Issue 1 of 10

Why Talk about the Road to the Sale?

My colleagues and I run a software and digital services company that serves auto dealers.  We provide web site solutions, inventory management tools, marketing tools and services, Hispanic advertising, etc.  We’ve been doing this work since I created my first company over 20 years ago.

Since February we’ve been talking about all the same things that many of you have. How infectious in COVID-19?  What do we do to protect ourselves? How will this affect my work and the country? You know the drill.

Today many of those questions have been answered.  I sit here in my home office typing away in the early morning, as I have for weeks.  My family and I are in a 24 hour lock down learning how to not want to kill each other and find creative means to have fun and get along.  My colleagues are in lock down as are many of you.  

Our community – the dealers that are at its heart and the vendors who serve them – has been massively disrupted by COVID-19.  Of course, you all know this, but what you might not know is all the different ways that dealers have been adapting and how that might help you.  This is the one question that now occupies my mind after all the others were given voice: “How do we work together to survive?”.

I’ve been asking that question of our dealers and anyone else to whom I can speak.  How do we survive? We have dealers who are still selling without many restrictions while others are closed and may end up closed forever.  What I’ve found in this patchwork of personal crises is a lot of pain but also a lot of creative thinking about how to survive, still get sales, and keep the lights on even if they are not quite as bright as they used to be.  This is what has led me to talk about the Road to the Sale.

The Road to the Sale… Rethought

You all know what the Road to the Sale (aka R2S) is and that it can vary from dealership to dealership.  What I’d like to do is ask for patience from all of you. Hold off on criticizing the steps I’ve identified or words I might get wrong in this post and those that will follow.  Instead, let’s talk through the R2S to look for, and share, ways we might be able to still manage a R2S in this new age where our showroom (and service bay) are likely to be limited in operation due to COVID-19 (C-19).

Our willingness to share at this point in time is critical.  The only way our forefathers (and mothers) built this country was by overcoming challenges and working together.  This is what made America great and defined our characters as a nation that doesn’t and rises above all crises stronger and smarter than before.

So, let’s get down to business.  I am going to write a post about each stage of the R2S.  I am going to outline quickly what it is (yes, be patient) and then I am going to make suggestions about how the stage might be handled today.  My first goal is not to get everything perfect, but to put forward ideas that you might be able to expand on, use, and share with other dealers.  My hope is that some of you will post suggestions or techniques that you might use, or are using to survive. That is the second goal: to help find other ideas that dealers (and vendors) are using to do the R2S when social and physical distancing is the rule.  We need to share ideas. It might be the difference between our dealerships making it, or not.

Finally, parts of what we discuss here may end up being important in the “new normal” after C-19 passes.  So let’s think this all through and get with sharing our ideas.

Step 1 – The Meet and Greet

With all that preamble, let’s look at the first step in the R2S… The Meet and Greet.  Please note that in most cases I am going to write with the assumption that your showroom is heavily restricted and that you might still be able to get sales, even if at a slow dribble.  For those with no ability to sell because of a State mandate, please look at these ideas as something you can do in preparation for when things loosen up. 

Quick Description: 

The purpose of the “Meet and Greet” is all in the title.  This is the start of a relationship that will hopefully lead to a sale and many more to come.  For the Meet and Greet to work, you need to build a good rapport and first impression so that you will get your sale.  This can be a challenge in the best of times, but very hard today given the various C-19 rules limiting our actions.

Ideas:

These days, it is likely that most of your leads will come via the internet or a phone call since walk-in traffic might be limited (or restricted entirely).  So what do you do if you can’t meet face to face, shake a hand, walk the floor, and talk? It’s “simple”: do it virtually by whatever means you can, from free to premium.  

With video conferencing software, you can meet your customer, build a rapport, and even figure out ways to look at your selection of vehicles.  The software options that are available to you may vary based on the customer’s limitations, your knowledge and adaptability to new software, and your budget.  Let’s look at what’s available.

Technological Options:

All that said, we’ve already started on one solution that we’ll have available for you next week.  It is a HR Hispanic Help Pack that you can use to institute bilingual hiring practices to adapt some staff for Hispanic sales.  Fun stuff. Message us so we can send you a copy.

• Facetime and WhatsApp: Over half the mobile phone users in the US have an iPhone and then over 80 million have an iPad.  Pile on top the 68 million WhatsApp users and you have one big chunk of the market using these tools.  Both apps are free and easy to use and even give you group video chat if you need it in a pinch. A mark against these apps is that they don’t have any other functions other than teleconferencing.  But if money is tight, and you want widely used tools, these are good options for you to use.
• ZOOM Video Conferencing: You’ve probably heard about Zoom already since it has gotten a lot of press recently along with other video conferencing tools such as Facetime and Google Hangouts.  These tools are now being used by a lot of people to do group video chats or even virtual happy hours (We did one last Friday and had a blast.).  Zoom’s pricing is reasonable running from free to $19.95/month. It goes higher if you get a bunch of users. Besides the price, the good thing about Zoom is that it has a built scheduler, can handle multiple people (think later stages in the R2S), and can record video (if necessary).  The limitation on Zoom is that it isn’t on most people’s phones or PCs and requires a few seconds or minutes for it to download for your customers.  
• Google Hangouts and Google Duo: Both of these apps are free and can host groups of people.  That’s two plusses. Google Hangouts is tightly integrated with Google Calendar, Drive and Mail.  That’s another mark in the positive column. Marks against these apps is that they sometimes confuse users (I know, we’ve been using it for years and switch between Hangouts and Zoom all the time) and they don’t have video recording capabilities.

Additional Thoughts

What option or combination of options you choose, you do need to make a choice in order to keep selling or at least work relationships for when things loosen up again.  You don’t have to make an immediate decision. You can experiment. We know of dealers using Zoom and they seem to be doing fine. We’ve heard of dealers using other tools, and that’s good.  In your case, think about what you need to do to make for an easy R2S and experiment as you go along:

1. Would FaceTime and WhatsApp be enough, or do you need another tool such as Zoom to schedule, share docs, and even record video?
2. What tools do you and your staff already use that will help you start right away? 
3. Do you have money to spend or is free best?  

Whatever you do, know that you can experiment and that “good” today is always better than “perfect” in the future.  But train your staff. Help them learn how to use the tools and that the etiquette of teleconferencing isn’t much different than the real world: Look your guests in the eye, be polite, introduce yourself, and do all the polite and respectful things you would do to build trust and rapport.  

Next, discuss how the R2S will unfold working with this new tech.  

1. How do you schedule a teleconferencing meeting with the customer?
2. If they want to look at a vehicle, what do you do?  
3. How do you move to the next stage in R2S if you are using teleconferencing?  (Hint: Just substitute teleconferencing for the face to face stages and use software that allows you to group chat)

This isn’t complicated.  The best thing you can do is lay out your questions and constraints, and get started.  Experiment, pick tools that work for you, and adapt your R2S to using those tools. If your State allows it, then get selling.  Respond to new leads and then work those that are currently on hold.

Other Options

What did we miss?  Do you have any suggestions that can help dealers in today’s crazy world?  Please post them here in the comments section or send them my way so I can share them in a follow up post or a post dealing with another stage in the R2S. Our nation is strongest when we face an obstacle and work together to overcome it so feel free to contact us if you have a question and need some help.

Next Step?

Our next issue will come out in a couple of days and will be the Needs Assessment in the Road to the Sale.