By Grant Dunning
With
the tremendous amount of money being invested in advertising
each year, you need to ask the question: am I closing an
acceptable percentage of my prospects. Incremental increases
in your closing ratio can make a dramatic impact on your
bottom line.
Today, buyers are spending more time making a puchasing
decision. Armed with product and cost information, consumers
are willing to shop your dealership against the competition.
According to NADA’s Ward’s Dealer Business magazine,
89% of car buyers visit at least two dealerships before
making a purchase.
Aside from price, what kind of impression are your dealership
and staff leaving with the customer. With brand loyalty
fading the quality of the relationship that you need to
foster with a prospect has never been more important. If
a prospect does not buy a car from your dealership, wouldn’t
you want to know why?
Investing in prospect follow-up is one of the best decisions
that a dealer can make. Attaining timely information on
where the prospect is in the buying cycle and what factors
are involved in making a sell is extremely valuable.
One approach is to send a thoughtful gift with a personalized
letter from the owner with a questionnaire on their shopping
experience. When this package is sent within 24 hours of
the prospect visiting the dealership, you are letting the
customer know that you care about them and want to earn
their business.
This gesture can be the deciding factor when they are comparing
your dealership against the competition.
The information that you will receive from the questionnaires
will also allow you to determine what you need to accomplish
the close the sale. The information will also give you an
accurate picture of how your sales staff is performing.
You can act on this information and make positive changes
that will allow you to increase your closing ratio.
Maintaining this level of relationship marketing with your
prospects requires your dedication to leveraging your advertising
expense. Your return on investment with a prospect follow-up
program can immediately pay for itself with the increase
in your closing ratio.
The majority of dealers make a significant investment to
attract prospects to their dealership, yet leave the follow-up
on unsold prospects to the individual salesperson. Their
is a goldmine of potential with unsold prospects - to tap
into this goldmine you need to establish a follow-up system
that will keep you in front of the prospect, thank them
for visiting your dealership, let them know that you want
to earn their business, and find out why they didn’t
buy from you on their first visit. This will separate you
from the competition and improve your closing ratio.
