My eldest son showed up with a tee shirt to this effect one day:

 I loved the utter simplicity of the message complete with that ironic twist that every little saying will need one day if it aspires to tee shirt prominence.  It came to mind again today when I was pondering car sales.  What is typically the least cultivated source for high gross deals?  Repeat and referral business.  They are in our little world.  They know us.  By and large, we close our eyes, click our heels, and hope that they feel that there is no place like our dealership, there is no place like our dealership...

We know this not to be the case, though.  Three to five years is a long time.  Our society has shifted from traditional brand loyalty to one that espouses a narcissistic instant gratification.  The more we stay in the forefront of our sold customers' minds, the better our odds of turning them into loyal, repeat buyers.

To this end often dealers use various third party vendor tools, many of them largely service related.  This is good in that not only does it keep your name before their eyes, but also because it fosters a relationship and, best of all, increases the lifetime value of our relationship with them.

Our very best career salespeople know the importance of repeat and referral business and typically have some sort of method in place to reach out to their sold customers on a regular basis.  Surprisingly not all veteran salespersons do this, leaving far too many that just rely on attracting a handful of loyal customers every year to their roster over the course of ten or fifteen years.

The all too frequent staff turnover in our industry leaves a good number of our customers orphaned.  Sure, they are called every time a new green pea hits the floor and is handed by the busy manager that tattered list of old customers to call, but relationships are rarely fostered with these random, unplanned and largely unscripted calls.

Manufacturers looking to boost their JD Powers customer satisfaction percentages typically require their franchise dealers to send out an obligatory post sale "thank you" letter.  I knew an owner who used to also send out an awkwardly worded thank you of his own, too.  We all have some "thing" we do for sold customers, but do we have a well drafted and equally well executed "process"?

It doesn't take long to draft such a workable "process".  Choose your time table, select your media (letter, email, coupons/offers), assign responsibility.  What bedevils most dealers is getting the process to be followed consistently.  Like so many great ideas we have, post sale follow up works so well we stop doing it.

This is where automation becomes so valuable.  If we take the time to set up our process, whatever it is, into a software program whose automation helps to overcome the omission caused by our human frailty, we stand a better chance at being consistent!  So where in your dealership do you find those best equipped to set up and monitor a working repeat/referral business plan?  Your Internet Department, of course!

Most CRM tools are able to trigger tasks that include sending letters or emails on specific anniversary dates, putting phone call reminders in the salespersons' "To Do" lists, and generating lists for targeted  marketing campaigns.  In small dealerships, it is the Internet Department that is typically most adept at using the CRM tool.  (Far too often they are the onlyones who use the CRM software tool.)  It therefore only makes sense to empower them to program the CRM tool to include a repeat/referral process.

Not only does this serve to tear down the outmoded concept of the Internet Department as "those salespeople that take care of Internet leads", it begins to develop your Internet staff into a more expansive digital marketing asset for your dealership.

Because there are still a good number of salespeople who are intimidated by or lack the skills to utilize your CRM tool well, your Internet team can begin to serve as peer coaches. Their skill and enthusiasm will help make the use of your CRM tool for things beyond just inputting new customers less intimidating.

Adding a repeat/referral business process to an already well executed Internet lead process cannot help but increase sales.  You will begin to have a more well rounded team and a more sustainable business model, too.  The automation will serve to allay our natural tendency to drift away from our best practices.  The task reminders will help those salespersons watching for fresh ups to not forget the equally important and more profitable opportunities found among their sold customers.  With your veteran staff filling their calendars with the better grossing repeat/referral prospects, you will soon be recruiting new salespeople to handle the drive in traffic!

Everybody wins.

Elements of a basic Repeat/Referral Process: 

• Auto generated follow up letter from the salesperson.
• Next day follow up phone call
• Thirty, sixty, ninety day follow up phone calls (use a good referral script).
• Newsletter email blasts every 45 days.
• Birthday/sale anniversary phone call tasks.

Taking it to the next level:

• Service coupons/email offers
• Model specific email campaigns deeper into their ownership cycle
• End of lease calls/offers.