Show, Tell and Sell

SAN ANTONIO – It may seem obvious, but strong body language and emphatic hand gestures mean nothing in a dealership’s follow-up sales call to a potential buyer.

Whether a salesperson is on the phone speaking to a prospect or leaving a voice message to that customer, “the only thing you have is your voice,” says Elise Kephart Adame.

So make it good.

That applies to tone, inflection, pronunciation and tempo, says the founder of the Elise Kephart Experience consultancy who previously sold cars at Ford and Honda dealerships.

“Sound genuine and focus on what you’re saying, but don’t read from a script,” she says at a conference session – bluntly entitled “Reasons Your Follow-Up Sucks and How to Fix It” – at the annual DealerSocket User Summit here.

Much of dealers’ digital effort aims at getting online shoppers offline and on the telephone. That, in turn, serves as a prelude to getting them into the dealerships.

“Email should be used for setting up a live phone call,” not for price negotiating or the like, Adame says. Her email tips range from making sure the customer’s name is spelled correctly to avoiding screaming all-cap content, such as “COME ON IN FOR A GREAT DEAL.”

She recommends embedding relevant YouTube videos in emails to customers, but advises against using YouTube hyperlinks, describing those as “so 2009.”

As a dealership saleswoman, Adame is credited as a pioneer of creating personalized videos included in her email responses to online sales prospects.

She introduced herself, talked a bit about the vehicle they expressed an interest in and tells them how much she looks forward to meeting them. 

“I used a webcam and included the customer’s name in my videos to them,” she says. She didn’t necessarily strive for perfect production quality. “You can mess up, but what matters is whether you are being genuine on camera.”

She recommends using websites such as Bitly to create customized links.  

Dealership emails that lacks rich content and visuals create the same effect as if customers “walk into the showroom and the lights are out,” she says. “Give them the ‘wow’ factor.”

Adame was working at a Starbucks coffeehouse when she switched jobs and became a car saleswoman. She was immediately awed by her new line of work.

“I made $800 on the first vehicle I sold,” she recalls. “My mouth just about dropped. I adopted the mentality to hustle and to outwork the competition.”

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