The Appointment Culture Light – PART 5

The Appointment Culture Light – PART 5

TRANSCRIPT: Now, how do dealers succeed in the appointment culture? Well, one, they fix the processes first, right? They make sure their processes are robust. They make sure that all activities are money activities. For example: they aren’t asking their team to make silly phone calls that don’t matter to the customer or to the dealership. Do all of their processes make sense? They make sure that they do, and are they firing properly in the CRM? Are we asking people to make calls on the right days?

Another reason they succeed is they let the process dictate the activities. They don’t push anything artificial. They don’t run around screaming “I want 50 calls a day!” If the CRM isn’t asking a particular salesperson to make any calls today, that salesperson doesn’t have to make them.

Their goal, for dealers who make this a success, is not appointments. Their goal is profitably growing their business. This seems strange to people. “Steve, it’s an appointment culture. Why wouldn’t my goal be to make appointments?” The goal of the managers in that store is to profitably grow their business, today and in the long term. They just know that by appointments, by driving phone calls and driving true appointments that show and buy, they will reach their goal.

Another reason they succeed is they focus on the QUALITY completion of activities; not just the completion of activities. They make sure they are completed in the manner the dealership has proscribed. They don’t allow box checking; they are all-in on the perfect appointment, right? Not just when it is convenient. I’ve had dealers tell me, “Well, we can do the perfect appointment – just not on Fridays or Saturdays. We’re too busy”. I don’t understand that, again, because, if you do the perfect appointment, you shrink the time that the customer is in the dealership to ninety minutes or less.

Another reason dealerships succeed is they have strict rules and definitions in place regarding appointments, the protected prospect we talked about, and skating. And, they enforce these each and every day.

They, also, never allow anyone on their team to sink. They don’t just throw people in the pool and see who sinks and who swims. They train the people every day.

Now, there are four steps to the ‘appointment culture light’ that we’re going to talk about.