Auto Dealer Monthly Magazine is the daily operations publication serving the retail automotive industry. This automotive publication serves dealer principals, officers and general managers with the latest best practices.
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By Greg Goebel SPECI A L FIN A NCE THE CLOCK IS TICKING Special fnance guru offers a time-proven strategy for converting all types of special fnance leads. MAKE THE FIRST CALL So when should you call? Imme- diately upon receiving the lead! Don't e-mail frst — especially if the leads are "blind" leads, where the customer is not aware of the exact dealership to which they applied. Tat's because a customer may not want to talk to a Hyundai dealer if he or she is looking for a Chevy truck. Your e-mail will alert them to who you are, and you can easily be ignored when you appear on their caller ID. Next, you have to decide which ones to call. Let's make it simple: You have to call them all. Over the years I have met with executives from most of the quality lead providers. Tey continually tell me their research shows that anywhere from onethird to one-half of the leads dealers buy never get called. Tat is just plain nuts. To pay $20 to $70 for a lead and then decide the customer cannot be fnanced before they come to the dealership is just being lazy. But it happens every day. Keep this in mind: if, for whatever reason, you do not invite the customer to the dealership, you have essentially turned down their application. Many attorneys will argue that you then must provide them an adverse action letter. Now that you know An 18-year former dealer principal who has been focused on special finance since 1989, Greg Goebel is the CEO of Used Car University LLC. He serves as an industry consultant, trainer, author and speaker, and has taught his special finance win-win-win strategy to more dealers, vendors and finance companies than any other trainer. GoebelG@AutoDealerMonthly.com 22 AUTO DE ALE R MONTHLY • AUGUST 2013 ©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/ALEKSANDRL All lea — be they a website leads e thirdth lead, third-party e-lead, loanby-phon lead h by-phone le or call-in lead requir q — require the same response: plan, ph n p a plan, a phone call and a call de. e guide. n 1992, 1992 9 In 1992 my dealerships started working loan-by-phone leads with a third-party provider. Compared to today, it was archaic. We advertised a toll-free phone number touting f nancing for anyone. Car buyers called the number and answered automated prompts and we received a fax with all their responses. Today, most leads start at a computer keyboard and wind up in your CRM system, but regardless, they still must be worked the same way. You must have a plan to work them efectively. So, what is yours? Hopefully, it starts with how someone will be alerted to each new lead when it arrives. It seems like these leads go from green to ripe to rotten in a nanosecond. When we were working those leads years ago, our goal was to call them within one hour of receiving them. Today, 15 minutes maximum should be the goal. you need to call all of your leads, you need to decide who will actually be doing the calling. Personally, I prefer call centers or BDCs, but that doesn't mean a well-trained salesperson can't be successful as well. What really counts is whomever is designated to call the leads makes that a priority. Tey should then be trained, monitored and coached daily. STICK TO THE SCRIPT Next comes the call guide. Some people call it a script. It's just a matter of semantics; everyone talks a bit diferently. (If you have worked in Boston, Nashville and El Paso, you will agree!) So it is more important to me that the call is bullet-pointed rather than "scripted" to the last word. Te call guide needs to be built around the goal of the call, and the only goal is to set an appointment with a customer who will show up at the dealership, period. Te call guide should be structured so that you frst establish rapport. Next, you can confrm a bit of the information you have received (you really don't need any more to set the appointment), but remember the purpose of this is to forge a relationship with the customer, so act accordingly. Ten ask for the appointment by giving day options frst, then time choices (rather than yes/no options). Finally, confrm the appointment. My call guide always has a "hook" at the end to see whether or not you really have an appointment. If you would like a copy of my call guide, which has set probably two million appointments, just send me an e-mail. Finally comes the phone call. Before you do anything, remember: "Smile before you dial!" Tat smile will transfer across the phone lines. Be open, disarming and friendly. More ofen than not it is not what you say, but how you say it that will make or break an appointment.