Do Your Carfax.com Leads Close at Relatively Low Rates? Let me level set right from the start: I like Carfax. I have friends who work at Carfax. I think Carfax has (ultimately) been good for the industry. Additionally, this post is not intended to encourage dealers to cancel their Carfax.com listing agreements, only to drive […]
Stop Memorizing Word Tracks & Start Setting Real Appointments that Show and Buy If you’ve watched my free sales training videos, then you know my advice for you is to be very direct with today’s prospects – especially when it comes to setting appointments. The inspiration behind this approach rests solely with the realities […]
Customer Service at the Counter – How to Manage the Unmanageable A reader asked a few questions that included coping with angry customers at a service counter recently that I thought made sense to share with all. When you are working at a busy place where there are constantly overcrowded lines, and impatient people, we […]
Pigs get Fed and Hogs get Slaughtered I’ve written a few times about the adage ‘pigs get fed and hogs get slaughtered.’ The meaning (as it applies to business) is simply that it’s okay to make a profit, but when that profit is the result of price gouging and/or taking advantage of people, you’ll […]
How to Solve 99% of Customer Service Issues: Empower your Front Lines If you’re in the service business, there’s a simple way to solve nearly every customer issue that you’ll ever create: Empower your front lines. Many of the issues, in fact, are created specifically because your front line is not (or does not feel) […]
In a recent CBT News interview (that aired this week), Joe Gumm asked me the following question: “We’re about two months from wrapping up 2017; and some dealers are already thinking about 2018. So, if you had a top five list of things dealerships need in order to be successful from this point on, what […]
How to Always Respond First to Your Internet Leads There’s a great study I like to quote from a company called CraftJack that shows contractors who connect with a prospect lead first convert those leads into customers 238% more often than those who connect second. 238% more often! Just like it does for contractors, connecting […]
The Coming Automotive Retail Disruption? It’ll be about Price and Convenience (and Nothing Else) (This is a follow-up to an article I posted on DealerRefresh a couple of weeks ago that focused on the myth that dealers are behind other industries in terms of tech, marketing and the customer experience.) Can we please stop talking […]
Okay, so you know you need to employ a conversion button strategy on your websites, but did you know you can have too many buttons? You can. It comes down to choices for your site visitor; and research shows that when consumers are presented with too many choices, they punt. They make no choice. […]
Can we all agree that if we doubled our demo drive percentage, we could double our write up percentage? Great. Now, can we agree that if we doubled our write up percentage, we could double our closing percentage? Outstanding. Since we all agree on this, let’s shift our primary focus in the dealership away […]
As I wrote in the previous post in this series, a button strategy that drives leads is one of the simplest changes you can make to your website that will immediately drive more sales leads. So simple to get right… and so simple to get wrong. Buttons? Really? Buttons are so important to the […]
Changing the Culture at the DMV A regular reader of my writing asked me the following question via email recently: “According to state workers, the Department of Motor Vehicles is trying to change their reputation of rude customer service. With long lines, rude customers, customers who don’t want to deal with bureaucracy, how could […]
Newsflash: Car buyers hate the typical car buying process. Today, in their mind, they’ve already completed their own needs analysis. They’ve made their product selection. They know the car’s features. Everyone who submits a lead, calls you, or walks onto your lot is ready to test drive. In fact, because they’ve already come equipped […]
Whether addressing a 20 Group or consulting in a dealership, I am constantly asked questions like this: “So, Steve, what cool, new digital marketing sources are you seeing out there and what do you recommend?” The answer to this question always contains two parts: First, I tell them about the cool, new stuff I’m seeing; […]
Instead of being an 11- or 12-part, 3+ hour ordeal where your salespeople treat the prospects like suspects, the best road-to-the sale is actually controlled buying process: Controlled, in that your salespeople must remain fully in control throughout; Buying, in that the customer must feel like they’re buying, not being sold; and Process, in […]
Did you know that some of the nation’s best dealers have been closing their appointments that show at better than 80% for years? It’s true. Moreover, it’s actually not that hard to do – provided those at the top of your organization are truly committed to implementing a simple, repeatable process that works. The […]
There’s a strangely popular and wholly inaccurate post going around LinkedIn and other social media that generates tons of likes and shares – this, despite the post’s complete break from reality. I suppose it’s liked so much because it attempts to equate the demise of every industry to bad customer service and not technology; even when […]
When it comes to online vehicle specials, I’m flat out embarrassed for more than half of the dealerships I work with. There are even times that I actually want to ask: Why do you even have links to your specials pages on your website? If you’re a typical dealer, your specials pages can be […]
The good news about trying to create a great car buying experience is that there are similarities among all great dealership experiences that can be studied and adopted. Understanding what these are and why they make for a great buying experience allows you to easily include them in all of your store’s sales processes. […]
Tablets, as I wrote in the previous post in this series, can help your sales team stay on track with a great process – one that also happens to provide a great buying experience for the customer. The right tablet (or kiosk) software, configured correctly, simply won’t allow your team to merely “check boxes” […]