How To Attract & Sell More Trade-In Leads (PART 11)

How To Attract & Sell More Trade-In Leads (PART 11)

TRANSCRIPT: I want to teach you something that I learned in 1985. My first sales manager taught me this. In 1985, he taught me how to overcome a few objections, but he said, “You know what, Stauning? If you ever hit an objection that you don’t know how to overcome, you need to aim for your goal.” Now, our goal here is an appointment that shows, right? We’re talking to people on the phone right now. What he meant by aim was we need to acknowledge the objection, then we need to ignore the objection, and then we need to move on to our goal. In this case, our goal is to set the appointment.

For all uncommon objections, I want to acknowledge, I want to ignore, and I want to move on, right? The customer said something, and let’s use a common objection and answer it with aim. Customer says, “I’m not coming until you give me a firm written appraisal on my vehicle.” I’m going to acknowledge that. “Mrs. Jones, I can completely appreciate that. That makes perfect sense to me that you’d want to get a firm written offer before coming down to the dealership to look at cars.” Now, I’m going to ignore it, “But as you know, Mrs. Jones, only a trained appraiser knows what your vehicle is worth, and it would be irresponsible for a dealer to give you that information over the phone.” Now, I’m going to move on. “Now, I do have 2 appraisal times open with my trained appraiser this afternoon. I’ve got a 2:45 and a 3:15. Which one works better for you?” Acknowledge, ignore, move on.

Remember, whenever we’re talking trade, remember those secret words, “It would be irresponsible for a dealer to give you that information over the phone. Only a trained appraiser knows what your vehicle is worth.” Now, regardless of what happens on the phone, you need to stay firm. You cannot give a value to the owner marketing customer, and you cannot give a firm value to the trade customer until they come in the door. See, some prospects are going to demand a firm value be provided over phone or via e-mail. In these cases, you should stay firm and not provide that new value or even a range or a ballpark. I’ve heard salespeople do this, and I want to pull out my hair, but I’ve heard them on the phone say to a customer who wants a new range, and they’re not allowed to give it, they say, “Hey, go to Kelley Blue Book, and see what they say about your car.”

Are you crazy? You’re sending your customer off to a site that has 3 million used cars for sale? Time out. Stick to the talk tracks. Stay firm. Don’t provide that new value or new range for the prospect’s vehicle. Only a trained appraiser knows what any vehicle is worth, and it would be irresponsible for anybody to give a value sight unseen. Now, if available, if your dealership is using the gift cards like the HookLogic or the InSite gift cards on your website, offer to pay for the prospect’s gas using the dealership gift card form. Have them complete that form, they can get the $25 Target or Starbucks gift card, if your manager says it’s okay to get them in the door. You need to see their vehicle. They say, “I’m not driving all the way down there.” You say, “Well, listen. What if I compensate you for gas? What if I give you a $25 Target gift card if you’ll just come down and let us appraise your vehicle?”

See, use that Target gift card or that Starbucks gift card, whatever gift card company you’re using, use that to your advantage. Never ever send them to a third-part site for verification. Never send these people off to KBB or Autotrader or cars.com or Craigslist or anywhere else to try to justify the value that you’ve given them. You cannot sell an empty seat. No matter what happens, you need to remember that. You cannot sell an empty seat.

Remember this. If they’re not willing to set an appointment with you, they’re not a fit. They are simply not a fit. Now, little differences matter. Little words matter. Little things matter. I taught the, “It would be irresponsible for a dealer to give that information over the phone. Only a trained appraiser what your vehicle is worth.” I taught that for a week in a brand new BDC. We went live. All week-long, we were doing role play, and all the BDC agents would reply back to me when I say, “I’m not coming until you give me a firm written offer.”

All the BDC agents came back with, “It would be irresponsible for a dealer to give that information over the phone.” All week in practice. We go live on the phones on that Friday. The first call that a BDC agent got that wanted trade value, she replied this. She said, “It’s not our policy to give trade value over the phone.” Is that what I taught? It’s not what I taught. I didn’t teach, “It’s not our policy to give trade value over the phone.” I said, “It would be irresponsible for a dealer to give that information over the phone.”

You need to understand the difference. Little differences matter. When I say, “It’s not our policy to give trade value over the phone,” I make my dealership look like the bad guys, don’t I? If I say, “It would be irresponsible for any dealer to give you a value sight unseen because only a trained appraiser knows what your vehicle is worth,” then I’m looking out for you, aren’t I? It’s important to understand that little differences matter.

Little differences matter in the way that you ask for the time for the appointment. If you say, “I have 2 appointment times open today,” versus saying, “We have 2 appraisal times open on Accords this morning. “We’ve got a 10:15 and a 10:45. Which one works better for you?” you seem entrenched. You seem as if the dealership is too busy. I’ve heard salespeople say, “I have 2 appointment times open today. I’ve got a 10:45 and 11:15. Which one works better for you?” You’re making it like the appointment time is with me, not with the appraiser, and you only have 2 for the whole day or you’re too busy for me, I’m going to leave.

What if we’re talking to someone who can be there at lunch, but it’s early morning and we say, “I’ve got 2 appraisal times open on Accords this morning. I’ve got a 10:15 and a 10:45. Which one works better for you?” but they can’t there until after 12. Well, if we say it the way I said it, they’ll come back and say, “Oh, I can be there after 12.” I’m going to say, “Great! I’ve got a 12:15 and a 12:45. Which one works better for you?” See, I’m not limiting myself to only 2 appointment times.

By the way, appointment times matter. If you let someone set an appointment for around 5:00 versus you saying, “At 5:15,” don’t expect them to show. Around 5:00 is not an appointment. All appointment times you offer should be at the 15 and 45 if you want the customer to actually show up at your dealership on time because 15 and 45 sound like more firm appointment times.

You’re going to get this question. I’m going to say to the customer, “I’ve got a 5:15, 5:45. Which one works better for you?” They’re going to say, “Well, hell, I don’t know what time I can be there. How late are y’all open or what time do you close?” You need to reply with this. You need to say, “We close at 8, but our last open appraisal time for Tundras today is for 6:15. We’ve got a 5:45 and a 6:15. Which one works better for you?”

See, it’s important to say it that way. It’s important to understand that the last appointment offered for any day should be no later than an hour and 45 minutes prior to closing because you want time to sell this customer a car. People will do what we tell them to do. If I tell them that the last appraisal time for Tundras this afternoon is for 6:15, they’ll find a way to make it. Now if they can’t, let’s say they live 2 hours away, and let’s say it’s 5:00 right now, and they say something like, “I live 2 hours away. I can’t get there until after 7.” I’m going to make an exception and set that appointment, but not until I’ve already tried to set that appointment for 6:15.

Here’s the opposite of that, and I want to be clear and make sure you understand what I’m talking about. Someone says, “What time do you close?” and you answer, “We close at 8.” You know what you’re doing? It’s a tennis match, right? “What time you close?” “We close at 8.” You get the ball back in their court. What do they say back to, “We close at 8.”? I’ll be in before 8. Then you say, “Great. Be sure to ask for me.” Is that customer going to show? No, they’re not going to show. You know they’re not going to show.

The few times they do show, 1 out of 30 that they show when they say, “I’ll be in before 8.” What does before 8 mean to this customer? You close at 8. You said, “We close at 8.” They said, “I’ll be in before 8.” What does before 8 mean to a prospect? If you put it on #udadvantage, and just a put time, I’ll enter you in the drawing, #udadvantage on Twitter, and put the time. I won’t see it because we have a 3-minute delay, so I’ll give you my answer. If you say before 8, if they say, “We’ll be in before 8,” you know what time they’re going to arrive? 7:59 or 8:15 if they see the lights still on. You don’t need that hassle. Let’s get them in at our time, right? Let’s manage this.