How To Attract & Sell More Trade-In Leads (PART 6)

How To Attract & Sell More Trade-In Leads (PART 6)

TRANSCRIPT: This is my auto-response, and I’m going to go through it, and then we’ll talk about auto-responses in general. A confirmation from Steve’s Honda.

“Hi, Bob. This is an automated response to let you know we received your request for a no-obligation vehicle appraisal. We are always in the market for great used cars, and often, we’ll buy yours whether you buy ours or not. Our team is working on your information. We’ll get back to you shortly. Please respond to this e-mail if you’re ready to schedule your no-obligation priority appraisal. Otherwise, I will call you shortly if you provided a phone number to help you schedule this or if you prefer, you may call me anytime at …” There’s my phone number. “We look forward to helping you get the most money for your vehicle. Thank you for your interest in Steve’s Honda.”

That’s my auto-response. I want you to understand a few things about the auto-response. Oh, by the way, the people who are anti auto-response, I won’t name names, but I know there’s an OEM that teaches you not to do an auto-response. I have a client who uses that OEM, and I shop the client through the OEM site. What did I get from the OEM? Oh, yeah, an auto-response.

An auto-response is a confirmation to the customer that you got their information. It’s like the confirmation e-mail I get when I order something from Amazon, right? It’s not enough that they show me the thank you page. I want that response back to know that they got my information.

Let me give you some basics on our auto-response. Your auto-response should always indicate that it is an automated response. Don’t try to fool people. They’re not stupid. They clicked Submit, they got an e-mail a second later, 5 seconds later. They know it’s an auto-response, okay? Tell them that you’ve received their info in the auto-response. Tell them that we are in need of used vehicles. Tell them that we want to schedule an appraisal. See, we’re going to going set up the next steps for them right now through the auto-response. Tell them that we will be in contact with them shortly. The reason you’re telling them all these things in the auto-response is so they’ll take our call because the auto-response goes out, and then you pick up the phone 4, 5, 7 minutes later, they’re going to take our call, and it’s one goal throughout. Don’t overthink this.

The goal of the auto-response is just to set the stage, right? The goal of your e-mail, every e-mail you send to a prospect is to drive a phone call back. When we leave a voicemail, we only have one goal, that’s to drive a call back. The goal of our calls or our text messages because text messages are mini phone calls, by the way. They’re not mini e-mails. The goal of our phone calls when I have someone on the phone or in texting back and forth with them, I have one goal, and that’s to set an appointment that shows. That’s it.

Now, for the rest of process, we’re not going to go through every e-mail template. Again, you can have my entire process at the end. I’ll show you where to get it on my website. For the rest of process, all e-mails and voicemails really should be specifically related to buying the prospect’s vehicle. They should all reiterate that the dealership is very interested in the prospect’s vehicle. They should explain that the used car manager is anxious to get a look at the prospect’s vehicle to give them a firm value because they got that $6,000 value, they’re not so happy, but we’re going to give them a firm value.

We need to reaffirm that the dealership will buy their car, whether or not the prospect buys anything from us. All e-mails and voicemails should direct the prospect to call us back as soon as possible to set up that no-hassle appraisal appointment. All e-mails and voicemails should explain that only a trained appraiser knows what the prospect’s vehicle is worth, right?

All e-mails and voicemails should avoid any mention of the dealership’s inventory or anything else the prospect may construe as being salesy. You cannot sell an empty seat. You cannot sell someone through e-mail, okay? Stop talking about your inventory to somebody who said, “Hey, how much is my ’15 Camry worth?” Give them a value, and then make sure that all of your e-mails and templates are focused on all the things that I just talked about.