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Quality Site Visits

8 min read

0:00 8:43

Just being present is 80% of our success

How do we know that VMG is achieving peak success?

We know VMG is achieving peak success when new customers are singing up for VMG each month, the support phones,  emails and WhatsApp’s are quiet and yet the debit orders are still very happily paid. So happily, in fact, that regardless of our pricing, customers always feel they are getting far more value than what they are paying for.

However, if there is never any support, how could we possibly know what is happening on the ground? How are our users doing? How are the owners doing? How is the trade doing? The only way to know these things is to execute a well thought out and planned site visit strategy.

By conducting QUALITY site visits, we are accomplishing a number of mission critical objectives.

If you aim for 3 site visits a day, your workloads and time management can be easily managed, and you will see approximately 60 of your customers every 2 months.

The only time this flow is disrupted is when we are onboarding new customers or you are taking some personal time off and this is ok. Once you’re back in action, or you’ve finished the onboarding processes with your new customers, you can cycle back into the site visit routine. A quality routine delivers tremendous value to anyone who applies it.

SITE VISIT OBJECTIVES #

  • Have fun! Enjoy yourself!
    • We’re in the people business and chances are that if you are visiting customers, then you love people and variety.
  • Staying relevant in the hearts and minds of every user and owner.
  • Helping users solve issues or potential red flags
    • We are looking out for “grrr” moments and probing why they occurred.
    • We are looking for problems to solve
    • We are looking for anything that might result in a support call being made in the near future.
  • We are building quality relationships
    • We show an interest in our users and customers
    • We stay up to date on current affairs
  • We are building a positive reputation
    • Be memorable
    • identify opportunities to help others
    • Solve problems
  • We are paying attention to who is still using our software and updating our databases accordingly
    • We communicate with our team by updating Automan
    • We reamin ready to bulk communicate to our end users and trade relationships by keeping our email distribution lists up to date
  • Meeting industry role players and networking
    • We find out who else is in the motor trade serving the same customers and wether or not there is any data duplicaiton overlaps or if we can work together in service to our end users.
    • We develop understanding of the role that other service providers play in the motor trade
    • We stand the best chance of meeting other dealers who happen onsite at the same time and can pick up new business.
    • We can identify competitor activity who are trying to win our customers over.
  • We are always looking out for integration opportunities that will help our end users
    • We look out for any sort of data duplication. If there is any data duplication between multiple software systems, then VMG is failing that user. Why do they need to capture data in VMG and Excel, Pastel, Autobid, Cars.co.za and so on when we could simply integrate and ensure VMG gets their data flowing seamlessly.
  • We position ourselves to understanding our customers business so that we can proactively address their needs in well advance.
    • Are they expanding / contracting / taking on a franchise / struggling with anything / succeeding at anything / are staff happy / are staff unhappy / is an end user going through a family crisis’s / is an end user experiencing family successes?
    • Are there any upselling / downgrading opportunities

It is imperative that you understand the importance of QUALITY site visits and execute this vital task at an incredibly high level.

QUALITY site vists are one of the strongest sales channels you have in your sales toolbox. Site visits empower you to identify opportunities that will benefit your customers and users the most. They also help you with your networking objectives. 

The smartest frontline team members spend as much of their time as they can with as many of their customers and users as they can and they always do their best to perform a pre-site visit check before visiting any client. They know that knowledge is power, they knwo that those who are informed, can make informed decisions and provide quality feedback.

Being able to identify any data processing problems or red flags found in your health checks or marketing issues due to poor website performance, empowers you to serve as a problem solver for the owners of your dealerships and workshops. This builds a natural trust in their hearts and minds about YOU! When people like and trust you, you will discover more and more opportunities being made available to you. See – (Relationship and Influence….& Professional Selling).

When you equip yourself with knowledge about your customers and their trade, you empower yourself to generate more income. If you know a product we have will help solve a problem, then it is YOUR DUTY to work hard at getting that product implemented effectively. Money is abundant. if you are not making it, it’s because you are not doing the things required to create it. IT IS ALL YOU!

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PRE SITE VISIT CHECKLIST #

You are using this as a tool to discover anything that can help you add value to your site visit.

  1. Open Automan and Perform FULL review of your customer
    1. PAY ATTENTION TO DETAIL
    2. What products are they paying for?
      1. What are they not using that might help
    3. Check Support Logs
      1. Look carefully at what the support team is telling you is going on.
      2. Ask yourself, how can I help?
    4. Check Comments and Special Notes.
  2. Log onto their VMG and become THE detective. Is there anything worth noting? Once you detect, you can investigate. Your investigation will lead you to the outcomes that benefit your customer.
    1. Which users are on an old version?
      • Go to system users and detect.
    2. Use the DMS Pro Health Check to detect opportunities for improvemnt
    3. WMS Pro Health Check
    4. Accounting Health Check
    5. CRM Health Check
  3. Check their Website.
  4. Check their VMG Connect Feeds.
  5. Check if their Backups have run.
  6. Identify who we are going to see and why.
  7. Plan your agenda. Know what you want to achieve and why. Remember the 5 P’s. PROPER PLANNING PRVENTS POOR PERFORMANCE.

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SITE VISIT CHECKLIST #

When onsite, you are looking to display a professional demenour delivered with a great and positive energy.

  1. Are all the users on the latest VMG version?
    1. You can verify this during your pre-site visit checks
    2. It gives you the opportunity  you to interact with ALL the users although we can check this in a modern VMG by looking at system users.
    3. You are always looking out for the “grrrr” moments and for ANYTHING that could be improved
      1. Does their computer need an upgrade
      2. Are their peripherals conducive to a pleasant VMG experience?
      3. Does the bookkeeper have two screens?
      4. Does the administrator have timeous access to information.
      5. Is there any duplication taking place between VMG and other systems?
        1. This is a subtle thing to be on the lookout for. If you discover it, solve it or report it if you do not have the power to solve it.
  2. Sell Features where they will genuinely help the client and end user.
    1. If you discover a “grrrr” moment and a VMG feature can help solve it then you will need to plan on how to implement the solution and then GET IT DONE!
  3. Conduct Market Research.
    1. Keep a lookout for industry supplier business cards on desks or emails on their screens, look around you to identify any signs of industry supplier activity. Be observant. Ask questions, gather information and report findings to HQ.
  4. Smile. A lot. Have fun with it. It’s a great thing to operate as a high level professional that is likable and trustworthy.

POST SITE VISIT CHECKLIST #

  1. Communicate, communicate, communicate. Let me say it again. Communicate, communicate, communicate.
    1. Send Relevant Emails (Marketing, Progress Reports, Status Updates, Movement Reports, Appointments for Training, or anything else).
  2. Update AutoMan
    1. Add New Hamachi/Radmin details (if applicable)
    2. Update Dealers and Region Information.
      1. Do they have a new address or telephone number?
    3. Update Users and their contact info
      1. Remove non-existent users, add new ones.
    4. Update Comments + any support performed to Automan
      1. You are recording this information to, 
        • show those who care how active you are
        • show those who care how professional you are and, 
        • informing your team and future teams on the reality of what is going on
  3. Record and Execute tasks
    1. Site visits often result in work to do. Either you need development or support of some kind, or you need to action tasks set out by yourself and your users.
    2. Email the relevant people what you need and what they need to do.
    3. Update your calendars
      1. DIARY MANAGEMENT IS A VITAL COMPONENT OF PROFFESIONALISM!
    4. Update your to-do lists
    5. Try get the small tasks out of the way so you can focus properly on the big tasks.

In conclusion, when the senior minded VMG team members observe your management of your site visits, WHAT IS THE REPUTATION YOU SEEK?