Phone is your cash register. Every time it rings you have an opportunity to make money.
You are much better off working a phone appointment than a walk-in customer. You already had a conversation on the phone and started building rapport. When those customers arrive on their scheduled appointment time your chance of closing them is almost double the chance of closing a walk-in customer. So it is very important that you get better at setting appointments on the phone.
One of the reasons for having the closing ratio higher on phone appointments is that customers who call a dealership are closer to making a purchase decision.
Some car salespeople say they don’t like to answer phones. They say they are better in person to person. The real reason is that they know they can’t sell a car on the phone so they want to avoid it. You should jump in every chance you can answer a sales call. Customers also know that you can’t sell them a car on the phone. Use that to your advantage. How? Since the customers know they can’t be sold on the car, they are naturally at ease. They will be less defensive. This makes it easier for you to build rapport with them. You should never try to sell a car on the phone anyway. The only thing you need to sell on the phone is the appointment, a commitment from the customer to get together with you at a certain date and time.
Here is another reason you will have a better closing ratio with an appointment: You have an opportunity to be prepared to make the best possible impression. You can brush up on your product knowledge and get the car ready.
Now it is a good time to review the post titled Handling Incoming phone Calls
It is worth repeating that the most important part is your attitude and enthusiasm. How you come across on the phone, your tone of voice and how you say what you say is more important. Be prepared, smile and make sure you have high energy, positive attitude and enthusiasm when you answer the phone. Smile before answering the phone. Customers can hear your smile in your voice. Watch your posture. If you are sitting down and slouching, your energy will be low. Listen actively.
What are you trying to accomplish when you take a sales call?
To set an appointment at a certain date and time.
How? Put the customer at ease, build rapport, take control of the conversation, collect contact info and go for an appointment.
If you can’t set an appointment at a scheduled time, give them all the reasons for visiting your store and getting together with you.
Phone Scripts
Make them yours and use them in a way that you don’t sound like you are following a script. That’s the whole trick to using scripts. How do you do that? Practice, practice, practice.
Take control
What is the best way to take control of a conversation? Asking questions.
Ask questions about the car they are interested in.
If they are calling about a new model, ask how familiar they are with it and if they had a chance to see and test-drive one.
If they are calling on a used car or a specific new car, ask them they are also considering any other models or similar used cars. Ask if they are shopping for that specific make and model or if another make and model with the same type and style or in the same price range would be acceptable. If they are calling on one specific car, tell them about alternatives you can offer so they have more than one reason to visit your store.
Getting customer’s information on the phone
Ask for customer’s name early in the beginning of the call and use it all through the call. People like hearing their name.
You should continue with the conversation and establish rapport before asking for the customer’s contact information. Once you are at a point that you will be checking on what the customer is asking about you can use the following script:
“Let me check on that for you, David. You don’t have to buy today, do you?”
“No, not really..”
“OK! What’s your number?
“555-1212”
“And your last name, David?”
“Jones.”
Do not ask if you can have their number. Just ask them what their number is.
After getting the contact information put the customer on hold. Ask for their permission to do that first.
Going for the Appointment
Always go for an appointment on the first call. You should have given reasons for coming in all through the conversation.
After a period of no more than 20 seconds pick up the phone and say:
“Thank you for holding. David, I’ve got great news for you! We do have that [Year] [Model] looking for and few others like it in stock.”
Continue with providing options for a date and time:
“Would this evening or tomorrow morning work better for you?”
When customer gives a general time frame, narrow it down:
“Great! I’m available this evening. 5:20 PM or 6:35 PM?”
Do not offer to meet at the top or the bottom of the hour. Letting them know your available times and offering odd times give the impression that you are busy and make the customer more committed to the appointment. Try it and you will see that your no show ratio will go down. You need to take your schedule seriously so your customers will to. The biggest mistake many car salespeople make when setting appointments is not pushing for specific times. Telling customers “Sure, I’m working all day this Saturday. Just ask for me when you come in.” is not scheduling an appointment.
Ask your customer:
“Do you know where we are located?”
If they don’t, give them the directions and offer to email directions. This is a great opportunity get additional contact info like email. You should ask for email at some point in the phone call 100% of the time. Ask for email if a customer resist giving her phone number. Ask for email in addition to their phone number.
After giving directions and/or collecting email, give them your full name:
“David, please write down my name. It is spelled ….”
and then review:
“David, I look forward to seeing you at 6:35 tomorrow evening! If anything changes on your end and you need to come in earlier or a little later, please give me a call and I’ll be glad to do the same for you.”
Even if you need to check on the availability of the car first, go for a tentative appointment. Get a commitment right then.
Confirming Appointments
Make sure to log your customer properly and promptly in your customer management system. Mark it as a phone up and enter the appointment time and date.
When appointments are personally confirmed by Sales Managers show rate goes up. Here is a simple script to use:
“Hi David, this is [NAME]. I’m the sales manager at [STORE] and I wanted to confirm your appointment with [Sales Consultant] tomorrow evening at 6:35. We are looking forward to meeting you.”
Get ready
Be prepared for your appointment. Get your vehicle ready. You don’t want to disappoint your customers and start of the wrong foot by not being prepared and ready for them especially when you set the appointment at a specific time. In the event that you happened to have another customer when your appointment arrives, make a decision to stay with which one and do a proper turn.