sThe Sales Cycle we are all taught gives us the steps to go from meeting a prospect to a closed sale.
If your primary concern is selling a customer just one item, you are not an automotive sales professional. In 6+ years, I have a handful of non-commercial customers who have purchased as many as four vehicles from me.
That success came primarily from understanding and capitalizing on the Customer Experience Cycle. This cycle does not end with the close of the first sale. It involves every interaction your customer has with your dealership, good and bad. You must be present, even if you aren't the one devising the solution, when your customer has a problem. You need to know about, and thank them openly for, their service visits. You must be aware of what might precipitate their need for a new(er) vehicle.
The first two are incredibly important so don't skip them, or you will appear to be an amateur looking for a sale, but it is that third part about knowing when is the right time in the Customer Experience Cycle to ask for a sale that I want to focus on.
There are dozens of signs that your customer or someone in their home may be ready for an upgrade, but there are two that any automotive sales professional can easily track and use to an initiate a new Sales Cycle with someone who is not already in their Buying Cycle.
If your primary concern is selling a customer just one item, you are not an automotive sales professional. In 6+ years, I have a handful of non-commercial customers who have purchased as many as four vehicles from me.
That success came primarily from understanding and capitalizing on the Customer Experience Cycle. This cycle does not end with the close of the first sale. It involves every interaction your customer has with your dealership, good and bad. You must be present, even if you aren't the one devising the solution, when your customer has a problem. You need to know about, and thank them openly for, their service visits. You must be aware of what might precipitate their need for a new(er) vehicle.
The first two are incredibly important so don't skip them, or you will appear to be an amateur looking for a sale, but it is that third part about knowing when is the right time in the Customer Experience Cycle to ask for a sale that I want to focus on.
There are dozens of signs that your customer or someone in their home may be ready for an upgrade, but there are two that any automotive sales professional can easily track and use to an initiate a new Sales Cycle with someone who is not already in their Buying Cycle.
In case you don't know, let me briefly explain Buying Cycle and why approaching a customer who is not already in it can be to your benefit. A customer's buying cycle starts when they realize they have a need. The cycle continues with the customer looking at various vehicle options, shopping differently dealerships for deals, and potentially never even contacting you if they decide to go with a model other than the primary one you offer.
Your benefit in contacting a customer before they start this cycle is you get the opportunity to indicating they may have a problem they were not aware of and offering them a solution to fix it. This is not about sleazy sales tactics. If you belief you can help a customer lower their payment, get a feature or service they don't currently have, or both you know only have the right to do that, you have the professional responsibility.
Customers Reaching End of Warranty
If your dealership has a quality CRM, you should be able to track whether or not your customer bought an extended. If you customers who did not, who are servicing their vehicle with your service department, and are about to reach 36,000 miles you have a prospect on your hands.
A simple message like this one just might have this person in you showroom as a buyer in short order:
"John, this is Chris over ABC Chevy, how you doing today? Saw you were in for service earlier this week, are they taking good care of you out there? Great! I figured they would. I noticed that you're sitting at about 35,000 miles and didn't invest in an extended warranty. Most of the time my customers decide not to take that if they don't plan on keeping the car past the factory warranty, and I wanted to let you know that if that is the case, you car would be significantly more as a trade-in before it reaches 36,000 miles and I could probably upgrade you with our current programs without raising your payment."
It's unobtrusive, it's thoughtful, and if it doesn't work right away, you've planted the seed. You are John's car guy, he will have a better chance of thinking of you whenever he decides he is ready.
Lease Customers
Many sales associates realize that if they set a customer up with a 36-month lease, they will have an opportunity to earn that customer's business again at the end of the lease. But why wait that long. Keep notes of what specials your customers were able to use to get the lease special you originally set them up, and on a 36-month lease, start at about the 20-month mark reviewing those deals.
If a customer leased a car without qualifying for a top-tier lease, there's a high likelihood that if they paid well those first 20 months, you could qualify them for a better lease program this time around. That could mean a nicer car for the same payment or a similar car for a lower payment. Who wouldn't want that? And you catching them before they start their search around the 30-month mark, reduces the chances of them shopping around and your chances of closing a more profitable deal more quickly.
There are several other ways to approach a customer about an early lease upgrade.
If you would like to learn more about how I do that or the dozens of other groups of previous customers you can profitably prospect form month after month, you or dealership can contact me about additional online or in-dealership training options.
Your benefit in contacting a customer before they start this cycle is you get the opportunity to indicating they may have a problem they were not aware of and offering them a solution to fix it. This is not about sleazy sales tactics. If you belief you can help a customer lower their payment, get a feature or service they don't currently have, or both you know only have the right to do that, you have the professional responsibility.
Customers Reaching End of Warranty
If your dealership has a quality CRM, you should be able to track whether or not your customer bought an extended. If you customers who did not, who are servicing their vehicle with your service department, and are about to reach 36,000 miles you have a prospect on your hands.
A simple message like this one just might have this person in you showroom as a buyer in short order:
"John, this is Chris over ABC Chevy, how you doing today? Saw you were in for service earlier this week, are they taking good care of you out there? Great! I figured they would. I noticed that you're sitting at about 35,000 miles and didn't invest in an extended warranty. Most of the time my customers decide not to take that if they don't plan on keeping the car past the factory warranty, and I wanted to let you know that if that is the case, you car would be significantly more as a trade-in before it reaches 36,000 miles and I could probably upgrade you with our current programs without raising your payment."
It's unobtrusive, it's thoughtful, and if it doesn't work right away, you've planted the seed. You are John's car guy, he will have a better chance of thinking of you whenever he decides he is ready.
Lease Customers
Many sales associates realize that if they set a customer up with a 36-month lease, they will have an opportunity to earn that customer's business again at the end of the lease. But why wait that long. Keep notes of what specials your customers were able to use to get the lease special you originally set them up, and on a 36-month lease, start at about the 20-month mark reviewing those deals.
If a customer leased a car without qualifying for a top-tier lease, there's a high likelihood that if they paid well those first 20 months, you could qualify them for a better lease program this time around. That could mean a nicer car for the same payment or a similar car for a lower payment. Who wouldn't want that? And you catching them before they start their search around the 30-month mark, reduces the chances of them shopping around and your chances of closing a more profitable deal more quickly.
There are several other ways to approach a customer about an early lease upgrade.
If you would like to learn more about how I do that or the dozens of other groups of previous customers you can profitably prospect form month after month, you or dealership can contact me about additional online or in-dealership training options.