Handling the Trade: Double Sales Appointments
by Talking About the Trade-In

Picture this. It’s training day at a high-volume Toyota dealership somewhere in the U.S. and Michael and I are training a team of 60 salespeople. It’s a mixed bag; some vets, some newbies, lots of in-betweeners, and COVID babies. I’m discussing how to handle the trade-in conversation on sales calls and as we’re going through some data that proves asking about the trade will make you more appointments, I see a green pea’s hand go up halfway directly in front of me, “What if your managers don’t want to appraise a car?”

I feel my face get hot. “Why wouldn’t they want to appraise a car? He just shrugged his shoulders. “Because they’re not coming in to buy a car”. 

I look over at Michael and I think I saw smoke coming out of his ears. I just about lost it. “Who decided they weren’t going to buy a car?” I asked. I hear a brave soul to my right- “Because they just want to come in for an appraisal. They’re not coming in to look at a car. Our managers don’t want to waste their time”

Needless to say, Michael and I had a serious chat with their management staff that day. We had to bring them back to the fundamentals, reminding them that the goal of the call is to get the customer to show up and the appraisal is a fantastic way to accomplish that. Their managers needed to be reminded, that it’s their job to set their salespeople up for success. We also reminded them that once the prospect is there, manager appraisals after a silent walkaround performed by a salesperson close deals all day long. They have since turned things around and now the dealership is doing better than they ever have, breaking lead-to-show, volume, and trade-per-sold records.

Broken Communication Between Management and Staff

The truth is that most dealership sales teams have a broken communication system between management and staff. I wouldn’t even call it a system. There is none. They’re not just turning opportunities away, but training their salespeople to do the same. There is no process, just general guidelines. And, if you’re lucky, or strike gold with a good brand or a good manager that cares, you might get additional training and support. But the truth is that 90% of all salespeople are driving into the dealership every day in reactive mode. In my experience, even some of the most talented salespeople rely on their eagle eyes and ears to comb every section of the lot and they cherry-pick the best deals each month. They’re hungry and motivated yet they can’t see past this month and are just looking for their “next kill”. 

This causes the perpetual cycle of short-term thinking (selling), and turning shoppers away who want to come in for an appraisal on their trade. If you’ve been in the car business for some time then you know that once a shopper comes into the dealership it’s a whole different ball game. The logical shopper who was only thinking about price, interest rate, and mpg is suddenly looking at the black-on-black truck on your showroom floor. And it’s there that even sellers become buyers. Once people come in and see, feel, drive, and experience all the senses it’s game over. And data proves that most shoppers who physically visit your dealership will become buyers. 

Talking Trade-In Increases Appointment Success by 72% 

A few months ago, in partnership with Calldrip, we conducted an independent study of fifteen random auto dealerships in their database, scoring 1,215 sales calls. The study found a vital missing link as the customer’s vehicle trade was discussed only 14% of the time. However, the simple step of inquiring about an appraisal of a shopper’s current vehicle increased appointments set by 72%. After three weeks of training the AI on what to listen for, a direct correlation was found between the trade-in conversation and appointment success. The more often the trade-in word tracks were used, the more appointments that rep would set. Proactively inquiring about the shopper’s trade resulted in a 72% increase in appointments set.

Out of 1,215 conversations, 297 appointments were set, a rate of just 24%. And the trade was discussed 14% of the time. Digging deeper into the results, 164 calls were then isolated where the trade was discussed. These calls resulted in a significant increase in appointments set of 42%, a total of 69 appointments. In other words, when the trade was discussed, the likelihood of setting an appointment jumped from just over 24% to 42%. An increase of 72%, see the entire study here. 

The Trade-In Game –The Missing Link in Dealership Revenue

The trade-in game has proven time and again to be the missing link in dealership revenue. Alan Ram has been the leader in training people to leverage the shopper’s trade-in for decades, and here we are today, struggling to get people off their couch and praying we can land them on a car. It’s this “other side” of the business that smart dealerships are finally getting on board with today. Yes, there are going to be fluctuations in pricing and values and dealerships may need to get creative to help curtail those negative equities. But leveraging the shopper’s trade-in and giving that prospect an additional reason to do business with you will ultimately get more bodies in your showroom. And in the showroom is where the magic happens! Where shopping becomes emotional and where ‘sellers’ become ‘buyers’. By expressing to your shoppers that you’d be happy to help and appraise their vehicle “whether they buy a car from you or not,” you will set 2X more appointments and drive more traffic into your dealership.