I believe in holding my sales team accountable, and when I meet with my salespeople and go over what they are doing every day, I naturally tend to focus on their "planners". My dealership uses Car Research, while many of you use Compass, Higher Gear, Vin Solutions, or one of the other outstanding CRM's on the market today. I'm sure many of you are tired of your managers hounding you to "finish your tasks". The funny thing that I have noticed is that the tasks that tend to get the least amount of attention are the "orphan owners" that get randomly assigned to your account (based on your CRM of course) . It is these customers that I would like to address for a few moments.
One of the biggest problems in most dealerships today is that the average salesperson simply doesn't know all the tools that are available to them in the CRM. Yes, they might know how to enter and update a customers status, but that is about it. You wouldn't believe all the tools available to help you sell more cars and make a LOT more money. It would be the equivalent of buying a new Iphone and simply using it to make calls. How much would you be missing?
Most of your CRM's are tied into your Service Department, so if you do a little digging, you will find that somewhere in your customers information screen, usually under "Vehicle Information", you can find out everything you need to make a car deal. My salespeople could not believe that if the customer bought from our dealership, the CRM will show the remaining payments, interest rate, approximate payoff and approximate ACV or their trade! Do you think you could sell more cars if you had that information BEFORE you made that Orphan Owner call? You can actually search your dealerships files based on approximate equity, and then call these beautiful customers and let them know that they can upgrade their current vehicle for about what they are currently paying. Do you now see why the Orphan Owners in your planners are actually some of the hottest prospects you have been ignoring?
As Dr. Covey would say, you need a Paradigm Shift in your thinking. You need to see the CRM as the BEST TOOL YOU HAVE TO HELP YOU SELL CARS!. And if you don't understand how to use it, don't just rely on your friends limited knowledge (the proverbial blind leading the blind). There is usually a help line to call, a rep who can stop by, or how to videos on the site. In any case, there are tons of customers right at your fingertips that you have been ignoring for far too long.
Remember It's not about where you've been but where you are going. It only takes the courage to recognize it and TAKE ACTION NOW! OF course, when you realize how much business you have missed, it will make you sick.
Are you up for the challenge? I promise you it will be well worth it.
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