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Inbound Calls

Automotive BDC > Inbound Calls

Secrets to a Successful Follow Up Call

When a customer leaves the lot without purchasing a vehicle, there’s a good chance he or she will never be back. A few may return, but most won’t. Does that mean you should never follow up with customers? Obviously not!

The follow-up call is critical and can absolutely save a deal. Even if only one out of ten customers comes back to the store and buys from you, it’s worth your time.

Unfortunately, many salespeople aren’t trained how to make effective follow up calls. I understand that when you call or text a customer, and they completely ignore you, it can be disheartening. But ask yourself honestly, are you giving them a reason to return your voice mail or text?

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If I Out Call You, I’ll Out Connect You

At its core, sales is a numbers game. It always has been and always will be. If you’re selling the same product that others are selling, you can only expect to close a percentage of customers that come into your store. In our industry, top performers close 50 to 60 percent of their appointments.

Therefore, logic dictates the only way to increase sales is to make more appointments. We all know you can’t rely on “ups” alone. So, how do you get more appointments? It’s pretty simple. You make more phone calls.

The person who makes the most phone calls makes the most connections. Those who make the most connections, make the most appointments and ultimately close the most sales. Makes sense, doesn’t it?

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How to Handle Inbound Sales Calls

As an industry, we have pretty much perfected the process of following up on Internet leads, but we are far from perfect when it comes to handling inbound phone leads. According to CallSource and IHS/Polk research, 84 percent of consumers purchase vehicles from a different dealership than the one they originally called.

The good news is, there’s a huge opportunity to improve. Consumers are using cell phones more than ever for research during the car-buying process. In recent years, this has led to a significant increase in the volume of inbound calls to dealerships, compared with the number of email and Internet leads which have stayed the same or even declined.

When a customer calls your dealership, most times you’ve got one shot to get it right. Which is why converting inbound calls to sales opportunities should be your number one priority. To ensure you don’t drive customers away, follow these tips. Read More

Bill_Wittenmyer_Connect_With_Leads

How to Connect With More Customers

Ask a dealer what they need to sell more cars and a typical answer will be “more leads.” On the surface, this makes sense. But to get more leads, you need to spend more money. Even then, you’re never really in control of how many leads get generated.

Now that new car sales and lead volume are plateauing, a better solution for selling more cars is to increase your customer connection rates. This may require a shift in mindset and habits of your sales staff.

After all, your salespeople were probably trained in the art of persuasion. They know how to overcome objections and close the deal. But do they know how to get a potential customer to respond to an email or call them on the phone? Read More

ELEAD1ONE Inbound Call Center Delivers 70 Percent Service Appointment Set Rate for Gettel Automotive Group

Atlanta, GA – October 23, 2017 – ELEAD1ONE announced today that its inbound call center service delivers a 70 percent appointment set rate for Florida-based Gettel Automotive Group. Of an average 7,200 inbound calls to the group’s 22 stores every month, more than 5,000 total appointments are set. This is significantly higher than the industry average of 30 to 50 percent appointment set rate.

Along with other improvements, the call center has helped drive a 15 percent same store, year-over-year increase in fixed ops gross for the last eight years. Additionally, ELEAD1ONE’s call center agents answer 100 percent of the total inbound calls to Gettel’s service departments, with an average time to answer of just seven seconds. Recent industry research shows that in the average dealership, 25 percent of inbound service callers never connect with a dealership employee, causing dealers to miss service opportunities.

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Dealership's Most Important Person

Most Important Person in Your Dealership

Who is your dealership’s most important person? Every time I ask this question I get different answers ranging from the dealer, to various members of management, or even that top salesperson tearing up the sales board, but very rarely – if ever – do I get the right answer.

Why? Because most don’t even think about this employee who is typically the lowest paid, perhaps youngest, and, to top it off, is quite often a part-time employee.

Your Dealership’s Most Important Person (Drumroll, please)

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