A friend recently told me she’d waited five hours to buy a car – and naturally, she asked me why. In my answer, I found myself listing off several possible reasons she’d have to wait so long. The more I explained, the clearer it became: I should start the discussion here and give a few tips on how to avoid long wait times.
So, who are the people involved in your deal, and how do they impact your time at the dealer? Continue reading
What would the very best guide to understanding leases look like? No one can say for sure. What I’ll try for here, at least, is a lease guide that I wished had been around for me (someone who runs far, far away from anything math-related). I promise that not a single mathematical formula will sink its evil teeth into this article. Continue reading
In Dealer Reviews: Part 1, I discussed how dealer reviews impacted my quote response rates. What if you’re a 2-star rated dealer? What can you do to turn this around? Here’s an Action Plan for turning around your 1- and 2-star rated dealer reviews.
Look at your reviews and try to isolate the common complaint – and simply put a stop to it. Don’t just look at who’s mentioned in these complaints. For example, if salespeople are mentioned, these salespeople may just be following an existing sales process. If your Desk Managers aren’t listening to salespeople regarding the customer’s wants and needs, this will create a disconnect and a negative experience for shoppers. You may need to do away with the practice of putting processes before people. Continue reading
A strange thing happened last week. I began to send a quick video clip to each internet lead (like this video intro) immediately after emailing a quote. I was certain that after one week I’d be writing an article about how successful my video clips were – how they were the secret ingredient to my deals. But that’s not the article I’m writing. Because something else happened.
In nearly every response to my email, these prospective customers mentioned how they’d read about me on Yelp or through Google reviews. That’s because just before I started sending videos, I also happened to pick up two new Yelp reviews and one Google review in a single day. They were all 5-star reviews. Plus, one or two previous prospects I’d quoted a few weeks ago suddenly re-initiated contact with me. One said that even though she found a lower price, she hoped I could match it because she’d read so many positive reviews of the dealership where I worked.
Here are three car dealer manager catchphrases I both love and hate as a salesman. You won’t hear them in every dealership. But when you do, you can guess that dealer experiences some unhappy customer experiences and lost sales. Continue reading
Recently, Yelp informed me I’d become an “Elite” member. Being an Elite’r means that not only am I writing reviews for the businesses I visit, I’m also reading reviews of those I intend to visit.
Over the years, I’ve developed a few quick methods to ascertain what to expect at a business beyond what their overall star rating suggests. Usually, I find that looking beyond the surface has its rewards. For instance, if I’m reading reviews of a dentist and I see one complaint about the waiting room amongst great reviews for the dentist himself, I’ll pay less attention to the waiting room review. After all, I’m looking for a great dentist, not a great waiting room.
Here’s some tips on finding the right dealership for your new car purchase, whether you consult reviews from Google, Dealer Rater, Yelp, or Yahoo. Continue reading
The most important person you can hire in your dealership right now isn’t another 30-unit Internet Sales Manager (though, they are nice to have) or a 175-call-per-day BDC Rep who’s as good on the 175th call as he was on the second call (…actually, you’d better get that one) or a rock-star Service Advisor from a nearby competitor who’d connected with 868 service customers on Facebook (Hmmm… I’d lure that one, too). Continue reading
What’s so important about finding the right car dealer? Aside from helping you score a great price, the right dealer positions you for the best possible experience during and after the sale. But it’s easy to lose sight of all this when we’re reviewing offers. Here are some tips to help you find the right dealer. Continue reading
When you get into your car these days, you slide a big piece of your life in suspension. That life is your mobile one, and what’s in your pocket is probably an iPhone or an Android. You probably stare at it in intersections, elevators, meetings, and even in bed. When your date excuses herself for the bathroom, she’s probably engaged in her mobile phone while you do the same at the table. And when you see her approaching, in goes your phone, and you both smile. There’s a sigh of relief – not because she came back, not because your drinks were refilled, or because your salad came, but because you’ve both checked in with your mobile lives. There’s a momentary high. You’re all caught up again. As the next hour goes by, your anxiety builds again. Your phone receives 15 notifications before your date finishes telling you about her days as a roller derby girl. Continue reading
In Part 1, a sampling of 18 dealers and 1077 Yelp reviews revealed that customers were 26% more likely to have a positive experience at large dealers versus small ones. If you’re like me, you neither expected nor hoped for this result. In Part 2, we’ll look into possible reasons for this, drawing from my experience working for small dealers. Continue reading
I was a child of the 80s. That meant I wore a spiked bracelet, always carried a roll of quarters in my pocket for the video arcade, and spent countless hours in school auditoriums chanting that I’ll just say no to drugs. But I also remember, at the start of each new school year, looking around and pondering whom I’d team up with in the event of a Soviet invasion. Surely it was only a matter of time before an overwhelming force of Soviet soldiers would come parachuting from the sky. And in no time, my classmates and I would be a fully armed force peppering them with machine gun fire and living in forts in the woods behind school. As the year rolled on, I became more convinced that our small class would someday be war heroes. That war never came, but the idea of a small group refusing to be crushed by a larger force stayed alive.
Perhaps this is why, when I became a car salesman, I picked the smallest dealers I could find. My dream of fighting an overwhelming force was still possible. Smaller dealers would have to outperform larger competitors in one of the only areas they can: The treatment of our customers. Right? Or have I just imagining things? Continue reading