Sales Calls.

My car lease runs out in February. I was reminded of this when the dealer called in the middle of the England v New Zealand rugby world cup semi final. And when I say the middle, it wasn’t halftime, actually it was about midway through the second half, so I wasn’t in the mood nor that chuffed really.

OK, how did he know I was a rugby fan? (I’m in my fifties, white male, (so called) middle class, drive a BMW – no clues there right?) I gave him a clipped response: “I’m watching the rugby, call me next week.” To be fair he did, but the second call was even more inept – and I fear is typical of many others, not least in estate agency, perhaps including those your team make.

The second call came midway through Thursday afternoon. I was at my desk and even though I could see it was a withheld number I answered the phone. (I won’t say which BMW dealership it was as I don’t like to name and shame but it was from a representative of the company – I’ll call him Fred from BMW Lapland – that I bought my current car from so it wasn’t a cold call).

“Mr Knight?”
“Yes”
“It’s “Fred” from BMW in Lapland”
“Yes”
“Is it a good time to talk?”
(Felt like saying, “well I’ve answered the phone to a withheld number so yes, I suppose it is” but instead said) “Yes”
“Your car is due for renewal in February and I thought it would be a good time to discuss options.”
“Yes”
“Well you could get a new car – we’ve got some great deals at the moment”
“What deals have you got?”
“Well, that depends – would you want the same model again?”
“Probably, yes”
“Was it the X5 you bought before?”
“Yes”
“Right, well we have some really great deals on the X5”
“Good, what are they?”
“Well, I’ll put them together and email them to you – is your email still pk@propertyacademy.co.uk?”
“Yes”
“Right, I’ll get them across. It probably won’t be before Saturday as I’m really busy”
“OK then”
“Thanks, bye”
“Bye”

I understand that the average BMW salesperson earns £30-35,000 a year based on 100 sales, so £300-350 a vehicle, two sales a week. That’s hardly “volume” and I would have thought he would have:

  1. Treated me as an individual (instead I felt that I was being called from a list)
  2. Had my details to hand (he gave the impression of not even really being sure if I still had the X5 from three years ago)
  3. Had prepared some “great” deals with specific details to chat through with me
  4. Would have followed up the call immediately, not leave it 48 hours

How many calls like this are made by your company?

The results from our mystery shop exercise to compile the Best Estate Agent Guide would suggest quite a few from many of you:


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