There was a guy in a Facebook sales group, that used to livestream his sales calls for about an hour at a time. He would use the most crass statements and offensive humor – to his customers – while smiling and dialing his sales calls. It was truly cringeworthy to watch. He was the living embodiment of the a-typical “sleazy-salesman”…. He called himself “TheFlowfessional”.

But, no matter what happened, he just kept going. Making jokes, laughing at people and dialing away. As entertaining (and sometimes crazy) as he was to watch, there are lessons from everything in life.

Here are 7 takeaways from the king of cringe:

1. PUT IN THE WORK
Show up to your life each day and put in the work. You can daydream and visualize about all the things you want in life, but if you don’t show up and put it in the work, it’s all for nothing. This guy shows up each day and puts in the work, consistently. He isn’t scared of that phone, cold-calling or rejection.

2. KEEP IT FRIENDLY ( but not too much)
As “sales-ey” as some of his lines are later in the conversation, when they first answer he talks to them as an old friend would. It’s confident and nonchalant and doesn’t necessarily scream “sales call”.

3. CONTROL THE CONVERSATION
Pausing, asking questions and waiting for an answer is a great way to control the conversation. He does this many times over the course of each call, even if it’s only asking them if they want to hear a funny joke – which is great convo, but in his case was SURE to offend!

4. KEEP IT FRESH
Having an actual reason to call someone is always a good idea. (Instead of “hey, you told me to call you back in 2 weeks…”)
He always reminds them that they previously asked to hear about fresh/new products. He is clear to his prospect that he is calling for that reason.

5. HAVE A GOOD TIME
A few years ago I found myself in an elevator with Darren LaCroix who was crowned “World Champion of Public Speaking” by Toastmaster in 2001. As I was about to take the stage to speak in front of a large audience for the very first time, I asked him for any advice he could give me. One of the things he said was:

“Have fun up there –  if YOU are having fun, the audience will have fun.”

“TheFlowfessional” is obviously having a good time. He jokes and laughs on the calls ( maybe too much) and even has fun making snide comments, grumbling sarcastically under his breath or singing little jingles to the camera to make himself (and us) laugh.

6. BE YOURSELF
In a world full of automation, fake people and cookie cutter scripts, it’s refreshing when someone comes correct and shows their true self. It’s hard to imaging this guys personality being much different if you were sitting down having a beer with him. Whether people like it or lump it, being unique is never a bad thing and is always memorable. Be uniquely you.

7. NEVER GIVE UP
Smiling and dialing. It’s a way of life for him and he is ok with that. No matter how the call goes, he moves right into the next one. He keeps the energy the same, pulls another joke out and keeps moving forward. Never give up.

Boom! Go get it.

When we show car dealers real data that shows a TRUE 10:1++ ROI, most say one of 3 things:

• “Let me think about it.”
• “Send me something.”
• “Let’s connect again in a couple of weeks.”

They don’t know how great 10:1 ROI is.

An investment of $8,000 to generate $100,000 – $150,000+ in new business.

Because they don’t know that these numbers are better than the numbers they are currently getting.

If you don’t know the exact ROI of your last marketing effort, or a general average ROI of your last few, then you can’t be impressed with 10:1.

Numbers can’t stand alone in business. Growth comes from comparing numbers to other numbers – and then taking action based on those comparisons.

It SHOULD be THAT simple.

Believe me, 10:1 is better.  It’s FAR better than what MOST dealers are seeing when marketing to inactive service customers.

Here’s an interesting perspective:  Buying a car from a customer for $7,000 and selling it for $12,000 is something to celebrate, yet spending $8,000 to generate $80,000 is somehow a tough decision that needs to be pondered. It’s bannanas.

Growth happens when you see the benefit in numbers that are greater than what you are currently seeing, and take action on them.

RINGLESS VOICEMAIL DROPS:

Ringless Voicemail Drops or simply “Ringless Voicemail” is a fairly new technology that allows a company to send a pre-recorded voicemails directly to a large group of customers cell phones at once, without their phones actually ringing.  Think of it as an “eblast”, but with voicemails as opposed to emails.

This is an effective and relatively inexpensive way for a company to get a message or special offer out to a large customer base all at once. It can be used many different ways and for a wide spectrum of offers depending on the industry.

In the automotive industry we use it to tell customers to keep an eye on their mailbox for the offer we sent them, before a Direct Mail Campaign – OR – we send it during the Direct Marketing campaign – OR – as a follow up after a Direct Mail Campaign.

THE PROCESS:

1. Record a voicemail message or offer to match your objective.
   You can choose to record your voicemail drop message yourself – or we can do it for you. We have incredible voice talent on-hand! We have found that the more candid and “non-scripted” it sounds, the better it will work. Speak naturally and from the heart about your offer.  Don’t worry about those “ums”, stammers, coughs or tripping over your words. That’s REAL and it’s how people naturally talk.  You can hear a successful Ringless Voicemail here.
2. Creating the list of people to send to.
   We will upload the list of phone numbers into our system. Usually this is from our clients database. Our system filters out the cell phone numbers from the landlines and only keeps the cell phone numbers.  We can even filter out anyone who is on the “Do Not Call List” which has become a big deal in a number of cities and states.
3. Decide the timeframe and volume of Ringless Voicemail Drops.
   You can choose when your Voicemails will be sent. They can begin at a certain time on a certain day and keep going until all numbers have been sent a voicemail, or it can send for just an hour or two on certain days. You decide. At Mail Ninjas, we also set the number of voicemails that will send out per minute to suit the needs of our clients based on the volume of call-backs their staff can handle.  We learned this one from experience.  When we did the very first Ringless Voicemail Drop for a client, we sent so many voicemails out all at once that within a few minutes our clients dealership phone was blowing up with call backs. We had to turn it down so they could catch up!  We slowed it down to a manageable level and they were pleased with the number of appointments & sales they were able to make from the Ringless Voicemails even before their Direct Marketing Campaign reached their customers physical mailboxes.
4. Track and resend.
   We keep a close eye on the results of your Ringless Voicemail Campaign for you. We know how many were sent out and how many still remain. Sometimes the system can’t get a voicemail through for a various reasons. A person being in a bad service area or getting a busy signal are two examples.  We track the ones that didn’t go through and can resend your voicemails back out to just those people to make sure we maximize the effectiveness of your Ringless Voicemail Campaign.

THE RESULT:

Imagine glancing at your phone and you see “missed call” but didn’t even hear your phone ring.  Then you see a new voicemail pop up.  It creates a lot of curiosity and you will most likely check that voicemail right away to see what you missed. At a time in history when people are getting alerts and notifications on their phones left and right, this key-point is really what sets Ringless Voicemails apart.  When a persons phone suddenly shows a “missed call” and a “new voicemail” it gets checked immediately – and people interested in your offer will call you right away.  Get ready for your phones to ring. It’s like an instant flow of leads by flipping a switch.

THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY:

Every rose has its thorn, and no marketing effort is without the possible downsides, so we’ve outlined some things you may experience below. None of them are “deal-breakers” in our opinion, as many of them can be covered easily with the proper preparation.

Different mobile carriers have different settings on when Ringless Voicemails get delivered. This means that some people may see “missed call” before the actual voicemail gets delivered.  This might cause them to quickly call the number back to see who called them and why.

So, you’ll need to be ready with a script that is specific to the voicemail offer for your staff to use.

Because of different carriers and carrier settings some people may get a double missed call before the Voicemail hits or their phone may actually ring for a spilt-second and then stop.

A good script in the hands of all people who man the phones can take care of all of this.

Your phones WILL ring.  As with any other marketing campaign there will be interested people you can make appointments with or do business with, as well as people that just want to tell you they don’t like the color of your building. Or, that you forgot to replace their windshield wipers, or extra French fries the last time they were in. This is just the nature of advertising.  It happens. Acknowledge. Move on.

But, your phones WILL ring.

Ringless Voicemail Drops work. When we hit “send”, your phones will ring. We try to ensure the Drops go out in short bursts so that you don’t get too many calls at once. You will need to to connect with us if it’s too many so that we can or slow it down or even pause it so you can catch up.

Legality

Ringless Voicemail is legal. However, some states seem to be “cracking down” on it. Because of this, some people think it’s illegal in certain states. This is not true.  As with any other forms of marketing, there are guidelines that have to be followed.  With Ringless Voicemail Drops, the phone numbers need to be run through the National Do Not Call List.  When done properly there is no legal issue with sending the Ringless Voicemails to the rest of the numbers on the list from your own database.

Interested in using Ringless Voicemail Drops?  Connect with us today.

My friend Regena recently took her new Hyundai to the dealership for an oil change. The wait time was a bit more than she had been told but she’s pretty laid back so it wasn’t’ a big deal. What WAS a big deal was what happened next…

When the service was complete she went up to pay, in a hurry to get to her next appointment, and they can’t find her keys and ask her to wait while they go find them.

So she waits….and she waits. And she waits for 10 more minutes. They can’t find them. As she stands at the service advisors counter waiting, they tell her they are still looking.

Twenty minutes have now passed. Still no keys and now she certainly will be late to her next appointment, but still she waits, with a not so happy look on her face.

“We’re still looking”. They tell her.

Thirty minutes later they finally find the keys and bring them so she can leave.

And then it happened….

“Be sure to give us all tens on the survey that you receive from Hyundai. We are big on our service scores…” The service advisor tells her.

No apology, no refund on service, no discount for the next service. Nothing. Just business as usual – as if this was common practice.

This begs the question: What is more important, the sizzle? Or the steak?

Psychologically, most people don’t want to be the one that gets someone else in trouble, especially at work. So people actually do score their experience higher than it actually was, especially when ASKED to. After all, the advisor could have been very nice. Also, was HE the one who actually lost the key? Who knows.

Is it more important for the manufacturer to see great scores from the surveys even though the customer had a less than desired experience? Does the – perceived – sizzle of great survey scores outweigh the steak of customers having a great overall experience?

Of course not. Never.

For those that dare to think it does, so be it. However for those, I’d be willing to bet that increasing service retention is a constant source of frustration and challenge.

The result of this mentality is disastrous. It means dealerships can receive awards for customer service while actual retention numbers go down.

The manufacturer would be happy, while you’re simultaneously losing an amount of in-brand customers that even dwarfs the number of solicitation phone calls you get in a day!

Bottom line:

Independent repair facilities are already trying to steal your customers… and it’s working. Let’s empower our people to step it up a notch and make it more difficult for them to leave.

The first step is treating customers like VIP’s. The second step is reclaiming the ones who have left with unique marketing and great offers.

Step one is within your power. If you need help with the second part, you’ll love what we have to offer. See it in action here.