Extended Follow Up Protocol
We’ve passed the initial 3 days of your lead follow-up process. While reaching a customer becomes more challenging at this stage, it’s still possible—which is why consistent follow-up remains essential.
To prepare, you should have a copy of the outbound phone guide available to help you through the phone call.
If you do not have a printed copy, you can access the file by clicking your store’s link below:
Before making the call, you should also take this time to verify that you have not made contact yet and that you should be continuing on this process.
If you have made contact already, please update the customer status.
Here is your extended follow up process:
Call and occasionally leave a voicemail.
Emails will automatically be sent on your behalf.
We want to limit texting attempts to just the opt-in message, with slight adjustments.
While the customer has opted in to text communication through their lead submission, it’s best to err on the side of caution to ensure we remain federally compliant.
We’ve passed day 3 without reaching your customer. As the days go by, it gets tougher to connect, but staying consistent over the next 30 days is key. We’ll focus on making phone calls during days 4-10, leaving a few voicemails as needed. Don’t worry about emails—they’ll be handled for you from now on.
We also need to watch the timing of our calls. Switch it up when you can. If you’ve been calling every day at 1 PM and not getting through, try different times—they might just be busy.
Also, mix up whether or not you leave a voicemail, and change how you approach them. Sometimes a quick, straight-to-the-point message works, other times, a more detailed one might get their attention.
Here’s a quick guide on how to handle your outbound calls:
Thoughts:
Sit up straight, smile through the phone, and slow your breathing so your introduction sounds natural.
Your goal is to create a strong introduction by clearly identifying who you are, how you received the customer’s information, and why you are calling.
We want to recreate the moment when the customer first saw the vehicle online and decided to send their information to us. Achieving this quickly will help generate a greater sense of urgency and excitement for the customer.
Make sure you understand your lead thoroughly so you have a solid foundation for what the customer is looking to achieve. For a list of leads and examples of introductions, please consult the Lead Source Guide
How it sounds:
“Good Morning, could I please speak with Jake?” “Great this is Brian calling from Toyota of Stroudsburg, it looks like you were on our website a few days ago building out a deal on a New 4Runner. Did you have any specific questions about that vehicle that I can help you out with?”
Or replace the last question with:
“I saw you had a question about upgrading the wheels is that correct?”
This approach will help build a strong foundation for your conversation. Use this opportunity to create value for yourself and the dealership by answering questions thoughtfully. Follow the outbound phone worksheet to conduct a thorough customer interview.
Ensure that you build value in the appointment before requesting it. Remember, each phone call should conclude with either scheduling an appointment at the dealership or setting up a follow-up appointment with the customer.
Understanding Objections:
Please make sure you understand the approach to overcoming common objections such as:
Next Steps:
If the customer does not answer, hang up, leave a voicemail, and proceed to next part of your Daily Work Flow:
Notes:
Remember, once you’ve made contact, stop the process. Change the customer status to *Contacted.
The internet lead process is designed to help you make contact. Stopping the process allows you to work on putting a deal together based on your conversations with someone instead of blindly following up. Remember, we don’t want to do tasks for the sake of busy work.
Always continue using the same communication method that was initially used to contact the customer. For example, if you started the conversation via email, keep responding through email. If you need to escalate the issue, first transition to a phone call or text message within that email thread before switching communication methods.
How to change the customer status in VinSolutions
Why we mark a customer *Contacted and what to do next.
Resources:
You should be familiar with the following topics before answering leads on your own. However, if you need a refresher, here are the core topics related to this task:
Understanding the Importance of Lead Response Time
Outbound Phone Worksheet Guide
Outbound Phone Worksheets: Scranton Stroudsburg