Mark Watkins
Extreme Action Sports

Mark, thanks for taking our LIVE class today on Telephone Skills For The Sales Department. So what did you find valuable?

I learned that we only have one thing to sell over the phone and that is an appointment. I also learned that you don’t have to rely on just floor traffic if you learn to use the phone properly. If eight out of 10 customers leave without buying that is eight follow up calls that need to happen right away.

How do you follow up with customers if they called you?

It is very important that you get every customer’s phone number that calls in. The way you get their number is to ask for it. But you have to have a reason to get it such as, "I need to check my inventory, what is your phone number?" This way you don’t ever put a customer on eternal hold, and you will have their number for future follow up.

What do you mean by selling an appointment rather than the unit?

You can’t really sell a unit over the phone. The main objective to get the customer to come into the dealership. Closing ratios jump from 10% to 20% for a normal walk in customer to 50% to 70% with kept appointments.

What do you mean by a kept appointment?

Just because you set an appointment, doesn’t mean the customer will show up. The example given in class was just like a doctor’s office. You have to build value in the appointment and give the customer a reminder call before the appointment to ensure that they actually show up. There are many more ways you can build value in the appointment so the customer will show up.