What do I do when I receive a request for a brochure?

There are two questions I often get from sellers: 1. How do I determine the quality of an online lead? and 2. How do I determine which leads I should or should not follow up? Let me start by recognizing that there is indeed a difference in the quality of online leads. Countless factors will influence the quality of a lead. For example, how far down the funnel is the potential customer? One customer wants to buy within seven days, the other only after 70 days. One lead buys a car, and the other doesn’t. But what do I do when I receive a request for a brochure?

Good sellers

For a really good salesperson, the quality of a lead doesn’t affect its follow-up process. They investigate all opportunities! The sales team would prefer to receive a request from a customer who says: “I want the car, where can I sign?” But unfortunately, those customers are fairly nonexistent. It remains the seller’s task to convert as many leads as possible into an appointment and, ultimately, into a sale.

Brochure leads

Leads come in all shapes and sizes. The brochure request is one of them. Many sellers consider following up on a information request to be a wasted effort. Why call someone who requests a brochure? Is it a serious customer? And why call someone before the brochure has been sent? And what should you say?

What could you say to someone who has only requested a brochure?

I can draw one conclusion from the hundreds of conversations I hear through Calldrip. Here’s a great analogy with football (soccer). You can compare a brochure request with a free kick outside the box with a wall on the field and the best goalkeeper in the world in front of the goal. Difficult, but certainly not impossible for someone with the right attitude!

Of course, a new quote request is “easier” for the salesperson to work.

A test drive request and/or a quote request for a new car are clear leads. They’re also the leads that don’t require you to be a Messi to score. A good salesman scores from the most difficult position on the field, with no clear view of the target. That is why I prefer to call the brochure request an information request. The need behind a brochure request is exactly the same as with a quote request and a test drive request. The customer wants information!

The customer is focused on gathering information! Whether it is a test drive, quotation or just a brochure request!

How do you deal with someone who is looking for information? You don’t have to call the customer to ask if their materials have arrived. You know that TNT will deliver the brochure, because all the mail arrives in our country. You also don’t have to call to verify the address. The potential customer knows where he or she lives. Calling after an information request has only one purpose: to thank the customer.

The contact is your first conversion!

If you receive brochure leads, please contact the potential customer by phone as soon as possible, preferably within one minute. Thank the customer for their interest in the vehicle and ask if they have also thought about taking a test drive. “Have you ever driven the brand X model Y?” Only ask this one question! From there, you build up the conversation to an appointment in the showroom. 

It is impossible to predict exactly what goals the customer has when they make a brochure request. Sometimes this type of customer ends up as a sale and sometimes it is a dead end. You just don’t know. Do you have less chance of an immediate appointment after a brochure request than after a quote request or a test drive request? Absolutely. But you don’t know if this lead might be the one that is truly a buyer!

In the end, it’s all about being careful with the opportunities that are presented to you. A good salesperson takes advantage of all sales opportunities that come along under all circumstances. Whether the market is bad or good, every lead is an opportunity for a sale, just as the brochure request is an opportunity for a sale.