Appointment-Driven Communications – Part 12

Appointment-Driven Communications – Part 12

TRANSCRIPT: Okay, let’s do a couple of goal driven voicemails, right? Just so we know we’re on the same page and you can hear them all the way through. These are not all the talk tracks that we have and not all the appointment driven talk tracks that you might use, but I want you to get a sense of what a goal driven voicemail sounds like.

So, this first one is for a be-back. We looked at their trade and maybe that’s why they were a be-back, but we weren’t sure. Perhaps they didn’t like the way the deal went, and so, I’m going to call them. Say this is day three, I call and get their voicemail.

“Hey, Bob, this is Steve Stauning, calling with Century Toyota. I was hoping we could get your Tundra back in here for another look. It seems that our buyer is struggling to get these at auction right now and, so, I think he’s ready to put more money on it. Anyway, would you please call me back at 555-1212? Again, that’s 555-1212, and, don’t worry, Bob if you can’t reach me right away, I’ll try you again, later. So, thanks, and talk to you soon. Bye”. That’s our voicemail, right? We have one goal of a voicemail and that is to drive a callback.

That’s all that I did. I didn’t go into what we wanted to pay for his vehicle. I didn’t talk about the great deals that we have right now. I didn’t try to sell anything. Now, if we do have great deals, and, they are important to talk about on a future voicemail, or perhaps we talked about that on a previous voicemail, but the goal here is to create a little excitement, a little interest, and get them to call us back. So, I highlighted my persistence, and, again, I always leave a voicemail.

Here’s another goal driven voicemail. This is one where, let’s say, we’re calling orphan-owners who were recently in for service. We want to get them on the phone so we can offer them an appraisal of their vehicle. Now, we probably should have talked to them when they were in for service, but, for whatever reason, we didn’t catch this guy when he was in, but now he is on our orphan-owner call list to try to buy his vehicle back. Now, he just paid a repair bill and probably won’t call us back if we offer to buy his vehicle, but the goal of every voicemail is to drive a call back so here’s how, maybe, we can get this done:

“Hey, Bob, this is Steve Stauning of Century Toyota. I know you were just in for service, but I have some information about your Tundra that I need to share with you. Now, it’s not an emergency, but, if you could, please call me back, when it’s convenient, at 555-1212 and ask for Steve Stauning. I really would appreciate it, and, again, my name is Steve Stauning and I can be reached at 555-1212. Don’t worry, Bob, if you can’t reach me right away, I’m going to try you again later. So, thanks, and I’ll talk to you soon. Bye”.

That’s it. Again, we have one goal of the voicemail and that is to drive a return phone call.

There are a lot of things we didn’t say on these voicemails. Think about these voicemails. Notice I didn’t give our store hours. Why wouldn’t I give him our store hours? Because, I don’t want him to just show up. I need to schedule an appointment. My goal of the voicemail is not to drive him to want to come into the dealership. My goal is to get a call back so I can set the appointment. I didn’t tell him my days off. I didn’t say”…oh, by the way, I’m off on Wednesdays”, because, again, I want to drive a phone call back. I don’t want him just to drop in. I didn’t tell him the store’s value proposition. More than anything, I just didn’t tell him everything, right? I didn’t give him all the information. I kept the voicemail under 15 seconds; I kept to my goal which was to drive a phone call, I highlighted my persistence. That’s all that I did. The final thing I didn’t say was “…be sure and ask for me”. I don’t want him to be sure to ask for me. I’m not a typical salesperson. My goal is to drive a phone call. Once I get him on the phone, I have one goal, right?

An appointment that shows.