Trade-Ins
One of the most common frustrations of Internet Salespeople is dealing with trade-ins. Any Internet shopper who currently owns a car will want to know its value as a trade-in, and just like any other question asked by an Internet customer, it has to be answered.
Obviously it isn’t possible to give a shopper an accurate value without doing a thorough appraisal of the vehicle in question, even your customers understand this. So how should your Internet Salespeople handle this question? We teach them to tell the prospect:
“I would have to have your vehicle appraised before I could give you an absolute value, but if you go to Kelly Blue Book’s website at www.kbb.com and describe your vehicle honestly, you can get a very accurate idea of what your car should be worth.”
If your Used Vehicle Manager complains about this, fire him or her. What could possibly be wrong with telling a customer what they might get for their vehicle? Kelly Blue Book is a fairly accurate guide if the customer uses it correctly. If they come back with a significantly higher figure than the vehicle is actually worth, recheck the vehicle with the customer. More often than not, they will have made a mistake in their description of the vehicle. If it is one of those unusual situations where the wholesale market has plummeted on the particular vehicle in question and the services haven’t caught up to it yet, than tell that to the customer. At least you’re still talking to them.
The perfect Internet dealership will support their Internet Salesperson whenever they are working with a prospect that has a trade-in vehicle. They will let the Salesperson appraise the vehicle off the dealership premises by using their cell phone to describe the vehicle to their Used Car Manager. They may even have their Used Vehicle Manager or Wholesale Manager look at the vehicle off the dealership premises. The perfect Internet dealership will banish the expression “back it up to the computer” from their premises under penalty of death.
