You’re nearing the end of the month and need to get leads in the door and move more inventory - fast. What do you do?
Focus on Hot Leads & Follow Up at Scale
First, you need to focus on your hot leads. The key is that your hot leads are not always your newest. New leads are your most recent forms, chats, calls, and walk-ins, and should be prioritized. But hot leads are the prospects who have also demonstrated real buying intent in the last 24 hours. Whether they’re your newest lead or they’ve been sitting in your CRM for a few weeks, when shoppers are back on your website and browsing inventory you should pay attention. It’s tempting to attack new leads with special offers and attention, but you shouldn’t neglect the existing leads in your pipeline who may be flying under the radar as they actively shop your website right under your nose.
With sales intelligence, you can monitor the shopping activity of each lead and understand who your hot leads really are. Focus your attention first on the prospects who have actively been shopping your website and have viewed a VDP on your dealership's website in the past 24-72 hours.
Once you’ve prioritized who to reach out to, consider running end-of-month specials, events, incentives or private sales weekends to move specific inventory off the lot. The key to success with end-of-month outreach is making sure you target the right people with limited-time offers to encourage prospects to act quickly. Here are some ways to use email and social media to reach your leads:
Email Blasts: Compile your noteworthy updates and send an email blast to all relevant prospects. 43% of car shoppers say sales emails will motivate them to visit a dealership and blast emails can be a great way to re-engage leads.
Social Posts: With a small amount of ad spend, social media can be a great way to amplify your message and get in front of interested buyers. Organic social media posts should be shared consistently throughout the month, but at the end of the month when you need traffic fast, one of the best sales tips for dealerships is to promote posts targeting actual customer lists. On Facebook, spending a few hundred dollars can earn hundreds of impressions and engagement as you drive traffic to your website.
Target Specific Buyers & Reach Out Personally
If you have specific inventory you need to sell, you need to focus your efforts on the specific prospects who will be interested. Use sales intelligence tools and your CRM to see who has shown interest in specific models on your website to create a targeted lead list. With insight into the online shopping activity of your leads, you can find the exact customers who will be interested in the vehicles you need to move.
To engage these leads and drive sales on specific inventory, use personalized outreach. As opposed to email blasts or social media posts that share dealership specials, sales, and incentives at scale, your outreach should be model-specific and speak to the individual interests of each lead. Make this about them, not about you.
Emails: The content of 1:1 email should be customer-centric. Use personal emails to update leads on the specific inventory they’re interested in. If the price has dropped on a vehicle they’ve viewed, new vehicles have arrived that fit their interests, or the vehicle they were looking at has sold and you have similar vehicles to recommend, use these updates and new information to spark their interest.
Calls: Focus on the specific model you’re calling about. Make sure you’re clearly stating your name, contact information, and reason for calling. Similar to personal email, let them know why you thought of them and what new information or incentives you have to offer. Consider calling nights to reach prospects after work, or on weekends and lunch breaks when leads may be more likely to answer.
Sales Tips to Prep for End of Month
In sales, it’s inevitable that you sometimes feel crunched for time at the end of the month. The end-of-month adrenaline can be good (and sometimes even fun), but to avoid feeling this way month after month, make sure that you’re addressing issues with your pipeline or sales process that may be inhibiting sales throughout the month. Audit your lead generation solutions as well as your sales enablement tools to see what’s working and what’s needed.
Email marketing can help you engage and convert leads, but it is often underutilized to make real sales. Done right, smart, automated outbound communication can alleviate end-of-month stress and drive a solid impact on your bottom line. Learn more about email marketing and get tips for selling more cars through better outreach by downloading this free email marketing guide for auto dealers.
