We all know that marketing can only go so far. Marketing is a tool to bring you leads and foot traffic. But, marketing alone cannot close a sale. That is why you spend so much money on experienced sales staff with connections in the marketplace.
And, let’s be honest, some salespeople forget to call or forget to check in on customers from time to time. It’s no one's fault. It is just a human mistake and we all get busy.
Let’s remember that when a potential customer walks in to a dealership they have most likely been reading and watching videos online about the piece of equipment they want to purchase. Consumers visit up to 6 different websites before stepping foot for the first time in your dealership. If you did not read the Small Ag study, you can find the link here.
Almost 90% of the “new” small ag shoppers who will step foot in your dealership know more information than they did last year: features, specs, competitive specs, etc., of a piece of equipment. All thanks to the internet, or even more precise, their smartphone.
These new shoppers are very well informed and are most likely ready for a quote when they take the time to drive to your dealership, if they haven’t already requested one online.
Ask Team SI: Continue reading this report below but if you would like to submit your dealer marketing question to Team SI...
Sales Operations
We must collect information on every person who walks in while they are in the dealership. Team SI's Lead Nurturing and Marketing Automation tool will remind your sales staff to call in the customer's crucial moments inside of the customer journey. The system will automatically send out email campaigns and retarget individuals utilizing the digital atmosphere. We only have 3-5 days to do this as our competitors across the street grow smarter and smarter each day.
Inside of Team SI’s Lead Nurturing system is lead scoring, which is an advanced system of scoring leads based on custom criteria, that Team SI has set up based on the equipment industry. It will also measure the individual’s activity in social media and on your website, which will detect their visitor ID via their internet connection whether they are on the computer or, most likely, their smartphone. We will also measure the impact of important automated emails within a 3-5 day window.
For the sales manager and marketing manager, you get a visual workflow builder to build out your sales process, as well as the visitor ID, which is an anonymous web visitor identification tool.
It is set up with buyer personas, stages in a customer’s journey, etc., due to all of our research. All of these customized tools are all in one convenient system for you, the dealer, your sales staff, marketing staff and your ad firm.
The Ask Team SI series allows dealers to regularly ask marketing questions and get them answered in real time. It is brought to you courtesy of Team SI.
Established in 2010, Team SI is a data-driven marketing firm where designers, strategists, and data specialists create unique customer experiences for clients using digital and social media platforms. Team SI developed its own proprietary system called Doppio, which pairs the most sophisticated, aggregated and automated data-analytics platforms available with the insights and instincts of its certified professional staff to optimize campaign effectiveness. They're best known for coining the term "TraDigital": the art of blending traditional and digital marketing. Learn more…
How do you, the dealer, know how you are pacing in sales for the month? How do you know your close ratio when the current customer journey does not always include an official quote? You must measure your foot traffic. You need your sales staff to be more engaged.
Here is a real-life example: let’s say Mike walks in the door, does not get a quote but stares at a small piece of ag equipment or mower. He says, “Oh, I am just looking.” You know he is more than “just-looking.” He has conducted his research and is now in the evaluation stage. The salesperson just needs to collect his name, email address and physical address. They then put that information into the system.
The nice thing is that now I have Mike in my system with his phone number and email and I can always reference this. I don't have to dig through emails or find the sticky note. I do not have to check my voicemail. It's all right there in the CRM.
It will show you that Mike visited your website multiple times after leaving the dealership to continue his evaluation and consideration phase. It will show you the exact pieces of equipment he researched to assist the salesperson to close the sale.
It will continue to tell you about the life of the lead of Mike. It will show you all the meaningful communication that you’ve had with him over time, including emails, website visits, form fill outs, notes, deal stage changes — everything. We can augment information, like getting access to a Twitter profile, LinkedIn profile and Facebook profile. That’s really helpful for a sales organization to be able to learn more about potential customers.
The way that Team SI has customized the sales pipeline, it is going to start sending out emails to the prospect and it will also remind the salesperson to reach back out to them.
Research shows that 2% of the people who go to your site fill out a form, so you can garner quite a few more leads by using this tool.
Team SI can create dynamic, segmented lists based on behavior. What makes them dynamic is as new members meet the criteria today, they're added to the list automatically, or if they fall out of meeting the criteria, they’re removed from the list.
You can have a visual pipeline for your sales team to manage. This is sort of the CRM aspect of things where you manage your pipeline, and it’s a really fun tool with a drag and drop interface.
This is designed to be EASY and NOT be a hassle for salespeople, sales managers or marketing managers. This is to show you what is in the pipeline.
But remember, based on their smartphones’ IFA codes, the customer then went to one or two competitors to do the same, and within 3-5 days, they may have made a purchase decision without even receiving a quote from you.
Marketing can only go so far. It is time to give the sales team a system that can help them close deals and to also hold them accountable.
