If your dealership is looking to make more money and profit, then it’s important for you to learn the ways to spot dead-end strategies so that you can say no to them – instead you can focus on good ideas. From the more traditional slogan styled advertisements to social media and viral videos, there are endless strategies for your dealership to pick from.
However, it’s still important for you to stay up to date in regards to the current trends for your strategy to be as successful as possible. With some salespeople still believing that every lead is a good lead, it’s time to start shifting their strategy with one that is more applicable now.
There’s no doubt that lead generation is a challenging task. Hence, it is understandable when individuals get excited when they see a new prospect coming their way. Though this excitement does help to nurture the lead via employee motivation, it doesn’t change the fact that mot every lead converts.
Five Signs That You’re Chasing A Dead-End Deal
To better help your dealership and it’s salespeople spot the signs that a lead is crossing over to the ‘dead’ side, we’ve listed five signs below. When these signs are apparent, it’s time for you to move onto something else with higher profit potential.
- You Don’t Have What The Sales Lead Wants
The key to sales is not about selling. It’s actually about solving. You need to find people who have a problem that you can solve – such as offering them a vehicle (new and used) or service options. If the lead does not have a need for your product and/or service, then you should move on. If you don’t, then you’re likely to waste a lot of valuable time.
- They Do Not Have The Budget
Though it can be difficult and challenging to get the straight truth about their planned budget, it’s an important discussion to be had. If they don’t have a budget, then you won’t have a deal.
- They Ignore You
Your consumers are just as busy as you are. For this reason, they might not always have the time for calls and emails. However, after a certain amount of time has passed without any communication, then you need to take a hint. If this does happen to you, then it’s best for you to place the lead on the backburner.
- They Never Take Any Action
Good leads are often very interested in what you have to offer them. Dead end leads are often ones that find ways to avoid taking any future steps.
- They Keep Utilizing Excuses
It might be a stereotype in the automotive industry, but salespeople are more often than not quite pushy. If you are one of the pushy salespeople, then it’s safe to assume that you’ve probably heard every type of excuse out there. It’s also safe to assume that those that are giving you excuses will not become your customer.
7 Outdated Sales Tactics To Avoid
In addition to all those signs, there are also a bunch of sales tactics that have just become outdated as we head further into 2019. Below, we’re going through the seven outdated sales tactics that you should just try to avoid.
- Overselling Products
Before, sales cycles were an involved process with all meetings being doing in-person. As most things were spoken, salespeople had more flexibility in what they could say. However, this also meant that it was more cumbersome and slow. It took a long time to close and implement a deal. Today, you cannot oversell a product as you’re dealing with either a 28-day sales cycle or a 56-day sales cycle.
- Cold Calling
If you still think that cold calling is a good way to generate new leads, then you need to have a wake-up call. Cold calling is seen as something that negatively impacts your brand and it’s successes. This doesn’t mean that you have to completely get rid of calling. Instead, try to focus your energies on ‘warm calling’, which basically just means that you do your research for the initial call. After that, you work on inbound leads that want to talk to you. You then provide them with helpful insights before you engage.
- Telling – Not Asking
Before all this modern technology and techniques, there was a lot of telling. Telling others that you need this or you have to have this. Others had no other option but to listen, because as car salespeople – we knew the right answer. We were the utmost experts in all things vehicles. Now, it is not okay for you to make any assumptions. You should not always just ask ‘yes’ and ‘no’ questions. It is now a more solution-based process than before.
- Moving Too Quickly
The speed at which you undergo your sales process is another tactic that needs to be finessed. If you’re just paying attention to short term wins, then you might miss prominent signs that say that the prospective customer will not be a good one. It’s important to slow down to see through your prospective’s situation so that they are completely informed throughout the process.
- Treating Product Demonstrations As The Be-All, End All
Product demonstrations used to be considered vital for the final closing. This was simply due to the fact that it was quite hard for prospects to learn about the product on their own. With the modern, homogenous technology, it’s rare to find businesses that are the only ones selling one specific type of product.
- Thinking It’s Enough To Just Be On Social Media
Just having an account on one (or more) social media channel(s) is not helpful nor is it enough. You need to use social media to build awareness of your brand. If you are not fully utilizing all that social media has to offer you then you’re losing prospective buyers. So, if your accounts are just sitting unused, then it is offering no benefit to you or your brand. In fact, it might be steering customers away as many dealerships – large and small – have embraced social media.
- Not Continually Learning New Things
As a salesperson, the information you need is continually changing and advancing. So, in order for you to remain successful at your job, it’s important for you to know customer knowledge, sales knowledge, and product knowledge. The dealership manager should review calls, go to industry events, and read blogs to learn about new trends. Selling looks different year by year. Tactics that worked in 2017, wouldn’t necessarily work in 2018. Similarly, those that worked for you in 2018, doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll translate into the new year.
References: Entrepreneur, Dealer Marketing
