Running a top notch Internet department involves far more planning than simply allocating a portion of your budget to your Internet or Business Development Center and commanding your staff to “sell some cars.” You need to give your team a solid process, or standard operating procedure, to follow that will accomplish your objectives. The process needs to make sense and, ideally, it will be mandatory. If the Internet sales process at your dealership is a matter of “just winging it” by picking up the phone and calling your leads, it’s safe to say that you are not truly maximizing the opportunities available to you. When you clearly define your agenda and apply a Standard Operating Procedure to get there, you can maximize your Internet team’s effectiveness.

Standard Operating Procedure: Communication

Unfortunately, many dealers don’t have a standard procedure in place when it comes to communicating with prospects in order to set the appointment. If your goal is to maximize communication effectiveness so you build trust and get your prospect to come meet you in person, you need to put the best process in place to do so.

There are some interesting statistics regarding communication:

• 38% of communication is through inflection and the tone in your voice.
• 7% of communication is through the words that you use.
• 55% of communication is through visual perception and body language. 

This means that your ISM or BDC rep is hindered from the start. If 55% of communication is through visual perception, communicating with your prospect via email or phone can put you at a serious disadvantage. The ideal scenario is to get your prospect into your dealership so you can meet in person and give them a full product presentation, and they can test drive the car they’re interested in.

Thus, you need a standard operating procedure in place for engaging the prospect over the phone because you have an agenda – to get your prospect into the showroom. In short, you need to sell the appointment. Too many dealers try to sell the car over the phone. It’s much easier to sell an appointment than an automobile over the phone. And it’s much easier to sell the car in person.

When the Lead Says: “Email Only.”

What if your prospect does not provide a phone number? Let’s say you receive a lead that does not have a phone number or says, “Email only.” In this case, you’re forced to engage your prospect through email in order to sell the phone call. Here’s an example on how to do this:

Dear Joe,

Hello, my name is Sean Bradley. I received your Internet purchase request from InvoiceDealers.com. I noticed that you did not provide a phone number where I can contact you. I can understand your apprehension in giving your number out. I want to assure you that I will only call you with your permission, and only to provide you with a great online shopping and purchasing experience.
         

I want to let you know that our goal at ABC Motors is to ensure your online car buying experience is as easy as possible and, if I may dare say, FUN! Please give me the opportunity to present you with a superior online shopping experience by replying to this email with a phone number and best time to reach you. Of course, feel free to call me at 800-111-2222. I promise to be brief.

Sincerely,

Sean V. Bradley

Internet Sales Manager

ABC Motors

Selling the Appointment, Not the Car

The important point to remember is that you are not trying to sell the car via email or the phone. Your agenda is to set the appointment. Too many Internet sales mangers may give away a rock bottom price via email just to get the prospect to call them back. This is giving up control of your sales process by losing sight of your first agenda: to get your prospect into the dealership. To maintain control of your sales process, you must be proactive; not reactive. In short, you have an agenda. Once you establish trust through good email communication, and the prospect responds to your email by providing their phone number, you just jump back to your standard operating procedure for selling the appointment.

While there are no absolutes in this business, we all know we are in a numbers game. Having a clear agenda and a set process in place to support that agenda is the best way to get the game to work efficiently. The more people you get into your dealership who receive a product demonstration and demo drive, the more units you'll sell. The essential part is to have an agenda – in this case, to focus on setting the appointment.

Sean V. Bradley is the President and CEO of Dealer Synergy, Inc., an automotive sales training and consulting firm. He can be reached at sean@dealersynergy.com or 856-264-0564.