When is too much follow up? When do you stop calling that customer?

This is something that’s been debated for many years. When I started selling cars, I was told the 3 Strike Rule…Once you’ve made three follow up phone calls that haven’t returned, you cross them out and move on to the next one. But others think, follow up, follow up, and follow up until they tell you to rack off… So which one is it? 

See follow up is not hoping that you’re customer has changed their mind. It’s not picking up the phone just hoping they’ve decided to buy a car and that decision is today, and that decision is to buy your car. That’s not Follow Up! 

Follow up needs to be a systematic approach to contacting somebody with more information. More information that they’ll going to require in order to purchase a car, purchase a car now. We have to be using our persuasive skills to make sure that we are taking the customer towards more information, more inspiration, and more emotional connection to buy your car. 

So in today’s episode of Telling It Straight, I’m going to share with you 3 principles of follow up, and how you must apply these techniques in order to succeed in your follow up in 2015.   

1.  The Hour of Power   

The hour of power is one hour you designate to follow up every day. You can pick a time, whatever time suits you & your customers but let me encourage you to do it early in the morning. It might be between 9-10am or 10-11am.

In this hour, you concentrate to follow up, follow up, and more follow up. That means you send emails, you send text messages, you send handwritten notes, you make phone calls, whatever you need to do to stay in touch with your customer is done in this hour. So no other distractions! No calls from the pre-delivery department or talking about who won the football yesterday. 

2.  Have a Plan With Every Call

“I’m just following up just to see how things are progressing.” is no plan…

You must make powerful statements and ask loads of questions in order to have a reason for your call. It might be notifying them of the sale event, a manager’s special, you’re in the neighborhood and you can drop the car to them?? Whatever the thing might be, you’ve got to have a plan. You’ve got to have a reason for contacting them. In emails, always have a question in your email. If you don’t have a question, why would you expect a response? 

3.  Have A Solution Mindset  

In other words, have a can-do attitude that regardless of what they say, regardless of what they do, you’re going to look up for the solutions. Don’t just take no for an answer, but focus on how you can solve their problem and make sure they buy your car from you. 

So what’s the answer to the question? When is too much follow up? You can NEVER have too much follow up.  
If you implement a systematic approach to following up with emails, text messages and written notes, phone calls over the long term, when they think of buying a car, they think of you and your dealership. 

Have a great week of follow up!