Here’s a stat that’s pretty scary (or embarrassing): the average dealership, across all brands and markets, is converting fewer than 8 out of every 100 inbound sales calls into showroom appointments. The stat is from a study done by David Greene of CallSource, in conjunction with IHS Automotive.
In October’s issue of Car Biz Today Magazine, David suggests the ABC’s of improving call-to-appointment ratios, starting with:
A. Making call management a priority. Recognize that call management excellence drives significant improvements in net productivity and advertising ROI, not to mention it also creates a competitive advantage that supports brand-building.
B. Using a structured call process. Whether inbound phone leads flow through a BDC, the sales floor, or via another process, David says top-performing dealers should have a process in place that addresses the call’s opening moments, builds value proposition during the call, and results in a successful completion of the call.
C. Measuring phone leads. It’s critical to have transparency into how many phone leads are received, what type of lead each was (sales, service, or parts), who managed the opportunity, and, of course, the result. A dealership needs to use tools that provide objective measures of each type of lead and the outcome, based on analysis of each call.
To check out the rest of the article on phone leads, view the digital version of Car Biz Today Magazine here. Don’t forget, you can also have your free copy of Car Biz Today mailed straight to your dealership by clicking here!
