Is your dealership relying on internet leads alone?

What has the lowest percentage of engagement and conversion of virtually any form of communication? If you guessed emails, you would be correct. In fact, the average email open rate is 2-4 percent. Despite that, Sean Bradley, CEO of Dealer Synergy, says untrained internet sales representatives are still spending the majority of their time playing the email game only to be unsuccessful.

According to Bradley, there’s a method for communicating with prospective car buyers. He believes email sells the phone call, the phone call sells the appointment, and the appointment builds the relationship. The relationship is what leads to the product presentation, the demo drive, and eventually, the sale.

Part of his method is creating an amazing email template library. Once that takes place, Bradley suggest these three steps for a true path to internet sales success:

  1. Create an email for every one of the first 31 days of contact. Make sure you articulate what makes your dealership a better choice than your competition.
  2. Add video – video is much more effective and compelling than emailing back and forth with every customer. It also has a click rate that is 53 times higher than standard email messages.
  3. Make sure you’re adding value to your emails by including current and past customer reviews.

Once these three things are put into place, Bradley says to create a powerful email library that incorporates all three and integrate them within your overall CRM strategy. After that, turn your attention to the phone – that is where the money is!