant seeds that will in turn sprout into cornstomers.  Cornstomer = someone who grew from a tiny seed or email into a buyer who drives home in a new vehicle from your dealership.
3. Avoid overusing the same word. Ex: “help” as used in the second sentence of the draft email.
4. Avoid telling the propsect what you would love.  Ex: “I would love” as used in second sentence of draft email. We recommend adopting the philosophy that embraces how no one else cares about you.  We win when we care about what others will love.

This training is one of many free email training blogs designed by Auto iLead to make email easy.  The majority of our emails should be written with the intention of earning a response for your efforts.  Check back to our blog for more tips on non-verbal communication.

Exceed The Expectations

One of the most rewarding parts about working at Auto iLead is knowing we help our clients’ customers find and purchase the perfect vehicle. When an email lead is generated on the Internet, there are many components we review before contact is made with the customer. Some of the questions we ask ourselves before we make contact with a customer: 

1. Which vehicle is the prospect hoping to purchase?
2. How far does the person live from the dealership?
3. What specific comments or questions are included in the email?
4. What forms of contact information are included?

With so many factors playing important roles, we are responsible for ensuring the buying process is as simple as possible for our customers. Our company promise is to work hand-in-hand with our dealerships and their customers in order to ensure consistent follow-up with exceptional communication standards.  The Internet prospect is often high-funnel, meaning they are usually several weeks or months away from buying unless they are convinced otherwise.  Our 90-Day follow process ensures contact with over 85% of customers inquiries.

Our dealer clients offer prospects an opportunity to save time by acquiring a pre-approval prior to visiting to inspect a vehicle. This step helps solidify our appointment, assuming they are approved.  In the event their credit has blemishes, we work with the banks to determine the best vehicle option.

Credit applications are a great advancement in the sales process. Often we simply need to ask for our customer to complete an online application to move forward. In our email example today, Charles is prompted via email about completing our online application. 

• Amateur email draft: I wanted to send a quick email to see when you will have a few minutes to fill out the online credit application I sent you?
• Professional revision: In case the original email was buried or deleted, here is a link to our online credit application.  Are you able to take a few minutes and complete it today? 
  

Short, simple, yet to the point. The first draft implies a question and uses a question mark, but it really isn’t a question.  Adding information and ending with a question that you really want answered is a great approach.  Many people write emails the opposite way and bury their question. These type of reminder emails are very helpful and will often stimulate the other party to take the next step.  Including a hyperlink with the URL (click to view video on hyperlinks) is another excellent way to increase your chances of email success. This quick and simple reminder will encourage action in our fast-paced society.

Remember, customers have choices. What is going to make you stand out? How is the customer going to see you truly care about their business? The customer will notice when you are persistent, but not too pushy. Showing you are appreciative of his or her time and building a relationship. When possible, make their life easy. Dropping in to send a quick friendly hello may be okay if the customer has stated they will not be making a purchase for quite some time, but avoid multiple attempts with no new information. 

Auto iLead has taken pride in building personal rapport and not just being a salesperson to the people we work with on a day-to-day basis. Congratulations on reading this entire blog.  Your dedication to self-improvement will return huge rewards!

 

Produce Email Experts

At Auto iLead, the most important task we perform each day is helping people. To help people we must first understand them, their needs, and how to truly HELP. Our commitment to help drives us to enhance the relationship a customer has with a dealership prior to arranging their appointment to inspect or test drive a vehicle. Keep in mind that our leads originate as an email to our dealer clients. Email is often our only means of communication which means we have to be the best! In a fast-paced society, communicating via email is often the preferred method for dialogue. We are happy to email when our competition will not.

What’s our secret?

Generate a response. Our team of communication experts email using a proven technique designed to generate a response.  Sequence, word choice, and focus on the logical next step in the buying process creates a comfortable and helpful feeling that the recipient appreciates.  Emails written well avoid controversy and remain conversational with a helpful undertone. Poorly written emails may appear grammatically correct, but leave the audience uninspired to respond. No response to an email is a hurdle to the process requiring additional work and prompts to motivate our reader into sending us something to keep the dialogue alive.

Email communication is an art and ever-evolving. Examples help us to see what is possible. With that in mind, we want to give back and help the world communicate better. Non-verbal communication accounts for about ten percent of the three components which make up communication in face-to-face meetings, but it is our only tool when we email. Without inflection and body language, we must be incredible with our word choice and sequence. In the upcoming blog posts, we will help professionals everywhere learn from our extensive research. Normal email-only prospects require 20 to 30 emails prior to making a buying decision. Occasionally, this process takes 60 to 80 emails. Our experiences provide us with helpful insight that will enhance your communication with others to build trust and earn more business. Below you will find the first real life email example and our commentary. Check back often to read more on email best practices!

This email example is the first in our series (these are in no particular order). We emailed Heather last month the unfortunate news that a vehicle she had been extremely interested in had recently sold. Knowing a customer is extremely interested in purchasing a vehicle from your dealership is very exciting. When someone else buys the vehicle first, we back to our investigative process where we begin to learn more about our prospect.

The following draft was written by an AEC (ammatuer email communicator). We see a grammatically correct email with the concept of emailing for a response in mind. It turns out there is more to earning a response.

• Draft

The 2007 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD we have been discussing recently sold. There are plenty of other vehicles out there, and we would love to assist you in finding the perfect one. What other makes and models are you considering?

• Final

The 2007 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD we have been discussing recently sold. I will continue to assist you with finding the perfect vehicle.  What specifics are you able to share with me regarding your desired year range, acceptable budget and pricing criteria?

Notice the direction of the draft is a bit cold as it discusses plenty of other vehicles. To make it worse, the term “we would love” is used which takes the focus off what our prospect wants and turns the attention to what we want.  Avoid phrases that turn the focus toward what you want. Instead, consider helping others find what they want. Finally, the last question will puzzle a prospect if they are not considering other makes and models. When someone decides to buy a Chevrolet Silverado, they want a Chevrolet Silverado. Remember, the prospect committed to buy and then someone beats them to it. If we email and ask, “what other makes and models are you considering?” Their mind race as concerns are raised about the sales representative’s ability to listen and/or care about their expressed interests and needs.

It’s exciting to see where a response starts and ends. Through constant collaboration, we constantly learn from one another and compose the best response possible while keeping an eye on the time. Try to avoid spending too much time. Improving an email is always possible if you spend more time. Remember: Time is your great limiter and we must be excellent and quick!

Here is the final version again:

Hi Heather,

The 2007 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD we have been discussing recently sold. I will continue to assist you with finding the perfect vehicle.  What specifics are you able to share with me regarding your desired year range, acceptable budget and pricing criteria?

We begin with our negative information and hit it head on. Follow this bad news by educating them on the next step down our path as we assist them with their vehicle search. We wouldn’t want to give up just because the vehicle they wanted sold. Protect your investment that has been made up to this point and stay the course. Finally, tie up the email with a question to earn a response. This particular question offers several choices as opposed to one. Odds are on our side that part or all of the question will merit a response. When the customer responds, we win. If we learn one piece of new information, we win twice as much.  For example, say our prospect writes back and says, “I need to stay under $350 per month.”  We still are not clear on the year, mile or equipment range, but we have a better grasp of their needs.

Our team will not give up on helping our customer with their pursuit to find the perfect vehicle. The next step remains the same, to learn as much about their requirements as possible now that the initial vehicle has sold. The first response back will start us in the right direction and often stimulates more questions bringing us closer to the right vehicle and an appointment. This is a huge step towards developing a strong bond. Prospects will take away that you are not simply just trying to sell them a unit, but here to help!

Absorption Check:  Multiple responses add up, building emotional capital, thus improving the relationship with your client making it difficult for them to shop anywhere else.

Great Painters

Communication is a fine art that is improved with effort. While never perfected, focused effort to improve the image we paint in other people’s heads through our own image (physical and body language), as well as the words we use, will have a dramatic impact on our own personal ability to communicate. This heightened self-awareness impacts our audience’s interpretation of our message.

Steven Covey says that all people see the world, not as it is, but as they are. Remember, everyone’s thoughts are more clear in their own mind, but your audience is unable to see what is showing in your mind. All we have are words, inflection, and body language that are bounced against past experiences to form a thought, idea or opinion. Please consider the image you paint in other people’s mind and always remember that differences are often a result of bad images that we painted.

Misinterpretations will happen from time to time, but they shouldn’t hold us back from succeeding. To arrive at win/win situations, take time to understand where you and your audience fell off course. Usually two people’s viewpoints are not that far away from the each other. First check to see if perhaps the image was not painted clearly for the other to see. Sometimes we haven’t even found enough common ground for the other person to be interested enough to even listen.

To avoid nasty confrontation, seek to be a better artist who paints beautiful images for your audience. As with painting, detail, clarity, symmetry all aid in others seeing what is inside our own head. Above all, be aware of others thoughts and opinions, especially those that differ from your own. Detect these early to avoid arguments. Win/Win situations occur when we seek to understand.

Features, ___________, Benefits. What’s missing?

Neil Rackham, author of Spin Selling, blows traditional thinking about features and benefits out of the room when he introduces us to the term “advantages.”   Everyone has heard of the first two, but I love what happens to the sales process when the term advantage is infused  into the equation.  As with all points in Spin Selling, Neil clearly defines the word advantage and provides research to define its effectiveness in the sales process.

Here are the definitions as defined by the Huthwaite group in the book Spin Selling (Rackham 104) :

Features – Describe facts, data, or product characteristics

Advantages – Show how products, services, or their features can be used or can help the customer

Benefits – Show how products or services meet Explicit Needs (also defined in his book) expressed by the customer.

Did any of the definitions shock you yet?  Probably not, but what if I told you that the features rarely have a positive impact on a call.   Features actually showed a slightly negative impact on larger value items when used in the sales presentation.   Now study your sales team or fellow sales professional in the wild.  It is amazing how much time is devoted to lecturing prospects on features.

The term advantage is even more exciting.  Neil’s research showed that advantages were slightly positive when presented early in the presentation, but the effects become less impactful as time went by and as sales became larger.   Keep in mind: advantages are advantages because we are not sure if they are a benefit to our client.

Benefits are true advantages that are considered to be a positive by the prospect.   Research showed that when your product meets the need expressed by your customer, you win (Rackham 110).  This is true over the entire course of the sales process.  We will need to understand our customer in order to assist with presenting true benefits.  Benefits will be productive from the beginning right up to the end of our sale.

Let’s apply the definition to our day-to-day in the automotive industry.  In order to be successful utilizing mostly benefits in our presentation, needs and wants must be purified and compiled allowing us to focus on benefits.  However, specific needs and wants are often left hidden for two reasons.  Sales people fail to break down the initial defensive barrier which is best done by assuming our role as questioner or they do all the talking and avoid learning about the prospect.  Either way, distinguishing between advantages and benefits will be difficult.  Each advantage or benefit is always subjective based on the audience.  What may seem like a major positive to the presenter may not matter to the prospect.

For example, the average large SUV buyer has a very specific list of needs that landed them in front of a Suburban.   Perhaps they are interested in a Suburban because of its ability to trailer a large boat while transporting enough friends to fill the boat once it’s in the water.   Assume that the Suburban is great, but you are several thousand dollars away on price or payment.  Determining the weight of the boat and trailer will greatly impact your success if you know the answer before offering a lower cost alternative with an increased mileage-rating as found on the Traverse.   Imagine suggesting the Traverse will save a large amount of money.  It tows up to 5200lbs with factory-installed tow package.  In addition, the mileage is slightly better, too.

None of these advantages will help because our boat weighs 6500lbs.  In fact, this whole conversation is a waste because these are not advantages for this particular customer.  In this scenario, our sales professional is lowering the chance at a sale because of the time spent presenting a non-viable solution.  Suggesting the Traverse and highlighting its lower MSRP and better gas mileage will result in time spent selling advantages, otherwise known as things that are a positive, yet have no impact on our current prospect.  While price may be a deciding factor, gas mileage is not.  If your product doesn’t satisfy the prospect’s primary need, you are moving farther from the sale.  Avoid these distractions in your presentation.

All conversation must be geared toward our final destination which is a car deal.  Often we are moving sideways in the sale when presenting features and possibly backwards when presenting contingent advantages about our product.

Through great questions, you will assist your prospect as they clarify and rank their most important wants and needs.  When they see their need, they will look to you for a solution.  Strongly defined needs eliminate uncomfortable closing situations and will allow you to control your destiny without involving your sales manager.   On a side note, the best way to make more money, starting today, is to implement this advice to close your own deals without involving a second person.  Too often, people hired to assist you with the close will also serve up a major pay cut as they slice and dice remaining gross to close your deal.  This must be avoided to maximize earnings.   You just spent hours bringing your prospect 95% of the way.  SEAL THE DEAL!

Stayed tuned for part II where I will share a personal example of how I failed to ask enough questions and how it affected me.

Pursuit of a Cure

Today I read a blog post from Todd Vowell.  I am not familiar with Todd, but his blog title, “Car Dealers, Fire All Your Salespeople Today!” had me intrigued.  As I read, I started swelling.  That is what I do when I become angry.  I had to read half the post to figure out he wasn’t really suggesting that dealers should fire their sales staff.  He had me!

Further down, he mentions his post is written in reference to a book that suggested dealerships had to completely change their way of doing business by firing their sales team and hiring a BDC comprised of 35 to 50 year old women along with a team of young beauties to show the cars after the BDC set the appointment.  In the end, Todd did not support this strategy.  He is all for commission sales and protecting the sales professionals in the automobile industry.

I am also fully supporting commissioned sales.  Sales professionals are in bigger demand than ever. Hiring good people isn’t real hard in medium to big city markets. In my experience, keeping the best of the best is the challenge. The great ones move on to do something easier (car sales isn’t hard, but few hit the ground running). Selling vehicles is an art and new people lack the skills required to be effective.  Being effective is a relative term, but true sales professionals usually are jumping from a different sales or at least professional atmosphere.

To me, the issue is the way the business has shifted online. The overwhelming majority of customers are shopping on their phones or computers. That means they are engaging the dealership via email and the telephone. Imagine the consequences for the new guy compared to twenty years ago. In the 1990’s, the new guy would out-hustle the veteran to the next up and when face-to-face.  Once they won the foot race, they had a pretty good shot at selling them. However, these days, they meet customer A, B and C on the phone or via email. Untrained new person meets sophisticated buyer who isn’t sitting in front of the sales person. This is a recipe for a terrible disaster. The disaster will be a failed attempt at converting the prospect to a showroom visitor. Why? They simply do not have the skills required to convert.

In addition, two out of three prospects who do drive through the lot are someone’s customer already.  The veterans of the industry make it difficult for the new guy.  The result is a lot of work without much at harvest. This will wear on the new sales person and the good ones will find another line of work.

At Auto iLead, we are working hard every day to develop a better way to train the new sales professional.  There is a lot to learn for each new member of your team, but this knowledge isn’t essential to make the sale.  Knowing where to find answers and how to ask questions properly is proving to be way more important.  With proper training, we believe this cycle of losing the new guy before they were even trained will be broken.

Please follow our blog or check back to our homepage at www.autoilead.com and join our search for the cure.

Set or not to Set

Calling internet consumers and asking for a meeting which involves them driving to you verses your competition is tricky business. There is a time to ask just the right question. Almost as important is how you phrase the question.  Based on our experience at Auto iLead and in the car business, (30,000+ internet email inquiries), attempting to ask the customer for the appointment (advancement toward the sale) is more successful when you lead your question with the right introduction.  Tragically, many sales professionals start this crucial question with similar phrasing destined to yield a negative response.

Common Phrases Used to Ask for an Appointment

1. Do you have time….
2. Do you want to….
3. Can you come see….
4. Is there a time….
5. Would you be able….
6. Could you come….
7. Are you available to….

These questions all lead toward the same response, “NO!” Here is an example of how this looks in a conversation with internet buyers.

Seller: Do you think our _____ sounds like a possibility?

Buyer: Yes, I think so.

Seller: Great, Do you have time to stop by today and look at it?

Buyer: NO. (most likely followed by excuses)

We all will agree that “No” is not the answer we were hoping for when we asked our second question. To improve your call success, consider rephrasing your question.  Lead your question with “when” to dramatically increase your chance of a desirable answer. Try the following, “When are you available to take a look at our _____?”

Perhaps you have other ideas on how to score a winning response in this situation. Please consider leaving tips on how you ask for the appointment.

Jason Mickelson

www.autoilead.com

FEAR – Feelings or Emotions Affect our Response. Try not to let fear stand in your way today!

10 Criteria to Evaluate Your Sales Calls

Everyone says you have to record and evaluate your calls, but what are you evaluating? Better yet, ask yourself if everyone on your sales team is aware of your expectations. If there is any doubt, consider taking a little time and develop your evaluation process. Ensure that you are clear on purpose of your calls and how they should sound. Then educate your team on your expectations to maximize buy-in.

If you need a conversation starter, here is an example of 10 criteria that I found on the web at telephonedoctor.com. This list is pretty good and it makes great sense. If you want to have real fun, develop a list similar to the ten criteria below and then ask your team to guess your list. This will prove harder than it one might think.

First Impressions
Tone of Voice
Rapport Building
Ownership of Call
Listening Skills
Determining Needs
Professionalism
Problem Solving
Summarizing
Last Impressions
Your list may be 8 or 9 or 12, but have a list. Your team and customers will thank you.

Jason Mickelson
Auto iLead

Purposeful Phone Contact

Reading advice on how to close more internet email inquiries is entertaining but is it educational enough?  Discussions often seem too broad and involve many topics. For anyone interested, I am hoping to start a trend toward specific and defined aspects of the internet sales process. For this first attempt, I am focusing on initial phone calls.

What is the purpose of my first phone call to a new internet inquiry and how long should my first call last?

Your first call does have great purpose! By the end of each first call we should have an appointment to meet a prospect in person or a plan on how to best follow up in the future to set an appointment. All future correspondence must be purposeful as well, but I will save that for a future time.

Step one is to engage. All customers are cold and defensive when you call a stranger from an unknown dealership. You have 30 seconds to break the ice if you are lucky. Don’t waste it babbling! I like to make an introduction, tell them the purpose of my call, and ask them a great open ended question in ten seconds. If you have managed to keep the call alive, you are well on your way to “Purposeful Phone Contact”

Many believe the purpose of the first call is to sell a vehicle, but this myth will likely die with the old school car guy. Keep your focus on learning about your prospect and building rapport. Uncover the customer’s true wants and needs by asking great questions which earns you the right to match these with a vehicle that may be a good fit. The beginning of your call should have your prospect talking 75% of the time.

Tip: Answer all questions and find a vehicle while you are on this first phone call unless they really have to be going quickly. Even if the prospect cuts the call short, arrange your next phone appointment before you end the call.

When you understand your customer’s needs match them to a vehicle, listen for confirmation that the option you provided will be a possibility that your prospect will consider. Now ask them WHEN they are available to meet with you.

Tip: Be careful to not ask this important question in the form of a “no question”. Example to avoid: Would you like to come out and see it or do you want to see it? The natural human tendency is to answer this question with a reflex NO. This situation is very comparable when someone greets a lot up and is met with the standard, “I’m just looking.” Try asking, “When are you available to visit this week.”

If you aren’t rewarded with an appointment, ask questions and figure out why? The main purpose of your call is to set an appointment and you may have to ask for it more than once.

Tip: If the customer says they will visit your dealership, check the solidity of your appointment against this simple test. Ask yourself if you have a VTD. No, VTD is not a wicked disease. Verify you have a VEHICLE, TIME and a DATE for your appointment. When missing one of these three items, subtract 33% from the likeliness of them showing. For example, if you have a date and a time without a vehicle picked out you would anticipate a 66% chance that this appointment will show. If you find you are missing a time or a vehicle, the odds of a show are only 33%. (Numbers are based on our personal experience which is like a high dollar study but different)

I believe your first call should be as long as possible assuming you are bringing information and value to the conversation. Every minute spent having meaningful conversations with your prospect will result in a stronger appointment. Your purpose is not to do all the talking. God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason. Our average first calls on new vehicle OEM leads are 17 to 24 minutes long and sometimes over an hour. If you have a VTD (vehicle, time and date) and feel good about your appointment in less time, go for the appointment. In the event someone has a low show percentage, consider working through their purpose of the call with them and timing each call to see how long their first calls last.

Jason Mickelson
Auto iLead

Dealer Websites Become True Virtual Showrooms

There is a new piece of technology that will truly turn your website into a virtual showroom.  Daniel Michaeli, CEO of SaleMove reached out and gave me a peek at the newest way to communicate and sell cars in a virtual environment.  I was impressed with Mr. Michaeli and his product.  His company has found a way to turn your dealership’s website into a virtual showroom.

How many of you have referred to your website as a virtual showroom?  This may be a good descriptive name for your website, but your website has a big void and differs from your dealership’s showroom in a major way.  There are no sales professionals in your virtual showroom.   With SaleMove you will bridge the gap and turn your dealer website into the real deal!  Think about it:  your products and services are all listed on everyone’s websites, but something is missing.  That’s right; the engine driving most dealership sales isn’t present on your virtual showroom.  For many, this will be changing!

Even if you offer chat as a service for your online consumers, this method is slow and no comparison to face-to-face interaction.  Daniel’s presentation started out along the same lines as a chat tool.  I found myself watching the webinar and saying, “yep, yep, yep” while thinking I have heard all this before.  Then, Dan drops the golden nugget: EASY LIVE VIDEO!

At this point, the introduction became clear.  When using this great tool, sales teams will monitor website activity as they might with a chat tool.  The internet team will be able to see how many times and when each online prospect has been on the website as well as track each page they view.   When the time is right, you send the prospect a fully customized invite to video-conference, call or text with a sales professional at your dealership.   Then, he or she simply picks which way to correspond by selecting the appropriate icon.

Sure, we have heard of requesting a call or text message, but add in video and I am excited.   This is an easy system to add to your dealership’s website and the cost will be in line with other add-ons designed to increase your lead conversion rates.  As this product is launched around the country, numbers will begin to tell the real story of its effectiveness.  I believe stores who engage the right customer at the right time with this product will experience unbelievable opportunities to share information and create value with prospective customers.

I believe 100% that dealerships will be using video to correspond with virtual dealership visitors in the near future.  There is no better way to understand your prospect and quickly build rapport.  Using the logic that words are 10% of communication, how you say them is 30% and body language is 60%, everyone should be searching out ways to engage customers using live video with your best assets (your sales team).  Is anyone else using live video-conferencing on your website currently?

Creating Google+ Vanity URL

Auto iLead google+ Vanity URL

 

Have you noticed that there isn’t a quick and easy way to create a vanity URL on Google+?  Facebook and Twitter make it real easy to create these URLs.  Here are the examples of our links for both sites:

https://twitter.com/autoilead

and

http://www.facebook.com/AutoiLead

The buzz on the web is discussing how Google has notified select g+ users about an option for creating their very own short URL.  Initially, this will be limited to select big business and celebrity users.  Soon they will offer this feature to us common folk as well.  In the beginning, your personal vanity URL will be free, but Google is warning that they may charge for this option in the future.

Here is an example of what everyone is talking about.  The URL for my g+ profile is currently: https://plus.google.com/108137944388330155233/posts#108137944388330155233/posts

Wow, that one hurts to read and is hard to publish or advertise.  The marketing concern is the ugliness of the above link.  With Google’s help, they want to offer you the ability to secure www.google.com/+AutoiLead.  This will be nice, but what is it worth to the regular social media novice?

Don’t worry, there are already websites offering help with this dilemma.  A quick google search resulted in two options for creating your very own short vanity URL that I think everyone will understand.  In 30 seconds I created: http://gplusid.com/AutoiLead which links to my google+ profile.  This is similar to https://twitter.com/autoilead and http://www.facebook.com/AutoiLead.

The buzz online is worthy of talking about.  I’ll keep watching to see when the vanity URL is opened up for everyone.  Until then, let me know if you want help creating one with gplusid.com or one of the other alternatives online.  I am happy to help!

Jason Mickelson
President
Auto iLead, Inc

Auto iLead Principle 10

Auto iLead stands on the fundamental principle of helping people. In order to better serve our prospects, remember that the customer is right. Be an empathetic listener and avoid arguments. Don’t forget that your staff may not know this simple common sense principle.

Give to Receive

The art of selling is a rewarding and fun challenge!  If you find yourself in a situation that requires you to sell any item, remember the following:  When selling (as with most things) you must first give in order to receive.  Alway be sure that you have answered a question or executed a prospect’s request before attempting a close.  Closing a sale will be much easier after determining someone’s needs and wants.  After gathering sufficient information, you will be equipped to demonstrate how your product or service will solve your prospect’s major problem.  They are going to love it! 

In addition, consider using Auto iLead’s two rules for assisting customers. 

Rule #1 – Help People

Rule #2 – Never forget rule #1!!!