Digital Response: Email – Call – Social Media

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I am amazed at the lack of creativity out there. I wonder if automotive professionals do not think of ideas or maybe they are being lazy. I mean we all know how that goes without saying in the business. The idea here is to figure out more effective methods of reaching prospects, internet, phone, and previous walk in.

Follow up scenario:

An internet lead comes in. The internet or BDC representative and/or manager have made numerous phone calls and emails to the prospect only to get no response. They think they have done everything to engage the customer and start to blame the customer, the internet, the dealership, and everything else that comes to mind. They fail to take a look in the mirror and think of what went wrong. These people start making excuses and stop looking for other methods. Now, they did all of their follow up and they are done. They go on facebook, twitter, youtube, or any other popular social network site and look for a way to kill time. Meanwhile, the month is getting closer to an end and the dealership has no traffic coming in.

“Help!!! I am not making any money. The economy is horrible. The internet customer is wasting my time. I can’t pay my bills. I am better off going to work for a salary.”
This is an emergency. How do we stop the bleeding?

We stop focusing on the negativity. We stop blaming others for our own failures.

The customer is not responding to emails. The national email open rate is really somewhere around 11%. I got this information from a power CRM/ILM Company. Do you realize how many junk emails people get every hour? We delete so many emails or avoid them because the content in them does not inspire us to open them.
The customer is not returning phone calls or is not picking up the phone. Did you leave a powerful voice message? Did you entice the customer with your enthusiasm? Did you provide benefits for the customer to talk to you? Did you remind the customer of a unique value package for them to do business with you? Did you let the customer know about your strong online reputation? Did you just leave a message quoting invoice or below invoice? Did you do some investigation to find out more about your customer? Can you honestly build a rapport off of the information that you have in the internet lead? What have you done to engage your prospects?

These are questions that need to be considered.

Social Media Follow Up. This is a third way to respond to customers. This is simple and powerful.
Go to google. Search the customer. Find information on the customer and match it up to the information in the internet lead. Find out about what they do for a living. Find out their hobbies. Send them a message directly on facebook. Leave them a voice message and mention something that you know about them in a positive way (things they would not expect you to know about them). When they hear your message, they will wonder, “how did he know this about me?” They will call you back just for that reason alone. “BINGO”. You are in.

If all you are doing is making calls and sending emails, you are not doing your job to the fullest potential. Consider how people communicate these days and learn to adapt. I believe in moving with the times. You cannot change your success until you change your thinking and improve the way that you conduct business.

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Comment by Tom Gorham on March 4, 2012 at 2:46pm: Stan, at a recent Saturday meeting one of the salespeople who has been with us for years, gave his complaints, and ended by saying, "That's why I hate the Internet".

My opinion is unequivocally that anyone who hates the Internet does not belong in sales. This particular person who has a lot of repeat business will stay. But how does his attitude affect others on the sales force? This, in my opinion, affects creativity and enthusiasm for solving problems and increasing productivity.

Creativity allows us to adapt to new circumstances that are beyond our past experiences. When we stop responding creatively, we stop being valuable. That is my opinion. Like Thomas Kelly says, that and a dollar will buy you a cup of coffee.

Comment by Stan Sher on July 18, 2011 at 4:13pm: Thanks so much.

Comment by Stephanie Young on July 18, 2011 at 4:05pm: Thanks for bringing this blog to my attention. I love how you get transitioning a relationship into a sale. Great read!!!!

Comment by Stan Sher on March 7, 2011 at 4:51pm: Mike,

Excellent. I missed this. You are so right.

Comment by Mike Stoner on February 17, 2011 at 12:18am: Forgot to mention that what the receipient sees is not a static image, he's actually waving to them.

Comment by Mike Stoner on February 16, 2011 at 11:48pm: Note the 43% overall open rate and that on average the video emails were viewed twice on average. Shows the power of a unique response to the incoming lead as opposed to the 11% cited above. 14% of all the incoming leads are converted to sales also.

This is what the receipient sees in their inbox:

And you can see the video by clicking HERE

Instead of sending templated (form letters) text based messages stand out from the crowd that is sending form letters with no human element.

This program also notifies the internet manager immediately upon it's being viewed. Within moments he calls. Invariably the person says "I was just watching your video" we say "you're kidding me" they say "no, really", we say "well I guess it's meant to be" and go for the appointment.

Notice no pricing or even mention of pricing. In the video are several calls to action (useful links). In addition to high closing rates the gross averages are high as well.

Mike Stoner

www.quickvidconnect.com

"I have ways of ma

Comment by Stan Sher on February 16, 2011 at 2:44am: That is brilliant. You are right on. This is a great idea. As a matter of fact, I think this is an especially great idea for beginners working in the internet or BDC. I like the "check off list" because it helps keep yourself in check and make sure that you did not miss a step.

Comment by Elise Kephart on February 16, 2011 at 12:40am: I use a check off list basis, and usually i get a response one way or another. phone call/voicemail, text message, video message to email, handwritten postcard...every customer, everytime!!!