How to Create the Best Automotive Internet Sales Process Ever! – PART 10

How to Create the Best Automotive Internet Sales Process Ever! (PART 10)

How to Make Template Emails Seem Personal

TRANSCRIPT: Now some of you, I know what you’re saying. “Hey Steve, hold on. We want our emails to look personal, we really do.” Great. Write a personal email. Write a personal email to a non-responsive prospect on day three. Check it for typos. Now, make that great personal email your template and have it fire automatically on day three for all non-responsive prospects. Now you’ve got a personal looking template. The primary goal of your emails is what? Say it with me, drive a reconnection. If you can’t do this with an automated email, then why do you have a CRM? Why not just send everything through Outlook. By the way, I have never seen a personal email sent after day one that performed better than an automated template. Let me say that again. I’ve never seen a personal email sent after day one that performed better than an automated template. Because, if it did, we’d make it an automated template, wouldn’t we.

So let’s look at my traditional internet process. This is for VIN specific or where you have at least the year, make, model. So this is a lead for a vehicle, we have year, make, model or we have a VIN specific. Day one auto response, then our phone call goes out. Remember, if we’re using Calldrip through Web Control, that’s 60 seconds. Then, you can either choose to do your personal email or your request to text. It’s up to you. Then do the other one. Personal email first, request to text second, or request to text first, then personal email. I don’t care. But they always come after the phone call.

Then, depending on the time that the lead came in, I want you to make up to two more phone calls on that first day. Steve, isn’t this too aggressive? No. They placed an order with us, okay. I have one goal. My goal is a reconnection and I know that the dealer who speaks to the prospect first, sells them 238% more often than the one that speaks to them second. So feel free to cut these six attempts we’re making on day one down to three. Go do it. Your competitors are going to love your, because they’re going to sell more cars.

Alright, let me take you through the basic, just the first five days of progression. You’ll see the process when you get it, but I want to make sure that you understand how a process evolves to the prospect. What they see on their end. So, whether it’s voicemail or email, this is kind of the message that we’re sending. Day one, we’re kind of sending ‘Hey, got your order, we need to talk’. Day two, ‘Let me help you schedule a test drive’. Day three, ‘I think I got the wrong number’. Day fou, voicemails might be about incentives expiring if it’s a new car or if it’s a used car lead, maybe we’ve got some great trades. And our email that goes out is maybe the manager email, ‘Hey, we’re trying to reconnect’. Day five, the manager voicemail, we dropped the ball. That’s the basic progression through the first five days. And what I want you to understand is, notice how those messages vary. You need to remember this for all your processes.

If you … if what you said or sent yesterday didn’t drive a reconnection, then what makes you think it’ll work today? Once in place, you can measure which messages connect most often and move them up the rotation, right? So if you’ve got a great day 8 email that 50% of the people who see the email respond to it, great, move it into day three if it makes sense, because now we’re going to get 50% of the people to connect earlier. Those emails and those voicemails that don’t drive a reconnection, you either re-write them or your scrap them. Now again, I’m not going to teach the entire process. You’re going to get your own free copy with the link you got earlier, the link that I also show in the end today. My goal today is to teach you the why and the how to write your own processes.

So we know the traditional vehicle process needs to be short with varied messages. What else? Wait, we had a question, didn’t we. What about a video response? Told you I had it coming up. Listen, great, I’m all in. I’m all in on a video response email after the phone call. That’s where the personal email goes in. Our goal is still reconnection, okay? And if your video response email passes the DIR test, did I reconnect, then go for it. So, for those of you who don’t know, this is a video response email, I can either do it on my desktop, my laptop, or I can do it on my iPhone here, my mobile device. Where I can say, “Hey, Mrs. Jones, Steve Staunning with Steve’s Ford. Hey, I got your information, I just left you a voicemail. I just want to let you know I’m really excited about giving you a chance, getting you in here to take that” … whatever you’re gong to say, you send it to them. That’s your video response.

Now, the problem with the video response is not everybody’s comfortable doing that. However, when done right, they can create some excitement and they can build some trust. But let me be clear on video emails in general, with people in them. Video emails, in my experience, work best when focused on the post-sale or post-connection events. For example, thank yous, birthdays, appointment confirmations, lease expiration notices, feedback messaging, anniversaries. That’s when these video responses work best. As part of a lead response strategy, you need to understand this about your video voicemails. Your prospect has never met you, so these videos they have to show you at your very best. You have to be seen as friendly, helpful, honest, and worthy of their trust. See, it’s not enough just to stand out. “Oh Steve, we do these emails because we stand out”. No, no, no. If you come across as unprofessional in your lead response video, you’re done. So apply the DIR test to these, did I reconnect?