Just Use the Damn Script!

Just Use the Damn Script!

Picture this: you have a whole Business Development team starting tomorrow and of that team, three representatives are brand spankin’ new to the automotive industry and one of them is a seasoned agent who swears by her so-called “script” that she has used for the last century. Therefore, she is just going to fly by the seat of her pants and make it up as she goes. Who do you think will have the higher appointment set rate?

It’s so often that I come across that seasoned agent on my one-on-one calls who is just not willing to budge. They’ve been in the industry for YEARS and they think that the way they handle customers on the phone is working. News flash, it’s not. The data doesn’t lie and neither do everyone’s numbers. If after months of being proven WRONG, why still not budge?

Sure, they may happen to answer a few phone calls where the customer is asking to set up an appointment to come see a vehicle. Or they may come across a call where the customer is already vulnerable because their current vehicle was totaled yesterday so they’re forced to come in ASAP to buy a new one. But even blind squirrel’s find nuts, don’t they?

The majority of the time, customers are weary of giving out their full name and contact info. And they’re hesitant to schedule an appointment without getting pricing information over the phone first. Why would they make the trip into YOUR dealership before making sure they’re getting the best deal? They’ve already gotten a quote from Joe Schmoe’s dealership right next to yours.

Unless we give them a reason to get their full contact info or we use our current incentives and dealership’s perks (or ask about being able to properly appraise their trade-in), they will simply hang up or give you any excuse they can think of to not schedule an appointment.

Scripts are truly underrated and are usually not understood by sales people. If they assume that a script will be cheesy, make them sound like a robot, and do not fully understand the “why” behind the verbiage, they will never use it. They will simply fall back into what has felt comfortable over the last decade and will continue to set an appointment less than 35% of the time. And that’s not a “CRM Report” number but actual real life.

So, let’s help our sales people understand why using a straight-forward, to the point script actually works. Let’s work with them DAILY through role plays so they become a natural at using a script that helps them set an appointment more than 85% of the time. And most importantly, let’s know the script ourselves like the back of our hand and buy into the script 100% so we can practice what we preach. Let’s encourage and incentivize our BDC so they are excited to use the script and generate more leads which puts more money in their pockets.

Back to my question, who do you think will have the higher appointment set rate in the initial scenario? You may have guessed wrong. Most likely, the brand spankin’ new agents because they’re ready to hit the ground running. They are willing to learn and are more susceptive to change because they don’t have any pre-conceived notions. They are there to win and set the most appointments by whatever means necessary.

So, I will leave you with this: your BDC and salespeople need to just use the damn script. They will soon wonder why they didn’t start using it sooner!