How to Create the Best Automotive Internet Sales Process Ever! – PART 14
How to Create the Best Automotive Internet Sales Process Ever! (PART 14)
How to Create the Credit Application Internet Sales Process
TRANSCRIPT: All right, let’s dive into the last section today, the internet app internet sales process. First, again, we got to figure out who this prospect is, right? If you have a long form credit app on your website, you know the one that’s the real credit app, that lead is probably someone who’s credit challenged. If, however, if your form like the jumpstart activator eCredit lead form, right? Where they do a soft pull and they just ask a couple of questions, then you’re going to receive a mix of prospects. You’ll receive some people who are, you know, 480’s, 520’s, but you’ll get some 680’s, 780’s, and even some 820’s, but anyone who completes either form is on average your lowest funnel website leads. People don’t start thinking about financing until they’re ready to buy.
Now, all leads today are orders, but the credit application prospects, they are truly ready to buy, if you can get them to reconnect. Now, for the credit challenge, they just need some hope and some enthusiasm, right? They just want you to give them some hope that you’re going to be able to get them financed, but you know what? The 620 to 680 beacon’s and above, they’re probably trying to save time, so you might need two processes, right? Does this mean two credit app processes, Steve? Yeah, if your CRM can support, right? So, again, WebControl can do this. You just move your bad credit prospects to a new bucket, after reviewing the lead. You can easily add multiple processes with great CRM’s like WebControl and then assign the customers to these processes, right?
By the way, with WebControl, you can actually assign custom names and tasks. You can call the process’s anything you want. You can have a process for, you know, 520 and below, and 521 to 620, whatever you want to do. I mean you can create all these processes, but regardless of the number of credit processes that you have, these are shorter processes than all the others. My credit application process is only 30 days long, and it is heavily front-loaded. Chances are with credit application prospects, you’re going to reconnect by the second or third call with these people, so they won’t receive this week one barrage that you’ll see when you download that process.
The total process in 30 days is 15 emails. It’s a lot. Nine calls and two texts attempts and eight of those 15 emails, occurred in week one. We really do need to treat these people as low funnel buyers because they are. See, the credit application prospect, they are ready to buy, and we need to help them do this.
All right, let’s write a quick voicemail script for this group. Hello again Bob, this is Steve Stauning calling from Steve’s Cars. I wanted to let you know that I was speaking with my finance manager this morning about your request, and I’ve got some great news. Can you call me right away at 555-1212? Once again, my is Steve with Steve’s Cars, and my number is 555-1212. Thanks Bob, I look forward to speaking with you.
Again, don’t overthink this. All leads are orders. Everyone’s ready to buy today. Your primary goal is all of your internet sales process is what? A reconnection. You’ve got to give them a compelling reason to call you back. Now, where dealer’s fail is where they try to stuff too much into their emails, or their voicemails. That really is where we see problems today. It’s not that you’re not saying enough, it’s that you’re trying to say too much. Now, I’ll take you through an email. We just mystery shopped a store recently with their trade-in form and on day eight we got a response back. They only had one process, a traditional process. So, even though we were trying to trade in our vehicle, we got a traditional email back from this prospect because they only have one.
I want to take you through that, even though I’m talking about credit app here. I want to take you through that piece, that email because it’s really bad for the prospect sample. I’m going to turn and read it, but you know what? The subject line was, I give up! Now, this is day eight and they’re already given up. That scared me, but it was in all caps, right? And then said, “Dear Jeff, I’ve been calling and emailing you for over week.” Not over a week, but over week. They didn’t even check for typo’s, all right. Now again, this was about us trying to trade in a vehicle. “I’m ready to give up, but I really want to help with your 2018 Honda Accord purchase!”
Imagine, by the way, first again, it’s a trade lead, right? But, imagine if this was a lead with no phone number or a credit app lead and they’re trying to sell me a car. It’s a bad experience for the prospect and it won’t drive a reconnection. It had a typo, which is typical when I mystery shop 20 groups, even it’s a template. This is a trade lead, but the template goes to all prospects in day eight. If the prospect had provided no phone, how is it I’ve been calling you for over week, right? How were they able to do that? If the lead was a credit with no vehicle, you end up getting blanks for that field, or I’ve seen this where it doesn’t merge, and it says, year, make, model, right? Not 2018 Honda Accord. It actually says, year, make, model.
That’s why you need different processes. At a minimum, minimum you need four processes. The ones that we’re giving you for free. And of course, with a great CRM, you should be able to create as many processes as necessary. For example, if you want to send different emails to say, Autobytel or AutoWeb leads then you do a website lead. Why not create a sub-bucket for auto Autobytel? All right, let’s recap the keys for all internet sales processes.
Number one, your goal is a reconnection, all right. Today’s leads are much lower funnel than they were in the past. Emailing forever, that guarantees you’re going to end up in spam, so you want to be the first person to call any prospect because remember the first person who connects with the prospect, is 238% more likely to sell them a car. So, use a rapid response tool, like WebControl with call drip. Remember with all the processes, there’s no [inaudible 00:06:05] in more than nine calls. Also, always use an auto response. Don’t overthink that. Don’t let someone talk you out of your auto response. It’s necessary. People look at the auto response like they look at the Amazon confirmation email. It’s a welcomed message.
All right, automatically fire all emails after your first personal response to all nonresponsive prospects. Remember, keep your emails short and text only. Always write what we call those FUSSE templates and scripts, okay? Fear, urgency, scarcity, shame, or excitement. Make sure that you have one of those compelling reasons in all of your templates and all of your voicemail scripts. You need to measure, and you need to make improvements. Now, I understand that’s a lot to remember, okay. That’s why you’re going to get a link to all of my processes. We’re going to wrap this up. I’m going to give you a link again where you can download my 2018 internet sales processes, templates, and voicemail scripts. You’re going to get my traditional process. You’re going to get my no phone process, my trade lead process, and my credit application process.
Now, if you have questions after today, contact me via the form at stevestauning.com or email me at steve@stevestauning.com. If you want to be notified of training before it happens or as soon as we post new videos, follow me on Twitter @stevestauning or follow us @udadvantage. You can also like us on the Facebook, just look for Steve Stauning on Facebook. You’ll see my business and my personal page. Feel free to follow both and also follow us, follow Undeniable Advantage on Facebook.
Jennifer
February 11, 2018 @ 11:16 pm
Would you recommend after processes have been exhausted…to set up to send an auto email say 90 days after your last contact…checking in with customer to see if they have made a purchase? Or if customer has told you they made a purchase…contacting them again in a year with an auto email offering service?
Basically should a lead ever be completely dead?
Steve Stauning
February 11, 2018 @ 11:30 pm
Great question, Jennifer!
I only wish there was an easy answer. If it were my dealership, I would likely opt for one last email at 90 days and then put them in a “lost” bucket. (Though I could easily be talked out of any email after Day 45 – or even Day 21.)
This does not mean I will never email them again; only that I will hyper-target any additional communication. (For example: They inquired about a new Camry and Toyota just increased an incentive – this would be a perfect email to send them, as it would provide them something of value.)
The problem with sending non-responsive prospects a monthly email forever is that you will be placed in their spam folders 100% of the time they do not unsubscribe. This causes you future issues with anyone using the same email service (Gmail, AOL, Mail.com, etc.). Plus, when you bother them to the point of unsubscribing, you never get the chance to email them when Toyota does indeed increase the incentives on the Camry.
Hope that makes sense.
Good selling!
Steve