Quality Vs. QuantityThe ever going debate of what is most important in sales and auto sales more specifically.  Do you prefer a lot of new customers with no preference or loyalty to your business or your brand?  Or would you prefer a more manageable amount of customers whom you have a relationship, done business with, and that have loyalty to your business, product, and staff?

The Power of Quantity
The more customers the merrier, right?  Yes a lot of customers is great as long as you can manage, and accommodate all that you have in front of you.  If these customers are new to your business, they are not going to have much patience or trust in you until you earn it.  This makes it tough to properly build a relationship and trust when you have a large amount at once that all have the same perception of you, they do not know you.

Advertising and bringing in new customers is a good thing but your close ratios on completely new customers does not compare to the close ratios on cultivated previous customers.

The Real Results of Quality
The quality of your customers will bring the best results.  When you are going after customers prospecting, over generic advertising will bring in a higher quality of customer.  You are going after a previous customer who knows, likes, and trust’s your business, product, and probably has a relationship with your staff.  These customers are approached, prospected by a more formal approach rather than broad generic advertisement.

Your profit margins and close ratios will be much higher with a prospected previos customer other than a fresh customer brought in with traditional, generic advertising.

What Method Do You Choose
Prospecting the customer base you have the greatest connection already with is the best quality of a customer.  These are the customers who you will have higher profit margins, sell more products to and have smoother negotiations with.  The customers you bring in with generic ads will be chasing a payment and price you advertised with little or no profit to the dealership.  When these customers can’t get the price or payment they came in for, because they don’t qualify for one thing or another will be upset and feel tricked.

You cannot give up on traditional advertising all together.  What you can do to supplement and cut the cost of your advertising budget is prospect. Prospecting can be done on an individual basis when things are slow.  Each sales professional can go off a broad set of prospecting tools, and make those prospecting tools unique to their style and customer base.  This keeps each sales person on their game, keeping busy prospecting their customers.  Doing this in a fun, and clever way to keep your name and face in front of your previous customers, their family, and friends.

Do you want to learn the skills and tools of prospecting to keep you productive through the down times?   Then come see the legendary “King of Prospecting” Fran Taylor from Taylor Techniques in the Southeastern Michigan/Detroit area Friday November 18th at Weber’s Inn in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Written by Noel Walsh Ann Arbor, MI