digital dealer magazine november 2009

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Just as you are trying to keep your store(s) on the cutting edge, we are doing the very same thing as we venture into a new frontier in the publishing biz. We can get this digital version in your hands 2-3 weeks faster than the print version, giving you the freshest information possible. You can click on links at the end of each article to email the author of such. And you can click on the ads to link to that advertiser’s website (and you’d REALLY be helping us out by doing just that). It’s quite intuitive…I don’t think that someone who uses the Internet to make a living will have any trouble easily figuring it out. Please let me know what you think about it… [email protected] Welcome to the digital edition of Digital Dealer magazine! Michael Roscoe Editor-in-Chief

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Page 1: Digital dealer magazine   november 2009

Just as you are trying to keep your store(s) on the cutting edge, we are doing the very same thing as we venture into a new frontier in the publishing biz.

We can get this digital version in your hands 2-3 weeks faster than the print version, giving you the freshest information possible. You can click on links at the end of each article to email the author of such. And you can click on the ads to link to that advertiser’s website (and you’d REALLY be helping us out by doing just that).

It’s quite intuitive…I don’t think that someone who uses the Internet to make a living will have any trouble easily figuring it out.

Please let me know what you think about it… [email protected]

Welcome to the digital editionof Digital Dealer magazine!

Michael Roscoe Editor-in-Chief

Page 2: Digital dealer magazine   november 2009

The Technology Magazine for Dealers & Managers

November 2009

Association of Automotive

Association of Automotive

Internet Sales Professionals

Internet Sales Professionals

www.AAISPonline.org

www.AAISPonline.org

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FFICIAL

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FFICIAL

Association of Automotive

Association of Automotive

Internet Sales Professionals

Internet Sales Professionals

www.AAISPonline.org

www.AAISPonline.orgAssociation of Automotive

Internet Sales Professionals

www.AAISPonline.org

PUBLICATIO

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ANGELAMARTININTERNET DIRECTORFeldmann Importspage 22

ANGELAMARTININTERNET DIRECTORFeldmann Importspage 22

Internet Sales:Unlock the Secret to Real

Success with your YouTubeInventory Videos

page 12

Dispelling Social Media Myths

page 18

Apply Google’s Secrets to Achieve

Google-like Successpage 20

Technology Trends:Mobile Connectivity: The Light at the End

of the CRM Tunnelpage 29

Internet Sales:Unlock the Secret to Real

Success with your YouTubeInventory Videos

page 12

Dispelling Social Media Myths

page 18

Apply Google’s Secrets to Achieve

Google-like Successpage 20

Technology Trends:Mobile Connectivity: The Light at the End

of the CRM Tunnelpage 29

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DD 4 November 2009 DigitalDealer-magazine.com

FEATURE

Digital Dealer Cover Story22 Angela Martin

Internet DirectorFeldmann Imports

COLUMNSAAISP Notes

10 The Winds of ChangeCliff Banks

Internet Sales12 Unlock the Secret to Real Success with

your YouTube Inventory VideosMike Baker

14 Drive More Walk-in Traffic from Leads you Already HaveSteve Elson

16 Handling Internet Leads: Are you Too Pushy?Jason Ezell

18 Dispelling Social Media Myths Brian Epro

20 Apply Google’s Secrets to Achieve Google-like SuccessPat Ryan Jr.

Internet Management26 Back to Basics: Customer Interaction Still a Must in

the Digital AgeRob Lange

27 Shrinking Staff – Growing ProblemJosh Vajda

Technology Trends28 Can your IT Department Reduce DMS Costs?

Sandi Jerome

29 Mobile Connectivity: The Light at the End of the CRM TunnelStan Thomas

BDC/CRM30 Faith, Refresh, Rejuvenate and Renew

Chuck Barker

DEPARTMENTS6 Digital Dealer E-mail8 News

TABLE OF CONTENTSAssociation of Automotive

Association of Automotive

Internet Sales Professionals

Internet Sales Professionals

www.AAISPonline.org

www.AAISPonline.org

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FFICIAL

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FFICIAL

Association of Automotive

Association of Automotive

Internet Sales Professionals

Internet Sales Professionals

www.AAISPonline.org

www.AAISPonline.orgAssociation of Automotive

Internet Sales Professionals

www.AAISPonline.org

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PUBLICATIO

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Angela MartinFeldmann Imports

A PUBLICATION OF

NOVEMBER 2009PRESIDENT AND CEO

MICHAEL ROSCOE

VICE PRESIDENT AND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

CLIFF [email protected]

248-351-2620

EDITORLINDA DI PIETRO

[email protected]

PUBLISHERGREG NOONAN

[email protected]

ART DIRECTORJOE BIRCH

PRODUCTION MANAGERELIZABETH BIRCH

PRINT PRODUCTIONDAVID MANTHEY

COVER DESIGNJOE BIRCH

DESIGN CONSULTINGPUBLICATION DESIGN, INC.

COVER STORY PHOTOGRAPHYMARK ROBERTSON

CIRCULATION SUBSCRIPTIONRICH JARRETT314-432-7511

[email protected]

NATIONAL ADVERTISING [email protected]

607-264-3359

Dealer magazine makes every attempt toensure the accuracy of all published works.However it cannot be held responsible foropinions expressed or facts supplied herein.Nothing may be reproduced in whole or in partwithout written permission from the publisher.All rights reserved. The publisher encouragesyou to submit suggestions. Submitted materialsbecome the property of Horizon Communications,Inc. and will not be returned. Send material forpublication to 330 Franklin Rd., Suite 135A,PMB 386, Brentwood, TN 37027. The editorreserves the right to edit material; submissionof material constitutes permission to edit andpublish that material. This publication isdesigned to provide accurate and authoritativeinformation in regard to the subject mattercovered. It is presented with the understandingthat the publisher is not engaged in renderinglegal, accounting or other professional service.If legal advice or other expert assistance isrequired, the services of a competent profes-sional person should be sought. From aDeclaration of Principles jointly adopted by aCommittee of the American Bar Associationand a Committee of Publishers.

The Technology Magazine for Dealers & Managers

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DD 6 November 2009 DigitalDealer-magazine.com

Chuck Barker,In your September 2009 Digital

Dealer magazine article, “TheCharacter of a Dealership is Defined byits People, not its Walls,” youmentioned sending upon request “lead-ership enriching ideas.” I'm humblyrequesting. Thank you in advance.

Mike Springer GMAnderson FordLincoln, [email protected]

Jeff Jones,I enjoyed your great cover story inter-

view in the September 2009 DigitalDealer magazine and thanks for thehelpful information! I am aHonda/Acura dealer in Columbus,OH, and we are currently rewriting ourBDC-Internet process. We are trying tomove away from the Internet salespeo-ple working the leads from start tofinish and involve the BDC to gainmore customer touches (especiallyphone calls) and longer follow up.

I wondered if you might have any

tips you could share with me that mighthelp us in writing this process.

Thanks again,Steve LindsayLindsay HondaLindsay AcuraColumbus, [email protected]

Steve, Thanks for the kind words on the cover

story. I think trying to gain more customer

contact with your staff is the right idea.We have had a call center with dedicatedphone staff setting appointments for thedealership before. There are pros and consto both; we noticed the callers developedrapport with the person on the phone andwould want to deal with them when theycame in instead of the sales staff. However,it seems some of the call center staff woulddo a better job of handling the call thanthe sales staff. It is a tough decision, fornow we are going to provide continuousphone training to our sales staff and holdthem accountable for the calls they take.

We are using a “call sync” feature thatautomatically imports calls (prospects)into our CRM. Here’s how it works: Atthe end of the call the salesperson isrequired to enter their agent code beforehanging up the phone. This will sync theirname with that call in our CRM. This

Digital Dealer welcomes your letters andafter verification will run them signed orunsigned. Letters may be edited for spaceand clarity. Send letters [email protected].

way our BDC staff can support the salesstaff with the phone calls the salespeopletook, while at the same time holding thesales staff accountable for their calls.

If you are using a call recording andtracking service I would see if you can setup a call sync feature to your CRM!

I hope this helps! Jeff Jones

Phil Sura,I regularly read your articles in

Digital Dealer magazine. I have a ques-tion: what is a respectable averageclosing rate for our dealership web siteand OEM (Ford, Chevrolet, Hyundaiand VW) web leads? How about third-party leads?

Any information would be appreci-ated.

Regards,David CueneBroadway AutomotiveGreen Bay, [email protected]

Hi David,The way that dealerships track the

basics range tremendously. It reminds meof the desk managers who always end upwith an 18 percent closing ratio againstwalk-in traffic. If you start to dig into thenumbers, you discover that certaincustomers are not being counted for differ-ent reasons. Some customers are notcounted because they were really servicecustomers, even though they spent timelooking at the new models. Othercustomers are not counted because theydidn't spend a long enough period of timeat the dealership.

In reference to tracking closing ratioswith the Internet, there will be differencesbased on brand, market conditions (Cashfor Clunkers impacted numbers) and theabilities of the team in place. I connectedwith one of the stronger directors of agroup that tracks true numbers and theirdomestic and import dealerships. Here iswhat they report:

Close rate ranges with web site leads:10.5-18.6 percent during September

Close rate ranges with leads from themanufacturer sites: 10-13 percent

Close rate ranges from third-party sites:4-6 percent

Best of luck with the month-end close. Phil Sura

D IGITAL Dealer E-MAIL

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mobile initiative that expands web sitereach for all 154 Sonic dealerships.Anticipating consumer needs, thegroup’s web sites now automaticallyformat dealership web site content forthe specific mobile devices shoppers useto view dealership information.Automotive shoppers on-the-go nowhave expanded access to auto dealershipinformation, including inventory andhigh definition vehicle videos, speciallyoptimized for their particular hand-helddevices. Working in partnership withDealer.com, the global leader of onlinemarketing solutions for the automotiveindustry, the unique new mobile website initiative launched on September 1.

Historically, consumers have hadlimited access to dealership web siteinformation on hand-helds because siteswere not optimized for the Internetbrowsing formats of the devices. In therecent past, Sonic Automotive dealer-ship web sites have included a mobileformat by merely “shrinking” the website for smaller viewing screens or byproviding a format that was specific to asingle hand-held device such as theiPhone. While this was an improve-ment, it still limited the consumerexperience because each hand-helddevice has its own particular viewingspecifications and full mobile web siteaccess, regardless of hand-held type, wasnot available. Now, with Sonic's recentmobile initiative, dealership web sitecontent is optimized to provideconsumers quick access to site contentthat is relevant to mobile users includ-ing: new and used inventory, parts andservice departments, directions anddealership contact information.

The innovative, comprehensiveonline operating system created byDealer.com and Sonic has enabled theadvanced mobile application develop-ment, including integration ofperformance metrics into existing onlinereporting tools. This technology part-nership helps position Sonic’sdealerships to stay at the forefront of theconsumer experience, anticipating userneeds and delivering web site contentwhere, when and how consumers seek it.

www.dealer.comwww.sonicautomotive.com

DD 8 November 2009 DigitalDealer-magazine.com

D IGITAL Dealer

Carfax to offer customers integrated

access at Manheim.comCarfax has announced that

Manheim customers will now haveintegrated access to Carfax AuctionQuick Check and Vehicle HistoryReports via Manheim.com. Reportsare now available on the site’s 24/7 “Bidor Buy Now” tool, OVE.com. Accessfor users of Simulcast, Manheim.com’sLIVE bidding tool, will follow some-time next month. Dealers researchingvehicles online with Manheim nowhave access to Carfax information witha single mouse click.

Sue Boehlke, senior vice president,Manheim Online Solutions andTechnology said, “Manheim is alwayslooking for ways to enhance its onlinemarketplace with solutions that providetransparency, build trust and improvethe online customer experience fordealers. The online integration ofCarfax helps us provide for these goals.”

Previous independent studies provethat using a Carfax report improvesinventory turn and increases profit. It’scritical that dealers pay the right pricefor cars customers want. In addition,used car shoppers get the informationneeded to make faster buying decisions.

“If you want to win at auction youmust have better information,” saidDick Raines, Carfax president. “We’reexcited to work with Manheim toprovide vehicle history information sodealers can pay the right price for carsthat fit their customers’ needs.”

www.manheim.com, www.carfax.com

Sonic AutomotiveGroup partners withDealer.com in mobile

initiative Sonic Automotive, Inc., the nation’s

third-largest automotive retailer, hasannounced the launch of a customized

AutoUSA reports 500 percent increasein e-mail and phone

leads for dealersAutoUSA, a leading provider of the

highest quality, Internet-generatedconsumer leads to auto dealers nation-wide, has announced a 500 percentincrease in e-mail and phone leads fordealers since April 2009 from its pay-per-lead Inventory Listing Network,powered by Vast.com.

AutoUSA’s Inventory ListingNetwork currently provides exposure to15 million unique in-market car shop-pers monthly, and is expected to growto an estimated 20 million buyers byyear-end, for a dealer’s used and newinventory listings. Inventory is postedat top automotive sites such as KelleyBlue Book’s The Trusted Marketplace,AOL Autos, CarPerks.com,Overstock.com, AutoMedia.com,CarDomain.com and AutoUSA’s usedcar web site, AutoUSAused.com.

The service also includes a pay-for-performance pricing plan in whichdealers only pay for the valid leads theyreceive each month. When inventorybecomes depleted, dealers only pay forleads on available inventory listings.

Dealers who sign up for AutoUSAInventory Network can have theirinventory appearing online within aweek, with a phone number shownon each listing, allowing consumersto contact the dealer while viewingthe listing.

There are no long-term contractcommitments, and dealers can opt outof the program at any time with a 30-day notice. AutoUSA also employs astringent scrubbing process for incom-ing leads from the Vehicle ListingNetwork that eliminates duplicates andfilters out leads with missing or incor-rect contact information, such as phoneand e-mail addresses.

www.AutoUSA.com

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DD 10 November 2009 DigitalDealer-magazine.com

operations managers, parts managersand body shop managers.

In other words, anything you andyour managers need to run your dealer-ship, as well as selling and servicingmore cars, you will find on our site.

We’re going to have the largest selec-tion of best-practice, how-to columnswritten by the industry’s leadingconsultants. Just like you see in themagazines, the site will include profilesfeaturing innovative dealers and theirsecrets – at least, the ones they’re willingto share.

The Dealer web portal also willfeature news, blogs, forums and social-networking communities, video,calendars and user-generated content,all segmented by department.

And we’re going to offer a mobilecomponent that will let you access thesite from the road.

The next two to three years will be anexciting time in this industry. And Ipredict 2011 through 2015 will beheralded as a golden era in automotiveretail.

Most of you have restructured yourbusinesses and your departments to beprofitable in a year in which ninemillion new vehicles are sold. Imaginewhat will happen when sales are back atthe 12 to 14 million unit levels.

Dealers and vendors alike will beawash in money. With nearly 3,000fewer dealers, many of you will beselling more vehicles than you everthought possible.

Now is the time to begin instilling a

Cliff BanksD IGITAL Dealer AAISP NOTES

Those of you that know memight be wondering why I’mwriting a column in Digital

Dealer magazine. That’s because – untillast month – I had been with anothermagazine, competing vigorouslyagainst the Dealer Communicationsproperties for nearly 10 years.

But, as we have all been remindedthis year, “change” is a constant in life,and this is one change I am excitedabout. I am happy to say, I am now thevice president and editorial director forDealer Communications.

From a market perspective, this hasbeen a turbulent time in the automo-tive industry, especially for dealers. It'stimes such as this in which leaders stepup. I believe Dealer Communicationsand its team is uniquely positioned tocontinue being the leading source ofmanagement information for dealersand their managers as we move forwardin the 21st century. Frankly, I want tobe a part of that.

I’ll be responsible for all of the edito-rial content for the company, includingDealer magazine, its digital initiatives,the six weekly e-newsletters, the digitalmagazines, webinars and the soon to belaunched Dealer web portal.

You’re going to hear a lot about theweb portal in the weeks to come. It willbe the “go to” online destination fordealers and general managers, as well ashaving micro-sites for Internet salesmanagers and e-Commerce directors,pre-owned managers, sales managers,F&I managers, service directors, fixed

The Winds of Change

winning culture in your organization.It’s also the time to refine and tweakyour store’s processes, optimizing thedealership for when sales do come back.

Now also is the time to get the rightstaff in place. With thousands of deal-ership employees now looking forwork, finding and keeping the rightstaff should no longer be an excuse. Asone service director at a Ford dealer-ship told me recently, he has the “pickof the litter.”

The point is, times such as this arewhen foundations are laid for futurefortunes. That is our goal here atDigital Dealer – and its parent DealerCommunications. We want toprovide you with all of the informa-tion you need to help you build thosefoundations.

To be honest, we’re building a foun-dation here at Dealer Communicationsalso. In the end, it’s all about makingmoney conducting business the rightway – with integrity, brains andtoughness.

Cliff Banks is the vice president and editorialdirector of Dealer Communications, Inc.He can be reached at 248-351-2620.

If you wish to discuss this article withother dealers, or with the author,please go to the “Discussion Forums”at www.DigitalDealer-magazine.comand enter the “AAISP” forum or e-mail him at [email protected].

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DD 12 November 2009 DigitalDealer-magazine.com

The use of videos to market vehicleinventory is a popular push bymany vendors today, but not all

online video marketing is created equal.An online video walkaround presentationis nice, but won’t necessarily generateleads if people who want that vehicledon’t see it.

To bolster the odds that the modelpromoted by an online video can befound by buyers looking for that particu-lar make and model, the video has toappear where buyers are shopping. Moreand more, the place consumers are shop-ping is on search engines like Google andYouTube.

Dealers can shoot and upload inven-tory videos themselves to YouTube andother online video sites or they can use aservice to do this for them. Advantages ofsuch a service is that the provider takesthis time-consuming function off thedealer’s shoulders and the automationtools they employ easily populate videosto not only sites like YouTube, but moretraditional car shopping web sites likecars.com and Autotrader.com.

Still, placement of videos on these sitesdoes not guarantee buyers will actually seethem. To improve the odds that they will,video-listing companies employ a varietyof search engine optimization techniques.Thus, when a consumer types “White2007 Ford Fusion in Ames” into a searchengine like Google, models fitting thosekeywords in the Ames, Iowa area appearon the resulting search pages. OK, buthow can you improve the chances thatthe white 2007 Ford Fusion you havelisted will appear in the top search pagepositions, the most prominent and effec-tive positions?

To get that white 2007 Ford Fusionvideo before the eyes of consumers wellalong in the sales funnel – those buyerswithin the last few weeks of buying –means the video must appear on Google.The Internet traffic monitor firm Hitwisenotes that not only does Google account

for more than 72 percent of all U.S.searches, but Google shoppers tend to bemore affluent consumers as well.

What is not well understood is that thesecret to success from posting videos toYouTube is having those video listingsrich with search engine key words andtags so they likewise post high on Google.Google’s ownership of YouTube certainlyworks in favor of this. So while listingvideos on YouTube is certainly cool, thereal reason for doing so is to get yourvehicle listed on Google and in themarket or markets where consumers areshopping for those vehicles.

In fact, on the noted research firmForrester Research’s web site, a recentstudy indicates that using this approachyou can have as much as a 50 timesadvantage to having a posting appear onthe front of Google over using a tradi-tional web page.

Here are some useful tips, for usewhether you’re uploading inventoryvideos to YouTube and other online videosites yourself or using a listing service:• Be sure to tag listings with SEO-rele-vant information so search engines willup the listing and rank them in theirindexes. Google indexes YouTube listingsin about four to eight days on average,though there are services that can havethem appear within hours. • Be aware that index rankings – known aspage rank on Google – frequently changehow rankings are determined, which canaffect the relevancy of a listing. The ruleshere can be unpredictable. The relevancyrules are affected by a number of factorsthat vary by market, time of year, volume oflistings and a number of parameters, whichgenerally are unpublished by searchengines. Services that provide discovery andtesting of search engine “relevancy” factorscan help increase listings’ index rankings.• Be sure to post the same videos to anumber of media sites, not just YouTubeor one of the more mainline car-shoppingonline sites. More listings of the same

videos helps the SEO of each listing gaina higher page ranking.• Be sure to list the videos on your website and link YouTube and other sites’ list-ings back to your web site.

In closing, the use of YouTube postingsof auto videos is not about the video expe-rience for the shopper per se, it is aboutusing a little known loophole in thesystem, which currently helps you to getthat vehicle listing high up on searchresults pages of Google. As to Yahoo andMSN and other search sites, combinedthey only constitute less that 25 percent ofthe entire search market and they are reallynot in the game for video. Their ability tofind these listings or provide relevant infor-mation is almost non-existent.

Research shows that shoppers start at asearch engine and navigate to other sitesor listings from there. It is up to you to dothe leg work to reach buyers where theystart looking for the inventory dealershave on their lots, at a time when they aremost ready to buy a vehicle.

Most dealers are too busy trying to sellcars to be able to spend the time it takesto keep up with the ever-changing land-scape of the Internet. One of the reasonsyou might want to employ an outsidefirm to help you build a program thatworks this week, next week and beyond isthat the only rule that is constant aboutthe Internet is that the rules will changewithout notice.

Mike Baker is president ofAutoUpLinkUSA, a leading provider ofonline vehicle inventory listing and imagepublishing marketing services.

Unlock the Secret to Real Success withyour YouTube Inventory VideosRich content and nice images aside, it’s all about search engine results

If you wish to discuss this article withother dealers, or with the author,please go to the “Discussion Forums”at www.DigitalDealer-magazine.comand enter the “Internet Sales” forum or e-mail him at [email protected].

D IGITAL Dealer INTERNET SALESMike Baker

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DD 14 November 2009 DigitalDealer-magazine.com

How do you pry people awayfrom their computer screensand get them to step inside your

dealership? Coaxing prospects to make apersonal appearance is one of the mainchallenges for dealers. Blame theInternet! As car buyers increasingly relyon Internet research, visits to dealershipshave plummeted. The average numberof visits to a dealership by a customerlooking to purchase a car has decreasedfrom seven in the year 2000 to only 1.5in 2008 (Network Q, April 2005)!

This amounts to far fewer chances tomeet prospects in person. The upside isthat if you’re one of the 1.5 dealers abuyer chooses to visit, you have a moreeducated buyer who won’t take as muchtime to close. But if you’re one of the5.5 that a buyer would have visited pre-Internet, you don’t even get a shot.Dealers are addressing the new shop-ping landscape by maintainingattractive web sites and following upleads aggressively with CRM applica-tions. Amidst this scramble, one highlyeffective yet overlooked marketingtactic is the walk-in incentive.

Walk-in incentives are precisely thekind of tactic that entices shoppers tovisit a dealer. Walk-in incentives helpdifferentiate a dealership from competi-tors, who may all be offering essentiallyindistinguishable OEM or financeincentives. When a shopper is research-ing online and deciding where to visit, asmall gift such as a $25 gas card can tipthe decision to visit one dealershipinstead of or sooner than another – oreven entice him to add an extra visit tothe list.

Many dealers have loads of leads butnever get to meet most of them.Speaking with people face-to-face andsitting them in vehicles is the best way tohelp them make a purchase decision; anddealers do everything they can toincrease the show rate of their leads. Butit’s hard work. On average, it takes nine

phone calls just to reach a prospect. Andthen you still need to convince her to setan appointment (and hopefully sheshows up). Offering your leads a walk-inincentive reduces the follow-up effortrequired and increases the show rate,simply by providing a bit of extra moti-vation for the prospect to come in.

In addition to raising your show rate,walk-in incentives can also increase the

lead capture rate for your site and othermarketing tactics.

So why has the time-tested walk-inincentive fallen out of favor? First, there’sthe risk of wasting time and funds byattracting gift seekers who aren’t truly in-market. Then there’s the challenge oflimited resources, as it requires time toplan a giveaway promotion. There’s thelogistical challenge of procuring andstocking items, and ensuring that theseitems don’t “grow legs” and walk away ontheir own. There’s the issue of pickingthe right incentive, with the inherent riskof investing in an ineffective promotion.And then there’s the challenge of meas-urement – how do you measure the ROIon such investments?

Fortunately, new technologies andpartners allow you to apply smart

walk-in incentives – targeting highquality prospects, eliminating wastedincentive inventory, taking the logis-tics off your hands, and providingcampaign measurement.

Here are some best practices for man-aging walk-in incentives effectively:

1. Target incentives to the right in-market prospects: Limit an offer topeople who have indicated they’re trulyin-market. Instead of showing an offer toevery visitor to your web site, target it tovisitors exhibiting shopping behaviors,such as navigating to vehicle inventorypages or making repeat visits to the site.

2. Target special incentives toprospects needing extra motivation:Offer sweeter incentives to in-marketshoppers who haven’t been responsive.For example, you can escalate the valueof a walk-in incentive to a good leadwho hasn’t set an appointment after aweek’s effort.

3. Test to find the best incentives: Yourintuition may be valuable but it is not areplacement for testing. Test incentivesagainst one another. Figure out if youreally need to give away that promo-tional item worth $30, or does a $20item work just as well?

4. Consider different incentives fordifferent prospects: If your dealershipsells to different audiences, you may findunique incentives resonate better witheach type of customer: it may be a $50dining voucher in one instance, ortickets to a prestigious golf event inanother. Consider the audience you’retrying to reach – those in the market fora family-hauling vehicle or a sleek sedan– and then test!

Drive More Walk-in Traffic from Leads you Already HaveHow to use walk-in incentives to lure today’s online shoppers

continued on P-32

D IGITAL Dealer INTERNET SALESSteve Elson

“Dealers are addressing

the new shopping

landscape by maintain-

ing attractive web sites

and following up leads

aggressively with

CRM applications.”—Steve Elson

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DD 16 November 2009 DigitalDealer-magazine.com

Once you receive leads fromyour web site, how do youmove forward with them? Are

you effectively working toward a sale?Or are you unintentionally pushingyour shoppers away?

In 2008, 29 percent of automotiveInternet users (AIUs) requested a referralto a dealer through any type of automo-tive web site (J.D. Power and Associates2008 New AutoShopper.com Study).

What can we learn about the role yourweb site plays in the buying process andhow you can benefit from it?

You have three categories of Internetleads – fresh leads, 30-day leads and 60-plus day leads – and each of these has tobe handled in its own way. Dealingwith Internet leads isn’t about followingyour sales process. It’s about adhering tothe buyer’s process.

Fresh leadsYour newest Internet leads simply

want information such as accuratepricing, available options and moredetailed descriptions. Don’t be overlyaggressive with them.

Before you respond to these leads,take a moment to get more informationabout your potential customer. Youshould be able to log into the controlpanel of your web site and find informa-

tion about them such as how long theywere on your site and on which pagesthey spent the most time. This informa-tion will help you tailor your response.

When you send the requested infor-mation, use the opportunity to buildrapport. Introduce yourself and discussthe benefits of shopping at your dealer-ship. Use the value propositionapproach to let your shoppers knowwhat makes your dealership stand outfrom other dealers in your area.

This will not only arm the shopperwith plenty of information to helpthem begin the vehicle purchaseprocess, but it will also strengthen yourreputation as the dealer who offers assis-tance instead of just a sales pitch.

30-day leadsOnce your Internet leads reach the

30-day status, shoppers likely will havenarrowed down the types of vehiclesthey’re interested in. It’s just as impor-tant now as it was in the beginning toavoid being too pushy or eager to makea sale, as that could turn your shoppersinto your competition’s customers.

Now is the time to switch into“discovery mode” and help your shop-pers find the vehicles that will fit theirlifestyles. Because you already have thebackground information that you gath-ered during the initial conversations,you can use it to direct shoppers to theirnext vehicles.

Once you and your shoppers havefurther narrowed the search, it will be aquick and easy process to find a varietyof cars that will interest them. Sendyour potential customers a brief list ofvehicles in your inventory that matchtheir specifications to let them knowthat you’re there to help.

By sending this information, you’llnot only be top of mind when theshoppers decide to test drive vehicles,but you’ll also be eliminating severalsteps of the search process for them.

60-plus day leadsYour 60-plus day-old Internet leads

are generally ready to visit the dealershipand have a firm idea of what vehiclesthey want to come in and test drive.

In the past 60 days, you’ve builtstrong relationships, shown them whatcars you have available that align withwhat they’re looking for and helpedthem narrow down their search.

It’s time to start pushing a sale.Remind them of the vehicles you’ve

talked about before, alert them of newinventory that matches their specifica-tions and talk to them about cominginto the dealership to view or test driveyour vehicles.

Once they visit, you’ll have theperfect opportunity to launch into aserious sales effort and work towardconverting those leads into sales.

Taking the time to carefully cultivateyour Internet leads with a soft-sellapproach will put you at an advantage asyou build a relationship with your poten-tial customers before selling them yourinventory. Your shoppers won’t see you asjust another car dealer, but they’ll trustyou as a great resource for informationand be more likely to make their nextvehicle purchase at your dealership.

Jason Ezell is one of Dealerskins’ origi-nal founders and currently works as aprivate consultant to the company anddealers nationwide. He has been a ven-dor representative on the J.D. PowerInternet Roundtable and speaks toNADA Dealer 20 groups nationwide onweb site strategy.

Handling Internet Leads: Are you Too Pushy?

If you wish to discuss this article withother dealers, or with the author,please go to the “Discussion Forums”at www.DigitalDealer-magazine.comand enter the “Internet Sales” forum or e-mail him at [email protected].

D IGITAL Dealer INTERNET SALES Jason Ezell

“Dealing with Internet

leads isn’t about

following your sales

process. It’s about

adhering to the

buyer’s process.”—Jason Ezell

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DD 18 November 2009 DigitalDealer-magazine.com

Doesn’t it seem like everyone ispushing social media thesedays? While new social media

solutions come to market every day,there remain very few real statisticsabout how social media is working fordealers and whether it’s actually bring-ing in paying customers. To help yousort through the noise, below are someof the common myths associated withsocial media marketing and what youcan do to get in the game withoutspending a penny.

Myth 1: Social media hasn’t reachedauto customers yet

Social media has slipped into everyindustry and nearly every customer’slife. While it’s true that not all peopleare tweeting on Twitter or posting to aFacebook page, there are a host ofother social applications out there.Have you ever read or posted anopinion or review on a web site? That’sa type of social application. Whatabout watched YouTube? If the answeris yes, you have participated on a socialmedia site and more than likely, sohave your customers. The idea thatsocial media is not used in automotivecircles is outdated.

Myth 2: No other dealer is doing it,why should I?

All it takes to dispel this myth istyping the words “dealership +Facebook” into Google. You’ll findpages and pages of dealerships that haveposted their store profile on Facebookand are building “fans” on their page.Recently more than 600 dealers wereidentified as having a Twitter account.However, while it is true more dealer-ships than ever before are participating

in social media, it does not have to becomplicated or time-consuming.Which brings me to my next point…

Myth 3: Social media is complicated The best kind of social media

campaign begins with a loyal customerbase who appreciates and sends on theinformation you share with them. Iknow an Internet sales manager whohad a customer post one of their e-newsletter articles to his Twitter,Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.That’s a triple social media hit for thedealership completely driven by onecustomer! This dealer didn’t have to doanything “outside of the box” to createa social media hit, they merely enabledtheir customers to post e-newsletterarticles to different social media chan-nels. The ISM is letting the dealershipcustomer do the social networking forhim, which should be the goal of anyviral campaign.

Myth 4: Social media needs to be aseparate campaign

While social media is spreading likewildfire right now, dealerships don’thave to do anything particularly costlyor time-consuming to get it going. Asnoted above, the best social mediacampaigns come directly from

Dispelling Social Media Myths

If you wish to discuss this article withother dealers, or with the author,please go to the “Discussion Forums”at www.DigitalDealer-magazine.comand enter the “Internet Sales” forum or e-mail him at [email protected].

D IGITAL Dealer INTERNET SALESBrian Epro

customers. Give customers impeccableservice, valuable information and a wayto spread that information to friendsand colleagues and they will do thesocial media marketing for you. As longas you have a way to track where yourarticles, coupons and offers show up onvarious sites, your social campaign canride right alongside your traditionalmarketing services.

Social media is not only here to stay,but it is slowly creeping into the plansof every dealership. However, instead offorcing a social media plan, go back toyour traditional ways of doing business– excellent customer service, valuableinformation and the invitation for two-way communication – and yourcustomers will do the work for you, freeof charge.

Brian Epro is director of AutomotiveServices Group at IMN Loyalty Driver.

“Give customers impeccable service, valuable

information and a way to spread that information

to friends and colleagues and they will do the

social media marketing for you.”—Brian Epro

Page 20: Digital dealer magazine   november 2009

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Page 21: Digital dealer magazine   november 2009

DD 20 November 2009 DigitalDealer-magazine.com

Every company would like toenjoy the success of Google – thefastest growing company of the

Internet age. Walk into a room and aska crowd how many had used Googletoday or even this week and virtuallyevery hand goes up. No surprise sinceover 70 percent of searches in the U.Suse Google – over nine billion permonth [Hitwise, May, 2009].

So how does Google dominate theworld of Internet search? The answer issimple: People use Google because ithelps them find what they are lookingfor – in short, Google maximizesconsumer relevancy. Yet, despiteGoogle’s virtually unparalleled success,few online advertisers, especially onlinevehicle advertisers, leverage Google’spowerful, yet simple secret in manag-ing their own Internet business.

Evolution equals revolutionWith over 80 percent of consumers

researching online for an average of 6.5hours before visiting a dealership,dealers must come to terms with oneessential fact: In the Internet age, everydealership is an Internet dealership.Despite this powerful data, too manydealers are still approaching theironline strategy using “old school”advertising methods such as:

• Generic VIN or window stickerdata. Example: Online ads thatlist the four most commonvehicle attributes in the first line:“power locks,” “power windows,”“power steering” and “air condi-tioning.” These attributes havenot been vehicle differentiatorsfor decades and are not theunique or relevant features thatonline shoppers look for.

• Generic narratives. Stating theobvious such as, “This vehicle isequipped with a 4.6 literengine…”

• “Car talk.” A dealer’s use ofautomotive jargon such as,“This car has eyes.” This use ofinsider language does not appealto the masses.

In order to meet the needs ofconsumers whose buying habits havefundamentally shifted since the adventof the Internet, dealers must do awaywith these ineffective advertising andselling techniques in their online busi-ness and must instead focus onmaximizing consumer relevancy – thedegree to which your vehicle meets theneeds of your customer.

The key to maximizing consumerrelevancy lies in consumer optimiza-tion, a concept that I have introducedin previous columns. Consumer opti-mization applies the Google ConsumerRelevancy model to online vehicleadvertising, underscoring that withevery vehicle, certain features, qualitiesand benefits are more important thanothers. Emphasizing what consumerscare about while minimizing what theydon’t – increases the relevancy of yourvehicle to the prospective buyer. As aresult, just as search engine optimiza-tion optimizes a web page so it rankshigher, consumer optimization opti-mizes an online vehicle ad so it ranks

higher with consumers and is morelikely to be chosen versus competitors’ads. In addition, when optimizingvehicle ads, maximizing consumer rele-vancy goes beyond what page aconsumer should look at and focuseson which of the 1.5 dealers theconsumer should visit.

Hitting the consumer MARK In order to create ads that are rele-

vant, dealers must first focus on whatis most relevant to their consumers.Most consumers make their purchas-ing decision based on what they value.With that in mind, dealers must focuson the characteristics of their vehiclesthat are more likely to “hit theM.A.R.K” for their potential buyers.We use this acronym to describe thefour most relevant drivers in theconsumer’s buying process:

1. Mission: Does the vehicle fit mymission?

• e.g. Safe, fuel efficient, family car thatseats five (including three car seats) andhas a cargo area instead of a trunk to fitmy dog

2. Affordable: Is this vehicle affordablegiven my financial means?

• Payment range is the primary factor

3. Risk: How much risk on reliabilityam I taking?

• One-owner, still under warranty,service history, low mileage, JD PowerQuality Ratings, projected total cost ofownership

4. Key differentiators: What are thekey differentiators of this vehicle versusmy alternatives?

Apply Google’s Secrets to Achieve Google-like Success

continued next page

D IGITAL Dealer INTERNET SALESPat Ryan Jr.

“...Dealers must come

to terms with one

essential fact: In the

Internet age, every

dealership is an

Internet dealership.”—Pat Ryan Jr.

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DigitalDealer-magazine.com November 2009 DD 21

• Leads consumers to make purchasingdecision based on price to value equation

With a clear understanding of theconsumer’s M.A.R.K factors, dealers arebetter enabled to consumer optimizetheir online ads. The first step in thisprocess centers on pricing. Becauseconsumers rarely choose a pre-ownedvehicle on price alone, it is critical to getpricing right from the start. Whileconsumers search for models that meettheir mission and are affordable, dealersmust stay in the game using consumeroptimized pricing techniques, whichmanage the fine line between overpric-ing vehicles so you’re not “out of thegame” and giving away gross profitupfront through under pricing.

With optimized pricing in place,consumers will likely continue theironline search by scanning ad previews,which should speak to a consumer’sneeds or the M.A.R.K factors. Duringthis critical time, the key is to highlightthe unique attributes or benefits thatset your vehicle apart from the compe-tition including: • Equipment and options (heated

seats, rear seat entertainment,leather, etc.)

• Lifestyle features (family car, sporty,fun, tough utility, etc.)

• Vehicle history (Carfax one owner,original warranty, low mileage, etc.)

• Certification program features(extended warranty, etc.)

• Value (price compared to sticker,Kelley Blue Book or previous dealerprice, etc.)

This concept, known as “consumeroptimized advertising” can move youbeyond generic online ads created withVIN explosions to high impact ads thatpromote the unique benefits and valueof every vehicle. With consumer opti-mized advertising, dealers can convertonline browsers to on the lot buyers,thus setting up their business forstronger profitability.

By applying the techniques ofconsumer optimization, dealers will bepositioned to create a new power shift– the shift away from irrelevancy. Nowis the time to take the lessons of theGoogle relevancy model to achieveonline and on the lot success.

Pat Ryan Jr. is the co-founder and chiefexecutive officer of First Look byINCISENT Technologies, the leader inautomotive retail performance solutions,which was ranked as the #4 FastestGrowing Software Company in theUnited States in Inc Magazine’s 2008Inc500, as well as the #1 FastestGrowing Company in the AutomotiveSector. Ryan is a widely followed thoughtleader and speaker in the industry.

If you wish to discuss this article withother dealers, or with the author,please go to the “Discussion Forums”at www.DigitalDealer-magazine.comand enter the “Internet Sales” forum or e-mail him at [email protected].

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DD 22 November 2009 DigitalDealer-magazine.com

D IGITAL Dealer COVER STORY

Angela MartinInternet DirectorFeldmann Imports

Angela Martin, the 32-year-old Internet director for Feldmann Imports in Bloomington,Minnesota, says she didn’t plan a future that included selling cars over the Internet, but afternine years having success using the best online technology to move Nissan and Mercedes-Benzunits off the lot, she says she wouldn’t change a thing about her accidental career. As the lone

Internet sales manager for the family-owned dealership in 2006 she was moving about 25 carsa month. Today, with two additional Internet sales people on board, Martin’s team sells about67 cars a month. Martin says she’s constantly experimenting with new technology. She creditsher management for its willingness to be quick adopters of whatever works and says thanks to

that, online sales now account for about 30 percent of the dealership’s business; and thatnumber is still growing despite today’s challenging market.

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DigitalDealer-magazine.com November 2009 DD 23

ANGELA, TELL ME WHAT FIRSTATTRACTED YOU TO BE AUTO INDUSTRY?

I moved to the West Coast aftercollege without a job or any money. Iwas down to $200 and was about togive up when I decided to make somequick cash selling Hondas. I ended upin the Internet department after a shorttime on the sales floor. This is where itall began for me. This was 2001 and theInternet department was relatively new.We basically responded to inquiries bye-mail that was famous for the upfrontpricing and saving the customer from alot of negotiation time.

The attraction to the Internet aspectof the automotive business is what haskept me involved for nine years. It isconstantly changing and I learn some-thing new everyday. After a four-yearstint in Oregon I decided to move backto my home state of Minnesota. That iswhen I landed with Feldmann Imports,almost five years ago. What initiallyattracted me to Feldmann Imports wasthat they had a dedicated BDC for theInternet department, incoming andfollow-up phone calls and servicedepartment. The smaller family-owneddealership was the other factor thatbrought me here. After being involvedwith a large dealer group, I wanted tofeel involved and the Feldmann family isvery involved in the dealership anddedicated to their employees. I wouldchoose to be with a dealership of thissize over a large group because of theinvolvement and true passion of theFeldmann family and the employeeshere. It is fun to come to work everydayand know that you are making a differ-ence in the dealership and providing ourcustomers with a unique experience.

How did you land as Internet salesdirector for Feldmann Imports?

Becoming the director of the Internetdepartment has been something thathas evolved over time and growth.About a year and a half ago it becameapparent to the management staff that adirector was needed for this growingdepartment.

I started at Feldmann Imports as theonly Internet manager selling around25 vehicles per month. We graduallybegan adding people to the Internetteam. Now we are averaging 67 vehicles

a month from our three-person depart-ment. As technology and the Internetdepartment advances there is a greatneed for someone to be able to focussolely on that area of the business. Itruly believe that this department is asimportant as any other in a dealership.It is the one area that came in strong10-plus years ago and continues to gainmore and more momentum everyday.It is an exciting place to be.

Can you describe what that posi-tion entails?

Feldmann Imports consists ofMercedes, Nissan, smart and pre-owned. All the dealerships are locatedin Bloomington, MN. My positionincludes managing our three Internetmanagers and a part-time assistant. Ialso review leads, incoming phone calls,reporting of our sales and percentages,keeping our web sites updated withcurrent specials, updating new andused inventory, preparing our monthlynewsletter, producing mass e-mails,reviewing site statistics and conver-sions, special events and much of themarketing and advertising for theNissan and Mercedes store. There isdefinitely a lot of responsibility withthe director position, but the manage-ment and Internet team provide greatsupport and encouragement. TheInternet department attributes to about30 percent of the Nissan Mercedes andpre-owned sales; and that percentagecontinues to grow.

Was the business using technol-ogy smartly when you arrived?

In 2001 when I began my automo-tive career, there was not muchtechnology available other than e-mail.I would say that the automotive busi-ness was definitely ahead of otherbusinesses at that time with evenhaving a dedicated department.

I joined Feldmann Imports whentechnology really began to explode. Weare a very technologically advancedcompany and always looking for thenext great thing to arrive. We beganSEM and pay-per-click advertisingbefore any of our competitors and wereable to dominate that area for a whilebefore everyone else jumped on board.We worked with AutoMotion in theirdevelopmental stages of video test drivesand were the first dealer in this area toprovide that to our customers. Mostrecently we have added online negotia-tions to all our new and used vehiclesthat is provided by Widestorm. This hasbeen one of our best investments.

The technology changes from 2001to 2009 have been amazing andFeldmann’s continues to be a leader inthis market. I do spend time research-ing and seeing what is successful forother dealers.

It’s a tough market. How are yourstores performing now?

All of our stores are performing well.We have maintained the same amountof units as the previous year. We haveactually had an increase of sales in a fewareas, which has been very gratifying toall of us at Feldmann Imports. Ourincreases have been in the sales of pre-owned vehicles, primarily certifiedMercedes-Benz. We are on track to sell220 additional pre-owned vehicles thisyear; new Nissan and Mercedes saleshave recently started to pick up. Weexpect to surpass our 2008 total units.

How did you manage to get theseresults?

We have continued to try differentadvertising and marketing plans as wellas developing microsites with ADPdigital solution to drive more traffic toour web site. We have placed our adver-tising dollars in the right places thathave produced new business for us.

“As technology and the

Internet department

advances there is a

great need for someone

to be able to focus

solely on that area of

the business.”—Angela Martin

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DD 24 November 2009 DigitalDealer-magazine.com

necessary decisions and continue toallow it to grow. Feldmann Imports hasbeen involved in the Internet aspect formany years; it was very refreshing to beable to step in and have the support ofeveryone from the beginning.

What’s the process for receivingand distributing Internet leads?

All of our leads are routed intoHigher Gear and are assigned toInternet managers from there. All threeof them handle the pre-owned leads. Ihave two designated to Nissan and oneto Mercedes. The Internet managers allwork very well together and are some ofthe most dedicated and determinedindividuals I have ever worked with.Because we work out of the BDC, theInternet managers work very closelywith the sales floor staff as well. Weutilize a select group of salespeople toassist with appointments. These indi-viduals have to sell a certain amount ofvehicles and maintain a high CSI inorder to receive appointments from ourInternet staff.

Does it differ at individual stores?Our smart store has a different

approach. They don’t have the amountof volume or sales staff that we have atNissan and Mercedes, so they distributethe leads to all the sales staff. If theInternet departments continue to growas rapidly as they have in the past fewyears, there could be a time in thefuture when all sales staff will be trainedto handle internet leads providing tech-nology and the consumers continue toutilize it to make purchases.

Do you have one or several websites?

We have one main page that includesall our brands. Then we have an indi-vidual site for each store; so we havefour web sites in all.

What lead-generation tools workbest on your sites?

The best lead-generation tool that wehave right now is the ‘negotiate online’tool. On each vehicle listing there is anicon that says, “negotiate now”, theconsumer is able to submit the exactvehicle they want along with any tradeinformation. The system then producesdifferent financing quotes or leasequotes. Widestorm is a relatively new

Our clients are very loyal toFeldmann Imports. Many havepurchased numerous vehicles from usand continue to do business with usbecause of the way they are treatedhere. For example, we provide anairport shuttle to all customers. Westore their cars for free and provide aride to and from the airport. We alsooffer weekly massages, manicures andshoe shines to all our clients. Most ofthese are unheard of at a dealership.First-time customers are alwayssurprised with these unique services weoffer. Everything we do here revolvesaround making sure our customers arepleased and remain loyal to us.

Give me an overview of theimportance of Internet sales foryour business.

Like I mentioned earlier, Internetsales contribute to 30 percent of ourbusiness and continues to grow. It is avital piece of this dealership and we areso lucky here to have the opportunity tocontinue to grow the department. Ourgeneral manager, Joe Feldmann hasplaced an enormous amount of trust inme and this department to make the

DEALERSHIP PARTNERS IN PROFIT:

Dealership name:Feldmann Imports

Web site URLs:Feldmanns.com, FeldmannNissan.comFeldmannMercedes.com

Web site provider/host:BZ Results

Web site vehicle photos and videos taken by: AutoUplink

Vehicle Marketing:Digital Motor WorksHomenet

DMS provider: Reynolds and Reynolds

BDC software/vendor: Higher GearContact at onceIMN

CRM program:Higher Gear

Vehicle video vendors: AutoMotion

Online lead generators not including the OEMsources: AutoUSAAutobytelCars.comZAG

Third-party sites where inventory is posted: AutobytelCars.comCarSoupVehix

Vehicle history reports:Experian Auto Check

Other vendors not listed: Widestorm

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DigitalDealer-magazine.com November 2009 DD 25

company, but they obviously under-stand how consumers prefer to dobusiness. This style of sale produces animmediate response to the customerwith detailed information for them tobase their decision.

I believe the third-party leads arebecoming less effective and the leadscoming directly from our own web siteprovide us with the best leads.

How do you use SEO?We actually switched to BZ Results

about a year ago mainly because ofissues with SEO on our previous website. So with this in mind we built eachpage to contain relevant informationabout that portion of our business.ADP has worked very diligently with usto make sure we have good results withthe search engines. We review reportsconstantly and work to make sure thecontent of our pages is relevant andconsistent with the results we arelooking to achieve.

How are you finding those ‘better’keywords for SEM?

The review of weekly reporting ofkeywords and phrases gives me a greatsnapshot of what is working and whatisn’t. Over the years we have identifiedthe keywords that get us conversationsand continue to add and take wordsout. We have actually been able todecrease costs in this area due to justtailoring our keywords and phrases tothose that are most effective.

How do you use e-mail cam-paigns?

Our strongest campaign is ourmonthly newsletter because we are ableto pack so much information aboutsales, service, parts and specials into onemailing. We usually see a big increase ofweb visitors in the days following thenewsletter. We are able to track whatarticles are viewed most, which allowsus to focus on the areas that ourcustomers have the greatest interest.

We also use e-mail campaigns whena new program or special is announcedor if we have a great service specialgoing on. I try to limit the amount ofe-mails to two or three a month andtarget just the customers that theparticular special pertains.

What about your marketingexpenses?

We don’t really have a budget. Ifsomething is going to give us acompetitive edge in our market, thenwe will give it a shot. We track ourmarketing efforts very closely to ensurethat we have the correct systems inplace. Over the last few years themajority of our marketing expense hasshifted to online means.

Are you big in the social network-ing arena?

I am a fan of social networkingbecause it is a very important way tocommunicate with many of ourGeneration X and Y customers. Withthat said, we are working on setting upa few different social networking sitesand putting together a plan to getourselves into this area. I see this as agreat opportunity to brand our dealer-ships and the best part is they are free!

What new technology trends areyou spotting?

I have always been a big fan ofmobile web sites. The amount ofgrowth in mobile device capabilitiesover the last few years has beenamazing. People are using their mobiledevices as their computers much of thetime. If this continues, all web sites willneed to be mobile-ready. I see this tran-sition similar to when the Internetdepartments started, some dealers wereon board immediately and others tooktheir time. The dealerships that werewilling to make the changes weresuccessful with it long before thedealers that thought the Internet wasjust a phase. The mobile switch will beanother interesting change for dealer-ships across the country.

Do you stress pre-owned sales andhow does the group manage theinventory?

We definitely have a very strongpre-owned department. It is an areathat has continued to grow rapidly forus. We have an outstanding pre-owned inventory. At this time ourNissan and Mercedes dealershipsshare a pre-owned inventory space.Because the stores are right next toeach other, we are able to keep the lotin between the two stores. All of ourdesk managers are trained to work onboth new and pre-owned vehicles, sothey are able to rotate between loca-tions and brands.

As far as the online upkeep, our usedcar manager and I work very closely onkeeping ourselves competitive in themarket. We look at it daily and adjustwhere needed. We are very lucky tohave such a great management staff thatis so versatile.

What else, technology or salesphilosophy, sets you apart as adealer group?

Our motto is “Service, sales andservice” and that is truly what we are allabout. We pride ourselves on the waywe serve and treat our customers. Ithink our customers feel that theminute they walk in the door. I actuallyhear from customers very often howdifferent it feels when they enter ourdealership.

We are also a technology-advancedcompany that strives to be involvedwith the latest advances. We utilize afew different tools that help us withinventory and customer retention.

What’s your typical workweek likeand what do you do to relax out-side of work?

There is never a dull moment. Myday usually starts with checking soldunits from the previous day andreporting which were Internet sales.Then I review used inventory andtake the sold units off our web sitesand re-price used inventory that needsto be adjusted. Next, I will listen toincoming sales calls from the previousday. Then I review our web sitereports and statistics, update the website with changes and specials. Thereare days and weeks that I focus on thenewsletter or special events andpromotions. Throughout the day,every day, I am working with theInternet managers and sales managersto help put deals together. It makesfor a busy, yet exciting day.

Relax? I haven’t had much of thatsince my son was born three years ago.My time outside of work consists ofplaying trucks and riding bikes to thepark with Blake, my son. It is actuallythe most fun I have ever had. We havea blast together and there is never a dullmoment from sun up to sun down. Ilove every minute of my life. I wouldn’tchange a single thing about it!

[email protected]

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DD 26 November 2009 DigitalDealer-magazine.com

Since you are reading this, youlikely read many industry maga-zines, read and/or contribute to a

number of online automotive forumsand blogs, and attend related confer-ences. Much of the information inonline forums relates to the impor-tance and “how to” of automotivemarketing, understandably so. All ofthese resources stress the importanceof attracting the customer to make asale. One of the biggest challengesdealers face is consistently trying toposition and reposition their market-ing efforts to capture online shoppersand drive them to the dealership. It isa learning process as technology isever-changing and dealers must stayon top of the various tools being usedby customers to satisfy their automo-tive needs. It is like playing with aRubik’s Cube all day, every day, andjust when you think you have it fig-ured out someone changes the color ofthe blocks, forcing you to start over.With that in mind, many large dealer-ships hire specialized people tospecifically handle online marketingefforts, while smaller dealerships askInternet managers to wear both mar-keting and sales hats; a very timeconsuming task. Gone are the days ofsigning off on the newspaper ad, advis-ing the sales team of the upcomingweek’s featured vehicles and waitingfor customers to walk through thedoor. The marketing juggling actnever ends.

With the behind-the-scenes activityin making sure your dealership is prop-erly positioned online and the timenecessary to get the job done, I suspecta very important part of the salesprocess has been neglected and recentlymy thought was repeatedly confirmed.The interaction with the customerthrough an actual phone conversationis the last hurdle to convince them tocome to your store. However, the

quality of this interaction seems to havetaken a back seat and could very well becosting your dealership a lot more thanjust one sale.

When customers phone a dealership,the perceived level of professionalismcan ultimately and sometimes immedi-ately determine whether you or yourcompetition earns their business. Irecently listened to many phoneconversations originated by customers,after viewing a specific vehicle adver-tised online by a dealership, and theresults can be summed up in one word– scary. By the time the customers callthey have, in effect, already approvedthe dealership, been provided a virtualwalk around by viewing online photosand reading your “seller’s notes.” Theymay have also reviewed the vehicle priceand are still interested enough to putthemselves in what many consider avulnerable position by initiatingpersonal contact. At this point it is yoursale to win or lose. What happens onthe call is critical. It is the step that

either provides the customers comfortto move forward with a dealership visitor an immediate purchase or providethem with a reason to eliminate yourdealership from consideration. What Iheard defied belief and if it were not sodamaging to dealerships, could beconsidered comical. It is time to takethe kid gloves off and deliver a dose ofshock therapy, as this is too importantto dance around by simply providing anice little list of things to do. This needsto be addressed head on.

Think about how much time andmoney your dealership invests eachmonth to position your dealership andattract the greatest number of onlinebuyers. Recall the creativity and fine-tuning involved in working withinconstrained marketing budgets to buildan online brand and dealership aware-ness. Consider the value of just onecustomer over the lifetime of ownershipwith front-end-sale profit, F&I profit,warranty work, regular service, referralsand repeat business. The idea that evenone sale may have been needlessly lostshould create greater resolve to get backto basics, regularly “inspect what youexpect,” and provide continuous train-ing to help your sales team do a betterjob with inbound phone calls. Anythingless and your marketing efforts becomeactivity rather than achievement becauseif the sale is lost once the customer hasinitiated contact, all is for naught. Whenyou equate a poorly executed inboundphone inquiry to walk-in traffic it is theequivalent of allowing salespeople toprejudge a customer’s intent to purchaseand dismiss them without managementinteraction and that in most dealershipsis a cardinal sin, yet too often is it accept-able with phone conversations. Allowingsalespeople to be inefficient on thephone is a disservice to the salespersonby not providing instruction on how to

Back to Basics: Customer Interaction Still a Must in the Digital Age

continued on P-32

D IGITAL Dealer INTERNET MANAGEMENTRob Lange

“Allowing salespeople

to be inefficient

on the phone is a

disservice to the

salesperson by not

providing instruction

on how to become a

better communicator

and earn a

greater living.”—Rob Lange

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DigitalDealer-magazine.com November 2009 DD 27

Necessity breeds creativity, theysay. Faced with tough choices,some dealers have had to be

creative with their staffing models inthe Internet department – with mixedresults. AutoNation, Inc. has foundthat stores that have kept their stan-dard model – one dedicated Internetsalesperson per 80-100 leads – haveclosed higher over the first six monthsof 2009 than those who cut theirInternet department staff and modi-fied their process.

“Without enough properly trainedInternet salespeople, some of our storesmodified their staffing structure andallowed some floor salespeople to alsowork e-leads,” said Ken Gregson, direc-tor of variable operations and trainingat AutoNation, Inc. “Others used acombination of appointment-settersand either fewer dedicated Internetsalespeople or some floor salespeoplehandling e-leads. A handful even triedno Internet department and gave all e-leads to floor salespeople. These hybridstaffing models closed between 1 and2.25 percent below the average of storesthat kept the traditional dedicatedInternet salesperson model.”

During the downturn, stores haveseen an overall drop in traffic of over 25percent, and most of that drop has beenin showroom walk-in traffic. Becauseserious buyers and shoppers continueto use online methods to reach out todealers, Internet leads per dealershiphave remained close to last year’s levels.Dealers who have cut their Internetstaff have removed people from the areathat, right now, has the biggest oppor-tunity to impact total sales.

Will you increase your production ifyou move your salespeople into the

and b) are still in the market. Budgetabout $1.50 per prospect for a servicelike this.

• Make it your managers’ respon-sibility. Consider that each respondentstill in the market needs a managerTO, just like a floor prospect would.Who knows better than your managerswhat it will take to get these prospectsin the door?

Every opportunity is important inthis environment. Cutting back onyour Internet leads reduces your bestsource of traffic to generate sales rightnow, and cutting back on the staff thathandles your leads reduces your effec-tiveness and sales volume. Put the rightresources in the right places – and trainthem – and you’ll capitalize on yourbest opportunities.

Josh Vajda currently serves as the directorof Sales and Account Management forAutoUSA, a leading provider of qualityautomotive Internet referrals. He has heldnumerous positions of increasing responsi-bility since joining AutoNation, Inc. in1997 and has led the company's efforts intraining and development, customer satis-faction and sales operations.

Shrinking Staff – Growing Problem

If you wish to discuss this article withother dealers, or with the author,please go to the “Discussion Forums”at www.DigitalDealer-magazine.comand enter the “Technology” forum or e-mail him at [email protected].

D IGITAL Dealer INTERNET MANAGEMENTJosh Vajda

Internet department to ensure youhave ample coverage to manage theleads appropriately?

“Only if the people you move havethe right strengths, skills and are trainedappropriately,” says Gregson. “Goingforward, we have to hire salespeoplewith the plan to eventually put them inthe Internet department. If our floorsalespeople aren’t right for Internet salesor aren’t trained, they won’t be effectiveand won’t positively impact our sales.”

If your dealership is not in a positionto hire additional Internet staff or movefloor salespeople into the Internetdepartment, consider inexpensivemarketing solutions to manage theresponse or follow-up gap:

• Start with a survey. Take your“dead” Internet prospects – leads thatare more than three or four weeks oldand less than 90 days old that yoursales staff has stopped working – andhave a service call each one to deter-mine if they a) were pleased with theinteraction with your dealership so far

“Dealers who have cut

their Internet staff have

removed people from

the area that, right

now, has the biggest

opportunity to impact

total sales.” —Josh Vajda

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DD 28 November 2009 DigitalDealer-magazine.com

This summer I wrote an articleabout how many people youneed per user in your IT

department. I got a lot of questionsand complaints about my statement,“Your IT department or systemadministrator should not support theDMS system.” Anytime a writermakes a broad statement like that, beready for a debate. I will have to agreewith many of my IT friends that thework they do involving the DMS sys-tem has benefits that can’t bequantified in a dollar amount.

One example e-mailed to me wasfrom a small dealership group. Lastmonth, the hard drive on their DMSserver went down. Although theirDMS provider was very cooperativeduring the process, it was completelyup to the IT department to physicallyinstall a new hard drive on the serverand coordinate the reinstall the DMSsoftware and backup files. They clockedover 100 hours performing this process.On the flip side is an ASP system thatdoesn’t have a hard drive at the dealer-ship. If the hard drive that yourdealership resided on went down, you’dwait for your DMS provider to get thatback up again and your IT departmentwouldn’t be involved in the process formore than a minute or two.

If your DMS system is an ASP solu-tion, do you need an IT department?What about other DMS systems thatrequire an IT department or systemadministrator as part of the contract?All of these situations are changing thebasis of future DMS support costs.

As a technology trend, I see threethings happening in the ever-escalat-ing DMS support costs. First, I think

we’ll see more systems charging byhow many users you have. This is themodel I expect from the emergingDMS systems based on SQL data-bases, since per client access userlicense fees are the norm for themalong with your own support responsi-bility of the server and database. Next,I see more fragmenting of the DMSsystem costs by application. Forexample, some DMS systems don’tinclude F&I, and others don’t havepayroll. This is a full circle trend;popular DMS companies charged as“everything is included” for one pricebut then had to start increasing thefees when they add on subscriptions

and features that involve payments tothird parties that developed these new“add-ins” or modules.

Last, I see a tremendous increasefrom the support amount the dealer-ship agreed to when they bought thesystem to the price they are paying fiveyears later when the contract is overand the dust settles. Many systems aregetting installed with bare bones athuge discounts and when the dealer-

Can your IT Department Reduce DMS Costs?

If you wish to discuss this article withother dealers, or with the author,please go to the “Discussion Forums”at www.DigitalDealer-magazine.comand enter the “Technology” forum or e-mail her at [email protected].

D IGITAL Dealer TECHNOLOGY TRENDSSandi Jerome

“It is time to get

your IT department

involved in the DMS

selection decisions.” —Sandi Jerome

ship must have a feature later, whichgets added at full price. So with thesethree trends, how can your IT depart-ment save you on DMS costs? It istime to get your IT departmentinvolved in the DMS selection deci-sions. Your IT departmentunderstands the equipment, terms,and conditions of your proposal andhow that will either decrease their sizeor require more staffing as in aclient/server situation. For about 10years, I helped dealers select DMSsystems and get good pricing and I wasoften surprised that other consultantsdidn’t get the input of the IT depart-ment. In fact, I’ve heard them say thatthey only work with the dealer orCFO and won’t waste time with the ITstaff. Before you pick another DMSsystem, make sure your IT departmentis involved early in the process and inthe end reads the full proposal andcontract before you sign.

Sandi Jerome is a former controller,CFO, system administrator, F&I, assis-tant GM, and fixed operations managerwith over 30 years experience in the auto-motive industry. She is the owner of SuperConsulting Group and DealerStar.

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DigitalDealer-magazine.com November 2009 DD 29

ing needs. And these days, those needsdemand mobile connectivity.

While CRMs like SalesForce andGoldmine entered the mobile spaceyears ago, most automotive CRMs haveonly recently started including mobilefunctionality in their feature set, likelead alerts that can be sent to a PDA orother mobile device.

There are also new mobile ILMapplications that allow dealers to bothreceive and respond to incoming e-mailleads using web-enabled cell phones,PDAs or iPhones – with full bi-direc-tional CRM data capture.

Dealership owners and managerswho want to retrieve more extensiveCRM information still have to goonline to get the data. Or call in forupdates if they’re out of the office.

These “old school” processes are onthe way out with the advent of fullymobile-enabled CRMs. Dealers will beable to track leads, monitor deals andmanage staff productivity right fromtheir mobile device, staying in

complete control of their operationswherever they are – in the office, athome or traveling.

Mobile is the new big thing in CRMthat will ultimately help dealershipsachieve the full potential of customerrelationship management.

Stan Thomas is the CEO ofPMDS/DealerUps. He has pursued hispassion for the automotive industry work-ing for several successful dealerships, wherehe held key management positions in sales,business development and F&I. In hiscurrent position, he is charged with lead-ing the organization and ensuring thecompany delivers on its mission toimprove dealership processes with progres-sive tools and support that yield results.

Mobile Connectivity: The Light at theEnd of the CRM Tunnel

If you wish to discuss this article withother dealers, or with the author,please go to the “Discussion Forums”at www.DigitalDealer-magazine.comand enter the “Technology” forum or e-mail him at [email protected].

D IGITAL Dealer TECHNOLOGY TRENDSStan Thomas

CRM software was designed tosupport the processes busi-nesses use to manage their

prospects and customers. As new tech-nologies have entered the market, theways in which companies do businesshave changed, requiring more compre-hensive and versatile solutions.

In the auto industry, one of thebiggest changes in operations hasoccurred in retail sales with theconsumer shift to online shopping.Instead of visiting showrooms, mostbuyers now visit web sites to researchand find vehicles. According to a 2008study by J.D. Power, third-party websites are used for referrals and recom-mendations; OEM web sites are usedfor product information; and a dealer-ship’s web site is searched for inventory.

Approximately 20 percent of onlinevehicle shoppers are also using third-party portals to request online quotes.Dealers can receive hundreds of theseInternet-generated leads a month, all ofwhich require processing, tracking andfollow-up.

Many CRM systems now come withbuilt-in Internet Lead Management(ILM) tools to help dealers more effec-tively manage these new sources ofprospect and customer information.When the dealership receives anInternet lead, the ILM captures thedata and pushes it into the CRM. Thelead information is then automaticallye-mailed to sales for follow-up.

ILM software has significantlyimproved online lead managementprocesses and results. However, just likeany technology, its architecture mustcontinue to evolve to meet ever-chang-

“ILM software has significantly improved

online lead management processes and

results. However, just like any technology, its

architecture must continue to evolve to meet

ever-changing needs.”—Stan Thomas

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DD 30 November 2009 DigitalDealer-magazine.com

It was a dark, dreary night lastJanuary when I left Raleigh, NCfor the drive back home to the

lovely Shenandoah Valley. I got off toa later than usual start a little past9:00 pm for the four-hour drivehome. Leaving Raleigh, it startedraining fiercely but not so much aproblem in that I was on I-85 northbound to I-95 then I-64 intoCharlottesville and over the moun-tain. Midway on that drive the rainturned into snow, and I do meansnow. I-64, much to my surprise wasclosed so I now had to take an alter-nate route, Hwy. 33. My majorconcern was crossing the mountain on33 into the Valley which is a two-lanewinding road up one side of themountain and then down the otherside opening up to the Valley. Hmm,do I get a hotel room in C-Ville or goahead and give it a go? The snow-storm appeared to lessen quite a bit asI cruised through a snow covered,vehicle-less ghost town C-Ville so Ifelt I could make it. It was about onequarter of the way up the mountainthat the reality of what a bad choice Ihad made set in. The snowstorm wasonly fooling me by taking a shortbreak passing through C-Ville as if tolure me into its blinding and scarydark hole now on 33. Dark, horizon-tal snow like crazy, no cell reception,zero visibility and it is now past mid-night and I am alone and really tired.

I could not see the end of my hoodmuch less the road and this roadcould usher you off a 2,000 foot dropgiven one wrong turn of the steeringwheel and they might find you in2014. OK, so what to do? Can’t turnaround, can’t stop on the road for fearof some idiot just like me attemptingthis treacherous drive in these condi-tions running into me and shovingme off the mountain. Maybe it was

the wilderness survival or sailingemergency preparedness training Ihad years before that told me to becalm and don’t freak out which isalways easier said than done. As Ireckoned with the notion that I had todo this and there was a way I wasguided to figure something out. I real-ized in my dilemma that I actually

could barely see the road if I lookeddown just beyond my drivers sidemirror and before the front of thevehicle. What I discovered there wasthe double yellow line in the middleof the road that ultimately became mysalvation. As I muddled along at asnail’s pace, I knew if I could manageto follow the yellow line it would takeme where I wanted to go safely. Sure,I had moments of fear thinking theworst like someone pulled a bad jokeand moved the line so it would takeme right off the mountain. Weird,huh? Your mind plays games on yousometimes when the stakes are thishigh. I chose over and over again thatI would “trust” in the lines visuallyand trust that my prayers for safetywould be answered. It took me overone hour and forty-five minutes tocover the distance that normally

would take 20 minutes but I made itand gave thanks.

Why would I recreate this event foryou? I created a word picture for youin that my hope would be for you toempathize with the scariness anduncertainty of this situation. Themessage is simple; oftentimes wecannot always see the outcome or enddestination of our efforts. The journeyeven becomes a bit blurred but wehave to remain faithful in the thingswe know to be true. In this story itwas the yellow line. In some stores itmay be remaining staunchly faithfulon the processes and the disciplinerequired to get us to where we want tobe. Maybe it is having faith in that wecan indeed affect a positive changeand get our business to increase.Having faith in your people that theycan do great things with the rightencouragement. Have you ever givenup on a project or process because ittook longer to see a result and maybeshort-circuited your success due toimpatience? Sure, everyone has atsome point. Those who give in to fearand anxiety, those who are paralyzedby uncertainty and confusion, andthose who pull back and withdrawand wait are guaranteed to see theirworst fears realized. Stick with it andhave faith in good processes and yourpeople. Like in my story above some-times it takes patience to get to whereyou belong. Much like a fine wine, ifyou rush it you mess it up. If you takemethodical steps and invest time,energy and patience in the process youend up with something to proud of.

Refresh your outlook and the wayyou see the store growing and indoing so you will refresh your team.Put on a brand new pair of glasses andsee things through the eyes of

Faith, Refresh, Rejuvenate and Renew Build now and watch your business expand

continued next page

D IGITAL Dealer CRM/BDC Chuck Barker

“Faithfully embrace

changes now and

tomorrow will deliver

newfound treasures.” —Chuck Barker

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DigitalDealer-magazine.com November 2009 DD 31

someone like me who can walk intoyour store and in one hour sees whatcan be made better. Refresh yourselfand your team by establishing newpositive techniques for peopleimprovement, phone skills processes,Internet processes, floor up processesand effective communications tech-niques. Identify individual strengthsand weaknesses of your employees andall the other good stuff. Just refreshthe whole place! Waiting for things tochange is a losing proposition. Refreshyour entire outlook and the future willreveal to you refreshing outcomes.

Next, in order to rejuvenate youoften have to make changes.Sometimes it is in the personnel,sometimes it is a total 180 to the waywe have handled things in the past.The definition of rejuvenate is tomake young again; restore to youthfulvigor, appearance, to restore to aformer state; make fresh or new again.Jazz the place up a bit, put up newmotivational posters, paint the wallswhere needed, bring in someone fromthe outside (new face) to motivateyour team on the new sales conceptsfor this market, train your people on21st century communications, hirenew and better people, etc.Rejuvenate the excitement in recog-nizing people for their good works assimple as some may be, because it is inthe small things that are recognizedthat give way to the big things theycan do. Rejuvenate your entire team’sspirit by giving them hope that theyare set to do great things, not just takewhat comes. Just like you wouldcoach a little league baseball teamwhen things need to improve, yougive them hope for winning by point-ing out what individual and teamtalents they are in possession of. Therecognition of these facts inspires theteam and rejuvenates them into doingthings they may not have felt possible.

Renew your commitments to be aleader and do the things that non-leaders don’t do. Develop real

you adopt a business as usualapproach it simply implies that youdo not care about building. It impliesthat you are staunchly hovered downin a defensive position and the major-ity of the points are usually scoredwhen you are offensively committed.Faithfully embrace changes now andtomorrow will deliver newfoundtreasures. Just follow the doubleyellow lines.

If you are interested in gatheringsome leadership enriching ideas sendan e-mail to [email protected] and I will get them outto you. Also, if you have a similar storyI would love to hear about it, confi-dentially of course. The time is socritically right to make the decision toimplement these positive growthchanges in your store and you willhave a distinct advantage over yourcompetitors because most of them justdon’t get it and never will. Your teamand your customers will respond invery positive and surprising ways.

Chuck Barker’s experience ranges froman executive with a Fortune 200 com-puter corporation to the automobilebusiness. He has held positions as businessdevelopment manager, sales manager, act-ing GM, ADP executive regionalmanager specializing in CRM and hisown current company, Impact Marketing& Consulting Group, LLC, located inVirginia. His firm delivers CRM processstrategies, 21st century CRM sales train-ing, CRM e-business deployment andCRM management leadership workshops.More information can be located at hisweb site: www.impactgroupcrm.com.

If you wish to discuss this article withother dealers, or with the author,please go to the “Discussion Forums”at www.DigitalDealer-magazine.comand enter the “BDC/CRM” forum or e-mail him at [email protected].

teamwork, show enthusiasm foreverything you do, motivate, giveleadership workshops, and renewenergies back to the solid newimproved ways to do things. In beinga real leader you have to renew yourpersonal energies to understandingand implementing the things that youshould be doing. Not just themundane stuff of paper shuffling butalso the real stuff that makes thingshappens with your people. You haveto understand that there is a vastdifference between manipulating andinfluencing others. Manipulationdeliberately uses and abuses otherpeople to act out your intentions.Influence, on the other hand, requiresbuy-in on the part of the person beinginfluenced and a willingness on theirpart to support your goals. Youcannot influence another withouthaving the buy-in taking place. Peoplerespect other people who have thepower to positively influence othersand get things done. Negative influ-encers are a thing of the past becauseas Leadership 101 says; negativebegets negative. You cannot insertnegative notions and expect a positiveresult. Manipulation is the dark sideof management. When you manipu-late others, you give away any chanceof gaining respect. It doesn't matterwhether the manipulation is overt orcovert; manipulation has no role in atrue leader's skill set, influence does.Renew (or adopt for the first time)your allegiance to the single mostimportant role you play, and that isto positively influence your people.At the end of the day the success orfailure of the team falls directly onthe shoulders of the leader. Good andbad outcomes are directly yourresponsibility. Make something posi-tive occur by renewing your spirit ofsolid leadership. Your people deserveyour best and if it is not enough thenmove over.

Now is a terrific time to makechanges in your dealership because if

Page 33: Digital dealer magazine   november 2009

Advertiser ......................pg #

ActivEngage ......................13

Autobase ............................7

AutoPoint ............................3

AutoSoft ............................21

AutoUSA............................33

Dealer.com ..........................9

DealerPeak (Widestorm) ....6

Dealerskins ..........................2

Dealix ..................................5

Homenet............................15

IMN Loyalty Driver............17

NADA Used Car Guide......11

Rob Waldman ..................19

DD 32 November 2009 DigitalDealer-magazine.com

5. Find an outsourcing partner: Theright partner can overcome the chal-lenges of planning, buying and stockingincentives. Outsourcing partners notonly take away the headache of inven-tory planning and fulfilment, they alsobring expertise in running effectivepromotions.

6. Use all your channels: Don’t restrictyour promotional activities to just yourweb site. Make sure that your promo-tional strategy includes your othermarketing channels: direct mail, tele-phone sales, and SMS.

7. Incorporate incentives into yourlead follow-up: Allow your appointment-setters to offer incentives. Test differentrules (for which types of leads should getincentives and when in the follow-upprocess to offer them) to figure out howto maximize efficiency.

8. Don’t be defeated by technology (orthe lack of it): Presenting the right offerto the right people at the right time canbe enabled by dynamic content insertiontechnology on your site and by rules-based promotion tools for CRMapplications. Getting access to the righttechnology does not mean that you haveto fight long battles with the IT depart-ment or make big capital investments.There are SaaS (software as a service)providers that offer quick implementa-tions without technology upgrades atthe dealership. Some providers offervariable ‘pay per use’ fee models, so youdon’t incur large fixed costs and only payfor results.

Face-to-face discussion is how to closesales. As you work on attracting moreleads into the showroom, don’t pass upthe traffic boost that well-targeted walk-in incentives can deliver.

Steve Elson is director of BusinessDevelopment for HookLogic.

become a better communicator andearn a greater living. It could also bedevastating to the dealershipbecause you not only lost a sale andall of the profit that goes with it,you lost the possible repeat andreferral business as the story is toldto other potential customers aroundwater coolers, at cocktail parties andkids’ sporting events.

Two simple key points to improvingyour customer experience and salesresults:

1. On your individual vehicle listingsor on your web site provide customers adirect phone number to only the sales-people who know your marketing,know your inventory and most impor-tantly have proven they are capable ofefficiently handling inbound phonecalls. Do not force customers throughyour switchboard and the pain of listen-ing to and selecting from a menu ofdepartment choices with the possibilityof being transferred multiple times.

2. Inspect what you expect. Manydealerships subscribe to services allow-ing them to monitor inbound phonecalls, but do they use them? Listen andcritique these calls in sales meetings (ina positive manner) as a way to helpsalespeople improve, allowing them achance to earn a better living and earngreater dealership profits.

You’re already investing the market-ing dollars, now it’s time to maximizeyour return and it all depends on theprofessionalism exhibited by thesalesperson. Provide the tools to getthe job done and you will berewarded with higher sales, bettercompensation, happier salespeopleand satisfied customers.

Rob Lange is the national sales trainingdirector for Kelley Blue Book.

Internet Management, Lange (cont. from P-26) Internet Sales, Elson (continued from P-14)

If you wish to discuss this article withother dealers, or with the author,please go to the “Discussion Forums”at www.DigitalDealer-magazine.comand enter the “Internet Sales” forum or e-mail him at [email protected].

If you wish to discuss this article withother dealers, or with the author,please go to the “Discussion Forums”at www.DigitalDealer-magazine.comand enter the “Internet Sales” forum or e-mail him at [email protected].

Page 34: Digital dealer magazine   november 2009