VP of Sales,
Quotible
Anyone that has worked in a dealership in the
last 20 years has likely said or heard the phrase, 'Just get them in! ' An
all-too-common scenario is this, a customer asks a salesperson for more
information, but the salesperson, not equipped to provide this, goes to their
manager who says, "Just get them in!" Maybe this mentality made more
sense during the technological dark ages when the phone and dealer
advertisements were the only ways that a customer could interact with a
dealership without physically being there. However, customers have more access
to information than ever before, so you must consider that as you
develop/evolve your lead management strategy.
A salesperson or BDC agent can no longer
respond to someone looking for an idea of what their trade is worth via phone
or internet with 'You gotta just come in.' There is a trade evaluation tool on
every single one of your Vehicle Detail Pages and a call-to-action for the
customer to get that information on the home page of your website. You are most
likely paying a third-party company to give this information to a lead, so doesn't
it make more sense to provide this information while they are engaging with
you?
You can easily risk losing business when a
salesperson seems unwilling to help.
Often salespeople and BDC agents are told not
to discuss numbers or final pricing with customers who are not at the
dealership because they think giving the customer information will make that
customer less likely to visit. But even though the most basic research into the
vehicle purchase journey says the exact opposite.
Information
doesn't scare customers away - being evasive and secretive about information
does.
Embrace Digital in the Vehicle Purchase Journey
The fear of technology coming to replace humans has been looming since the
earliest days of its existence and use in sales. At one time, the phone was
feared and looked at as a threat to automotive sales, and now the phone is
viewed as a very powerful sales tool. The shift towards digital retail is no
different. Technology is not here to replace but rather to complement the
purchase process.
Consumers now want to complete some purchasing
steps online or over the phone before a dealership visit to save themselves
time, not to avoid people. About two-thirds of vehicle shoppers still want
human interaction during their vehicle purchase journey. Buying a vehicle is
still a ‘people business.’
Give them the Hammer – Not Just the Nails
There's a well-known quote that goes a little something like this: “If all you
have is a hammer, everything else looks like a nail.” I would say turn that
saying around into, “If you have a lot of nails, but nobody will let you use
the hammer, you’ll never get anything accomplished.”
Rather than not letting salespeople use the
hammers that you are paying for, why not let them use the hammer and build
something with it?
Technology
in automotive serves to empower salespeople, not replace them.
If a dealership is confident enough to provide
a customer with access to the information that they are looking for right on
their website, why wouldn’t a sales manager allow their sales team to do the
same?
Whether the customer is internet-savvy or not
is irrelevant. Empowering the person who is communicating with your potential
customer in a way that engages them and builds rapport through answering their
questions and providing the information they are looking for is only going to
get them in faster.
And that is the exact thing that everyone in
car sales has always wanted.
Heather MacKinnon is an accomplished sales leader with nearly 20 years of auto experience and an extensive background in early-stage business development. Heather is most noted for her contributions with DealerRater, automotive's leading online review site. In 2008, she was hired as the second full-time employee, spearheading the development of a national sales team leading employee recruitment, hiring, and training initiatives. Heather currently serves as vice president of sales at Quotible.