As of 2021, there over 200,000 used and new car dealerships within the United States alone. As a result, many dealerships are changing their customer approach in order to meet their sales quotas, scale their business, and contend in this highly competitive industry. One of the ways many dealerships are doing this is by improving their phone interactions with customers.
While many people may view cold calling customers as an outdated practice, it remains one of the most effective methods of improving sales funnels. In fact, an impressive 92% of all customer interactions take place on the phone with 75% of customers reporting a willingness to make an in-person appointment based on a cold call. Today, Phone Ninjas, one of the industry leaders of sales and phone skill coaching, hopes to stress upon sales teams the importance of certain sales skills and how, when used correctly, they can drastically improve both appointment rates and conversions.
Be Conscious of Active Listening
When interacting with customers, Phone Ninjas Vice President Christopher J. Vitale of Ohio always stresses the importance of active listening. Salespeople will often gain valuable insights by simply listening to the customer instead of leading them through the inventory and dominating the conversation. While many extroverted people are drawn to fields like sales, Christopher J. Vitale of Ohio believes it can actually hurt your sales conversions to be too talkative and social. Its important to remember, the customer has a better concept of what they want than you may think and by actively listening you are more likely to pick up on these insights and improve your chances of a sale.
Active listening is not a passive actively, and will require salespeople to not only remain quiet through parts of the conversation, but demonstrate to the client that they are understood by summarizing their points and asking questions to clarify certain information.
Questions Questions Questions
Before being able to sell a car, a salesperson must first learn what the customer is looking for, their wants and must-haves, their budget, and, perhaps most importantly, their comfort level. One of the many things PhoneNinjas teaches clients is even if a salesperson has found their customer a car that fits the majority of their must haves and is within budget, if the customer feels uneasy or rushed they are unlikely to finalize their purchase. It is a well-known sales fact that potential buyers are more likely to go through with a purchase and recommend a dealership to friends and family if they have been happy with their shopping experience and have created a trusting relationship with their dealership salesperson. Which is why fostering an excellent first impression with customers is so important. This initial conversation will create the basis for the relationship moving forward. On average, car shoppers will interact with 2.3 dealerships before making a purchase, meaning a positive or negative interaction with a salesperson can sway where they will make their purchase.
After the friendly introductions are made, salespeople will often ask the customer what their needs, car preferences, and budget limitations are for their next vehicle. While these questions are necessary for creating a baseline to move forward, salespeople should focus on more inquisitive questions as these will help to nurture a more personal relationship with clients and help build trust by helping the customer better understand their own wants. Some examples of more inquisitive questions include:
- What’s your ideal timeline look like for purchasing a vehicle?
- What activities would you like to use your car for? Commuting? Camping? Cross country road trips?
- What do you dislike about your current vehicle?
The majority of more obvious questions about budget and car models will often be answered naturally while looking over inventory and should not be pushed by the car salesmen. A turnoff for the majority of customers are grilling or overly aggressive questions relating to money and timelines.
Create the Perfect Car Sales Script
If you ask any car dealership in North America whether or not they use a car sales script, they will most likely answer yes. However, Phone Ninja’s CEO Jerry Thibeau warns readers that a script will not be enough to improve sale conversions if it isn’t tailored for the customer. While car sales script are crucial as they are an excellent tool for ensuring salespeople stay on message and share with customer important information, basic scripts can only get you so far. The majority of car sales scripts will work to collect customer information such as name and phone number, scheduling availability, and budget restrictions. However, Jerry Thibeau stresses that when you tailor your scripts for different contexts (in-bound and out-bound calls), customer needs (level of interest), and specialty calls (birthday or service call), you can drastically improve conversions through customer satisfaction. The first step, however, is providing staff members with the right words.
When creating your scripts its important to keep in mind that there is never one right approach for all customers. A sales team will speak with customers in variety of different situations and scenarios, some of which will require more improvisation from the team. However, in certain categories such as cold calling or leaving customer voicemails, sales people will be able to break down the customers exact needs and try to move them through the sales pipeline.
