If you categorize your contacts this way, you are just killing your paychecks. For a successful salesperson, all the above types of customers fall into one category. And that category is BUYERS! The fact is they are here to buy a vehicle now or somewhere in the future.
If it's a "looker" they will look until they buy a vehicle. The "tire kickers" will also need a vehicle. Someone somehow will end up getting the "credit criminals" approved and driving. And the shoppers will shop until they find a real salesperson. Now you need to ask yourself if they will buy from you or someone else.
A list of how successful car salespeople groups their customers
What about the superstars in the car business? How do they group their customers? Well it's quite different then the list mentioned above. Below is how successful car salespeople categorize their customer base.
Repeats
Be-Backs
Referrals
Phone-ups
Walk-in
The list you see above is in complete order. The group of customers at the top of the list is a lot easier to close then the groups at the bottom. The ones up top have much higher closing ratios. Notice where "walk-in" traffic falls in? It's all the way at the bottom. Then why is it that the average salesperson in the car business will waste all day waiting for a walk-in customer? If you wait all day for a walk-in customer then you need a wake up call.
Here is another tip: Learn to work with the top four groups rather than spending all of your time on walk-in customers. The first 4 groups are very productive because these groups of customers have high closing ratios.
This quick tip can literally double your income. It might not sound like a big deal right now, but it's a lot more important than you think. If you're used to earning $35k a year, you can easily earn $70k in the car business just by switching your focus to more productive customer groups. This is not a joke. We have done the numbers and this is very realistic. But don't take this the wrong way. I didn't say to stop taking walk-in traffic. If you're free then take as many as you can. But just change your focus to more productive groups and I guarantee your income in the car business will soar.
