Six Ways To Increase Dealership Sales 25% Without Adding Expense Part 2

Any dealer can increase sales 25% within 90 days through Total Opportunity Management. Total Opportunity Management is a process that provides dealers an efficient and cost effective way to maximize each and every sales opportunity. Last article, I covered phone-ups, floor traffic and the internet. This time around I focus on repeat, referral and new business opportunities.

First and foremost, as a management team, the day you make owner follow-up and prospecting a job responsibility rather than an encouraged activity is the day you set sail for your 25% increase. The day your management team decides to become proactive as a dealership culture is the day your staff comes to work to sell cars rather than wait around for people to buy them. Your 25% guaranteed increase is only a few simple management decisions away. Let’s go through the last three of six ways to increase sales 25% without adding expense so that you can get started today.

Total Opportunity Management – Repeat Sales

A repeat sale is a sale generated from any of the households from your customer database (for example, Bill Smith buys a car and the salesperson gets his daughter to come in). Let’s do the math. If a salesperson had 600 households in their database, it typically represents about 1,200 vehicles. The average turnaround for those 1,200 vehicles is about four years. That salesperson would have approximately 300 sales (NOT PROSPECTS, but SALES) coming out of their CRM a year. Some years will be a little over 300, some years a little less. Some months will be a little more than 25, some months less. The point is that these are 300 sales, NOT PROSPECTS, a year! Your dealership has a better chance at selling these households than any other dealership in the world! Is there anybody better to talk to today than the people that drive your product, live in your area, and were happy at one time at your dealership or they wouldn’t have made the decision to business with you!?! Keep in touch with them. Service them the way all customers deserve. Prospect the household and ask effectively for referrals. Who do you know! Out of the 25 sales each month, if you’re effectively following up your customers, and with that I mean quality conversations (how many drivers, how many vehicles, who’s next…), then how many of the 25 should a salesperson deliver? I’m thinking no less than 6 to 8 units. For Pete’s sake, that’s only 24-32%. Heck, what if you only sold 6?!?! A minimum of 6 repeat sales are guaranteed to the salesperson who does 40 quality conversations a week. It’s impossible to fail if you do this.

Total Opportunity Management – Referral Sales

A referral is somebody that comes in specifically asking for somebody else by name. Not somebody stating, “a friend of mine said to come in and see you people.” If a person does 40 quality conversations a week, that means he’s asked a minimum of 40 people for a referral. And we aren’t even counting the delivery prospecting form which nets the average salesperson 2-3 extra referral sales a month. An average salesperson, on a bad week, will get one good referral per every 8 conversations. A good salesperson would average 1 good referral per every 4 conversations. That’s taking into consideration that many customers give multiple referrals. Worst case scenario would be 5 referrals a week, which is a little over 20 a month. Consider half of these make it in the door and then selling and delivering half of those people. That’s a minimum of 5 referral sales a month per salesperson. Again, impossible to fail! Henceforth how to guarantee yourself the increase. Make a decision. Are generating referral sales a job responsibility or an encouraged behavior?

Total Opportunity Management – New Business

New business is a self-generated sale that isn’t a referral or a repeat. Examples include the person that cuts your hair, the wait staff at a restaurant, dry cleaner, dentist, neighbor, someone on the service drive that bought at a different dealership, and so on. The opportunities are endless. Especially the people you give money to (retail people). That money is making their car payment. So I challenge you, if you’re buying their car, shouldn’t you at least know what you’re paying for? Anybody that’s familiar with our social prospecting techniques should know how easy it is to sell any individual, any place, and at any time. Why couldn’t your entire team at the dealership sell at least one person a month from social prospecting. It should be a responsibility.

So, let’s review what we have here. We found a way to guarantee ourselves five repeats a month, six referrals a month and one new business opportunity. Now your average salesperson is selling 12 units a month without taking a floor-up, a phone-up or an internet lead. Give your salespeople the proper skillset, manage those skillsets daily, make it a job responsibility (which means there is a consequence for nonperformance). Do all of this and you will immediately begin to see a dramatic increase in those areas and start experiencing that 25% increase today.