With the economy getting tighter, we thought it was a timely reminder that there is an easy way to get more sales. Better sales training and better AutoPlay usage.
With this in mind we have created a mini action plan to help your business thrive in a tougher market. Our fifteen-point action plan can be implemented in your dealership in about 2 hours. You will need your DP, your sales manager and an open mind.
While nearly every new car dealer in NZ uses AutoPlay, some use it very well, some well, and some…see it as a required chore. At Boost Auto we love AutoPlay, and despite repeatedly saying this, we still are not incentivised or remunerated in any way by them.
So, the Bost Auto 15 Point Action Plan is our way of helping you, improve your sales performance by setting up and using AutoPlay better.
1. Review the set up your yards, with the view of keeping it simple. Most dealers have yards. Some have a lot of yards. Remember, Yards are not financials, but ways of managing leads and looking at sales performance by department. If you have three brands, set up four yards; one for each brand and one for used sales. If you define in your financials that demos are used stock, then count demo sales as used. If you count demos as new sales, then put all your demos in new stock. Don’t have a million yards; it just causes confusion.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
2. Set up sales targets. You need a sales target per salesperson, and then using an enquiry to sale ratio that matches your performance, also set up test drive and lead targets. This is critical for so many reasons but think of it as a barometer. If you are tracking lead volumes in AutoPlay (and in my experience many dealers do not) you will get an early warning for whether your sales team need to start prospecting. You will be able to see clearly who is not meeting their test drive targets, and you will get a first glimpse of any staff who are not using AutoPlay properly. You will get an early warning of whether your sales team are on track to hit target. For example, a sales target of 15 units per month per salesperson might need 30 test drives per month and 75 leads per month (1:5 leads to sales ratio, with a 2:1 test drive to sale ratio). These conversion rates might not be right for you but could be the line in the sand you need.
3. Review your Lead Conversion Funnel every week (you will find it on the first page of Analytics Reporting), and look at whether your conversion rations are where they need to be. For example, are you getting enough leads but not enough test drives? Then coach your team to be better at getting test drives.
4. Set up your personalised dashboard in Analytics Reporting properly. In Analytics Reporting there are a myriad of dashboards (too many maybe). You do not really need all of them unless you are already an AutoPlay expert. But you do need these key elements.
a. The Lead Conversion Sales Funnel
b. Sales Pipeline Chart (looks like a donut)
c. Daily Activity Performance Chart x 3 (leads, test drives, sales)
d. Dealer Score
e. Mobile capture
f. Overdue Leads
g. Closed Lost Chart
h. Sales Pipeline Chart
i. Email Capture
5. Have your Sales Manager start using the Daily Morning Meetings using the Coffee Cup report (can be found in Analytics Reporting). The Morning meeting shows the Sales Manager all the ‘next actions’ planned for that day, from test drives to delivery handovers and all other scheduled activities. This keeps the momentum going with the sales team and helps disclose whether the team are doing their follow up calls and activities on time.
6. Start using the AutoPlay Wishlist function. This is for enquiries where you do not have that particular (used) vehicle in stock. The smart sales consultant will refer to this every couple of days as and when more used stock is bought or traded.
7. Review ‘Closed Lost’ report every week. Keep an eye on Vehicle Not Suitable, Delayed Purchase Decision and Purchased Elsewhere and Unable to Contact. These are all Closed Lost reasons that are variables and under your control as a DP or Sales Manager. You might not ever get them to zero, but you can reduce the leakage of your funnel by better sales consultations, more test drives, and a robust win back process in your dealership, and of course better lead capturing accuracy.
8. Stalled Leads – look for customers with no next action. These are leads that will never be followed up and will fall over.
9. Look at lead quality – especially fake data like noemail@email.com. The best way to do this is to look at the last five leads for every salesperson; you will see whether your team are cheating the system. Fake data is entered by sales staff where a field is mandatory, and the salesperson has not got that data.
10. Hold Weekly sales meetings; Review leads volumes, tests drives, versus targets and the sales funnel, review appointments, and share the Dealership Score (an AutoPlay health check score that looks at 5 KPIs across the business).
11. Download Best Practice guidelines from AutoPlay (these can be found here).
a. Salesperson Best Practice
b. Sales Manager Best Practice
c. AutoPlay Best Practice Lead Management Workflow
12. Encourage the team to Add New Lead through scanning a driver’s licence. This way you can streamline your lead process and further down the line the licence is already scanned for a test drive or ID.
13. Sync your Outlook Calander with AutoPlay so your team can see appointments without looking across two applications.
14. Consider an automated SMS or email to all dealership visits, to thank the customer for visiting the dealership. This can lead to increased interaction.
15. Implement a robust win-back plan. Whether it be a sales manager calls lapsed lost customers, or whether you operate a tag team policy, ensure that all leads are followed up by another team member before that lead is marked as closed lost.
Remember, your sales team do not own leads or customers. They should nurture them. You would not leave your tomato plant to grow without watering it and trimming it, and you cannot expect your customers to be loyal to anyone person in the dealership unless they are looked after.
Create the expectation that leads are an opportunity, and they should be nurtured regularly.
Lastly, if your AutoPlay performance leaves a little to be desired, and you want some help with the above points and more then why not schedule an AutoPlay Tune-Up. In April and May we will be running a small number of group sessions via Teams where we will help your Sales Manager improve your sales team’s performance through AutoPlay best practice and tailoring it to your dealership.
Pricing and timing will be soon on our website. To find out more, simply email us at Hello@boostauto.co.nz
Good luck and happy selling.
©2024 Boost Auto.
Boost Auto is an automotive consultancy working in seven main areas.
• Sales Training
• Sales and Marketing effectiveness for brands and dealers
• Market Insights & Trends
• Business planning and facilitation
• Operational Effectiveness
• Get Ready Automations
• Go To Market strategies for emerging brands.
You can contact us at hello@boostauto.co.nz
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