﻿The funny thing about sales, automotive sales in particular,
is just how simple your true goal is with every client. One goal in fact,
and in the next few minutes I'm going to tell you what that is.
Selling new and used cars can be a very complicated affair. Having gone through the
process of setting up new CRM’s several times, it is amazing just how many moving parts there are,
nevermind training staff to properly use them. New prospects, old prospects, contacts,
appointments, sold customers, and delivered customers. Scripts.
Templates. Workplans. Then you have customers in your showroom, on test drives or on the lot.
They could be negotiating, looking for quotes, getting a trade appraised or at any
stage in the sales process. It’s complicated. What am I doing with the client at that moment?
What am I saying in person, on the phone, or in an email?
Believe it or not there is one answer. Yes, of course you are trying to sell a car,
but what about after you’ve sold it? The simple goal of every communication, with
every customer, at every point in the sale, is to plan the next communication. That’s it.
If you have a prospect, you're either planning an appointment or your next call, or email.
If you have an appointment, you are confirming that appointment. If you are sitting at the
desk negotiating, you are closing a deal and setting up a delivery. If you can’t close it,
you’re planning your next appointment or setting expectations for further contact. Even when you
sell and deliver a vehicle, your objective is to set expectations for continued contact
and then maintain that contact. Always setting up the next communication.
I’ve seen countless salespeople make the same mistakes over and over,
dropping customers just because they couldn’t reach them, couldn’t close them, or even worse,
did close and deliver them a vehicle, and still didn't plan any follow up.
As a desk manager, I can tell you there is nothing worse than having a salesperson
come to the desk and say, “They left.” I would ask, “Where’s your customer?”
“Oh, they left,” the salesperson would say. Then the banter about why they left,
why there was no offer, all the usual excuses, but the big question really is,
“When are they coming back?” and the answer inevitably is, “I don’t know!”
“You don’t know? How can you not know? Didn’t you ask? Didn’t you try and book them back in?”
It’s really not that complicated. Can’t get an offer or close the deal, first, touch desk! But
then focus on getting the customer back. Can’t get them back in to book a future appointment?
Then book a follow up call! Plan your next contact. That is always the goal.
If you’re a salesperson or a sales manager and you’re wondering what to do next with a customer,
the answer is always to plan a future contact. That is how the sales funnel works. That’s when
the math takes over. When you understand that your goal is always to plan the next contact
until you get to a sale, and then it all kind of starts again until you sell them again.
Unless a client or prospect literally tells you they never want to hear from you again,
which has happened to me many times, you always have to plan a future contact.
So, when you’re building that new CRM and creating workflows, templates or scripts,
or you’re sitting with a customer in the showroom and can’t close a deal, or maybe you’re just
on a sales call speaking to a new prospect and you find yourself asking what is next,
the answer is basically this: whatever will lead to continued communication
and an eventually a sale, is what you do next. Whether it’s booking an appointment, a call,
or just setting expectations for future follow up, whatever you do, never ever end any communication
without planning another in the future. One simple rule. Good luck and good selling!