Leading an Appointment Culture – Part 12

Leading an Appointment Culture – Part 12

TRANSCRIPT: Okay, now it’s the ‘show’, right? It’s the final step in the perfect appointment. Its in-store VIP treatment. How are your managers managing this in-store VIP treatment? How can you make sure that its happening? How are they making sure that its happening? This is the show. They have to put on a show.

Is the prospect greeted and treated like a VIP? Does whoever walks up to Barbara Jones know that it’s Barbara Jones? Do they make her feel special? Does she feel like they were expecting her? Or, does she feel like a traditional ‘up’? See, every step that you make your prospect feel like an up; every step you make that makes your VIP feel like you’re just trying to just sell them a car, you are going to close at 20% instead of 80%. We’ve got to make her feel special. We’ve got to make her feel like a VIP.

So, let’s walk up to her and say, “Are you Mrs. Jones? Oh my gosh, I’m Steve Stauning. We are so glad you’re here. C’mon, let’s go get the keys to your Camry.” That’s how we do it. That’s how we meet and greet her. Hopefully, it’s by a manager. If it’s not happening by a manager, they will have to come by the desk and that’s why we have our VIP folder, with the keys, at the desk. Here’s our VIP folder. It says VIP in big letters. It’s got Barbara Jones’ name on it, her appointment time. She’s ready to go and we can’t do this show if the deal jacket and keys aren’t at the desk.

What we’re going to do is take Barbara Jones to the desk and she’s going to meet the manager and he’s going to shake her hand and say, “Mrs. Jones, I’m so glad you’re here. Here’s Bob, he’s going to take you on your test drive. He’s our product specialist on the Camry.” He’s going to hold up that VIP folder. She’s going to see it and her eyes are going to follow it because she’s feeling like a VIP. He’s going to hand that deal jacket off to Bob, the sales person. He’s going to say, “Bob’s our product specialist on that Camry, Mrs. Jones. When you get back from your test drive we’ll go ahead and do the paperwork.”

See, that’s a trial close. Are we doing a trial close? Do we have a ‘done deal’ attitude? That’s the key to closing at 80%. When the customer arrives we don’t do a bunch of needs analyses. We don’t do silly ‘road to the sell’ questions like, “Well, Mrs. Jones, what is it you like about the Camry? Is it the body style or the pricing”? We don’t need to ask those questions. We need to treat it like it’s a done deal. It’s part of the show. She’ll stop us if she doesn’t want to buy the vehicle. We’ve got to stop selling the vehicle. We just need to treat it like it’s already done.

We’ve got to make sure the trade appraisals are happening during the test drive. This is how you make sure that its in-store VIP treatment. If Mrs. Jones gets there and we do the deal jacket and we show her the great VIP letters and we hand the keys to Bob; we do a great trial close and then they leave the sales desk area and walk to Bob’s desk so he can fill out trade paperwork? Does she feel like a VIP now? No. The trade paperwork, if we knew what she was bringing in, should have been completed before she arrived. But, let’s say that she arrived and she was just going to test drive something and we didn’t know she had a trade. Bob, your sales person has got to be able to walk up to the desk with those keys, without any trade paperwork, and say, “Boss, she’s got a trade. It’s out there. I didn’t know about it. We’re going to go on the test drive.”

See, the trade appraisals happen during the test drive. We’re trying to shorten the time. We need a transaction speed of 90 minutes or less. That’s our goal and it doesn’t feel like a VIP treatment if you’re stuck in a dealership for five hours on a Saturday. And, so, if you want to close at 80 %, if you want to make the customers feel special, if you want to get great grosses and terrific CSI, you’ve got to have this goal of in and out in under 90 minutes. That’s the perfect appointment and that’s the VIP treatment part of it. Can your team manage it?