Back to all articles

Back to all articles

When dealers ask me to help their teams improve their Be-Back appointment percentage, the first thing I say is “call them.” By that, I mean, “Pick up the damn phone and actually call a Be-Back for once in your ever-loving life!”

I’m not trying to be a jerk; it’s just that I almost never see salespeople calling Be-Backs. (For that matter, I never see them calling anyone… but, that’s the topic for another article.)

Because no one is calling Be-Backs today, if you just call, you’re ahead of the game. You don’t need a great script or even a good process; you just need to pick up the phone and call them. Moreover, according to a 2014 McKinsey Study, car buyers visit just 1.6 physical lots before they buy, so calling today (the day they were here) is pretty important.

Get voicemail? Leave a voicemail. Get a live person? Ask them to come back into the dealership. It’s really not that hard. In other words: Just call; we can figure out what you’re going to say later.

Different Be-Back Processes

There are a lot of car sales Be-Back scenarios, so putting together one “best” Be-Back process is not realistic. For example, if we know why they didn’t buy, then we just focus our strategy around that reason, right? The process is driven by the knowledge gained during the visit.

So, if someone could not get bought and needed a cosigner, then the Be-Back process would focus on encouraging/helping them to find one. The talk tracks would center on that and the call frequency would be determined by the last contact made. That one is clear; that one is easy. (Of course, this scenario still requires your team to PICK UP THE PHONE AND CALL.)

Where we need to write and maintain a Be-Back process driven by pre-assigned activities are those instances when prospects do not provide crystal clear reasons why they did not buy.

For example, if they had price objections (which could be simply masking some fear) or if they still want to “shop around,” the real reason they left may not be known to the dealership when making the Be-Back call. The dilemma facing your sales team is that if you focus on the wrong objection, you will not get them back.

The Car Sales Be-Back Survey And Follow-Up

To drive Be-Back appointments in instances where your team doesn’t have a 100% clear reason why they did not buy today, make your first call a survey call.

The survey call is a soft approach that disarms prospects and uncovers the path your team needs to follow to get the Be-Back to Be-Back.

The survey call is always made by someone other than the respective salesperson. The idea is to uncover the real issue and if the salesperson is the issue, then the dealer stands no chance of selling this customer when the only one trying to get them back is the offending salesperson.

Assigning this call to someone with a pleasant voice with no “skin in the game” – perhaps a BDC agent specifically assigned to make these calls or a bored receptionist – gives you the best chance of disarming a potentially defensive or even hostile prospect.

The survey call is non-confrontational and takes just a few minutes to complete.

After the call, the agent gathers the customer’s answers and sends them to the respective sales manager. Based on the responses, the sales manager can either call the prospect directly or can give the prospect back to the salesperson to call. Of course, if the salesperson was the issue, the manager can assign the prospect to another salesperson to call.

A Day-By-Day Example:

The process itself should be robust and relatively short (compared to other processes in the dealership). My clients have had the most success with a Be-Back process that looks something like this:

The process begins on Day 0 (the day the prospect was on your lot) if the visit ended early in the day and begins on Day 1 (the day after the visit) if the prospect left closer to closing time. Naturally, the Be-Back process stops once your salesperson or manager connects with the customer.

What do they say when they connect? They address the concerns identified in the survey and then ask for the appointment. Simple enough, right? (Of course, none of this is possible if they won’t “Pick up the damn phone and actually call a Be-Back for once in their ever-loving life!”).

Good selling!

Back to all articles