Determining what leads to pursue can be a difficult task. When you go after leads that aren’t a good fit, you’re not just wasting time; you could be letting high-potential opportunities slip through your fingers. Finding the right leads can sometimes feel like you’re fishing. You cast your line out and hope that something bites, but you run the risk of the guy next to you stealing all the fish. The best fishermen come prepared with a strategy to ensure a successful outing, and there are aspects to their approach that salespeople could integrate into their pursuit of leads.
Let’s take a closer look and explore what lessons sales can utilize from fishermen to help reel in prospects.
Finding the Right Spot
The best fishermen may have some spots where they know they’ll have success, but they’re also not afraid to try out new locations. They consider things like seasonal patterns, environmental layout, and different equipment to ensure they’re setting up in the right places. This helps them discover overlooked areas that other people might not consider. You can do the same thing in your dealership. A common overlooked area may be your service drive. When customers come in to get work done, your sales team has another opportunity to gauge their interest and determine where they are in the buying cycle. For example, if you know a customer is coming in for a service appointment, you can look into their current lease and see that they have eight months left. This is your chance to get them to start thinking about their next vehicle before they even realize they’re in the market.
Manually identifying which customers are coming in for service and figuring out the best way to approach them can be time-consuming and labor-intensive. This is time your team may or may not have. If your sales team could receive automatic notifications when these opportunities arise, it would eliminate the need for manual research.
Using the Right Bait
Every good fisherman has a preferred bait that reliably catches fish for them. They know the fish they’re trying to catch and what they like. Some may prefer a specific type of live bait, while others can get away with using a fake lure. In sales, it’s also important to know which “bait” will be effective for your customers. Understanding which vehicle and deal type they would be interested in, based on their current circumstances, is crucial to capturing the prospect. Did the prospect recently start a family and want to invest in an SUV, or are they an empty nester and ready to downsize to something sporty and fun? What vehicles have other customers purchased in similar situations?
By
utilizing a tool that analyzes customer data to answer those questions and provide tailored recommendations, your sales team can save valuable time. It also allows them to have personalized vehicle suggestions prepared before the customer even walks through the door, so they can engage in more meaningful conversations and significantly increase the chances of securing a sale.
Timing Is Critical
The key to fishing is patience. Not every bite will result in a catch, but you can position yourself for success with proper timing. Fishermen typically try to go out at dusk or dawn and take advantage of bite windows when fish are active for short periods. Knowing these bite windows increases their chances of catching multiple fish. Timing is also crucial in sales. Customers have different times when they are ready to buy. A holiday sale might put some people in a buying mood, or knowing the sales team is trying to hit their quota, they may wait until the end of the month to try and get a better deal.
But the true test is identifying high-propensity buyers on a day-to-day basis. Imagine having a tool that could leverage your customer database to identify high-quality leads for sales to pursue. This would speed up the process and allow your team to focus on quality opportunities, while also knowing who to hold off on.
Hook, Line, and Sinker: Putting Your Approach to Work
The best fishermen have success because they’ve mastered the art of timing, luring, and finding opportunity. Implementing these strategies into your dealership’s sales process can transform how your team pursues leads and ensure you’re catching prospects on the hook. With the right timing, you’ll find the best prospects who are ready to buy. With the right location, you’ll uncover leads in overlooked areas. And with the proper bait, you’ll identify what your customers want before they’re in the store. While these can be done manually, having a
tool that leverages your database to identify quality leads based on demographic, transactional, and behavioral data would ensure your team won’t miss out on any quality fish — or in this case, customers.
