How To Set & Sell Owner Marketing Appointments – PART 3

 

How To Set and Sell Owner Marketing Appointments – PART 3

TRANSCRIPT: There are a lot of benefits to appointments, right?

We just talked about how I can balance out my day, my week, right? Imagine if my Wednesdays started out being like my Saturdays. I showed you the higher closing percentages with appointments, especially if you can do the perfect appointment. We talked a little bit about the shortened sales process. Remember, dealers who follow the perfect appointment can close these deals – beginning to end – in 90 minutes or less. Contrast that to a traditional UP that might take me three to four hours.

What would you rather do – take three to four hours at a 20% close or take 90 minutes and get an 80% close? That shortened sales process gives you the opportunity to make more phone calls, set more appointments, see more prospects, sell more cars.

We talked about the higher CSI that you get with appointments and the higher grosses. All of this means more sold units and more money in your pocket if you can start setting appointments that show and buy.

So, “I’m in, Steve. I’m in. How do I get appointments? I want to know.”

Well, as I said in my other training, there is a secret to getting appointments. There really is, and here’s the secret if you’re ready. You have to ASK for the appointment.

Yeah, I know what you’re saying, “I ask for the appointment all the time.”

No, you don’t. Not if you’re a typical salesperson. You say things like, “When would you like to come in?” That is not asking for the appointment. See, your goal is an appointment that shows, so it’s not enough to ask for the appointment and say, “What works best for you, morning or afternoon?” “Do weekdays or weekends work better for you?” “When would you like to come in?” Those are soft. Those are weak appointment sets. They really are. You are not going to get the appointment to show. So, you have to ask for the appointment but, the goal is an appointment that shows.

If you’re going to start setting real appointments that show, you’ve got to understand that this happens on the phone. You can’t set appointment via email; you can’t set appointments via letters and you can’t set appointments sitting outside by the old point. You need to be at your desk and on your phone and I don’t mean on your beautiful, brick cell phone from the eighties.

You should be using your desk phone when you want to set appointments because your CRM should be open. Your desk phone should be used so it gets recorded into the CRM and, you should be making notes directly into the CRM when you start calling customers for owner marketing appointments that show and buy.

“OK, Steve, I’m in. I want to start setting owner marketing appointments that show and buy. What do I say to the customer?” Now if you’re using an equity mining tool, they may have some pretty good scripts for you, especially if you know that the customer is ‘in equity’, and that you can keep them at the same payment. That’s not a bad talk track.

So, let’s say that you’re not using an equity mining tool that has great scripts, right? Maybe we don’t know if the customer is ‘in equity’ or not. Maybe we’re just going to call from the database and this is where I want to live. I don’t need an equity mining tool. They are great to have; lots of dealers have sold lots of cars from them, but what I want to do is pick up the phone and start calling from my database. If I’m new to my dealership (one of the things I encourage you to do if you’re new to the dealership and you don’t have a strong database), I need to go to my manager and say, “I need an orphan owner database.” Hopefully, you can get 1000 to 2000 orphan owners who all bought at least 24 months ago.

Now, orphan owners are customers that bought from your dealership, but the salesperson no longer works there, OR they bought from a competing dealership, and they service at your dealership. Now, you get that database of orphan owners. If you don’t have an equity mining tool, you don’t need it.

You just start calling that database, people who have bought a new car more than 24 months ago and people who have bought a used car, say, 12 to 18 months ago or longer. You remember two things: buyer and immediate need. See, that’s all I have to say to this customer.

Let’s do a call real quick. Ring, ring. Customer answers, “Hello?”

“Hi, Mr. Jones. This is Steve Stauning calling from Stauning Jeep. Now, this may sound a little strange, but my general manager wanted me to call you today because we have a buyer and an immediate need for a 2012 Cherokee configured like yours is. Now, I don’t know if you’d consider selling it or not, but we do have two appraisal times open on Cherokees this afternoon. We’ve got a 12:15 and a 12:45, would either of those work for you?”

All he said was hello.

I want to make sure you understand something. I’m not lying to this customer. When I say, “My general manager wanted me to call you today”, ask your general manager. Say, “Would you like me to call my customer base?” He or she is going to look at you like you’d lost your mind. Of course.

Let’s talk about the buyer. I told him I have a buyer for his 2012 Cherokee. Am I lying? No. The buyer is my used car manager, and an immediate need – if I work in automotive and I’m an automotive salesperson, selling cars at retail – I’d better have an immediate need or I’m not going to have a job very much longer. And I’m certainly not going to make any money.

So, let’s make that call again, alright?

“Hi, Mr. Jones. This is Steve Stauning calling from Stauning Jeep. Now, this may sound a little strange but my general manager wanted me to call you today because we have a buyer and an immediate need for a 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee configured like yours is. Now, I don’t know if you’d consider selling it or not, but I do have two appraisal times open this afternoon on Cherokees. I’ve got a 12:15 and a 12:45, would either of those work for you?”

Again, all this customer said was hello.