How To Set & Sell Owner Marketing Appointments – PART 2

 

How To Set and Sell Owner Marketing Appointments – PART 2

TRANSCRIPT: So there are a lot of opportunities for why we need to start setting appointments. The number one reason is we are going to close at a much higher rate. The average dealer closes about one in five traditional UP’s – really, anywhere between 9-20% of the traditional UP’s who arrive on their lot on the first visit. Traditional UP’s still take three to four hours to close. Moreover, traditional UP’s for CSI is a complete coin flip. How many times have we sold a traditional UP – we went out of our way, we stayed late, we were there until 11:30 at night, we made very little – maybe it was a mini, but we really worked hard to get them the best deal we could and we KNEW when they left here, they loved us. We KNEW they were going to give us a perfect score on CSI.

Then we get the CSI back and they crushed us, didn’t they? They gave us 40%. See, that’s the problem with taking traditional UP’s: it takes a lot longer to do – to close one from beginning to end, CSI is a complete coin flip, grosses are a complete coin flip, and we’re only going to close one out of five anyway.

If I were selling cars again today, I would not want to take traditional UP’s. What I would want to do is work a database and make owner marketing appointments because, if I were AVERAGE, I could close 60% of the owner marketing appointments that show. That’s right, the same dealers that close only 20% of their UP’s, close 60% of their owner marketing appointments that show. So, these customers arrive, ready to give you a fair price for your vehicle.

More than that, because you got to inject them with new car fever when they arrived for their appointment, and because they are a repeat customer, you not only make better grosses but you make much better CSI. CSI is always higher with repeat customers than it is with traditional UP’s. Now, if you can get your dealership to start doing the perfect appointment – where we treat every appointment like it’s a true VIP experience, you will be able to close at 80 % or better. Dealers today who follow the perfect appointment close four out of five appointments that show, and they are doing them in 90 minutes or less. They are, also, getting perfect CSI’s for their trouble.

Right now you are probably living off the UP bus, right? If you’re a traditional sales rep, in automotive, you live off the UP bus. You sit outside with your hands in your pockets. The problem with living off the UP bus is that the traffic controls you, right? The traffic is a series of peaks and valleys. The peaks are the weekends, the valleys are, generally, during the week, and there is nothing you can do to drive that UP bus, unless you can move to the appointment bus, where you are setting appointments, owner marketing appointments in your name, in your dealership.

When you live off the appointment bus, YOU are in control. You know what you are going to sell in the next hour, the next day, the next week, the next month. Here’s the vision – I’m going home tonight. Let’s say it’s a Tuesday, I’m starting my car at 9:00. I’m going home on time. We close at 9:00, I’m going home at 9:00. When someone says to me, “How late are you open?” I don’t say we’re open until 9:00 anymore, because when I say that, they say, “Great, I’ll be in before 9:00”. We know that when consumers say that it could be 8:59 or it could be 9:15, if the lights are still on, right? So, what I say when someone asks, “How late are you open?” I say, “We’re open until nine, but my last test drive on that Camry is 7:15. Now, I have a 6:45 and a 7:15, which of these works better for you?”

That’s why I’m getting out on time tonight. I don’t let people show up at 8:59. I don’t let them take me till midnight to make a mini deal and have them crush me on CSI. I just don’t do that and neither should you. So, it’s Tuesday night, you’re starting your car. It’s 9:00, you’re going home but you know you have three appointments, three owner marketing appointments that you set for yourself for tomorrow. If you are average, you know you have two car deals done, no matter what happens. You have two done and if you can do the perfect appointment, you might get all three.