Chapter 16 — Quiz: Follow-Up, Referrals, and the Long Game

20 questions. Answer each, then open the <details> block to check yourself and read the explanation. Scoring guide at the end.

Multiple Choice (10)

1. This chapter's threshold concept is best stated as: - A) Always be closing. - B) Follow-up is what converts a transaction into a career. - C) The customer is always right. - D) The new-car sale is the loss-leader.

Answer **B.** Follow-up is what turns a one-time transaction into a compounding career. (D is true and is Chapter 1's threshold, but it's not this chapter's.)

2. What does CRM stand for? - A) Customer Retention Marketing - B) Customer Relationship Management - C) Closing Rate Maximizer - D) Car Records Management

Answer **B.** Customer Relationship Management — the database where every customer and interaction lives between visits.

3. The chapter calls the CRM "the only thing you truly own" in this career because: - A) You pay for it personally. - B) It's the building's most expensive software. - C) Your book of relationships is portable and compounding, while the building, inventory, and brand belong to the dealer. - D) Managers can't see it.

Answer **C.** Everything else (building, inventory, brand, leads) belongs to the dealer; your maintained book of relationships is the one asset that's yours and travels with you.

4. The unsold-prospect cadence is described as: - A) A multi-year sequence. - B) A short, urgent sequence measured in days, because a serious buyer is shopping now. - C) A single phone call. - D) Something to skip if they didn't buy.

Answer **B.** Days, not weeks — the window is short because the customer is actively shopping. (A is the *sold*-customer cadence.)

5. "Equity mining" means: - A) Digging up dirt on customers. - B) Mining cryptocurrency on dealership computers. - C) Finding sold customers now in a position to trade up — typically positive equity, lease maturity, or lower rates. - D) Charging customers a mining fee.

Answer **C.** It's the practice of going through your sold customers to find those who could upgrade favorably — the warmest possible leads.

6. Which is the single biggest mistake that makes a referral ask fail? - A) Asking at the delivery. - B) Being too specific. - C) Being vague ("if you know anyone who needs a car..."). - D) Offering a referral reward.

Answer **C.** Vague asks force the customer to scan an abstract category, so they don't act. Specific asks ("a coworker, your sister...") give concrete buckets and a trigger.

7. An "orphan customer" is: - A) A customer with no credit. - B) A past customer of the dealership whose original salesperson has left, so no one is following up with them. - C) A customer who bought a car for a child. - D) A customer who never buys.

Answer **B.** Their salesperson is gone; they're a warm, qualified base sitting idle in the system — a gold mine for a new salesperson (assigned by a manager).

8. In the long-game math, a salesperson selling 15 cars/month for 5 years accumulates roughly how many past customers? - A) ~90 - B) ~180 - C) ~900 - D) ~9,000

Answer **C.** 15 × 12 × 5 = 900. If 20% send one referral/year, that's ~180 referral leads/year.

9. The "most profitable phone call you'll make" in the chapter is: - A) The same-day text to an unsold prospect. - B) The birthday call. - C) The equity-mining call to a sold customer in a trade-up window. - D) The cold call to a stranger.

Answer **C.** The customer already trusts you, believes you're fair, and doesn't dread the experience — three years of help calls dissolved the resistance in advance.

10. The highest-leverage pillar of building a personal brand, per §16.7, is: - A) Buying billboard ads. - B) Google reviews (from happy customers, naming you). - C) Cold-calling. - D) Wearing a flashy suit.

Answer **B.** A wall of specific, named Google reviews effectively pre-closes referrals before the handshake — and it's earned by doing good work, then asking happy customers to leave one.

True / False (6) — give a one-line justification

11. Most salespeople follow up with every unsold prospect at least once.

Answer **False.** A huge fraction never follow up with an unsold prospect even once — which is exactly why simply following up at all out-competes most of the building.

12. Calling a customer before their CSI survey to genuinely surface and fix problems is acceptable; calling to pressure them into all-tens ("begging for tens") is not.

Answer **True.** The honest pre-survey call (find and fix problems) is good practice; survey coaching is prohibited by most manufacturers and corrupts the feedback system.

13. Every follow-up touch should give the customer something or ask them something.

Answer **True.** A bare "just checking in" with nothing behind it is a nag touch that trains the customer to ignore you. Give a reason (info, a unit, a fix) or ask a real question.

14. It's fine to call a coworker's recently sold, still-active customer to "check in" and build a relationship with them.

Answer **False.** That's poaching. Orphans (whose salesperson *left*) are fair game; a peer's active book is not. Ask your manager which accounts are genuinely orphaned.

15. A referred customer typically arrives more price-sensitive than a stranger off the internet.

Answer **False.** Referred customers are usually *less* price-sensitive — they came for the trusted person their friend vouched for, not for the lowest number.

16. Follow-up reduces a salesperson's dependence on floor traffic.

Answer **True.** A warm referral and repeat base produces business regardless of how many strangers walk in — which is why follow-up is the ultimate cure for traffic-driven slumps (callback to Ch 6).

Short Answer (4)

17. Explain why the no-pitch 1/7/30/90-day calls are not "filler" before the equity-mining call.

Answer They're the trust deposits the equity call spends. Each genuine help-and-check-in call trains the customer that "you calling" means good news or help, not a pitch — so when you finally call about an equity window, they pick up, listen, and believe "nothing's wrong, this is good news." Skip the deposits and the equity call gets dodged.

18. State the "earn it, then ask it" principle for referrals in your own words, and explain why the order can't be reversed.

Answer First deliver a genuinely good experience (honest deal, complete delivery, attentive follow-up); only then ask for a referral, specifically. You can't reverse it because the ask only collects goodwill that already exists — you can't ask your way to a referral from a customer you ground down or never followed up with. The ask is the harvest; the good experience is the planting.

19. Define equity in a vehicle and walk through, in words, how positive equity can let a customer upgrade for a similar payment.

Answer Equity = the vehicle's current value minus the remaining loan payoff. If the value exceeds the payoff (positive equity), that difference acts as a down payment on the next vehicle. Rolling it in lowers the amount financed on the new car, so even though the new car costs more, the payment can stay similar (or only rise modestly) — especially if rates have eased. You found the window and gave the customer the honest choice.

20. In one short paragraph, contrast a salesperson who "sells cars" with one who "builds a business," using the idea of starting at zero.

Answer A salesperson who only "sells cars" treats each sale as a finished transaction, so on the first of every month their pipeline resets to zero and their income depends entirely on whatever floor traffic the dealership happens to get — a treadmill that never ends and never gets easier (Rick). A salesperson who "builds a business" treats each sale as the start of a relationship, logs it, and follows up — so after a few years they own a large, warm base of past customers who refer and re-buy. They never start at zero again, their income stops depending on the lot, and the business compounds instead of resetting (Carmen). Same headline sales number on a given month; completely different career.

Scoring Guide

Count your correct answers (for short-answer/applied, give yourself credit if you hit the core idea).

Score What it means
18–20 Mastery. You understand follow-up as the engine of a career. Build your cadence and start logging today.
14–17 (70%+) Ready to proceed to Chapter 17. Re-skim equity mining and the referral-ask specifics.
10–13 Partial. Re-read §16.4 (sold-customer cadence + equity mining) and §16.6 (referrals) before moving on.
Below 10 Re-read the chapter, especially the threshold concept (§16.1), the two cadences (§16.3–16.4), and the long-game math (§16.8). This chapter is load-bearing for your whole career — don't rush it.

70%+ (14/20) = ready to proceed. This material recurs constantly; the equity-mining and referral skills, especially, will show up again in Parts III, IV, and VII.