Monday can be your second busiest day of the week. Even though a lot of folks do their research and shopping due diligence at the end of the week, many just simply run out of time or get frustrated when the rubber meets the actual shopping road. Granted, there are people who will think and shop the sales process to death, but a substantial percentage of customers just want to get the deed done once they are mentally committed to purchasing a vehicle.

Saturdays have always been the busiest day of the week at most dealerships and there are just so many salespeople available when the ‘customer bus’ pulls up to the dealership. Doesn’t it seem like everybody wants to engage in conversation around 2pm on Saturday? Saturdays are often the days when reality hits a lot of shoppers. Their trade isn’t worth what they thought it was. Neither is their FICO score. The vehicle with the color and options they REALLY want is not in stock. It’s almost 4pm and they still need to do some food shopping and the sitter said she needed to leave at 6pm.

In some markets Sunday shopping is a possibility, even if it’s browsing the lot without a salesperson. Frustration sets in as the mentally committed buyer realizes it may be another whole week before they can start the process again. Then, they find out that your sale event is extended one more day: Monday! And you’ll be open late so they can shop after work! One more day to complete the process they began. No need to wait another week. In addition, the shopper who visited your competitor on the weekend and either didn’t find the vehicle they wanted… or did not enjoy the experience at your competitor may be ready to explore an opportunity with you! That is the essence of a super sales day on Monday.

“Take advantage of lower Sunday advertising rates on traditional media. You’ll be amazed at the bargains on both radio and television on Sundays and Mondays.”

Here are some of the tactics you can employ to achieve the greatest possible ROI of a barn-burner Monday, capping off a three day weekend.

1. Make it clear to your entire team that Monday is going to be the second busiest day of the week. Schedule adequate sales people on the floor.

2. Have a sales meeting on Saturday morning, pumping up the team and explaining that the weekend goes thru Monday night.

3. Don’t schedule any long, drawn out sales meeting on Monday morning. No more than a half-hour meeting Monday morning, and that meeting primarily to inspire the sales team to get on the phone, or email, or text to customers who they have talked to in the last 72 hours, informing them that special offers are good until close of business Monday.

4. Stay open late Monday. Stagger salespeople to have good coverage til at least 8pm Monday evening.

1. Provide food for salespeople (and customers?) Monday evening. Pizza and beverages are the easiest route. You don’t want sales people leaving the premises to eat. And you can advertise during the day Monday that customers can come right from work without even stopping to eat!

In my experience, it has actually been easier to get more buy-in from sales people for a late Monday night event than any other night of the week. And of course there are ‘Monday holidays’ that dovetail nicely with a super sale event.

The biggest reason a Monday event or sale works so well is that it gives everyone a reason to pull the trigger and complete a sales process that might have started in the customer’s mind just a few days prior. It gives your salespeople a reason to get on the phone and share the great news with a customer. Especially those who have visited the dealership in the past week. “Mr. Smith, I know you really liked that Tahoe we drove on Saturday and I’ve asked my manager if we might be able to give you a little more for your trade since that was one of your big concerns. We’re going to be open late tonight and I’d love to put together a deal that will make you happy and deliver this Tahoe to you.”

It also gives your undecided customer one more solid nudge to justify putting a planned acquisition to bed.

Will you run into opposition from the managers or sales people? It’s possible. At one dealership where I proposed running an 18 hour Monday sale, the sales manager tried to talk me out of it by giving me all the reasons no one would shop…including Monday night football. And the weather forecast wasn’t that great either. After a lot of discussion, he finally decided to go along with my recommendation. We advertised that we would have two large screen TV’s going for the football game, plus pizza and cold drinks for customers. The result was one of the biggest one day sale events in the dealerships’ history. And a sale event that the dealership successfully repeats at least six times a year.

Try a three day weekend with late Monday hours. If you do it right…you’ll probably make it a regular event at your dealership.