No one likes to hear this when making a follow-up call to someone you thought was still a working prospect. Unfortunately, no matter how well we may have worked the customer, it happens. It could have been something we said, something we didn’t say, the follow-up call we put off or any number of things.

Here are some ideas to help turn a negative situation into a positive one and possibly generate some future business as well.

Has the customer taken delivery yet?  This is the first and most important question to ask the customer as soon as you’re told another deal has been made. Find out any objections to your deal, get with your manager and put together a full-court press to attempt to get the customer back in before the customer actually takes delivery. Pull out all the stops at this point.

Be gracious.  Be polite when talking to the customer and offer another “thank you” for giving you an opportunity to do business. Offer an apology such as “I’m sorry if there was something we missed.” This is business and you cannot take it personally. Acting rudely or otherwise “punishing” the customer for choosing another dealership will never accomplish any good; in fact, it can do a lot of harm.

Offer service.  Tell the customer that our award-winning service department welcomes all factory warranty customers regardless of where the vehicle was purchased. Threatening service refusal or appointment delays will only serve to damage your dealership’s reputation. Many future sales are made in the service department first!

Ask why the customer bought somewhere else.  Ask the customer in a non-confrontational manner, “So, if you don’t mind me asking, what was the deciding factor in your choice of the other car?”  Tell the customer that we always seek this information so that we can learn to do a better job next time and help us to better serve our customers’ needs.

Ask for referrals and future business. This is not the end of the world, or the last car this customer will ever buy. Be friendly and politely ask for a chance at the customer’s future business and any referrals. If you’ve treated your customers properly and respectfully, they will agree to this, even though you didn’t sell them this time.

Keep the customer in your marketing activities.  Add these customers to your e-mail, mail or casual follow-up lists and keep them on it until you see them again or they ask you to remove their names.   All customer information is a valuable resource which the dealership worked hard (and spent money) to obtain.