As you can see from the picture on the right, it may be time for this dealer to update their phone script.  (Yes, that is a real, actual, antique phone script currently taped to a real sales desk.  No, this is not a pirate’s map circa 1702.)

World’s Worst Phone Script found at a present-day car dealership by DealerKnows

Almost every dealer who records calls using a call management software knows that listening to those very calls is the quickest way to make their blood pressure skyrocket.  Phone handling is abysmal at most stores, and while some track the calls, and others preach the importance of phone skills, very few are training their teams to be skilled in today’s phone etiquette.

Much of this is the fault of the times.  With the digital smorgasbord that dealers must chew through, far too often they put phone training on the backburner. They assume that the online traffic will generate itself into sales and ignore the fact that phone handling has evolved.

If your dealership still operates off of an archaic phone script passed down from the sales managers of yesteryear, you need to update your phone script.  (And yes, “phone script” can be a bad word on the showroom floor. It still carries with it a negative connotation.  We, at DealerKnows, believe in phone structure over phone script.  With that said, we still provide scripts (and the corresponding structure) to our clients, solely as a foundation for quality phone etiquette.  You cannot rely on the antiquated questions…

• 2-door or 4-door?
• Automatic or manual?
• Lighter colors or darker colors?

These idiotic questions are medieval when you consider how detailed the consumer’s research process is, as well as how the OEMs build their vehicles.  These questions aren’t relevant.  So here is a proverbial “Call to Action” –
Walk up to the nearest salesperson and ask them for a phone script they use to train on.  Or something they use as a guide. Then ask your sales manager.
Do they have anything that wasn’t written on 1960’s parchment?
Does it need to be updated?
Does it need to ask more intuitive questions based on today’s researched customers in an effort to covert more appointments?

My guess is there are some holes in your phone script. It is time you get them some phone training and do something about it.