Guest Post from Jennifer Suzuki, Founder of e-Dealer Solutions

As founder of automotive sales training firm e-Dealer Solutions, I spend a lot of time talking with auto dealers about their business challenges. One hot-button topic that arises all the time is the difficulty of identifying, nurturing, and closing quality leads. Dealers struggle to keep up with all the different ways leads appear on their radar screens, whether via the phone, email, website, walk-in traffic, or some other contact approach. For that reason, I’m excited to participate in an August 23 webinar with Ed Brooks of Cars.com, “Convert Leads to Sales.”

At noon CST on August 23, I’ll join Ed Brooks, a senior representative who knows the auto industry inside and out, to share with dealers practical solutions for converting quality leads to enduring customer relationships. We will draw upon the recently published Cars.com Guide to Converting Leads to Sales in the Digital Era, which I co-authored. The guide provides practical advice to creating an ongoing system for turning quality leads into sales.

Our webinar will help you understand how to nurture each type of lead. Phone leads, for instance, need to be treated differently than internet and walk-in leads. When nurturing a phone lead, sales people need to make the phone call’s focus about selling the experience you and your dealership will provide — not on selling a vehicle. The real focus on phone calls must be what the dealership representative along with the team will do for the customer in order to meet the customer’s expectations.

As we discuss in our guide, by shifting the focus from vehicle details and availability to overall experience, your dealership representative will convert more calls to appointments. You can do so by asking the right question and making the right statements. For instance, mentioning, “I’ll block off 45 minutes prior to our appointment time to make sure I have the keys and the vehicle is rinsed, gassed, and ready to show you” is a great way to plant the idea that your dealership is going to give your customer the red-carpet treatment when they’re on the lot. That way, you focus the conversation on getting the customer to appear on the lot by uplifting the customer, not the vehicle.

Those are just some of the tips Ed and I will cover, and phone leads are but one kind of lead we’ll discuss. After attending the webinar, you’ll walk away knowing:

  • How to identify the most common types of leads.
  • How to engage and nurture each lead type to close more sales.
  • Tips to take ownership of lead management.

Make sure you register for the webinar, and download a copy of The Cars.com Guide to Converting Leads to Sales in the Digital Era, too. Ed and I look forward to talking with you at noon CST Wednesday, August 23!