"Find out how to win in 2011"
The Complement Slip Idea
Your goal is to identify on your Database customer who purchased a vehicle over two years ago. Having identified them in your Database send them a compliment slip in the post with the following line written on it:
"Please call me re your car, PS this is not urgentQuote reference ABC123"
The reference number is either the customers registration number, post code, surname or their ID number within your database, it is there so you can tick them off the list so you can see who has and who hasn't responded to your mail shot.
The Challenge is to send 20 a day, one you have completed the customers who bought over two years ago, fall back to two and half and back to two years. Do not send more than 20 a day as the phone will melt, i can assure you of that.
The next thing you need is a good strong reason to use as to why you have asked the customer to call you. Consider using the "We want to buy your car from you" as demonstarted in the course workbook.
"Please call me re your car, PS this is not urgentQuote reference ABC123"
The reference number is either the customers registration number, post code, surname or their ID number within your database, it is there so you can tick them off the list so you can see who has and who hasn't responded to your mail shot.
The Challenge is to send 20 a day, one you have completed the customers who bought over two years ago, fall back to two and half and back to two years. Do not send more than 20 a day as the phone will melt, i can assure you of that.
The next thing you need is a good strong reason to use as to why you have asked the customer to call you. Consider using the "We want to buy your car from you" as demonstarted in the course workbook.
Personalised Customer Calenders
Call the team at Flare for your quote on a personalised calender for each and every customer you sell to
http://www.flarecalenders.co.uk
http://www.flarecalenders.co.uk
Nine Quick Prospecting Methods
Many salespeople prospect little, if at all, for two primary reasons:
they are so focused on the short-term results of their job that they fail to build a career;
they become discouraged because they see little immediate results from their prospecting efforts.
Sadly, most of these efforts are sloppy and haphazard!
With a little bit of common sense, consistency and courage,
you can build a prospecting discipline into your sales arsenal that not only brings in immediate results…but will also convert your job into a long-term, high-paying career.
Following are nine quick prospecting tips you can apply right away:
1.Prospect before you need prospects!
Many salespeople prospect only when business is slow.
They are motivated primarily by desperation and the fear of starvation and by a Sales Manager who is way of their target!
The key, one-word strategy that makes prospecting far more effective is "proactive".
2. Get consistent!
Inconsistent prospecting efforts bring little results and much frustration. Carry out your prospecting activities "Daily"
3. Use follow-up to convert initial introductions into relationships.
Without follow-up, prospecting is an extremely low-percentage proposition.
Following up by phone, by sending out information or placing the prospect on your mailing list is essential to turning a "new face" into a consistent source for sales.
4. Remember the Timing and Chemistry formula when prospecting, find the people who are actually in the market, and stop trying to force those who aren't, how do you do this by knowing your customer. Once you have found them, work on building the chemistry, without both ingredients it becomes hard work.
Line up your customers by truly knowing their change cycles and more importantly what motivates them.
5. Use soft-touch and not hard sell.
Pushy prospecting efforts turn off potential buyers and destroy any chance you have for building a long-term relationship with them.
6. Give people a reason to ask for you!
Be memorable, in a positive way! What makes you different? What makes you better?
You've got about ten seconds to communicate this to your prospect.
7. Give people a reason to buy now !
You should plant this seed in general terms when first meeting a prospect
and then follow-up with more specificity and urgency after your initial contact in order to move them to purchase.
8. Chart your progress and set goals for improvement.
If you don't measure and track your progress, you are unlikely to stick with your prospecting efforts.
Tangible results will make a believer out of you.
They will also offer clues for improving your efforts or reinforcing strategies that are already working for you.
9. Always try to turn one deal into two.
Maximize your prospect by gaining a prospect from him or her that will serve to fill his or her place in your pipeline. Or by asking "Are there any other drivers in the family"
Consider how these nine strategies can help you become better at the art of prospecting and customer contact so you can become an "A" Player in the field of selling.
they are so focused on the short-term results of their job that they fail to build a career;
they become discouraged because they see little immediate results from their prospecting efforts.
Sadly, most of these efforts are sloppy and haphazard!
With a little bit of common sense, consistency and courage,
you can build a prospecting discipline into your sales arsenal that not only brings in immediate results…but will also convert your job into a long-term, high-paying career.
Following are nine quick prospecting tips you can apply right away:
1.Prospect before you need prospects!
Many salespeople prospect only when business is slow.
They are motivated primarily by desperation and the fear of starvation and by a Sales Manager who is way of their target!
The key, one-word strategy that makes prospecting far more effective is "proactive".
2. Get consistent!
Inconsistent prospecting efforts bring little results and much frustration. Carry out your prospecting activities "Daily"
3. Use follow-up to convert initial introductions into relationships.
Without follow-up, prospecting is an extremely low-percentage proposition.
Following up by phone, by sending out information or placing the prospect on your mailing list is essential to turning a "new face" into a consistent source for sales.
4. Remember the Timing and Chemistry formula when prospecting, find the people who are actually in the market, and stop trying to force those who aren't, how do you do this by knowing your customer. Once you have found them, work on building the chemistry, without both ingredients it becomes hard work.
Line up your customers by truly knowing their change cycles and more importantly what motivates them.
5. Use soft-touch and not hard sell.
Pushy prospecting efforts turn off potential buyers and destroy any chance you have for building a long-term relationship with them.
6. Give people a reason to ask for you!
Be memorable, in a positive way! What makes you different? What makes you better?
You've got about ten seconds to communicate this to your prospect.
7. Give people a reason to buy now !
You should plant this seed in general terms when first meeting a prospect
and then follow-up with more specificity and urgency after your initial contact in order to move them to purchase.
8. Chart your progress and set goals for improvement.
If you don't measure and track your progress, you are unlikely to stick with your prospecting efforts.
Tangible results will make a believer out of you.
They will also offer clues for improving your efforts or reinforcing strategies that are already working for you.
9. Always try to turn one deal into two.
Maximize your prospect by gaining a prospect from him or her that will serve to fill his or her place in your pipeline. Or by asking "Are there any other drivers in the family"
Consider how these nine strategies can help you become better at the art of prospecting and customer contact so you can become an "A" Player in the field of selling.
TELEPHONE APPOINTMENT TRAFFIC LIGHT LOG
Work with your team to turn the lights green as soon as possible on a daily basis
More appointments equals more sales
More appointments equals more sales
| activity_explosion_scoreboard.ppt |
TARGET AND REWARD FOR DAILY PROSPECTING AND FOLLOW UP
Managing Prospecting and Follow Up
You may recall that on our Retail Focus Day for Managers we said that two of the six ways to grow a business were the following
1. Find more Customers Daily; in Other words the art of prospecting
2. Put the customer back into the buying cycle as quickly as possible; in other words the art of follow up
Your goal for 2010 is to drive both of these areas on a daily basis within your business, the key message being the word, Daily, not some of the time, not now and then, not as a knee jerk reaction, but daily. Daily consistent prospecting and daily consistent follow up will be one of the major keys to a successful 2010.
So why is it we are still not as strong as we should be in this area?
There are a number of reasons:
1. Sales People are not targeted to create new prospects or to maintain relationships with existing customers.
2. They are fearful, afraid of bad news when following up an existing customer or afraid of rejection when talking to a new customer.
3. They do not understand “WHY”, why it is important for them to maintain long term healthy relationships with both owners and opportunities
4. They are dis-organised and do not prepare correctly
5. The only time they do prospect is when you turn the screws, and that usually means a call trying to sell something as opposed to a call to maintain, grow and develop a relationship with a customer. (In fact this is an opinion shared by a vast number of customers, we only call when we are trying to sell something)
6. They cannot access the information required to follow up, so give up more quickly.
7. They think short term and not long term, because that’s where we, as a manager focus them.
While the above is true, and there are other reasons as well, until we change the focus on prospecting and follow up, nothing will change.
So the goal today is to challenge you to revisit all the systems and process you use in your business today regarding prospecting and follow up.
Below are the best practice guide lines to achieve better results in this vitally important area of our business.
1. Create two Databases – Owners and Opportunities, both require different tactics when marketing to them.
Owners require retention tactics
Opportunities require seduction tactics
2. Monitor monthly the amount of repeat business you get from the owners Database, we should be retaining 70% as a minimum. For every 100 cars we sell, our goal is to retain at least 70, some will move out of area, some will die and some will change lifestyles and we may not be able to accommodate them with our current range.
Now I would expect that this is an area that most of the industry does not measure, if you are not sure what your repeat business is find out and work on growing it.
3. Target the sales people individually on achieving 70% repeat business from their own individual customer databases.
4. Target the sale people to do 20 prospecting and follow up activities per day.
5. Target the sales people to make 3 appointments per day
6. Ensure every lead gets in to one of the two databases.
7. Teach the sales team the Time and Mileage follow up scripts shown in this section, so that they never fail at follow up and as a result change their attitude towards it.
8. Contact both databases every 90 days
9. Implement a renewals program for new and used customers (Details posted soon)
10. Spot check an audit train on 10 customer enquiries in your business, to ensure that the quality of information is being gathered and more importantly posted in to the databases.
11. Reward the sales person who grows his database by the most new customers every month.
12. Ensure that a member of the sales team is prospecting in the service department daily (More information on how to in this section)
13. Look for training and coaching opportunities in the sales funnel (Download the example shown here)
Excell Based Database - Download Here
Download and use this simple excell database to manage all of your leads efficiently
| otdb.xls |
THE TIME AND MILEAGE FOLLOW UP TACTIC
The Gold Mine
Today’s challenge is all about the gold mine that most dealers are sat on! "yep there's gold in them there Dealership's" and I am going to tell you where it is and how to mine for it.
The gold is buried deep in the Dealership database, it's a place where very few people go! Most sales people i talk to are critical of the database that the dealership has, they usually quote one of the following reasons for not utilising it effectively:
The Data's old or incomplete
The quality of the data that does exist is poor
I can't access it
I don't know how to access it
I can't be bothered to access it!
We have hit it so many times no-one wants to hear from us
While all of the above might be true to a certain extent, most sales people do not use the database correctly or in a constructive way as most have never been shown how to. Clearly as you can tell from the list above limiting beliefs play a big part in preventing great results by using the data correctly. So from today on, i want you to drop what you believe to be true about the information, prospecting and follow up and open up your senses to the possibilities that i will share with you in today’s challenge.
Back to the gold mine, when the great gold prospectors of the 1800's, found gold in America, the find's triggered a mad rush for everyone to stake a claim,. This stampede caused resentment about who owned what and in some cases fighting and shootings broke out. When a stake was bought and the land worked and mined, providing you hit the right seam, gold was found. All of this took time and effort on behalf of the miners, they got nothing for doing nothing, and in terms of prospecting and follow up that’s exactly what you will get if you do the same. If you do nothing to generate business, you will get nothing in return, if you dig in the wrong places the likely hood again is little or no return.
So the goal today is to challenge you to dig out the gold that is sat in your database and show you how to mine it to get the riches you deserve.
Here's how, regardless of the quality of your database, how up to date it is or how much information it holds, all that is irrelevant, you can start today, from where you are and create results for the future.
The technique i am going to share with you today is called the Time and Mileage technique, it's very straightforward, and can be used when calling the database, when in the service department, when face to face, basically in any environment when you are talking to a customer. Here are some of the benefits learning this technique will give you:
1. It will allow you to be crystal clear about the time when your customer will be most receptive to an offer or your marketing, in other words when the customer really is in the market to but. Saving you wasted calls to people and trying to convince them against their will to buy.
2. It will allow you to self-cleanse and update the quality of information you have in your database, making your job that much easier in the future.
3. It will demonstrate to the customer that you genuinely care about them
4. It will allow you to find out who else owns a vehicle in the family and tell you when to approach them.
5 It will assist you in building a long term solid business of your own that is not affected by the peaks and the troughs of the manufactures appeal.
6. It will assist you in being recognised as a professional in the industry and set you apart from all the other sales people in your team.
Can you see how powerful learning this simple technique will be to you and your results... let me show you how to make it work.
Call a Customer...open up how you feel comfortable, this is my method
Hi is that Mr Jones?, My names Jon Davies i am one of the retail salesman down at ABC Dealership, the reason for my call is to let you know that the sales person who sold you your car has left the Dealership, our MD has asked me to look after you personally in the months ahead, so i thought i would call and introduce myself to you."
Here's the important part
"While i have got you on the phone can i take a moment to upgrade the records here, are you still at No 16 Church Street? great".
(Update any other information you want, not too mush as you may lose the customers interest if you keep firing off question after question.)
Can i ask you, as it doesn't say here, when you change your car do you do that based on time or mileage?
"Mileage, normally Jon"
Great, what mileage do you normally change at Mr Jones?
"about 40,000 miles"
and how many miles has the car done right now?
"30,,000, i think"
Roughly how long will it take you to do the other 10,000 miles?
"about 6 months i guess"
Excellent thanks for sharing that with me.
OK so what have we done so far,
1. Introduced ourselves
2. Updated our records
3. Got a time frame when the customer is in the market to change
Not bad on a simple call. you noticed that this customer used mileage as their trigger to change, we converted that back into time, by asking how long it would take to do the additional 10,000 miles. If the customer had said "time", we would have just followed with, what time in the months ahead do you see yourself changing your car? Either way, we get the time frame involved when the customer is going to be most receptive to the offers we have available.
Today’s challenge is all about the gold mine that most dealers are sat on! "yep there's gold in them there Dealership's" and I am going to tell you where it is and how to mine for it.
The gold is buried deep in the Dealership database, it's a place where very few people go! Most sales people i talk to are critical of the database that the dealership has, they usually quote one of the following reasons for not utilising it effectively:
The Data's old or incomplete
The quality of the data that does exist is poor
I can't access it
I don't know how to access it
I can't be bothered to access it!
We have hit it so many times no-one wants to hear from us
While all of the above might be true to a certain extent, most sales people do not use the database correctly or in a constructive way as most have never been shown how to. Clearly as you can tell from the list above limiting beliefs play a big part in preventing great results by using the data correctly. So from today on, i want you to drop what you believe to be true about the information, prospecting and follow up and open up your senses to the possibilities that i will share with you in today’s challenge.
Back to the gold mine, when the great gold prospectors of the 1800's, found gold in America, the find's triggered a mad rush for everyone to stake a claim,. This stampede caused resentment about who owned what and in some cases fighting and shootings broke out. When a stake was bought and the land worked and mined, providing you hit the right seam, gold was found. All of this took time and effort on behalf of the miners, they got nothing for doing nothing, and in terms of prospecting and follow up that’s exactly what you will get if you do the same. If you do nothing to generate business, you will get nothing in return, if you dig in the wrong places the likely hood again is little or no return.
So the goal today is to challenge you to dig out the gold that is sat in your database and show you how to mine it to get the riches you deserve.
Here's how, regardless of the quality of your database, how up to date it is or how much information it holds, all that is irrelevant, you can start today, from where you are and create results for the future.
The technique i am going to share with you today is called the Time and Mileage technique, it's very straightforward, and can be used when calling the database, when in the service department, when face to face, basically in any environment when you are talking to a customer. Here are some of the benefits learning this technique will give you:
1. It will allow you to be crystal clear about the time when your customer will be most receptive to an offer or your marketing, in other words when the customer really is in the market to but. Saving you wasted calls to people and trying to convince them against their will to buy.
2. It will allow you to self-cleanse and update the quality of information you have in your database, making your job that much easier in the future.
3. It will demonstrate to the customer that you genuinely care about them
4. It will allow you to find out who else owns a vehicle in the family and tell you when to approach them.
5 It will assist you in building a long term solid business of your own that is not affected by the peaks and the troughs of the manufactures appeal.
6. It will assist you in being recognised as a professional in the industry and set you apart from all the other sales people in your team.
Can you see how powerful learning this simple technique will be to you and your results... let me show you how to make it work.
Call a Customer...open up how you feel comfortable, this is my method
Hi is that Mr Jones?, My names Jon Davies i am one of the retail salesman down at ABC Dealership, the reason for my call is to let you know that the sales person who sold you your car has left the Dealership, our MD has asked me to look after you personally in the months ahead, so i thought i would call and introduce myself to you."
Here's the important part
"While i have got you on the phone can i take a moment to upgrade the records here, are you still at No 16 Church Street? great".
(Update any other information you want, not too mush as you may lose the customers interest if you keep firing off question after question.)
Can i ask you, as it doesn't say here, when you change your car do you do that based on time or mileage?
"Mileage, normally Jon"
Great, what mileage do you normally change at Mr Jones?
"about 40,000 miles"
and how many miles has the car done right now?
"30,,000, i think"
Roughly how long will it take you to do the other 10,000 miles?
"about 6 months i guess"
Excellent thanks for sharing that with me.
OK so what have we done so far,
1. Introduced ourselves
2. Updated our records
3. Got a time frame when the customer is in the market to change
Not bad on a simple call. you noticed that this customer used mileage as their trigger to change, we converted that back into time, by asking how long it would take to do the additional 10,000 miles. If the customer had said "time", we would have just followed with, what time in the months ahead do you see yourself changing your car? Either way, we get the time frame involved when the customer is going to be most receptive to the offers we have available.
LAST PUSH - PROSPECTING FOR SCRAPPAGE CUSTOMERS
Prospecting for Scrappage Customers?
Today’s challenge is designed to get you to do something that no other sales person in the UK will be doing right now.
We know that the scrappage scheme has a limited shelf life, we also know the reasons why someone should buy now, today as we covered those reasons in an earlier challenge. We also know we now have some stock to sell but exactly how many people in our area know this?. So let’s not miss a golden opportunity.
Our challenge today is to encourage you to use Autotrader as a tool to identify potential scrappage customers in your area. Here’s the process, put your dealership post code in the search engine, click on private adverts price select up to £2000 and see what crops up.
I did this from home yesterday and there were 38 cars that fell in the age and price band within a 10 mile radius of my home.
Call each customer to see if the car’s still available and inform them of who you are and tell them how the scrappage offer works, you will do some business, so get stuck in.
Remember you have nothing to lose and absolutely everything to gain
Today’s challenge is designed to get you to do something that no other sales person in the UK will be doing right now.
We know that the scrappage scheme has a limited shelf life, we also know the reasons why someone should buy now, today as we covered those reasons in an earlier challenge. We also know we now have some stock to sell but exactly how many people in our area know this?. So let’s not miss a golden opportunity.
Our challenge today is to encourage you to use Autotrader as a tool to identify potential scrappage customers in your area. Here’s the process, put your dealership post code in the search engine, click on private adverts price select up to £2000 and see what crops up.
I did this from home yesterday and there were 38 cars that fell in the age and price band within a 10 mile radius of my home.
Call each customer to see if the car’s still available and inform them of who you are and tell them how the scrappage offer works, you will do some business, so get stuck in.
Remember you have nothing to lose and absolutely everything to gain
FOCUS ON FOLLOW UP
Focus on Follow Up
A few years ago a manufacturer of vehicles decided to do carry out a follow-up survey on a selection of customers who had recently taken delivery of one of their new vehicles.
The objective was to measure the level of customer satisfaction with the product and with the supplying dealers. The survey was carried out by telephone, the selected customers first being advised by letter that the survey was going to take place and the reason why it was being done.
All the usual questions were being asked, such as “Are you happy with the purchase?” and “Was the vehicle handed over in an acceptable condition”. But there were one or two more unusual questions asked as well:
“Would you have any objection to being followed up by the person who sold you the car?”
And
“Has the person who sold you the car followed you up?”
The answers were incredible, virtually 100% of the customers said they would lover to hear form the person who sold them the car. Virtually 100% of the customers said that they had not received a phone call from the person who sold them the car, and the survey took place six weeks after the delivery!
As you know Steve has now bought 8 cars from different dealers and not yet received a phone call from any of them.
Why does this happen, why is our industry still poor at doing what should be a very simple task?
Let’s take a look at some of the excuses we have heard from some of your colleagues.
“I see the customers when they come in for Service”
The truth is today that cars are more reliable and so need servicing less and less, which means that time in between seeing the customer in the service department is becoming longer and longer. Plus, you might be busy, they might be in a hurry or you might just miss him. There are to many “might be’s” here for comfort.
“I think it’s cheeky ringing people”
Well it would appear your customers do not! Most customers will be delighted to hear from you. It’s a shame we do not work as hard to keep customers as we do to make them a customer in the first place.
“They might have a problem”
True, and if you don’t keep in touch you will not have to know or worry about it. Like the old saying, out of sight out of mind, Do you realise that in the Japanese language that is the closest you could possibly get to the translation “Blind Idiot”!
Salespeople who do follow up are never blind to problems and are certainly not idiots, they know exactly what’s going on. If a problem was to arise they are only to pleased to solve it as they see it as an opportunity to impress.
“Customers don’t like being pestered”
It depends what you mean by “Being Pestered”. It’s most unlikely that customers would appreciate a follow up call from you every week, Fortnightly emails or mailshots will have the same negative effect. However some form or relevant personal contact every 90 days will not be deemed as being pestered but enough to remind the customer that you care and still exist.
“I haven’t got the time”
If some salespeople spent less time worrying about how little time they have got, then they would have enough time to follow up every customer properly. All it needs is a plan.
So today’s challenge is to plan to follow up 15 customer every day in one format or another, first change your attitude to follow up. If you have found yourself using some of the “Loser Talk” being displayed above, then make sure you now start talking the language of a “Winner”, who says to themselves ;
“As a duty of care for my customers and because I genuinely like them, I will do my utmost to make sure I keep staying in touch and build a long term relationship with each and every customer I meet”.
A few years ago a manufacturer of vehicles decided to do carry out a follow-up survey on a selection of customers who had recently taken delivery of one of their new vehicles.
The objective was to measure the level of customer satisfaction with the product and with the supplying dealers. The survey was carried out by telephone, the selected customers first being advised by letter that the survey was going to take place and the reason why it was being done.
All the usual questions were being asked, such as “Are you happy with the purchase?” and “Was the vehicle handed over in an acceptable condition”. But there were one or two more unusual questions asked as well:
“Would you have any objection to being followed up by the person who sold you the car?”
And
“Has the person who sold you the car followed you up?”
The answers were incredible, virtually 100% of the customers said they would lover to hear form the person who sold them the car. Virtually 100% of the customers said that they had not received a phone call from the person who sold them the car, and the survey took place six weeks after the delivery!
As you know Steve has now bought 8 cars from different dealers and not yet received a phone call from any of them.
Why does this happen, why is our industry still poor at doing what should be a very simple task?
Let’s take a look at some of the excuses we have heard from some of your colleagues.
“I see the customers when they come in for Service”
The truth is today that cars are more reliable and so need servicing less and less, which means that time in between seeing the customer in the service department is becoming longer and longer. Plus, you might be busy, they might be in a hurry or you might just miss him. There are to many “might be’s” here for comfort.
“I think it’s cheeky ringing people”
Well it would appear your customers do not! Most customers will be delighted to hear from you. It’s a shame we do not work as hard to keep customers as we do to make them a customer in the first place.
“They might have a problem”
True, and if you don’t keep in touch you will not have to know or worry about it. Like the old saying, out of sight out of mind, Do you realise that in the Japanese language that is the closest you could possibly get to the translation “Blind Idiot”!
Salespeople who do follow up are never blind to problems and are certainly not idiots, they know exactly what’s going on. If a problem was to arise they are only to pleased to solve it as they see it as an opportunity to impress.
“Customers don’t like being pestered”
It depends what you mean by “Being Pestered”. It’s most unlikely that customers would appreciate a follow up call from you every week, Fortnightly emails or mailshots will have the same negative effect. However some form or relevant personal contact every 90 days will not be deemed as being pestered but enough to remind the customer that you care and still exist.
“I haven’t got the time”
If some salespeople spent less time worrying about how little time they have got, then they would have enough time to follow up every customer properly. All it needs is a plan.
So today’s challenge is to plan to follow up 15 customer every day in one format or another, first change your attitude to follow up. If you have found yourself using some of the “Loser Talk” being displayed above, then make sure you now start talking the language of a “Winner”, who says to themselves ;
“As a duty of care for my customers and because I genuinely like them, I will do my utmost to make sure I keep staying in touch and build a long term relationship with each and every customer I meet”.
