I visit dealerships every week and call their live leads. The line I hear more than any other is this one:

"I've made multiple enquiries, and you're the first person to contact me."

That customer filled in a form on three or four dealer websites. Most of those dealers either didn't call, called once, or sent an email that got buried. The customer isn't loyal to anyone yet. They'll buy from the dealership that gets them in the door first.

That's not a marketing problem. It's a follow-up problem. And it's fixable with a simple schedule that every consultant runs, every time.

Why the first day decides the deal

When an enquiry lands, the customer is thinking about the car right now. By tomorrow they've looked at two more listings, spoken to their partner and maybe booked a drive somewhere else. Every hour you wait, you're competing with more dealerships for less of their attention.

The fix isn't to call harder. It's to call at the right times, from the right number, and never let a lead sit untouched.

The schedule

Here's the follow-up process we train in The Sales Reset. It's built around when people actually pick up the phone.

The moment it arrives

  • Call straight away, from your mobile. A mobile number gets answered more often than a landline or a switchboard.
  • No answer? Call straight back. A second call a minute later tells the customer it's a person, not a robocall, and plenty will pick up the second time.
  • Still nothing? Try the landline 20 minutes later.

Morning leads: call between 9 and 10 am

Leads that came in overnight get called first thing. Mornings are a good time to catch people before their day runs away from them. Same rhythm: mobile first, straight back, landline 20 minutes later.

Lunchtime: 12 to 1.30 pm

Anyone you haven't spoken to yet gets another round at lunch, when people are away from their desks and more likely to answer.

For stock or demo enquiries, send an "I've tried calling" SMS and email at this point, so the customer knows who you are and how to reach you. Don't send it to brochure downloads. Those customers are earlier in their journey and a chaser feels pushy.

After 5 pm: from 5.15 pm onwards

Most people finish work at 5. The customers you couldn't reach during the day are often the ones who answer on the drive home. Call from your mobile, then send an SMS and email.

The next morning

Call first thing from your mobile and the landline, then send a final SMS and email. If you still haven't made contact, hand the lead to another consultant to run the same process the following day. A new voice and a new number often get the answer you couldn't.

What to do on the call

Once they pick up, your job is to book the appointment, not to sell the car on the phone. Keep it short, ask good questions, and stay off stock lists, trade-in prices and "best price" conversations. We cover the full phone script in How to sell cars over the phone.

Keep the CRM honest

A schedule only works if you know where every lead is up to. That means:

  • Log every call, SMS and email in the CRM. If it's not in the CRM, it didn't happen, and the next person who picks up the lead starts from zero.
  • Move each lead to its next contact day straight away. Don't leave it sitting in "New" with a sticky note.
  • Close out lost and won leads. A lost lead should drop into the right marketing follow-up; a won lead goes to delivery and aftercare. Either way, it stops cluttering your day.
  • Keep detailed notes. What car, what trade-in, who else is involved, when they're free. The next call should pick up exactly where the last one ended.

In Odin, the board is built around this. Leads sit in the day you're next contacting them, lead heat turns a card from cooling off to needs attention the longer a customer goes without contact, automations can send the "I've tried calling" SMS and email for you, and round robin hands the lead to a colleague when it's time.

The numbers we train to

Two benchmarks keep consultants honest about their pipeline:

  • About 1 in 5 leads should become an appointment.
  • You should close about half of your appointments.

That means roughly 1 in 10 leads becomes a deal. If you're well under that, the problem is usually the first 24 hours, not the leads. These are the benchmarks we train to, not a guarantee; every dealership, brand and lead source is different.

Structure beats talent

The best consultants I work with aren't the smoothest talkers. They're the most organised. They set their day up so they're calling, texting and emailing at the right times, they follow the process on every lead, and they spend their energy on the customers who deserve it.

Everyone has bad days, weeks, even months. The schedule is what keeps you going through them. And remember: you're not the only dealership this customer has contacted. If you're not following up properly, someone else is.

Want your team running this schedule by next week? The Sales Reset is a 4-week in-dealership program where I call your live leads in front of your team, then work one-on-one with each consultant until the process sticks. Book a Sales Reset.