By Grant Dunning

With the tremendous amount of money being invested in advertising each year, you need to ask the question: am I closing an acceptable percentage of my prospects. Incremental increases in your closing ratio can make a dramatic impact on your bottom line.

Today, buyers are spending more time making a puchasing decision. Armed with product and cost information, consumers are willing to shop your dealership against the competition. According to NADA’s Ward’s Dealer Business magazine, 89% of car buyers visit at least two dealerships before making a purchase.

Aside from price, what kind of impression are your dealership and staff leaving with the customer. With brand loyalty fading the quality of the relationship that you need to foster with a prospect has never been more important. If a prospect does not buy a car from your dealership, wouldn’t you want to know why?

Investing in prospect follow-up is one of the best decisions that a dealer can make. Attaining timely information on where the prospect is in the buying cycle and what factors are involved in making a sell is extremely valuable.

One approach is to send a thoughtful gift with a personalized letter from the owner with a questionnaire on their shopping experience. When this package is sent within 24 hours of the prospect visiting the dealership, you are letting the customer know that you care about them and want to earn their business.
This gesture can be the deciding factor when they are comparing your dealership against the competition.

The information that you will receive from the questionnaires will also allow you to determine what you need to accomplish the close the sale. The information will also give you an accurate picture of how your sales staff is performing. You can act on this information and make positive changes that will allow you to increase your closing ratio.

Maintaining this level of relationship marketing with your prospects requires your dedication to leveraging your advertising expense. Your return on investment with a prospect follow-up program can immediately pay for itself with the increase in your closing ratio.

The majority of dealers make a significant investment to attract prospects to their dealership, yet leave the follow-up on unsold prospects to the individual salesperson. Their is a goldmine of potential with unsold prospects - to tap into this goldmine you need to establish a follow-up system that will keep you in front of the prospect, thank them for visiting your dealership, let them know that you want to earn their business, and find out why they didn’t buy from you on their first visit. This will separate you from the competition and improve your closing ratio.