When we interact with customers online, over the phone and in person our calls to action are very important. Every contact needs to have a call to action. Many times when we receive sales opportunities online the consumer does not give a phone number for us to contact them. Let’s face it we are car salesmen and customers are using the internet to shop anonymously, they don’t want to be bothered with car salespeople. How many times have you heard in the showroom when you ask a customer for their number, “I will call you when I am ready”.

Our calls to action have to be straight forward, you need to give the customer a reason to provide a number, make an appointment, give a deposit and buy the car. Take every contact with a customer and turn it into call to action to move them one step closer to making a purchase.

Here is what I do in certain situations:

• In responding to online shoppers that do not provide a phone number I will follow up with an email to give them something for calling me or giving me their number and best time to contact them. It can be anything free full carfax report, special discount or anything else you can do to ad value to your contact with the customer.
• Getting the customer to make an appointment – In every contact with a customer I attempt to close on an appointment for a test drive or trade appraisal. I usually don’t do this via email unless the customer request an appointment via email. I use the email contacts to get them on the phone.
• Getting deposits – We receive a lot of inquiries outside of our market area. if the customer has made an appointment for a test drive this is a good time to ask for a deposit. Be very frank with your customer. “Mr Customer you are driving two hours to test drive this car, how disappointed would you be if you made the drive and the vehicle was not available?” This is a perfect opportunity to take a customer out of the market and to test their commitment to you. If you are not refunding a few deposits you are not taking enough of them.
• Closing the sale – I am not going to write a book on closing, there is enough competition out there for that. That really depends on your style but anytime a customer is in my office they are going to get every opportunity in the world to make a buying decision. More sales are lost because the salesperson does not ask for the business.

I have been in sales for for 17 years and I don’t like to be sold either. But lets face it, that is how we earn our living, either directly selling or managing salespeople. Not every day is a diamond and not every customer is a buyer, but we need to give them every opportunity to become one.

Just remember ABC – Alway Be Closing in every step of the process.

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