Appointment-Driven Communications – Part 2

Appointment-Driven Communications – Part 2

TRANSCRIPT: Welcome back to ‘Appointment-Driven Communications’. This is part 2. We left part 1 with the question, “how do you get appointments”, right? “Steve, I’m bought in, I need to get appointments, I’ve watched ‘Creating an Appointment Culture’, and I want to know how to get appointments”. If that describes you, you already know how to get appointments, right?

You have to ASK for the appointment but the goal is ‘an appointment that shows’. So, in the car business we’ve got to stop asking questions like “when would you like to come in?” ‘When would you like to come in’ does not ask for the appointment. ‘When would you like to come in’ tells the car buyer a few things. It tells the car buyer (1), I’m not very important, (2), I’m not very busy, and (3), it’s not really important when you come in…just come on in whenever you want.

The problem is, even if I’ve talked to someone on the phone prior to them visiting the dealership, if they do not have an appointment, they are a traditional UP. If I’m an average dealer, I’m closing my traditional UPs at 9 to 20%. I need to set an appointment and I have to ask for that appointment, and the goal is an appointment that shows. Oh, and, by the way, this happens on the phone, right? This is how you set appointments.

This is what it looks like to be working in an appointment culture. It happens on the phone. You cannot set appointments via email. You cannot set appointments via letters and you cannot set appointments sitting outside at the old ‘point’. And, by the way, please, save your emails to me. I don’t want to hear about the one time you set an appointment with a guy; he lived 150 miles away; he would only communicate via emails; you went back and forth; he showed up on time for his appointment; you did the perfect appointment; you closed him on first pencil; you made $10K on the front or $12K on the front….I don’t want to hear about that. That is an exception. I don’t live in the ‘exception’ world. I live in what’s called the ‘rule’ world.

The rule is: you set appointments via the phone. This is ‘working’ in the appointment culture. Typing on your computer is not. This is working, remember that. You set appointments on the phone. Remember, I have to ask for the appointment, right? I have to say something like, “I’ve got two test drives open on that Camry tonight. I’ve got a 5:15 and a 5:45. Which one of those works better for you?” See, that’s how you ask for the appointment.

Now, I hate phone training. I really do. Even though this is a phone training class, I hate phone training. The reason I hate phone training is – if it’s a good phone training class (and most of them are), you’re going to leave here ‘psyched’. You’re going to watch this and be like “Yeah, I’m all in”, right? Then you’re going to get back to your desk and you’re never going to change a thing. You’ll get hit with an objection that we didn’t discuss today or that you didn’t practice for and you’re going to fall right back into your old rules and your old ways of doing things and you’re not going to sell very many cars. You’re going to be an 8 to 10 to 12 car a month guy instead of being a 30 car a month guy or gal. Those people are the people who set appointments, right? They know how to set appointments and they follow the ‘talk track’.

More than anything else, they remember the goal. That’s what I want you to remember from today – ‘the goal’. In fact, do yourself a favor, pause this right now and write ‘The Goal’. Write ‘The Goal’ on a piece of paper and put that piece of paper near your phone, where you can see it every time you’re on the phone. I want you to know what the goal of every call is. I want you to know what the goal is every time you reach voicemail. If you remember the goal you can stay on track with the three things I’m going to teach you to do today, right? I’m going to teach you WHAT to say. I’m going to teach you HOW to say it, but, more importantly, I’m going to teach you WHY we’re going to say the things that we’re going to say so that we can truly drive an appointment culture within our dealership.