Everyone from the internet sales department to the service drive can probably agree that one of the most common downfalls in the efficiency of the dealership lies within the follow up process.
The ball is dropped more often within the follow up process than any other piece of our sales cycle. There are several legitimate reasons as to why the follow up process fails, and by studying and understanding these reasons, we can put effective processes in place to ensure that our follow up is unrivaled. For the customer experience, a quality follow up process will set you apart from every other dealer in the area.
Follow up is where relationships are built, or deals are left on the table. How we manage our follow up determines which it is.
So, I’ve composed a list of the 7 most common reasons why follow up fails, and how we as dealers can fix them:
- Frequency of attempts. Often, we will make one or two follow up calls, and then we stop. We begin to feel awkward about making another follow up attempt, because the customer didn’t respond to the first two messages that we left. We take their lack of response and make the assumption that the customer is not really interested. In actuality, they are more than likely just busy. They’re at work, they’re too tired to talk at the given moment, they had a busy day, and even though they may have had the intention to return the call, life happened. Either way, one or two calls will not work. We don’t follow up frequently enough to actually see results. A recent study showed that 80% of sales require an average of five follow-ups in order to close the deal. Yet, nearly half of sales reps follow up just one time, and after four follow ups, nearly all salespeople have given up on following up entirely. So, how many attempts we should make? Way more than we think we should. In fact, you can even reach out to a customer multiples times in one day. Don’t believe me? Let’s move on to our next follow up fumble.
- Vary the medium. You can and should reach out to a customer several times in one day, and you can do this without bothering them. A lot of salespeople don’t understand that. They expect the customer to get angry, become overwhelmed, and get so annoyed that they stop responding entirely. We’re so afraid of losing the deal that we let them walk away? If you’re following up, understand that if you don’t get hold of the customer, there’s a good chance that they’re walking away regardless. Now, I don’t advise calling the customer several times in one day, but a call, text, and email all sent to the customer in the same day is not likely to upset them. The reason for doing this is simple: a customer may not always be able to answer their phone and talk with the sales rep when they’re called. Often, they’re at work, busy, or driving and don’t want to speak on the phone at that moment. Text messages, however, aren’t invasive, and the same goes for emails. A customer can quickly check a text, read it thoroughly when they have the opportunity, and respond when they have the chance. It doesn’t intrude on their day, nor does it require an instant response. A text message ensures that the customer doesn’t feel pressure, and can take action when they feel that they have the time to do so. Varying the media also provides a bit of a glimpse into the personality of the customer, as they will respond in the manner that they prefer to communicate. Utilizing texts, for instance, leads to a 40% higher conversion rate than by relying on calls and emails alone. You can even utilize automations to automatically schedule a text or an email, freeing your sales team to focus on other tasks. In order to provide a seamless customer experience, we must meet the customer where they’re at. Vary the mediums, and find out what works best for the customer.
- A lack of professionalism in the message. I don’t mean that the salespeople are being rude, profane, or too casual with their follow up. I mean that they are not following up like a professional salesperson with a gameplan in mind. Anytime we follow up, we should plan out the why and what of our message. Why are we reaching out this customer? Because the customer is going to want to know, and what do we want the outcome of the conversation to be? Obviously, the why is to follow up, and the what is for the customer to come buy a car. However, many salespeople simply repeat that over and over without much thought in the messaging. Common follow up messages sound like this: “Hi customer, I just wanted to follow up with you, and see if you’ve made a decision?” We will then reuse this exact same message with little to no variation. Instead, we need to create a professional message that is simple, and seeks to get a response from the customer: “Hi customer, I just wanted to thank you for stopping by the other day. I really enjoyed getting to meet you and talk a little bit about what you were considering. Do you have any further questions or concerns regarding the Chevy Silverado that you were looking at?” From there, the conversation can be stirred back up, reopening the door that was slowly shutting as the days went on. My point is, we need to have a real angle with our messages, otherwise they just sort of feel like a cold call. We also need to understand that the goal right now is not to sell a car over the phone, but to revive the conversation that was dying. Our messages should reflect that.
- Wrong medium for the customer. Like we mentioned earlier, different customers respond to different mediums and often we will rely on the wrong medium of contact. We have to keep the customer experience in mind, and using the medium that the customer prefers to communicate with makes the process simple and seamless. Remember, the goal of follow up is not to close a deal instantly, it is simply to re-open the door to conversation, and move the relationship-building further along down the line. In order to do this, we need to make ourselves available to reaching out, sending information, and receiving information in the manner that is most comfortable for the customer. Different demographics respond in different ways, and prefer to be worked with differently as well. We have to do our due diligence in understanding what those differences are, and what mediums will work best.
- We have a tedious process. Our follow up process generally consists of putting a task in our CRM to follow up with a customer at noon, and then waiting until then to reach out. We may have every intention of following up with that customer, but then an up comes in and we go out on a test drive, switch them to another vehicle, talk numbers and features, and by the time we’re finished up, it’s already 3 and we never followed up with the customer that we were supposed to follow up with. It happens every single day, and regardless of where the intentions were, we dropped the ball on following up. Our process should be so easy that we do it without having to worry about obstacles in our day knocking us off course. Using A.I. as a means of following up can alleviate this, as follow up texts, emails, and ringless voicemails can all be scheduled ahead of time, removing the possibility for our schedule to ruin our follow up effectiveness. Remove the room for failure, and there will be none.
- We miss the opportunity. What good does it do to call a customer once a day for a week straight at the same time every day? Chances are, if the customer isn’t answering in the morning, they aren’t going to answer the next morning, or the one after that. We need to be mindful of varying the times in which we reach out to the customer in order to ensure that we have exhausted all opportunities in which the customer could possibly be available to speak. We miss the opportunity to sell a car when we follow a process like this, or when we put off the follow up attempts, only to later find out that we waited too long, and the customer purchased a vehicle elsewhere. We cannot afford to aimlessly follow up. We have to think deeper than that, and formulate a real plan for how to successfully connect with these customers if we hope to convert them.
- The salesperson/manager didn’t do it. Often follow up is viewed as an afterthought. In fact, I would argue that many salespeople view it as an extra part of the sales process, when in reality, follow up is a crucial piece of the sales puzzle that cannot be skipped, substituted, or otherwise cut corners on. If we allow them to get out of it, they will. Follow up is only as important as we take it, and if we don’t explicitly state it’s importance, many salespeople will assume otherwise. Tasks are to be handled as efficiently and effectively as possible, and the sales managers are not off the hook for it, either. I demand that every follow up attempt be handled thoroughly, and have automations in place to ensure that they are not left to fall by the wayside. We have to hold our team accountable to the follow up leads that were intentionally disregarded. Follow up is not additional, it is an essential piece of our process.
These 7 reasons why follow up fails were composed from the most common issues that I’ve personally witnessed throughout my time as a GM. I’m sure that you can come up with a few others, but these are generally where the faults lie.
As you can see, a lot can go wrong when it comes to following up, and a lot does go wrong. This is the leak within our pipeline, and these are the reasons as to why it could’ve happened. Today, many of these follow up issues are being fixed through the implementation of A.I. processes. As automation seeks to remove the tedious, mundane tasks from the plate of your sales team and management, we gain the ability to focus on selling customers right in front of us.
Following up is where sales numbers grow or flatline and decline.
By using an Automatic Follow Up System to handle this incredibly valuable part of selling, our sales team gains the freedom to focus on what they do better than any bot ever could: move metal.
