Leading an Appointment Culture – Part 9

Leading an Appointment Culture – Part 9

TRANSCRIPT: So, we’re going to change gears just a little. Now, this is still ‘leading an appointment culture’, but these next couple of sessions are all about how your managers can manage the perfect appointment. In the last session we talked about you coming into the dealership on an infrequent basis but being able to spend a few hours this time and truly inspecting the perfect appointment and, inspecting the appointment culture.

Now we are going to talk about how you train your managers to manage all four steps of the perfect appointment. The first step of the perfect appointment is, of course, strong appointment setting. How do you manage strong appointment setting? Well, number one is you have to understand that the goal is an appointment that shows, right? So we have to make sure that all of the talk tracks our team is using is designed to create an appointment, but not just an appointment but, rather, one who shows. So, I want to look at control, right? There are two things I want to look at, control and talk track.

The first thing I want to look at is the control. Does the salesperson maintain the control during the call? What do I mean by that? Well, if they say, ‘When would you like to come in?” that’s not asking for the appointment. That’s not using the right talk track. That’s certainly not staying in control. In fact, asking someone when they would like to come in says, “I’m not important. My time’s not important. I’m never busy, come in whenever you want”. It’s also ceding control of the call to the caller. So, I want to make sure my team maintains control throughout the call. That’s how you set a strong appointment.

So, instead of “When would you like to come in?” I want to hear my team say things like, ‘I’ve got two priority test drives open on the Camry today. I’ve got one at 5:15 and one at 5:45. Which one works better for you?” That’s maintaining control.

On the talk track side, I want to make sure that after they’ve set the appointment, they are, sort of, reconfirming, in the appointment setting process, with all three of the needs. Remember, you need three things, three needs, to have a perfect appointment. To have a strong appointment setting. One is a specific date and time, one is a specific goal and the last is a mental and verbal commitment by the prospect that they are going to show for the appointment.

So, is my team using that talk track? After I set the appointment with Mrs. Jones for tonight, I’m on the phone and I say ”Okay, Mrs. Jones, just to recap, we’re going to see you tonight at 5:15 (specific date and time), to test drive the 2014 Toyota Camry (specific goal), and Mrs. Jones, I’m going to get that Camry cleaned, gassed and parked out front ready to go, so when you arrive for your test drive, you will be in and out and on the road in 5 minutes. Now, Mrs. Jones, if anything happens to me, or that Camry, I am going to call you well in advance and let you know so you don’t waste a trip down here. All I would ask of you, Mrs. Jones, is that you show us the same courtesy. So, can I count on seeing you tonight at 5:15?”

See, we stop there. We want to hear the customer say, “Yes”. That’s the mental and verbal commitment. Now she knows all the things we’re going to do to get ready for this appointment. She knows it would be discourteous not to tell us if she can’t show. See, that’s strong appointment setting and your managers need to manage that. They need to make sure that your team stays in control and that they use the proper talk track.