Never miss any sales opportunity again: These pro tips can rebound your car dealership

Missed sales opportunities are like a punch in the gut for a car dealership. But all is not lost if you’ve missed out on some potential customers. You still have a chance to turn them into leads if you use these pro tips that we’ve mentioned below.

Missed sales opportunities mean you’ve lost a potential customer because you’ve failed to identify them or give them the required information on vehicles they asked for. It could also happen if you have higher prices than your competitors or do not have the suitable cars in your inventory that most customers desire.

But you have the means to change that situation. Your vehicle sales will bounce back by making a few changes here and there. So, let’s look at what you can do to bring improvement.

Update your website

No one wants to check a website whose content hasn’t changed for eons. Nowadays, people tend to purchase vehicles online like every other thing. If your inventory isn’t updated, or you don’t have pictures of cars on your website, people won’t look twice at the details. You would need to put the latest interior and exterior pictures of your vehicle, plus their prices and a link to a website such as Carfax that shows used vehicle history.

Call back your customers instantly

Your sales team should be top-notch and responsive. If a customer contacts your dealership asking for information on a specific car from your inventory, your salesperson must have the proper knowledge to guide them about it. 

Even if it’s off-hours, you must be able to return the customer’s call from anywhere. If you don’t return their call soon, the customer will find another dealership, and you’ll miss out on potential sales. So, never make your customers wait longer and respond as soon as possible.

Leave a good first impression

As the saying goes, if you are investing in your online dealership, your physical office must also look equally good and your sales team amiable. Plenty of customers would want to test the car in person that they like, sit in the driver’s seat and check other vehicles in your inventory as well. 

So, your office or showroom should be comfortable and enough for them to visit and look around. The environment should be clean, and your sales team must be entirely professional and welcoming.

Check your data for improvement

You must check your data from CRM and other feedback systems to determine where you need to make improvements. The data will indicate where you need to focus and which prospects haven’t been successful in bringing you sales. Moreover, it takes time to convert your leads into sales opportunities, so don’t lose hope in them. 

It may happen that the potential customer that you’ve talked to two-three months ago may purchase a vehicle from you if you work on your leads properly. Your sales team should consider how long they will wait until they can feel the lead is lost. An average lead may take 48 days to contact you. So, there is still hope for you, and the customer will remain ripe for the picking until they don’t buy the car from another dealer. 

Turn considering buyers into leads

People might visit your showroom or show interest in a particular vehicle to obtain information. They may not be looking for a car to purchase or just checking if you have what they want. But it’s highly likely that they would have already done their research. 

It is observed that 60% of buyers want to connect with sales in the consideration phase when they’ve already completed their research and have created a shortlist to purchase. So, if they find your prices reasonable and your sales team easy to talk to, they may contemplate purchasing their desired vehicle from you.

Check if your lead is logged in 

Some leads may not be able to access your dealership’s CRM due to a broken website, or they might be disqualified or not logged in to the CRM by the salesperson. Hence, you would need to regularly test your website and CRM for malfunctions and fix it if there is any technical fault. Your team leaders or managers must be able to train your sales team about logging leads and sales activity.

Update your inventory

For a car dealership, the reason behind a missed sales opportunity might be because of a lack of inventory. If a customer doesn’t find what they are looking for in a business, they may turn to others. So, you must discern which particular car models are trending in the vehicle market, and the customers are likely to purchase. Check historical records to determine which make and the model car should be in your stock or would need reordering. 

Record lost sales

It is imperative that you record your lost sales and also include reasoning as to why you lost them. This will help you apply the lost sales to your dealership and focus on the areas that need improvements to increase sales and customer satisfaction.

Create a supportive environment

If you feel down when missing out on a sales opportunity, just think that it is not the world’s end. Feeling like a failure will only reduce the morale of your sales team. So, you need to focus on the positive aspects and make improvements in your dealership. s

Communicate with your team, be supportive and train them properly, and give them the correct knowledge. If you have missed a sales opportunity, talk to your team about it; they may suggest many tips that will help you rebound. No one can derail your progress with the right team, communication, environment, and positive attitude.

Track the read-to-buy activities of your leads

If your lead is not responding to your email, message, or call, that doesn’t mean they are lost to you. As it may happen, your lead might be active and browsing your website. You just need to make the ready-to-buy process visible for you where you can track your leads actively browsing your inventories or making read-to-buy decisions.

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