OK.... here it is....  the vast majority (and I know you may be the exception!) of talented Sales Reps, and Sales Managers flat out suck on Sales Calls. Don't throw rocks at me yet....

The most common successful Sales Rep is a great influencer.... super at helping customers make good choices and delivering units. In fact, if it weren't for the common disease we seem to share (and I come from the floor), A.D.D., we would all be lawyers. If it weren't for our other common personality trait, "Immediate Gratification Syndrome", we could even be successful Real Estate Sales Professionals. Not sure about you, but if it took me 4 months to close a deal after showing 22 houses, and a customer backed out, I'd be in jail.

The art of setting appointments on the telephone is not instinctive, and its not a measure of the quality of a Sales Rep....in fact, on average, the higher the Sales Rep's volume, the worse he or she is on the phone. And, forgive the statement of the obvious...we can't sell a car on the phone.

So it follows that Sales Managers, who earned the title by being great Sales Reps, are even worse! Add to that that they are doing 2.5 people's jobs in this economy and never have less than 3 things going on at once, a Phone Up has a severely reduced chance of being handled correctly!

That said, here is the question....why do we continue to put the calls where they bear less fruit? What are the options? On average, dealers are setting less than 23% of inbound sales calls to appointments, yet top performers are setting north of 60% of all inbound sales calls to appointments...so do the math. At 50% Show and 50% buy that''s 9 more deliveries for every 100 Sales Calls--- is that $20,000 per month...$30,000? $360,000 per year per 100 sales calls? Increased Market Share, retention, service absorption??? And how many Sales Calls are you getting? 300--400?

At the very minimum, train the team on the phone process....and train a trainer to maintain the momentum...measure the success and the appoint set percentage of all call handlers... train more or remove those that are wasting your $150 phone call and the $10k profit each sale brings over the next 7 years...

Call Centers, BDC's, RMC's, CRC's--- whatever the name used, that have trained appointment setters...experts at one thing only, have more than 2 to 1 success in bringing a customer to the show room than Sales Reps or Sales Managers....

I know there are exceptions, and I know many of you are thinking "we set the appointments on follow up"....but I know you will agree that the inbound first opportunity is by far the best one!

Over the years, many of us have tried the BDC route and experienced failure....and almost exclusively, that's because we did it wrong.

Now, those that have ventured into handling the whole deal on the phone and the internet, and delivering the car to office or home, have a whole different dynamic-- and are way ahead of the curve! 

OK, that's off my chest....!! Ready to duck some rocks...