Of course your dealership website, inventory, and Digital Retailing seems clear to you. You’re most likely on it everyday for hours at a time. But, that’s not the case for your website visitors… many of them are confused and not necessarily for what’s on it… but instead what’s not there. Or more accurately, who’s not there.
Digital Retailing… whew, wasn’t that just the rave the past few years. Nearly 93% of US dealerships have a Digital Retailing tool that helps 1.8% of online shoppers complete the buying process online. Yep… nearly 98% abandonment rate in retail automotive. 25 points higher than all other industries’ shopping cart abandonment rates. Could there be a solution? I think so.
Take a look at the graph below and see what DP’s, GM’s, and Sales Managers have to say about the importance of having Sales people in the showroom versus just having desking managers.
For me, I believe Salespeople are an integral, important, and critical component to every dealerships’ showroom. Desking doesn’t sell a car. People, more specifically Salespeople… sell cars. It’s their knowledge, their empathy, their transfer of enthusiasm, their listening ability, their patience, just to name a few of their attributes that cause a person or a family to want to buy a vehicle from the dealership. Because as we all know, shoppers first buy from people – further… people that they trust.
With that in mind, could the work of retail auto sales (steps to the sale, listening, showing, selling) come AFTER presenting numbers? Yes, but it wouldn’t be optimum for the buyer nor the dealership.
What about just using brochures in place of Salespeople… you know maybe even fancy digital brochures… could they take the place of a person that’s willing to listen, provide accurate honest answers, be patient, meet the buyer where they want to start and then just pass the customer to the “Desk Managers?” Of course not. That’s ridiculous.
But isn’t that just what the combination of your beautiful website and digital retailing tool is? Where’s the empathy? Where’s the rapport building? Where’s the needs analysis… WHERE IS THE SALESPERSON on your website? Be honest… you don’t have one!
In a recent post from Glenn Pasch – The Curse of Abandoned Lead Forms, he talks about the growing strategy of Conversational Commerce. I strongly recommend that you and your sales management team read it. Here’s an excerpt from his post…
“The benefits of conversational commerce are clear, and many dealerships have already started to implement this approach. It has been shown to be superior in several ways, including improved customer engagement, higher sales conversion rates, and increased customer satisfaction.”
That’s why Digital Selling is in fact the next new wave, and as a salesperson myself I’m not going to shy away from telling you that the first fully AI driven and very best one out there is from Pureinfluencer!
See how that worked? Whenever there’s something to be sold… doesn’t matter what it is, oft times it gets sold better when a salesperson can describe a scenario, relate to the buyer in a warm genuine way, identify a pain point, or sell a value proposition.
Allow me to describe the Digital Selling scenario that WILL drive more sales to your dealership and simultaneously reduce the abandonment rate of your Digital Retailing system.
Here goes… an AI tool (ours of course! It’s called myTraffic) identifies a highly engaged buyer that’s both interested in one of the vehicles that you have in inventory (on your website), and is shopping your competition…
… the AI tool then launches a simple friendly ChatBot that, for example says: “great car, wanna see today’s special price?”… the low-funnel shopper then clicks “Yes please.” Because YOU KNOW that’s what someone who’s shopping you and your competition will do.
The AI then begins to “Up” shopper with a soft, friendly, engagement process…
And as the shopper engages (clicks/types/whatever)… one or more Sales people that work for your dealership are alerted on their mobile devices that a shopper (human) is talking to the ChatBot about your 2021 Jeep Gladiator Overland that’s been in-stock for 26 days…
… and with one click on their mobile device, any Salesperson, Sales Manager, Used Car Manager, joins the conversation… to do the IMPORTANT work that salespeople do… PRIOR TO DESKING… er, uh, should I say prior to Digital Retailing… because isn’t that really what a DR tool is… essentially a Digital Desking tool?
The Salesperson chatting with a shopper on your website is significantly more effective than any ChatBot or DR tool in accurately answering customers questions in detail about the vehicle, other units in inventory, directions to and from the dealership, and a whole host of questions and discussions that build trust and rapport even before a “lead” is generated.
And there in this manner you now have a Digital Selling platform that supports your Digital Retailing platform and more importantly gives your shoppers a world class, unique, and productive experience on your website!
We’re happy to show you how this works for your dealership! Reach out to us today at www.pureinfluencer.com or DM me, and we’ll setup a time to introduce it to you and your Sales Team!