Leave a message at the beep!
The primary website objective for most powersports dealers is to generate unit leads. Calls to action are placed on the home page in banners and buttons and text links. Your inventory pages include numerous opportunities for interested buyers to submit leads. Your website can be the optimum lead generator, but unless your team is actively and skillfully responding to leads, your dealership isn’t going to maximize your sales potential.
From OEMs to powersports industry experts to CRM providers, you’ve been coached on the success of immediate lead response.
But what happens to the lead when contact isn’t made during the first attempt? If your sales team loses interest and additional attempts aren’t made, you’re losing out on sales. It can take up to six call attempts to reach a lead. Ninety-five percent of converted leads are contacted by the sixth call, making it well worth the effort to keep trying.1
As your team diligently attempts to reach the lead, are they including voicemail as part of their follow-up strategy? People are busy. Many choose to let their smartphones screen the calls of unrecognized numbers. Many telemarketers don’t bother to leave voicemails on mobile phones, so when a voicemail is left, it raises curiosity as to the caller and the importance of the call.
Leads who are left two voicemails within six call attempts are 34 percent more likely to convert.1 Note, in this statistic it isn’t six voicemails. Just as no voicemails hinders conversion, so does leaving too many voicemails, with two messages left during six follow-up attempts seeming to be the sweet spot.
But simply leaving a voicemail isn’t enough to ensure lead conversion. In addition to striking a balance with quantity, the quality of your voicemails must also be taken into consideration.
First, try structuring your voicemail message to begin with greeting the lead by their first name and then directly reference the unit of interest in their quote request. This method reminds the lead that they initiated the contact. If you start off the voicemail with your name, they might automatically think you’re a telemarketer and delete the voicemail.
Next, ensure that your message can be understood. Take the time to enunciate your words, and speak clearly and slowly so that the person listening to the recording can understand you. This is also important in the case of voicemail transcription, a feature many newer smartphones offer. If a lead prefers to read transcribed voicemails, they may opt to delete your voicemail altogether if the transcription is incomplete or doesn’t make sense.
While delivering your message, be genuine. Don’t use an overly enthusiastic sales voice, but refrain from sounding robotic or bored.
Also refrain from delivering a sales pitch or from rambling. Having a script for lead follow-up voicemails will help you stay on track when leaving a listen-worthy message within around 20 – 30 seconds in length.
If the unit of interest was sold before you’re able to leave the voicemail, don’t automatically dismiss the lead as a lost opportunity. Rather, mention similar available units in your voicemail. Taking this extra step not only gives you another shot at a sale, it also provides a better customer experience.
Wrap up your 20 – 30 second message by mentioning your name and contact number. If you can’t be reached directly via a redial option, it’s especially important to deliver this number clearly and slowly, giving the lead a chance to jot it down.
Placing importance on the quantity and quality of lead follow-up voicemails will help to convert more leads from ‘Unable to Contact’ to ‘Sold.’
- Sales Lead Response: The Ugly Truth Behind Call, Voicemail, and Email Practices
- 9 Tips to Leave the Perfect Sales Voicemail
Kim Rocco is the director of Marketing for DX1, the complete dealership management platform for the powersports industry. DX1 gives dealers access to everything they need to manage and market their dealerships, including DMS, website & online marketing tools. Dealers save time and eliminate frustration with the efficiency of one login, one dashboard and a single database where customer and inventory data is stored.
Website: www.dx1app.com
