Improve Your Digital Sales Funnel: Improve Your Total Conversion (4 of 4)

Improve Your Digital Sales Funnel: Improve Your Total Conversion (4 of 4)

See the whole board.

That’s the advice you need to launch a victorious campaign in chess — and it’s the same strategic approach you should use when studying your automotive sales funnel.

Do you have all pieces in the right place? Are you anticipating moves and thinking ahead? Are you assessing every aspect of the game?

You can only improve your sales figures when you’ve learned how every stage of the sales funnel affects the others.

This is the final post in our four-part series on the steps to building a digital sales funnel. Catch up on the first three posts here:

  1. Improving your lead generation
  2. Increasing your number of appointments set and kept
  3. Increasing your number of sales from appointments

In this post, we’ll take a look at how to improve your total conversion — the percentage of all digital leads who buy a vehicle.

To have the biggest impact on your conversion rate, you’ll want to pinpoint the weakest point in your sales funnel. Let’s take a look at some ways to improve your auto sales funnel from top to bottom.

Auto sales funnel by 9 Clouds

Top of the Auto Sales Funnel: Leads

If you planted some seeds that aren’t growing, you wouldn’t dump thousands more onto the field, would you? Based on the typical auto sales funnel, though, most dealers would.

“We need more leads,” they’d say. “We need more leads right now!

If that sounds like you, I’ll point you toward the “6 Steps to Building a Digital Sales Funnel for Car Dealers,” where our founder Scott explores each stage of the funnel (and why many stores should spend more time improving their work in the middle or bottom stages, rather than the top).

Of course, getting a steady flow of quality leads is vital to a dealership. To improve your lead generation, you need to put yourself in the shoes of your potential buyers.

How straightforward is your website? Can someone easily pop on and shoot you their contact information? Are you giving them good reason to do so?

If you don’t have forms for people to submit, fix that. If they’re hard to find, get them out front. If nobody is converting on them, figure out if you’re failing to get people on the page or if you’re not giving them enough reason to share their email or phone number.

Remember that the top of your funnel isn’t just everybody within 50 miles of your store; it’s the ones who would actually want to buy from you. Identify your target audience, and offer them real value in their search for a vehicle or auto service. You can do that easier than ever with Facebook ads.

Successful auto marketing is all about high-quality content. Make it clear to shoppers that you are an expert ready to solve their problems, and they’ll gladly get in touch.

How to Improve Your Lead Generation »

Middle of the Auto Sales Funnel

Leads Contacted & Appointments Set

This is possibly the easiest piece of the auto sales funnel. Somebody gave you their information for a reason — so use that reason to follow up.

If the lead asked for a brochure on a certain model, get them that vehicle’s information, and ask what their questions are. If they asked for a trade-in appraisal, send it to them, and see if they’d like to set an appointment to continue the process.

Once you’re talking, you’ve got a hot lead on your hands. From there, use the dialogue to learn what their problems are, and get them in the store so that you can try to solve those problems.

Increasing your appointments set is easier when you put the full power of auto marketing in motion. You can monitor what research pages a lead has viewed, what forms they’ve submitted, and which vehicle detail pages (VDPs) they’ve seen to get a better sense of what they’re after.

Working from a script is great, but be sure to personalize your conversation with the lead. If you aren’t testing new methods of communication, your process isn’t going to improve. Keep track of what words and approaches encourage more people to make an appointment.

How to Increase Your Number of Appointment Set »

Appointments Shown

Think about the last time you forgot to show up for something, whether it was a dentist appointment, a business meeting, or (uh-oh!) an anniversary. Your mind probably raced to unload the blame: “Well, nobody reminded me!”

Don’t ever give a lead the reason to use that excuse. Shoot them an email confirming the appointment the day before, call to confirm the time still works, or kick the shopper a text that morning reminding them. Hell, do all three.

And again, test different tactics. Many of our clients have had more success getting leads to show up if a manager does the reminder call, rather than a salesperson.

Bottom line: find the line between helping and pestering, don’t cross it, and make sure you stay on the lead’s radar. Better yet, make sure your whole team makes them feel welcome when they arrive at the lot.

And make sure the lead’s salesperson is always on standby. The last thing you want is an irritated hot lead waiting in your lobby, growing colder by the second.

How to Get More Appointments to Show Up »

Bottom of the Auto Sales Funnel: Appointments Sold

By now, you know what the lead is after, you’ve won their trust, and you got them to come by the lot. Time for the sales staff to earn their keep!

Remember, car dealerships have a stigma, so your team needs to do everything they can to make the experience positive, transparent, and helpful. A hot lead can turn into a thorn in your side if they are treated poorly. They may even write a scathing review about your dealership.

The best thing you can do at this point in the automotive sales funnel is give complete and honest answers to the lead’s questions. Share the expertise they lack. And if you don’t close on that first appointment, check out these three key tactics for closing the sale after a lead has left.

How to Boost Your Conversion Rate »

Increase your conversion in the digital sales funnel by seeing the whole board.

Increasing Your Total Conversion of Digital Leads

Remember: see the whole board.

As you look over all the ideal metrics of a healthy auto sales funnel and compare them to your own setup, it’s probably easy to see the weakest section of your funnel. Put the majority of your effort there, and get your auto marketing and sales efforts working together for a winning strategy.

By focusing on the lowest-performing steps of your auto sales funnel, you will have the biggest impact on your total conversion of digital leads.

9 Clouds has all kinds of resources that can help at every stage of the funnel.

We’ll take a look at your website to see if it’s conversion friendly in a free digital audit. Or, if you’re ready to get more leads, you can learn to master Facebook ads for auto with our on-demand instructional videos.

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