Download - Digital dealer magazine september 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

The Technology Magazine for Dealers & Managers

September 2009

Association of Automotive


Internet Sales Professionals


www.AAISPonline.org

www.AAISPonline.org

O

FFICIAL

O

FFICIAL





www.AAISPonline.org

www.AAISPonline.orgAssociation of Automotive


www.AAISPonline.org

PUBLICATIO

N

PUBLICATIO

N

JEFFJONES

INTERNET SALESMANAGER

Al Serra Auto Plazapage 18

Internet Sales:The Social NetworkingGut Checkpage 12

Developing a KillerInternet Strategy page 14

TechnologyTrends:Five Easy Steps to Gettingthe Data you Needpage 22

BDC/CRM:The Character of aDealership is Defined by itsPeople, not its Wallspage 23

JEFFJONES

INTERNET SALESMANAGER

Al Serra Auto Plazapage 18

Internet Sales:The Social NetworkingGut Checkpage 12

Developing a KillerInternet Strategy page 14

TechnologyTrends:Five Easy Steps to Gettingthe Data you Needpage 22

BDC/CRM:The Character of aDealership is Defined by itsPeople, not its Wallspage 23

DD 4 September 2009 DigitalDealer-magazine.com

FEATURE

Digital Dealer Cover Story18 Jeff Jones

Internet Sales ManagerAl Serra Auto Plaza

COLUMNSAAISP Notes

10 Mike Roscoe

Internet Sales12 The Social Networking Gut Check

Joe Webb

14 Developing a Killer Internet Strategy Phil Sura

16 Making the ConnectionJason Ezell

Technology Trends22 Five Easy Steps to Getting the Data you Need

Sandi Jerome

BDC/CRM23 The Character of a Dealership is Defined by its

People, not its Walls Chuck Barker

25 Improving Customer Retention and Loyalty with Net PromoterMike Esposito

DEPARTMENTS6 Digital Dealer E-mail8 News

TABLE OF CONTENTSAssociation of Automotive




www.AAISPonline.org

www.AAISPonline.org

O

FFICIAL

O

FFICIAL





www.AAISPonline.org

www.AAISPonline.orgAssociation of Automotive


www.AAISPonline.org

PUBLICATIO

N

PUBLICATIO

N

A PUBLICATION OF

SEPTEMBER 2009

MANAGING EDITORLINDA DI PIETRO

[email protected]

PUBLISHERGREG NOONAN

[email protected]

ART DIRECTORJOE BIRCH

[email protected]

PRODUCTION MANAGERELIZABETH BIRCH

PRINT PRODUCTIONDAVID MANTHEY

DESIGN CONSULTINGPUBLICATION DESIGN, INC.

COVER DESIGNJOE BIRCH

[email protected]

COVER PHOTOGRAPHYWUJCIAK & HESS, INC.

CIRCULATION SUBSCRIPTIONRICH JARRETT314-432-7511

[email protected]

NATIONAL ADVERTISING [email protected]

607-264-3359Dealer 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

Jeff JonesAl Serra Auto Plaza


Phil Sura,Let me start by saying I enjoy your

articles on Internet sales in DigitalDealer magazine and that I am back inthe auto business after a three-yearhiatus in another sales industry (havingpreviously been in the auto business for19 years).

I am now the Internet manager forour dealership and this is my sixth dayback. Needless to say, any and all helpwill be greatly appreciated.

I am a little overwhelmed at themoment, answering to the clients thatare currently coming through thepipeline, but I have had some successalready with two clients already takingdelivery of their choice of automobiles.

I will add that I think we are sittingon a gold mine with the Internet beinga source of drawing more clients to ourdealership; the problem is we are sittingon it!

I look forward to hearing back from

you and reading more great articles inDigital Dealer.

Thanks,Pat BowenInternet Sales ManagerStoops Automotive GroupMuncie, [email protected]

Hi Pat,I appreciate the compliment and thanks

for reading my articles. Welcome back to theretail world. As you know, the industry haschanged tremendously over the past threeyears. The digital space is where the game istoday. My article in this issue should helpyou develop a strategy. Simply use this as aguide, starting with the message that you aredelivering in the market in the way that youhandle leads to the metrics that you use. Ifyou have a plan for each section, you will bewell on your way to establishing a “killerInternet strategy.” I hope that this helps.

Phil Sura

Chuck Barker,What a great article! (June 2009

Digital Dealer, “Rules for the NewMarket Players.”) Simply stated, you“hit the nail on the head.”

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

I am presently working in a dealershipmuch like the ones you described in thearticle, with one exception. We have aHonda, Hyundai, Toyota and Smart storeall on the same piece of property. We aredown compared to last year, butcompared to the rest of the market we aredoing great. That is why we are even moreat risk of keeping that “oldtime dealershipmentality.” I have been the lone squeakywheel telling the upper management thatwe need to adopt the changes youdescribe. I am not a newcomer here; Ihave been in the car biz for 36 years andhave held almost every front-endmanagement position and presentlyoversee the Internet department. I havebeen given a lot of responsibility from theGM but little authority to make changesin how we do business and consequentlyspend a lot of time trying to get managersto change. In most cases, that is like tryingto change a country’s culture. I am withyou on what we need to change, from ourfocus pertaining to customers to ourprocesses so please send me a copy “mustdo” checklist, it might help me. Thanksfor all of your great articles.

Skip ShakelyCorporate Trainer

Hi Skip,Thanks again for the narrative descrip-

tion of your dilemma. It always amazesme how old school the natural default isfor auto dealers. Corporate Americawould not tolerate an ounce of it

I have attached the “CRM EssentialElements of Training,” which my clientsutilize to make their dealership a betterplace for growth and profitability. Itinvolves line item narrative descriptions Iuse in delivering new CRM initiatives inmy curriculum packages so it may havesome things you are not familiar with. Ifyou should have some questions feel free tocontact me. It also involves some items itsounds as though your management teamneeds as it relates to leadership.

Hopefully, it will give you a tool foryour upper management to have somethings to think about as they endeavor tocreate something that can withstand thetest of time. The important thing here is toestablish new ways to do business andthen stick with them. Adopt them as thenew store culture and watch thingsimprove quickly. Hope it helps.

Chuck Barker

D IGITAL Dealer E-MAIL

they receive each month. Dealers canopt out of the program at any time witha 30-day notice.

AutoUSA’s used car inventory leadprogram employs the same stringentfiltering and scrubbing process used togenerate its award-winning new carleads. The system eliminates duplicatesand filters out leads with missing orincorrect contact information such asphone and e-mail addresses.

www.AutoUSA.com

AutoSoft named certified DMS provider

for Kia MotorsAmerica

AutoSoft International hasannounced that it had received a certifi-cate of satisfactory integration for theKIA Web DCS interfaces from MotiveRetail, as authorized by and on behalfof Kia Motors America.

The AutoSoft dealer managementsystem, for this certification, success-fully passed a comprehensive suite oftest cases and performed a live dealerpilot, which collectively demonstratedthat AutoSoft’s DMS meet the dealermanagement system integrationrequirements of KIA Web DCS.

Interfaces for which the AutoSoftDMS has been certified includeDelivery Reporting, STAR DTSVersion 1.7; Parts Order, STAR DTSVersion 1.7; Parts Return, STAR DTSVersion 1.6; and Repair Order, STARDTS Version 3.5.

“Motive Retail was pleased to workwith the AutoSoft team to integrate andcertify their DMS with Kia Web DCS.With this integration, U.S. Kia dealers arenow able to choose an integrated DMSfrom one of the largest North Americandealer system providers,” said Dan Seats,managing director at Motive Retail.

www.autosoft-asi.comwww.motiveretail.com


D IGITAL Dealer

AutoUSA introducesnew classified vehicle

listing service AutoUSA, a provider of the highest

quality, Internet-generated consumerleads to auto dealers nationwide, hasannounced the launch of a new servicethat allows consumers shopping onlinefor a vehicle to immediately contactdealers by phone when viewing a classi-fied vehicle listing. The new phone leadservice is part of AutoUSA’s used carinventory lead program, and availablefor vehicle listings on sites such askbb.com, AOL Autos andOverstock.com.

“Down funnel buyers that areresearching vehicles often want tocontact the dealer by phone if they’reinterested in a listing – which makesphone leads extremely valuable,” saidPhil DuPree, president of AutoUSA.

Through the new service, AutoUSAwill provide unique phone numbers foreach dealership. Incoming consumerphone calls are automatically trackedand routed to the dealership forhandling and recorded for the dealer’sreview. Dealers are only charged for thecall if the consumer hasn’t phoned thedealership within the last 30 days, andif the call is longer than 65 seconds.

“Customers can call a dealership forreasons unrelated to a specific vehicle.We don’t want dealers paying for thosetypes of calls,” says Mike Shawd,AutoUSA’s director of sales.

AutoUSA’s used car inventory leadprogram lets dealers post their usedvehicle inventory at top automotivesites. Used car inventory data is pulledthrough the dealership’s existing pollingpartners with no additional effort onthe dealer’s part.

Dealers who sign up for the programcan have their used vehicle inventoryappearing online within a week. Theprogram includes a pay-per-leadpricing structure where allowed by law,in which dealers only pay for the leads

PMDS announcesMobile Mailroom, a new DealerUps

CRM Internet leadmanagement tool

Parayil & Mann Dealer ServicesInc. (PMDS), a leading retail automo-tive consulting and technologyprovider, has announced the release ofMobile Mailroom, a new DealerUpsCRM Internet lead management toolfor retail automotive dealers. MobileMailroom lets dealers receive andrespond to any incoming e-mail leadsusing web-enabled cell phones, PDAsor iPhones, with full data capture byPMDS’ popular DealerUps CRMsystem. The new mobile tool speedsup Internet lead response time byallowing dealerships to immediatelyrespond to e-mail inquiries at any timeand from any location.

“Until now, mobile ILM applicationshave only provided alerts when an e-mail lead has been received. Someonestill has to sit down at a computer torespond to the inquiry,” said StanThomas, CEO of DealerUps. “WithMobile Mailroom, you can respond tothe e-mail lead directly from yourmobile phone. It’s fast, easy and all ofthe data is captured and pushed directlyinto DealerUps.”

Dealers can use Mobile Mailroom toreceive Internet leads on their mobilephone, PDAs and iPhones from anysource, including third-party leadproviders.

Incoming e-mail leads are first loggedin the DealerUps CRM customerrecord. A personalized link to the lead isthen sent to the designated mobiledevice, where it can be viewed andresponded to through a secure environ-ment. Dealers can reply with their owne-mail message, or use pre-formatted orcustom Mobile Mailroom e-mail replytemplates. The response is sent to thecustomer and simultaneously saved tothe customer record.

www.dealerups.com

CONFERENCE & EXPOSITION

7TH7TH

November 1-3, 2009 • Nashville, TN


How Video Can Help you Stay Ahead of the PackHow to get ahead by leveraging video

How to Use Social Networking to Get Ahead by Buildingyour Brand and to Stay Ahead by Protecting Your OnlineReputation Learn how to monetize social networking by building relation-ships online to improve profits in both sales and fixed operations

Web Merchandising: Let’s Get Emotional! Why spend money on an expensive web site, SEO, online classi-fieds or any online marketing effort if you aren’t going to createemotional ads that ‘sell’ the consumer once they are there?

Selling to the Online Car Shoppers’ Buying MotivationsUse consumer perceptions to increase dealership traffic and out-sell the competition

How Does Your Online Advertising Measure Up?Tools and techniques that will empower you to take control ofthe effectiveness of your online advertising

Get in Shape, be Fit and Stay Ahead of the Curve – TheOne-hour a Day Social Media Workout PlanFollowing the training plan for 60 minutes daily will get youinto the desired ‘web 2.0 shape.’

Compliance and your Online Marketing StrategyAre you protected from identity thieves when conducting youronline transactions?

This represents roughly one fourth of the sessions beingoffered. Go to DigitalDealerConference.com to see the entireagenda and speaker/session list, as well as video testimonialsfrom past attendees. You don’t want to miss this one. Unlessyou intend to not get ahead today and stay ahead tomorrow...

Go to www.DigitalDealerConference.com to register.

I’ll see you here in Nashville.

Mike RoscoeD IGITAL Dealer AAISP NOTES

Here is just a small sampling of the sessions and workshopswe have in store for you:

Two peer networking sessions: one at the start of theconference and one at the end. You will be seated at a tablewith eight or nine other individuals with similar titles toyours and from similar-sized operations, but from differentmarkets. Two hours of sharing problems and solutions withpeople in virtually the same boat as you. This was a big hitlast time, so big in fact, we’re also doing it at the end of the con-ference so you can compare notes on what you learned theprevious 48 hours.

Web Analytics and Breakthrough Lead GenerationHow to use analytics to maximize lead development

Facing the Giant of Automotive e-Business – YouAlready Own the Tools!Fixing your Internet department for free!

Digital and Traditional Marketing: Creating the OptimalMarketing MixMaximize your sales and service traffic by making certain yourdigital marketing compliments your traditional marketing

Getting to the Inbox is No Longer EnoughWhat’s hot in e-mail marketing now

The Secrets to Driving Used Car Profits Are you making the right inventory decisions for your dealership?

The Dealer’s Evolution – Internet Department to anInternet DealerYes we can! It’s absolutely necessary to stay ahead of the curveand thrive

Data Mining Made EasyHow to find and use customer data

Move Ahead of your Competitors with Content BasedSEO StrategiesBy leveraging free and low-cost web publishing platforms, deal-ers can target any search phrases with effective content-basedSEO strategies for Google page one dominance

Automotive Consumer Engagement Techniques for yourWeb Site and Social Media PlatformsLeverage online conversations to turn anonymous consumersinto engaged shoppers

Michael RoscoeEditor-in-Chief

Unless you have been hiding under a rock you are probablyalready aware that the 7th Digital Dealer Conference &Exposition will take place on November 1-3 at the NashvilleConvention Center in downtown Music City, USA.

EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION IS STILL OPEN!

DITOR’S NOTEE

6 Dealer January 2010 Dealer-magazine.com

The boss, Michael Roscoe, is on hiatus this month. That’s why I’m writing his column – as our production manager is beating me for missing another deadline.

Michael, who signs my paycheck, says he’s not going to write anymore columns until you register for the National Automobile Dealers Association Convention and Exposition this year – which means, it’s up to me to write it. He’s passionate about the association and the convention (maybe a little too passionate, if you ask me – tongue in cheek, sort of).

He spent his entire column last month urging you to attend NADA, which is scheduled for February 13-15 in Orlando this year. Now, it’s my turn to take up the baton.

I know the questions – Can we afford it this year? Is it worth it? What do we really get out of attending the convention?

Legitimate questions, true. You have to do what’s right for your business. But the truth is, you need a strong association in Washington fighting for your interests. And attending the convention is one way to help NADA remain strong.

There is no question NADA was bloodied this year. I’ve heard the criticisms that the association didn’t do enough to protect its dealers. My opinion is, the criticism isn’t valid. Yes, we lost way too many dealerships in 2009, but there was little NADA could do to reverse that, even though its officers and directors tried hard.

In the last six months, NADA has won some big battles. It, more than any other organization, was responsible for getting Cash for Clunkers off the ground.

It also managed to keep dealerships from being included in the oversight by the Consumer Protection Financial Agency. A quiet win to be sure, but a big win. You probably would have seen your F&I profits dwindle to almost nothing in the next couple of years if NADA doesn’t succeed there.

Another win is the recent legislation that grants eliminated Chrysler and General Motors dealers the right to seek arbitration and possible reinstatement. A month ago, that legislation was dead with no chance of making it to the Senate floor for a vote.

NADA also has worked hard, going back to September of 2008, to pry floorplan capital from the banks. It was instrumental in crafting several strategies that are now being employed by various govern-ment agencies to loosen up credit for dealers. It’s slow going, but once the banks get religion, these measures are going to help dealers who need it most.

The question you should be asking is how can I afford not to go the convention?

If dealers don’t show up at the convention, NADA will be weakened significantly in the future and will be much less effective protecting your flanks. If dealers don’t come, vendors won’t come – vendors who are a major source of revenue for NADA.

Supporting NADA is reason enough to attend. But the benefit extends far beyond helping an association.

The NADA convention, simply put, is for winners. The dealers who attend are the ones who constantly are looking for ways to improve their business and make more money. They want to beat their competition.

Every year, on the exhibit floor, are the latest and greatest solutions designed to help you be more prof-itable. And often, dealers at the convention get the first look at what’s new. I often hear of dealers who negotiated in a vendor’s booth at NADA an exclusive territory for use of a new product or solu-tion, and thus, keeping it out of the hands of the competition in their direct market.

And don’t forget about the workshops. Some are better than others, but you will always find great ideas you can take back to your stores.

So, in attending the convention, you’ll help an association that pro-tects you to remain strong, and, you’ll come away with some new products and ideas that will help you make more money. And for those of us in the great white North, the Orlando sun in February is an added bonus.

There’s one more thing – by attending, you’ll be telling Mike to get back to work….

We’ll see you on the exhibit floor at booth #582.

Cliff Banks Vice President and Editorial Director

Tell Mike to Get Back to Work

Cliff Banks

“The truth is, you

need a strong

association in

Washington

fighting for your

interests. And

attending the

convention is one

way to help NADA

remain strong.”


There are no bigger buzzwords inthe automotive industry thansocial networking, social

media, or social marketing.Apparently, the whole world lovesbeing social so we the people havedecided to lock ourselves behindclosed doors, demand some peace andquiet, jump online, and have discon-nected conversations.

Even I do not utilize social network-ing sites as well as I should. Yes, onthese sites I have befriended a countlessmany of you fine Digital Dealer readers– as well as our very own Mike Roscoe.A problem I have is that I personallyhave two communities to appease. Ihave the automotive realm and all ofmy comedy connections. If I were assmart about the medium as I claim tobe, I’d have two separate accounts, butI do not. Thankfully, I have earnedmyself the reputation as the “comedian”in both worlds and am now oftenexpected to give my skewed view on theindustry through blogs, postings, andthe like…even if it is an occasionallysarcastic comment. It is the role thatI’ve carved out for myself so any poten-tial profile visitors online that disagreewith my views can let it be known orclick to the next page. That is thebeauty of being an individual withinthe social media environment. There isno need to masquerade as more thanyou are. However, this article is dedi-cated to businesses entering this socialnetworking platform in hopes ofexpanding their brand awareness andputting themselves in the best lightwhile communicating their uniquemarketing message.

Businesses are climbing aboard thesocial profitability bandwagon, butmost need to look before they leap.They need to take a gut check andconsider the six important steps tosuccessful social networking forbusinesses.

Let me preface this by saying thatsocial media doesn’t remedy all that ailsyou. It should be used as one of themany marketing tactics to achievesuccess…but it isn’t a pot of gold.

1. Create a strategyHere is where many dealerships fail.

Without a goal to reach and a methodto achieving it, you will end up beingall social and no marketing. Linkingto individuals and businesses withoutrhyme or reason is not getting themessage out. Being devoid of strategyin the networking sites will cost youpotential results that could be earnedin other areas. You must have a planof attack.

2. Will the consumer be there?This is actually the first step in deter-

mining whether to test the waters ofsocial media. Is it advantageous tospend the time, money, and resourcesto become a part of this landscape ifyou cannot ensure you are reachingyour target audience?

3. Make sure there is buy-in fromownership and management

If the powers in charge at the dealer-ship are not supportive of the mediumor if they undervalue your dedication tothe platform, look elsewhere. The socialmarketing efforts that appear to havethe biggest impact are those that aresupported by the company as a wholerather than just one sole individual.

4. Consistency in the messageIf your dealership is promoting one

sale on its web site, another in theirnewspaper, and a different one on thenetworks, they are hurting themselves.Some think that having multiplemarketing messages is similar to castinga bigger net to catch more fish. It isn’t.It is diluting each and every advertise-ment or marketing agenda. A dealer orvendor fishing in the social mediaocean should be using the same bait onevery line.

5. Have the right person managingthe account

While I mentioned above that oneunified front can be beneficial to avendor or dealership (provided themessage is delivered correctly), youmust have the right person in charge ofthe primary business account. Thiscannot be an entry-level specialist, butshould be a decision-maker at theestablishment. You must have a dedi-cated executive to guaranteeaccountability. No one wants somebase-level employee with a grudgesingle-handedly destroying your repu-tation. I feel someone with authorityand who is synonymous with the store,must be at the helm of your socialmarketing efforts. One person must bein charge to ensure the agenda stays inplace, the audience is the target, and thegoal is attained.

6. Stand at attentionYour business is going to be spread-

ing your message across the land, whichleaves the door open for anonymousremarks, reviews, postings, and gripes.Negativity can override any marketingmessage and there are those in theindustry, hate to say it, that are suchhead cases that they have no otherrecourse than to tear you down to makethemselves feel better. Yes, sadly, socialnetworking sites can resemble real life

The Social Networking Gut Check

continued on P-DD15

D IGITAL Dealer INTERNET SALESJoe Webb

“Businesses are

climbing aboard the

social profitability

bandwagon, but

most need to look

before they leap.”—Joe Webb


Ihave played golf four times each yearfor over 20 years. My score reflectsthe real lack of passion that I have for

the sport. I can dress the part and try tocopy the swing of the pros, but I stillhave a hard time breaking a score of 93.This is similar to the Internet manageror general manager looking for the oneidea that will take their Internet depart-ment to superstar status. That one ideadoesn’t exist. The market is too complex.The retail leaders in the automotiveInternet space are constantly makingadjustments to modifying theirapproach since the market is evolving.You may have the perfect SEO strategyone day and Google changes the analyt-ics and three dealers across town jumpahead of you with the key searches. Iwould suggest that it is research and timeon the “course,” which leads to a betterunderstanding of the game, which leadsto a stronger scorecard.

This article will serve as an overviewthat will allow you to grade your effec-tiveness with key parts of building asolid Internet strategy. You may chooseto use this overview as a report card tobe scored by your management team,the people in the Internet departmentand even trusted vendors. Please notethat some areas are much more founda-tional than others. To change the DMSis a major undertaking, but dealers willdo it if they believe that this critical toolis holding them back. To build a greatstrategy, it starts with great content. Ifyou are yelling, but you don’t haveanything to say, no one listens. Fromcontent, the next key area is drivingtraffic followed by the first impressionof your operation formed by your website. You should then consider leadmanagement, retention and measure-ments. The final key step is animprovement plan. It doesn’t matter ifyou are at the top of your game. If youstop the process of improving, you willlose your edge and actually lose ground.

Great contentGreat stories: What’s your story?

How does it distinguish you from yourcompetition? And is it integrated andconsistent throughout your web siteand all other customer touch-points?

Great photos and videos: Aminimum of 15 high quality photos.Consider a staging area with high-density lighting with a controlledbackground. Consider video walk-arounds.

Driving trafficOrganic search: How many unique

visitors are hitting my web site eachmonth? What is my goal? How do mynumbers compare with the competitorsin the area (see www.compete.com)? Isit geo-targeted for my area? What is myGoogle page rank (Google tool barfeature)?

Pay-perclick: What am I paying perclick? What am I paying per deliveredunit? Do I have a maximum dollaramount that I will pay? Is my ad copydistinctive? Have I overlooked somelow cost phrases, which every otherdealer isn’t bidding on?

Third-party sites: What is the ROIwith AutoTrader, cars.com, Car Soup,etc.? Am I listing cars with Craig’s List?How are you distinguishing yourself onthese sites?

Video and YouTube strategy: Howeffective is my video strategy? Am Ilinking video content and tagging thevideo with key meta tags? Am I usingvideo across multiple channels (website, AutoTrader, YouTube, cars.com,Car Soup, and FaceBook)? Am I lever-aging user generated content andprofessional grade video content? Am Iusing video with e-mail campaignsand/or monthly newsletters? Am Isending video out as a response to e-mail inquiries?

Social sites: How am I leveraging theopportunity available on FaceBook,

MySpace, Linked In, RSS feed andTwitter?

Mobile (PDA): Provide contentconsistent with mobile devices socustomers can view your inventory

Web siteWeb site: Is the site easy to navigate,

leveraging the dealership in organicsearch, professional look and feel,colors/photos and appearance? Doesthe web site flow or does it have 30different themes?

Lead managementDMS: Is it compatible with CRM?

Are the internal status codes for unitsconsistent with web site codes? This isthe hardest by far to change. This is thefoundation.

CRM: Who is managing and moni-toring to ensure 100 percentcompliance and accountability withthe sales team? Does it have a goodmarketing center, which allows data-base mining for e-mail campaigns?Can you easily check and change thestatus of each account. Is it easy to inte-grate html code? Do the salespeopleeasily understand the functionality?Does the CRM allow you to matchopportunities? Ex.: A fresh tradeappears which was a desired unit byanother customer.

Structure of department: Clearlyunderstood by all front-end employees.Options include: appointment booker,appointment booker with Internet salesrep, Internet sales answering leads andselling cars, full-fledge BDC, specialtyBDC with key focus or all salespeopleare trained on handling Internet leads,as well as walk-in traffic.

Am I taking full advantage of thedigital customers? Should I consider adifferent structure? Review this articlefor additional details: http://www.digi-

Developing a Killer Internet Strategy To build a great strategy, it starts with great content. If you are yelling, but you don’t have anything to say, no one listens.

D IGITAL Dealer INTERNET SALESPhil Sura

continued on P-DD15

to these miserable souls so stay dedi-cated to turning away potentiallydamaging posts or remarks. Delete thecomments promptly and remove your-self from their crooked line of sight. Ifyou cannot, much like a bad consumerreview on DealerRater, you mustaddress the post, neutralize it, andconvert it into a positive.

So many dealers are already a part ofthe social networking sites, many othersare entering it as I type, and somesimply do not see a fit for their dealer-ship. As I mentioned before, socialmedia marketing is not the end all, beall of business development. A smile,shake of the hand or hello on the phoneremains the strongest form of commu-nication and that, I hope, neverchanges. With that in mind, please dome a favor. As much time and effort asyou dedicate to the online community,I ask that you dedicate even more toyour local community. I promise thatyou will see a greater impact in the facesof the local folk than you will in the picsof your profile friends.

That being said, there is still plenty tolearn and achieve from social networkingsites so take these six steps into consider-ation when planning or revamping yoursocial media marketing.

Joe Webb is the president of DealerKnowsLLC, an automotive digital marketingconsultation firm. It specializes in assist-ing dealers with their online advertising,lead management, e-commerce market-ing, and Internet initiatives. Webb alsorecently founded Dealer Signage Inc.,where he is the acting chief operating offi-cer. Dealer Signage is a progressive, digitaladvertising network and signage companythat allows dealers to manage the mediaon their own televisions and deliver tar-geted digital messages to their loyalcustomers within their own dealership.Webb's primary goal, as he always states,is “to better the culture of car sales.”

DigitalDealer-magazine.com September 2009 DD 15

taldealer-magazine.com/index.asp?article=1521.

Am I properly staffed? Each Internetsalesperson can effectively handle 75 to80 customers. You will sell more units ifyou watch the ratios.

Point person: Do we have the rightleader? Someone who is progressive,hands on, hardworking, open to ideas,able to implement and execute ideasquickly, achieves sales goals, and keepssenior management informed withupdates. Does the entire departmenthave written job descriptions? Dopeople understand their role and dothey feel valued? Do people receivewritten job performance reviews at leastonce a year? Are people having fun?

Pay plans: Motivational and direc-tional. Are the pay plans realistic?

Process: How do you handle leads?How long does it take for the firstresponse—after the automatedresponse? (10-15 minutes is a greatgoal) How many days do you followup with the customer? What do yourresponse templates look like? Howmany and how often do you follow upwith each customer opportunity?How do you grade the effectiveness ofthis activity by each Internet salesconsultant?

Ongoing training: Do we have a strat-egy to train the Internet team and entiresales team on the digital customer? Hint:send a team to the next Digital DealerConference in Nashville. Bring in adigital consultant for training.

Retention / cultivationE-mail newsletters: Do you have a

newsletter and how are you adding rele-vant content that gets the attention ofyour customer? Is the newsletter ofinterest or does it simply focus on howgreat you are?

E-mail campaigns: What is yourstrategy to gather e-mail addresses?What is the goal as a percentage of salesand service customers? Are the servicecashiers asking for e-mail addresses?

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn: Doyou have a focus on connecting withyour customers through the socialmedia opportunities?

Mobile: Provide customer updatesfor service and sales via the customer’spreferred methods (phone, text, e-mail,direct mail). This will become a majoropportunity for dealers.

Measure and adjustMetrics being tracked and meas-

ured: Unique visitors to site, phone upstracked from site, web leads from site,closing ratios with both and goals, timeon site, bounce rate, page visits, soldunits, sold units – Internet sales as apercentage against total sold, totaldigital budget, percentage of digitalbudget versus total ad spend, cost perlead comparisons by source, cost perunit sold by source. You should havegoals for each of these areas.

Adjustments: Make adjustmentsbased on metrics: Adjust copy, adplacement, creative, and frequency.Basically be willing to adjust and testnew initiatives.

Improvement planRegardless of how good you are,

there’s always room for improvement.Do you have a plan that holds peopleaccountable with key dates?

This is only a starting point. Themost progressive groups have workedwell beyond these points. The topgroups are hiring skilled specialists tofocus on the next level of reachingand connecting with people in themarket place. This document caneasily be modified. If you score lowtoday, create a plan to attack theareas that need the most attentionand review the results in threemonths. Focus and vision are criticalcomponents to building a killerInternet strategy.

“You are not here merely to make aliving. You are here in order to enablethe world to live more amply, withgreater vision, with a finer spirit ofhope and achievement. You are here toenrich the world, and you impoverishyourself if you forget the errand.”

~ Woodrow Wilson

Phil Sura is a VP of the AutomotiveDivision of UnityWorks Media.

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].

Internet Sales, Webb (continued from P-DD12)Internet Sales, Sura (continued from P-DD14)




D IGITAL Dealer INTERNET SALES Jason Ezell


As you’re wrapping up a hopefullysuccessful summer sales season,now is a good time to focus on

the backbone of your web site: yourinventory.

In order for you to connect yourshoppers to their next vehicles asquickly and painlessly as possible, it’scrucial to maintain your inventory bykeeping it up-to-date and chock-full ofinformation.

There are three main focus areas withinthe inventory section of your site: visibil-ity within search engines, vehicle imagesand the information you make availableto consumers.

1. Create more index-able pagesfor your site by optimizing inven-tory content.

Many shoppers are moving away fromusing generic search phrases such as,“auto dealer in Austin.” Instead, they’readding precise keywords such as, “2009Toyota Camry in Nashville.” Respond tothis trend by optimizing your inventory

pages with model-specific keywords,including year, make and trim, in yourtitle tags and meta content. Also, providethese specifications in the descriptive texton each vehicle’s page.

Your images present another opportu-nity to strengthen your SEO campaigns.Inserting alt text on each image tellssearch engines more about the vehiclesin the picture. When search engine

spiders crawl your web site, they’ll seethe alt text and know how to properlyindex the image.

To enhance your existing linking struc-ture, try adding videos to YouTube andlinking those videos back to the appropri-ate vehicles in your inventory. This willhelp build trust with the search enginesand give your website another point ofvisibility.

2. Provide consumers with adynamic shopping experience bysupplying multiple images.

Viewing a vehicle online is obviouslyvastly different than an in-person experi-ence at the dealership. Instead of gettingto sit in the car, feel the interior and takein that “new car smell,” the only thingonline shoppers can do is view the vehicleon a computer screen. In order to makevehicles as attractive to buyers as possible,include multiple images for each car inyour inventory.

One way to do that is to include avariety of pictures of both the exterior andthe interior of each vehicle. To appeal toevery buyer, whether they’re concernedwith what the interior of vehicles has tooffer or what the exterior looks like, havean even mix of images that showcases all ofthe vehicle’s features.

You can easily make this visual impactwith static images, but it’s also beneficialto include a 360-degree spin and theability to view each car in every availablecolor. Seeing a vehicle in the color theshopper actually wants makes it their car.

3. Give your customers the com-plete picture by including allessential details.

Since online shoppers aren’t able to seeyour vehicles in person, you shoulddisplay all of the details for each vehicleincluding a description with optimizedtext, a list of available features and otherspecifics including miles per gallon, trans-mission and mileage.

You also need to include the vehicle’sprice on the vehicle’s details page. Vehiclepricing is one of the top pieces of infor-mation shoppers are looking for in theirsearch, and having no price listed canactually deter leads.

For example, many dealers opt forrequesting a call for pricing, but thismethod often backfires when consumerssimply move onto another dealership thatlists vehicle prices on its web site. A goodapproach is to list a price that is below theKelley Blue Book price.

Another important step is to makesure your inventory isn’t outdated.Depending on the provider you use, yourinventory listings could be refreshedhourly, or it may only be updating everyfew days, which presents a problem if acustomer calls about a vehicle you soldthe day before.

Take some time to focus on these factorsand analyze how you’re presenting yourinventory to your shoppers. Are they easilyable to find you when searching for avehicle in their region? Are you givingthem a complete shopping experience byproviding enough images and details aboutyour vehicles? Are your listings up to date?Putting in the effort will pay off as yourcustomers find the right car for them atyour dealership.

Jason Ezell is one of Dealerskins’ originalfounders. Since the company’s acquisition byTrader Publishing in 2005, Ezell serves asnational sales director. He is on the board ofdirectors for the AAISP and vendor represen-tative on the J.D.Power Internet Roundtable.

Making the ConnectionHelp shoppers find their car with your online inventory

“Putting in the effort

will pay off as your

customers find the

right car for them at

your dealership.”—Jason Ezell


D IGITAL Dealer COVER STORY

Jeff JonesInternet Sales Manager

Al Serra Auto Plaza

Jeff JonesInternet Sales Manager

Al Serra Auto Plaza


Jeff, tell me what first attractedyou to the auto industry?

I was in the restaurant business from1993 to 2001 and I was looking to sellit and make a change that would bebetter for my family. In January of2001, I really wanted to work at mylocal Pontiac, Buick, and GMC Dealer.I made a plan to go in and see the dealerhimself. I knocked on his office doorand was fortunate enough to talk tohim directly. After reading my resumehe told me to come back when I soldmy restaurant; the guy would hardlytalk to me! Disappointed, I was tellingthis story to a friend and his girlfriendwho was a sales manager at a smallChrysler, Jeep, and Dodge store and shehired me on the spot. I will never forgetmy wife and I sitting down at thekitchen table discussing how commit-ted I needed to be if this was going towork out. I wrote a letter to all myfamily and friends to tell them aboutmy career change. That was my first carmarketing piece, which was really cooland it developed results! The businesswas fun and rewarding to me and Ilearned a lot fast. The first lesson was nosales, no pay, and second, don’t let

anyone beat you due to a lack of effort.The first year I made more money thanI had ever earned before and I havenever looked back. But I often wonderwhere I would be today if that otherdealer would have hired me and whatmy perception of the car businesswould have been.

How did you land as Internetmanager at the Plaza?

I started working for the Al Serra AutoPlaza on November 1, 2004. A friend Ihad made from the Chrysler storeconvinced me this was the place Ineeded to be. The interview took abouttwo weeks, talking to five managers. Itwas such a large, impressive organiza-tion, I was happy when I got the jobopening in used cars. When I started,the Plaza had already had a BDC callcenter in place. The process for e-mailleads was to send out an e-mail throughOutlook to all the sales staff (50-plus atthe time) announcing there was an e-mail lead available to who everresponded first. I had some experiencewith e-mail leads from my previousdealer where I was the Internet manager;handling a whopping 50 leads a month.

I was successful with producing salesfrom the leads I had been getting fromthe BDC and after five months I wasoffered a position as an Internet salesconsultant for the Plaza. This job was tostrictly answer and sell all of the leads forthe whole Plaza. At that time it wasabout 350 to 400 leads per month and Iam sure if you are reading this magazineyou know that was like getting yourteeth kicked in. I started at 7:00 am andoften did not leave until 9:00 pm orlater. I thought I could handle it butafter while I was exhausted. How manysalespeople do you know that think theycan handle it all? I am definitely one ofthem! About two months later we hiredin another salesperson and we soldtogether as a team. Mike Schwartzresponded to the leads and I would helpcall customers for follow up and sellthem when they came in. That workedpretty well for a while but as our leadvolume grew we needed to expand.Then we went to a three-person teamand I was the Internet sales manager overtwo salespeople, and the team reallygrew from there. Mike and I often joketo the other Internet salespeople, “Weare the originals!”

At the beginning of the decade, Jeff Jones, a slightly frustrated restaurateur, was looking tofind a more rewarding challenge. Today, as the 38-year-old Internet sales manager for the AlSerra Auto Plaza in Grand Blanc, MI, Jones is really cooking, helping the auto retailer offsetan industry-wide decline in new vehicle sales with a big increase in used vehicle leads, thanks,Jones says, to his owner’s forward thinking attitude toward the use of technology and a tradi-tion as a one-price dealership that helps translate those leads into sales. An intense focus on

Internet sales has led to web site conversion rates increasing about 2 percent in the past year,while Internet sales rose 3 percent. We talked with Jones recently about how Internet sales are

handled and how the business is adjusting to the current market.


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

Yes, without a doubt. The best thingabout having leaders like Joe Serra(dealer and president of SerraAutomotive) and Denny Dunfield(general manager, Al Serra Auto Plaza)is they welcome any technology thatmakes sense; they never keep theirheads in the sand. Joe and Denny havetold us as department managers that ifwe feel it is the right move, then do it;if it is a mistake, then quickly correct itand move on. They had been forwardthinkers long before I ever got here andfor that it is very refreshing to be withsuch a group.

How are your stores performingin this tough market?

We are doing just fine. Although ournew vehicle sales percentages are downwe are making up for it with usedvehicle leads. Our overall Internettraffic has increased and we are adjust-ing to keep improving with the newcustomer contacts.

How do you manage to get theseresults?

Each department manager makes a

forecast and business plan each month.Sometimes we need to revise or bumpour forecast but we follow it and reportto Denny each week in a managersmeeting. It is a great way to hold yourpeople accountable for their commit-ments and to stay focused and on track.We treat the Internet sales team thesame way; we discuss what we haveworking and make the forecast forprojected e-mail sales.

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

In my opinion it is the most impor-tant thing we can do right now.Customers are not as “dealer loyal”anymore. A customer who has previ-ously purchased a vehicle from aspecific dealer in the past may insteadsearch online, find a vehicle they likeand purchase it at a different dealersome 40 miles away instead. We needto be aware that a customer could besearching from anywhere for anyreason. If we don’t make plans to gooutside of our market area it will betough to survive, and the Internetprovides us with that opportunity. Wespend a lot of time working on the site

Describe what your current posi-tion entails.

Today I am the Internet manager forthe Al Serra Auto Plaza in a muchdifferent capacity than I was back inthe day of just the three of us. ThePlaza is a big place and it takes a lot ofpeople to make it work. We currentlyhave eight brands: Chevrolet, Buick,Pontiac, GMC, Cadillac, Hummer,Honda, and Nissan. I would say this isthe flagship dealership of all of theSerra stores, and I am extremely proudto be here. I am in charge of handlingthe web sites for the Plaza and theirconversions, managing leads we getfrom the sites with sales staff, helpingto teach the CRM and Internet skillsto anyone who wants it, and all e-mailcampaigns. I also work with the otherdepartment heads of the Plaza for theirsite needs, as well as all of our vendorssuch as Unity Works Media,AutoTrader, cars.com, etc. on our e-advertising. I could never do all of thisby myself. I get a lot of support fromthe BDC and Internet sales staff. Wehave some great talent here and I havemanaged to surround myself withsome individuals who make up aterrific team.

DEALERSHIP PARTNERS IN PROFIT:

Dealership name:Al Serra Auto Plaza

Web site URLs:alserra.com; alserra.net;hondaofgrandblanc.com;nissanofgrandblanc.com

Web site provider/host:Reynolds Web SolutionsCobalt

Web site vehicle photostaken by: - In house

Vehicle marketing: Homenet

DMS provider: Reynolds & Reynolds

BDC software/vendor: Contact Management -Reynolds & Reynolds

CRM program:Reynolds & Reynolds

Vehicle video vendors: Unity Works Media

Vehicle valuation tools: Kelley Blue Book

Online lead generatorsnot including the OEMsources: AOL Autoscars.comEdmunds.comKelley Blue BookMSN Autos

NewCars.comYahoo! Autos

Third-party siteswhere inventory isposted: AutoTrader.comCars.comKelley Blue BookVehix

Vehicle historyreports: Experian Auto Check

Other vendors notlisted above: Craigslist


thinking about what a customer wantsand what it would take for them to call,e-mail or come in. If they don’t make acall to action I feel like there is room toimprove. We track our conversion ratesclosely. I have learned a lot from DigitalDealer magazine and vendors however,I have learned the most from myInternet and BDC staff. I rely on theirfeedback of what is working and what isnot. We sit down as a team and discusse-mail ideas and follow up schedules.We communicate pretty well with eachother and share ideas that alwaysexpress the importance of getting betterwith our Internet business.

What is the process for receivingand distributing Internet leads?

Every e-mail lead goes through ourCRM. Our total Internet departmentis unique; I think this is what sets usapart from other dealers. We have 50sales people in total, 10 of them areInternet salespeople who handleleads on a round-robin rotation. Butthe best part of our sales force is withyears of longevity with the Plaza. Atany time one of their customersshops online we have our CRMassign the lead back to that salesper-son automatically. Most of them arenotified on their cell phone. It isusually a nice surprise to thecustomer when their long-time sales-person contacts and remembers themwhile providing the information.Therefore I like to think of all of oursalespeople as Internet salespeople. Ihave been asking the salespeople whohave been here 20- to 30-plus years,“Was there a newspaper or radiodepartment 20 years ago?” Obviouslynot, so all Internet leads should notjust go to an Internet department.The way customers contact us now isdifferent than it was back then. Sincethe customers needs have changed,we all need to make sure we areprepared and change as well.

Does it differ at individual stores?Not really, the Plaza has five build-

ings; there are two Internet salespeoplein each building for the fresh customerleads. For the Honda and Nissan leadswe keep salespeople brand specific tothat building, however, any salespersonat the Plaza can sell any make or model.All GM leads we handle on a round-robin basis amongst eight ISP and usedvehicle leads between two Internetsalespeople.

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

We have been a one-price dealersince 1992. It is nice when you canempower your salespeople to providethe best price up front with no haggleor hassle. The customers and the sales-people both appreciate the ease ofdoing business this way. Simply put,they get the vehicle that fits their wantsand needs in a stress-free environment.

I know the way that Joe Serra andDenny Dunfield lead all of us wealways have the opportunity to shine.You never hear anyone complain thatwe can’t do something because of ourleadership. They give us the tools weneed to get the job done, and we do it.

We now try to develop rapport earlyon our web site. Since we have addedvideo and some better lead forms, ourweb site conversion rate in the last yearhas gone up almost 2 percent. Our e-mail lead average has gone up 40percent, and Internet sales haveincreased 3 percent over the last year aswell. We have set up a new processwith the BDC and Internet depart-ment just this month so I am lookingforward to better results the secondhalf of the year.

I think we started using personal-ized video before it was really popular.I remember talking to a customerwho was not able to come into thedealership until the evening and shewould not make a decision until shesaw the vehicle. It was the last day ofthe month and if she bought after4:45 pm the sale would count for nextmonth. I was trying to get anothersale for the Internet departmentbefore the cutoff. I went out with adigital camera did a two-minutefeature and benefit presentation inone take, then e-mailed it to her atwork. She was so impressed shestarted e-mailing it to her friends andco-workers before she even came inshowing them the video e-mail of thetruck she was coming here to buy. Mygoal was to sell her a vehicle soonerthan later, but what it taught me waswe could develop a very strongrapport this way. We didn’t beat thedeadline but were happier with thebigger lesson. We still send personalvideo as much as possible when theright scenarios present themselves.Mark Siefert, one of our Internetsalespeople has taken this to a wholenew level with editing software, it is

almost like watching a professionalcommercial it is so good. We havebeen doing that kind of stuff forabout three years now.

Do you have one or several websites?

We have several sites. Ouralserra.com URL is our bread andbutter though, and it has all eightbrands of the Plaza available. All of ouradvertising is spent promoting thatURL. It is really just a hub to direct thevisitors to the places and brands theywould like to see. We also have ourNissan, and Honda sites, and a secondexclusive GM brand-specific site.

What lead generation tools workbest on your site?

Right now I have to give that honorto the Kelley Blue Book lead drivertool. We average more than 200 leadsper month with this. I like it because itgives us something to talk about withthe customer. The second, at about 100a month is the credit application leadform. We have a credit counseling webpage that works as a great landing pageon our site.

How do you use SEO? We make sure each of our web site

pages have a relevant purpose to whatwe want to accomplish with that page.Whether it is an oil change page orinventory search we don’t muddy thewaters. Our goal has always been tohave rich content with the appropriatesubject matter. Then we monitor andtest our work with the search engines. Ifit doesn’t work we go back to the pageand figure out why, and we update asmuch as possible. We have beenworking with Unity Works Media withVSEO and have seen some positiveresults with this; they do a great job forus in this area.

How are you finding those betterkey words for SEM?

We used to spend about $2,000 amonth with SEM and we were able toidentify that a lot of our customerswould have searched us out naturallyanyways. So we have eliminated a largeportion of SEM, however, we do have itwith our GM endorsed site. I workwith our account advocate to make sureshe understands our area since she is inanother state. I really just discuss key

continued on P-DD26


The recent “Cash for Clunkers”caught some dealers off guard.They wanted to quickly con-

tact the customers in their databasedriving clunkers, but found that get-ting that data and working with it washarder than they thought. This limitedoffer is what I consider a “campaign”similar to a special rebate or subsidizedfinancing rate.

There is more to getting ready for acampaign than you think, but if youuse your technology, it can be a snap! Ihave five simple steps to get acampaign going and let’s use the “Cashfor Clunkers” as an example. The firststep is to determine who would beinterested in this campaign. That isnot as easy as you think, since thegovernment didn’t say that all SUVsqualify; instead you need a list of theyear, make, and models that fall withinthe government’s guidelines. Once youhave that list, then you need to dosome more weeding out. They have tohave owned the vehicle for the pastyear, so you need to filter on last datesold. You don’t want to contact aclunker owner that purchased the carlast month. This first step is consid-ered filtering or selecting that data.That leads to the next step, and that isto determine where the data resides.For some of you, you have manydifferent databases; your DMS systemcustomer database, service vehicledatabase, F&I sales database, CRMdatabase, or third-party provider data-base. You want the most clean andrecent data for this campaign and itmight include those customers thatdidn’t purchase from you but wantedto. Those would be non-buyers. Thismeans that you might need tocombine your databases into one data-base and then determine a sort routinethat picks the one with the best infor-mation. As an example, you have acustomer, John Duck that came in and

tried to trade in a 1989 F-150 pickupthat he purchased from you four yearsago. He is now credit-challenged andended up as a non-buyer in your CRMdatabase. The good news is that heliked your Ford dealership enough tocome in for service over the next fewmonths. He might be in your data-bases four times: as a service customer,a sales customer from four years ago,CRM prospect in your third-partysoftware, and a failed F&I prospect.Your field for determining if they areall the same John Ducks is the VIN

number of his owned vehicle (orproposed trade-in). That is your thirdstep to determine which of theserecords “win” and get contacted. Sincehe might have four different addresses,you need a qualifier to pick the bestcontact record and that would be lastservice date, last sales date, or lastcontact date. You could use the MAXfunction in Excel or Access to find thelatest date. Your fourth step is to deter-mine how you will contact him. Inormally like to know this before Istart the project, since if I wentthrough all the steps and extracted allthe dealership data and then found outthey wanted to e-mail the customer;I’d be upset with myself if I forgot to

grab the e-mail field. Since there areonly three ways to contact today;phone, e-mail, or mail (text messagingjust isn’t there yet), then if you grabthose fields, you should be okay, alongwith the fields required for the quali-fiers and filtering. If you are storing“do not call” data, you’ll need to filteron that field too if the contact methodis phone. The final step is to outputyour data and again, it helps if youknow how you will contact yourcustomer. The best method to contactcustomers is for your salespeople tocall their customers, but in thiscampaign, I’ve seen lists that exceed30,000 names. If instead you are usingbulk e-mail software, an automatedphone service, or a direct mailprovider, they will normally have veryspecific guidelines for how the outputfile should be formatted. I’m accumu-lating a list of some of these providersin case you need a quick way tocontact customers and e-mail me ifyou want a list. As I flip through lastmonth’s issue, many are our advertis-ers, so please pick them first. They areones that let me use this space to helpyou get that data you need to sellmore cars!

Sandi Jerome is a former controller,CFO, system administrator, F&I, assis-tant GM, and fixed operations managerwith over 20 years experience in the auto-motive industry. She is the owner of SandiJerome Computer Consulting.

Five Easy Steps to Getting the Data you Need

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

“You don’t want

to contact

a clunker owner

that purchased

the car

last month.”—Sandi Jerome


formula as to how they became success-ful without adjustments for varyingeconomic climates. And, they are notshy about beating their chests in frontof the employees and making them feelsmall. This mentality shifts their busi-ness from a growth to maintenancemindset.

Here is one simple formula: attritionequals managers not developing people!Now is the perfect time to focus on thenew measures and performance indica-tors that reflect the importance of thenew people rules of the game. What got

you to this point will not keep you here.When your team is motivated becauseyou encourage them, continually trainthem, support them, acknowledge theiraccomplishments, respect them,provide them with tools, assist themwith their shortcomings, tell them theyare important and then reward them,you will be presented with a galaxy ofintriguing growth possibilities. Amongthese are fostering better customer rela-tions, enhancement of your salesprocesses, morale of the store and astrongly woven team fabric that isunshakable in any climate. Then, guesswhat happens? Business as usual turnsinto unusual business gains.

Ask yourself this question: would Iwant to work for me? Ego may lie toyou but others will not. This entire

article was created because I witnessedthe management (notice I did not saythe leadership) of several stores and theway they treated their sales teamsrecently. In one instance, a manager waspromoted and hired his replacement.Every day he told the newly placedmanager that he was not as good amanager or salesman as he had been. Infact, he gloatsed by letting everyoneknow he was the best sales manageranywhere. Of course, he won’t add thatthe team was rocking when things werequite different economically and he hadnot had much to do but desk deals. Hecertainly did not develop his team. Histeam developed him. Yet he remainsstaunch on the fabricated notion thatthe success was totally attributed tohim, leaving one with the notion thathe was the only person showing up forwork. Meanwhile, let the record reflectthat under his most recent direction thedealership had massive attrition, unitswere down, gross was down and everyday the employees walked in wonder-ing if they were going to be fired orsubjected to the continuous harassmentand belittling by this idiot. He wasliving in the past and hanging his “past”success hat on his new position. Insteadof recognizing that past successes aremerely stepping stones for improve-ment, he was using them as his soapbox for his “hey look at me” speeches.This guy’s ego was the size of Alaskaand was proud of it. This style ofmanagement is dead!

Meanwhile the new manager isdeveloping individuals and the teamlike never before. He has tripled unitsales and gross profits, the team’smorale is at an all time high and thisstore is getting recognized by the manu-facturer as a dealership on the move.Yet, as well as this new manager isdramatically improving things, the

The Character of a Dealership is Definedby its People, not its Walls Build confidence and they will do great things

continued on P-DD24

D IGITAL Dealer BDC/CRM Chuck Barker

Mindless managerial dutiesand conformity are majortraps for mediocre managers

and the casualties are our sales person-nel. The time has come to shed theold-school bureaucratic manager andmove this business into the 21st cen-tury people development arena, to notonly stay in business, but to grow thebusiness. For way too long the auto-mobile industry has accepted as anorm underestimating the outcome oftomorrow by the choices managersmake today. I was just looking at anumber of automobile job descrip-tions written by various dealers andorganizations. Not one of these jobdescriptions for general manager, gen-eral sales manager and sales managercontained the single most critical ele-ment of any of these powerful jobs:growing people! Sure, they all con-tained numbers and job functions andthe assorted requirements, but not onespoke about the number one task of aleader is to grow people. Maybe that iswhy they don’t call it general leader orgeneral sales leader or sales leader.Because we have forgotten that thisindustry, in order to sustain itself, hasto develop and grow talented and pro-fessional individuals in order to turnthings around to being the profes-sional occupation it once was.

There is a vast difference betweenknowledge and wisdom. You haveheard me say this many times: theenemy of great is good. The primaryreason so few managers or organiza-tions for that matter ever become greatis because they get good and they stopimproving. They stop personallygrowing, learning, risking, changingand growing their people. They usetheir track record or prior successes asevidence that they are king. Believingtheir own headlines, the leaders in thesedealerships are ready to write it down,build the manual and document the

“You can’t expand your

market share when

everyone else is doing

well – but you’ve got a

chance when everyone

is struggling.”—Chuck Barker


newly promoted manager constantlycherishes finding fault with him in themost insignificant areas without anyaccolades or recognition of the all thegood things he is doing for the store.Majoring in minors we like to say. Whywould a guy do this when he could begrowing and encouraging the new guywhich in turn helps everyone includingthe promoted manager?

Psychologists would most likelydescribe him as insecure, with low self-esteem, fearful of exposing his real lackof skills, afraid of change and totallyparanoid that there is actually someonein his store who is better than him. Anegotist thinks too much of himself andtoo little of others. Real leaders recog-nize the importance in developingpeople to a level higher than themselvesbecause they understand that by doingso raises the quality bar across the deal-ership. Others like the guy we arespeaking about love keeping everyonedown and manage with continuingbelittlement. Sick. Here is a memofrom a company president to a person-nel manager: “Search the organizationfor an alert, aggressive young man whocould step into my shoes – and whenyou find him, fire him.” Sound famil-iar? If anyone is insecure aboutsomebody taking their job, to be honestwith you, probably someone shouldtake their job.

Speaking of ego, did you know thatAdolf Hitler interviewed 30 candidatesto be his personal chauffeur? His quali-fication for whoever that personalchauffeur would be was that his pickwould be the shortest man, so thatHitler would always look tall when hewas with him. In fact, the guy that hepicked was so short they literally had tobuild a special seat for him and putblocks under it so he could see the road.But Adolf Hitler, because of his ego,always wanted to keep small peoplearound him. Of course, this is in phys-ical stature, but if you’ve got a managerwith a big ego, the staff that he hireswon’t be able to help you because hewill only hire people that aren’t verycapable (because he won’t want them tosteal his limelight). They will mostlikely be average, which translates toyour dealership being an average dealer-

ship. You can’t expand your marketshare when everyone else is doing well.But you’ve got a chance when everyoneis struggling. It will require, though,solid leadership, CRM processes andthe development of your people.

Charismatic people can draw peopleto them, but it gives people no reasonto trust them. With character, youbuild trust with others each time youchoose integrity over image, truth overconvenience, or honor over personalgain. A quote from a CEO of a majorcorporation says, “You don’t build trustby talking about it. You build it byachieving results, always with integrityand in a manner that shows realpersonal regard for the people withwhom you work.” Character makestrust possible. And trust is the founda-tion of leadership.

Here are a few simple yet profoundquotes I particularly like relating towhat this is all about:

“A great manager has the knack for making ballplayers think they

are better than they think they are. He forces you to have a good opinion ofyourself. He lets you know he believes inyou. He makes you get more out of your-self. And once you learn how good youreally are, you never settle for playing

anything less than your very best.”- Reggie Jackson

“If you recruit good players and they play well, you’re a genius. So for a year or two you’ll be called a

genius. Sometimes a ‘genius manager’will recruit bad players who play poorly,

which will make people wonder howcome a genius got so dumb so fast.”

- Whitey Herzog

“I have long been profoundly convinced that in the very nature of things, employers and employees

are partners, not enemies; that theirinterests are common, not opposed; that

in the long run the success of each is dependent upon the success of the other.”

- John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

In order to possess a rock solidcustomer relationship management

initiative, you must first have employeerelationship management in place. Ifyou are a manager you must do some-thing daily to first grow yourself,encourage your team to do the same,then do something daily to grow yourteam members. Without this formulayou will be constantly fighting anuphill battle and tomorrow will simplybe today except one day later. Begintoday to enrich and honor your peopleand they will go into battle with youwillingly. If you don’t, you will one daylook around and find no one standingalong side of you and then it gets lonelyand the job becomes very difficult. Ifyou are interested in gathering someleadership enriching ideas, send me ane-mail at [email protected] and I will get them out toyou. Also, if you have a similar story Iwould love to hear about it, confiden-tially of course. The time is so criticallyright to make the decision to imple-ment these positive growth changes inyour store and you will have a distinctadvantage over your competitorsbecause most of them just don’t get itand never will. You team and yourcustomers will respond in very positiveand 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].

BDC/CRM, Barker (continued from P-DD23


In these times, dealers are looking forlow-cost ways to boost sales and prof-its. But how do you increase revenues

without spending more money? Theanswer is to get your customers to helpyou sell vehicles. You need your customerto be more than “completely satisfied”you need them to be “promoters”!

Dealers typically monitor customer satis-faction using CSI surveys and scores. Theproblem is that CSI can sometimes includefactors outside of the dealership’s control,such as vehicle manufacturing (quality)problems. Also, in response to growing CSIpressures from manufacturers, some dealer-ships have begun prepping customers onhow to fill out their customer satisfactionsurveys. This is understandable, given thecurrent market. But without a true meas-urement of customer satisfaction, dealerswill lose out on opportunities to makechanges in processes that could result inincreased revenues.

One way dealers can guarantee consis-tent and reliable data is with NetPromoter, a customer loyalty metricintroduced in 2003. The Net PromoterProgram and Net Promoter Score (NPS)were developed as a simple way to deter-mine customer satisfaction and helpcompanies grow their business. It hasbeen adopted by companies around theworld as a way to measure and improvecustomer loyalty.

The NPS concept is based on the ideathat companies have three categories ofcustomers: promoters, passives anddetractors. The more promoters a busi-ness has, the more likely it is to succeed inits market.

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) isdetermined by asking one question on a9-10 rating scale – How likely is it thatyou would recommend (dealership) to afriend or colleague? The responses arethen grouped into Promoters (9-10rating), Passives (7-6 rating) andDetractors (0-6 rating). The percentageof Detractors is then subtracted from the

percentage of Promoters to obtain yourscore. A second, open-ended question isalso recommended to find out the reasonsfor the rating.

So what’s a good NPS score? Well,American Express, Apple and HarleyDavidson all have NPS scores at or above50 percent. Think about it, if anyone iswilling to tattoo your logo on their body,then they’re a Promoter! The morecustomers you have actively promotingyour store, the less you’re going to have tospend on advertising.

Most companies average only 5 to 10percent, which means there are onlyslightly more Promoters than Detractors.Businesses that end up with a negativeNPS have more Detractors thanPromoters. With any low or negativeNPS score, no matter what actions areundertaken to generate new business, thecompany will not expand.

There are many benefits to implement-ing a Net Promoter program:• It’s practical • It’s easier for employees to understand• It creates a stronger customer focus• It reduces time spent on data analysis

Improving Customer Retention and Loyalty with Net Promoter

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].

D IGITAL Dealer BDC/CRMMike Esposito

• Trouble areas are more quickly identi-fied

• Trends can be more easily monitoredand evaluated

• It increases accountability •Scores can be compared across industries

One way to quickly implement anNPS program is throughSurveyMonkey.com, an online surveytool. It’s a low-cost solution that lets youeasily create and administer surveys usingtemplates. Once you’ve designed yourNPS survey, broadly promote it to yourcustomer base by e-mail.

Used in conjunction with CSI, the NetPromoter system can help you achieveand maintain a high level of customersatisfaction. It’s a great tool that providesan additional level of feedback to moreeffectively manage customer relations,increase loyalty and sales.

Michael A. Esposito has been presidentand CEO of Auto/Mate Dealership Systemsfor seven years and is responsible for the over-all direction of the company. Previously, hewas the general manager at a very largemulti-line new car dealership. Prior to hisdealership experience, Esposito was the direc-tor of Marketing and Sales for a Fortune100 technology company. His many years ofautomotive experience and knowledge of theinner workings of dealerships coupled withhis deep technical background have providedhim with a unique perspective of what deal-ers really need from a dealershipmanagement system, and how the systemshould be designed to deliver it.

“The more promoters

a business has,

the more likely it

is to succeed in

its market.”—Michael A. Esposito


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

ActivEngage ........................9

Auto Point ........................13

AutoUSA............................28

BZ Results/ADP ....................5

cars.com ............................27

DealerPeak (Widestorm) ....6

Dealix ..................................2

Homenet..............................7

IMN Loyalty Driver............11

words and zip codes of areas we want totarget. I do see the value in it with someinitiatives so we may be getting backinto it more actively soon.

How do you use e-mail cam-paigns?

We have been with a local companyfor a little over a year now calledCustomer Beach. Their productenables us to track our results of eachcampaign, organize and keep track ofcustomers that opt out. The owner ofthe company is always available tohelp with any needs we may have, andis a great teacher in this field. We trynot sending too much, since we donot want to over saturate and annoyour customers. So with our customersneeds and wants in mind, our e-mailsusually have a lot of content to offer,such as service specials and coupons,sales specials, incentive summaries,video inventory library, trade valueoptions, and even video games! Weusually send out about two compre-hensive campaigns a month. However,sometimes something will happenwith a late incentive announcementand we need to get the word out fastso we will send an update to ourcustomers. We also have had a sales-person use it to send a personalmessage to all of her customers. Shehad a lot of tasteful content that wasnot all about wanting to sell a car. Shehad some great feedback and sold fourvehicles from this personal e-mailcampaign.

What about your marketingexpenses?

Right now we spend just under$20,000 per month with e-commerceadvertising. Obviously there will besome increases here in the future.

How big are you in the social net-working arena?

Right now I am just trying to get allof our sales people to get on Facebookfor themselves. I have had a Facebookaccount for about four months nowand it has resulted in a few sales so far.Any salesperson that is not using asocial site should be. I see no disad-vantage to letting people know what

you do. We have a Facebook accountfor Barney Serra (our mascot). I willbe the first one to admit we need to doa better job of marketing Barney’spage. We also have a Facebook pagefor the Plaza.

What new technology trends areyou spotting?

Video. I know it is not new but itonly has scratched the surface of whatwe will see. Most every site has videonow and it is going to be the game ofwho does it best. There are too manydifferent ways it can improve what wedo with it.

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

Yes we do, a large majority of ouronline advertising is spent on our pre-owned inventory. About half of ourleads are pre-owned inquires. We keepall of our pre-owned vehicles togetherat the corner lot of the Plaza. Currentlywe have about 350 used vehicles instock, and are having no problems at allselling them.

What is your typical work weeklike and what do you do to relaxoutside of work?

I am always busy. I certainly don’thave a feeling like I don’t haveanything to do. Often it is a case of nothaving enough hours in the day. Someof tasks we have to do as a team youthink can be done in half the amountof time it actually takes. We spend alarge majority of our time trying tofigure out how to get the customers tocall, e-mail or come in. So when theydo, those projects wait while we takecare of the customer. It is a fun andrewarding circle.

To relax outside of work, I love to gowaterskiing and play golf. Mostlythough, doing anything with my threechildren and just sitting on our wickerfurniture on the front porch talkingwith my wife on a nice summerevening. Life is good! Thanks for theinterview.

[email protected]

Cover story, Jeff Jones (continued from P-DD21)

Download - Digital dealer magazine september 2009

Top Related