Hannibal The DMS Cannibal: Part II

So you realized you may have your hand way too far in the DMS cookie jar. RDR’s are short, you pushed forward WAY too many clients in their trade cycle. Heck you probably pushed them twice by now, spiraling them into the “when will I see you again” category. Now you need to replace those customers, and fast. Ok great. Let me ask you this question first:  If I were to come in, and tell you that I could guarantee on the last day of the month, I could bring 35 people on a bus, all of whom can buy a car and will, how much would you pay me?  What would it be worth to you to have that type of shot in the arm to your monthly sales?  Crazy thought right?  You’d pay a lot, let’s all agree on that.

So where is the Magic Bus? Well, it pulls into your service lane, every single day. How many service clients do you have that were not sold at your dealership?  40%? 50%?  Higher?  You just found the honey hole my friend.  But don’t just jump in without a plan.  You need a definitive plan to properly sell to those customers in the service lane.  Let me start by saying this:  STOP PITCHING THEM!  A sales pitch can be heard a mile away.  They know it when they hear, heck they bought that car right?  So what do you do, what is the plan?

Step one: Find yourself a dynamic service lane sales tool. There are many out there, a few much better than most, but pick one and start using it.

Step Two: Integrate some form of pre-screening to have the opportunity to identify trade loan balance, and more importantly if that customer you are about to approach has the ability to take advantage of what you are about to propose.

Step Three: Ditch the Pitch. You know it…. “Hi I’m Don from ABC Toyota, and part of our VIP program is to evaluate your trade…. We really need that vehicle of yours”…. Insert your pitch here.  Develop a value proposition.  The engagement is inherently different, far more conducive to the sale, and will allow you not to ostracize a service customer.  “Mr. _____, as part of our VIP program, we do a market value trade appraisal. Now this isn’t just to see if what your car is worth. What we are looking to see if we can save you money in payment, finance charges or often times both. Now Mr. _____ here is what we found.”  Hit them with the proposition.

This streamlined approach utilizing these three steps, will give you a robust sales engine in your service lane.  Your closing ratio is higher, your cost of acquisition is lower, and your PVR averages 19.6% higher (NADA Statistics).  More importantly, you can give that dynamic sales rep a clear path of who to approach first, in priority.  Instead of wasting time seeing if they can buy, engage those you KNOW can buy first, and work your way down.  So there it is, the secret sauce.  Doesn’t seem so complicated, and sure does go down well with a nice Chianti!