Phone Skills - Selling to the Visit
by: Charlie Waters
A couple of years ago I was visiting in a store where an Advisor was expressing his concern over customer's perception that we are "over-priced". He said to me: "We've done so much to combat that perception. I've personally called our competition and price shopped, so I know we are in-line. Yet, I constantly hear customers say that we charge too much."
I asked this advisor to role-play a scenario with me. I pretended to be a customer, on the phone, asking for a price to overhaul my transmission because my neighbor had told me that my slipping transmission needed it. My service advisor friend responded by offering several options ranging from $2200 to $3600. After all, isn't that the way that we let our other advisors train them? Monkey see, monkey do!
Next, we got out the Yellow Pages and called a well known independent transmission competitor. When I asked the competitor the same question about my slipping transmission, he responded as follows: "Many times a slipping transmission doesn't need to be overhauled. It may just need an adjustment or service. For $99.95 we offer a service that includes adjustments, new fluid and a 15 point diagnostic operation. When would you like to bring your vehicle in?"
Now, how in the world did our customers ever get the perception that we are overpriced?
Service Advisor training should not be a hand-me-down-sport. Unfortunately, the only training that many dealership advisors are getting is OJT (on-the-job-training) by well-seasoned veterans. While there are certainly some great skills to be learned from these folks, times have changed! Consumers have choices!
Many years ago, the dealerships owned the market. Because our customers didn't like the way we were treating them, they supported the development of an entirely new industry, the mass-merchandisers. The new competition studied the consumers and found out what they wanted and what they wanted to hear. Meanwhile, most dealerships just kept on with OJT.
The great news is, even though dealership service departments created this reputation for being overpriced, uncaring and inconvenient, consumers still believe that the best place to get their vehicle fixed-right-the-first-time is the dealership. We still have a chance!
In today's unbelievably competitive environment, customer retention must be a passion! We must learn and practice techniques that invite and encourage current and potential customers to visit us for whatever their needs are. We should never lose a telephone shopper to our competition.
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