The Perfect Appointment – PART 10

The Perfect Appointment (PART 10)

TRANSCRIPT:

Now before we hit the final step of the in store VIP treatment, let’s understand what’s supposed to transpire here in the mind of the prospect. Their experience with us in buying this car should be a wow experience for them. In fact, this final step in the perfect appointment is all about the experience, and this includes a shortened road to the sale. Our goal has to be 60 minutes or less including F&I. This wow experience includes in store transparency. Both on the price side and the process side.

On the price side, they should already know the price of the vehicle. If they’re an internet appointment, they’ve got our price. That’s the price. The price is the price. There’s no reason to change it. Don’t try to flip them. Don’t try to start an MSRP plus, plus, plus. Try to bring them down somewhere else. You’re going to close them at 20%. They understand what the price is. In store transparency round price is also around their trade. Let’s get a tablet with something like AutoFi on it, and let’s take them through their trade so that they can see what the book value is before we take them on a test drive. Now there’s some price transparency.

It’s also in-store transparency around process. That means they know everything we’re going to do before we do it. We say things like, great, let me get your driver’s license, we’ll get it scanned. We’ll get you out on the test drive. They know why we need their driver’s license.

The manager when he meets them. He’s going to shake their hand, and he’s going to say, you’re going to absolutely love the new Taurus. When you come back from the test drive, we’ll go ahead and do the numbers. That’s process transparency. They know the next step. They know why we’re doing everything.






It’s also this wow experience is about being a human. They’re a prospect, not a suspect. Stop treating your ups like suspects. Some of you are so afraid of wasting 20 minutes on someone who can’t buy that you ask them all those qualifying questions, that just pisses off someone with a 750 credit score. You’re not closing them because of it.

Just treat everybody like they’re here to buy. Act like you’re dealing with a friend. Be human, speak human. Use an active and direct language. No silly road to the sale questions. I don’t want to know what color they won’t consider. I don’t want to know, is it just minivans their looking at, or are they also looking at mid-size SUV’s. Direct language let’s test drive your vehicle. Let’s do the numbers. We’re going to take them in, we’re going to take them out. We’re going to close at 80%.

It’s a wow experience, because we keep them engaged. That means they stay with our sales rep the entire time. Because when they do this, time flies. When we keep them engaged. That’s also about having that tablet. Let’s get a tablet with AutoFi on it. Let’s go through. We’ll do the trade right there on the tablet together. We can even self-desk from the tablet. The customer can desk their own deal. They can choose their own bank. Log in with their own bank. This cuts down the time they need to do on the credit approval, on the credit application. They can log into their own bank on AutoFi. Let’s take them through everything.

Let’s take them into F&I using that same tablet. Keeping them going. This makes the time go by quickly. Let’s make sure that we’re assuming the sale throughout. Let’s stop trying to flip them. Let’s assume that they’re here to buy this vehicle. We know from Autotrader that 71% of used car buyers in 2015 bought the vehicle they intended. That 77% of new car buyers bought the vehicle they intended. People already made their decision. You think you’re slick because you’re trying to flip them like it’s ’87 and it’s not. You can’t do it anymore, that’s why you’re only closing your appointments at 20 or 30%.

Let’s make it a wow experience by having a one goal strategy throughout. It’s really three goals. We’re only going to take them through each goal one at a time. Now our ultimate goal is to sell a car. When they show up, our first goal is a demo drive. We know we can’t do numbers, until we do the test drive. We’re going to get them out right on the demo drive right away. When along the demo drive, our next goal is to do the numbers, that’s it. We’re going to push the piece of paper in front of them and they’re going to sign. Then our next goal is F&I.






It’s a one goal strategy without. That’s what creates the wow experience. Now, Steve, my team says we’re doing the Perfect Appointment. I see the folders. I see we get the cars ready. I know they’re ready on time. We’re only closing at 50%. Let me tell you how to know if your team is really do the Perfect Appointment, because there are lots of box checkers in automotive. People who check boxes, right? They’re going to tell you whatever you want to hear. In fact, I know some dealers who show their owner an 80% show and then 80% close on the paperwork. It’s all BS. They’re lying. They’re box checking. They’re telling you what you want to hear.

There’s one activity if you’re not seeing this one activity, then your team is not doing the Perfect Appointment. Depending on the size of your store, you could see this one activity every day. Smaller stores, once a week, or once every other week.

Dealers who are doing the Perfect Appointment, they have customers coming out of F&I. Coming out of the back, after we made great front and back grosses. These customers they find the very first manager they can, and they stick their hand out and they shake his or her hand. They say, “This is the best car buying experience I’ve ever had! The absolute best car buying experience I’ve ever had.” They’re thrilled. Let me go back to what happened. They came out of F&I. We just took their head off. We made great front and back grosses. The first thing they do is they look for a manager, and they shake his or her hand. They’re just so excited. “Oh my gosh. This is the best car buying experience I’ve ever had.”

That’s because it took 60 minutes. That’s because we listened to them the entire time. That’s because we pulled them through our process in a nice, efficient way. That’s because we were ready for them. We didn’t treat them like a suspect. You didn’t make them feel like they couldn’t buy, instead we treated them like they already bought.

See, this is a process. Especially step four. I’ll tell you what about top managers, top sales people, and top dealers. They see everyone as a buyer, but they know they can’t win them all. See they understand that sales is a numbers game. They don’t follow-up with any trade, any buy, or any vehicle, and change their process just to fit that one customer. They stick to their process, like the perfect appointment. Step for step, because they know process out sells the opposite. They also know this. Top managers, top sales people, they know that no matter how smart they are. They will never try to outsmart the process, because they’re not as smart as the process.