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Archives for May 2010

Your Virtual Lot Needs Attention, Too!

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[This post is also a reprint of an article written for an industry publication in May 2008 saved here for future reference. That doesn’t make it any less true. In fact, I would say it is even more important now than it was 2 years ago.]

In this digital marketing age with more and more consumers choosing to utilize the Internet to assist in making their automobile purchasing decisions, it is increasingly important to monitor the activity within your Internet departments.

Judging the effectiveness of your Internet traffic cannot be done solely by valuating its production. Whether you are using third-party lead providers or driving traffic to your own website or a combination of the two, you need to be aware of what’s going on with the leads. Just like you look at how your ups are being worked by your salespeople, closers, or sales managers; you should know what’s going on with your Internet ups.

What most dealers forget to include in evaluating their Internet departments and/or where the budget is being spent to provide leads are the most basic factors imaginable:

1. Are my Internet managers working the leads properly?

2. Do I have a process in place that I can use to hold them accountable?

It’s important to have processes just like any sales force has. Would you expect your salespeople to take a customer on a test drive before writing them up? Of course you would.

Internet leads are ups in the same way as someone that walked onto your lot. In fact, you may get more ups through your virtual lot than you do on your physical one. There are many dealerships that have Internet departments that account for 30-40 percent (or more) of their business but this is the department that is typically the most neglected and least monitored of all departments by sales managers. Dealers pay a lot of money for these ups yet fail to work them as hard as they would any customer that had walked on the lot because they don’t see the potential of turning these ups into sales today. The mentality that exists, and has existed, is that this is a today business.

While we would all prefer to sell a car today (anybody waiting for the be-back bus?),I think everyone would agree that selling a car eventually is better than  never.

Through my experience and observations, I’ve noticed that unsuccessful Internet departments tend to have Internet Managers that don’t continually work a lead. Maybe they call a few times over a week or so but then they just give up and restart the process on fresh leads. This circular pattern neglects the customer that’s not ready to buy today, but is a buyer. With most Internet customers being seven weeks out from initial contact to sale, no wonder you are losing business. I understand how frustrating it is for an Internet manager to call someone 18 times and never get a hold of anyone and never have any calls returned. That doesn’t mean these aren’t buyers, only that they’re not ready to buy or not enough of an impression has been made to earn their response. Just like any salesperson knows, you can give a customer every way to contact you imaginable: the dealership’s phone number, your home and cell phone numbers,your work and personal e-mails, etc., build great rapport and ask the customer in every way possible to call you when they want to come in and that you will be there to assist them and, despite all of this, the customer will still show up when they are ready to purchase without calling the salespeople. Knowing this, why is it hard to believe that a customer who nobody at your dealership has ever even met in person would do the same thing?

I’m a firm advocate of utilizing a business development center (BDC) to followup with your customers whether they are prospects or previous customers rather than entrusting your customers to salespeople who may or may not follow up with them. At least with a BDC, you can create a consistent process with dedicated people that follow up with your customers and prospect for your dealership.This simple addition to your business will increase your sales immediately and create greater customer satisfaction and a great first impression. Have you ever heard a customer say that nobody ever contacted after requesting information? How about feedback from a customer saying a salesperson never called them back after promising to?

By paying more attention to your Internet departments, Internet Managers and leads, you will be able to increase your sales within that department immediately, without any additional expense to you.

If your salesperson were burning ups, you’d stop the behavior. Why allow your Internet managers to do the same thing?

If you don’t pay attention, you only have yourself to blame.

E-Mail Strategies in Internet Sales (Revised)

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[Note: My original intent on posting this blog post was to preserve this article. It was originally published in June of 2008 in an industry publication. They restructured their website so that the URL to this article no longer works so I wanted to have an easy place to find it. While reading it again, keeping in mind that this article is 2 years old, the only piece of advice contained within this article that should be changed is that providing a quote to the customer is imperative. I’ve edited the article in bold with updates.]

Every Internet sales department involves e-mails either to the customer or from the customer. Having a strategy in place for the e-mails you send to customers is necessary. Many of your customers will be receiving automated e-mails from your CRM but do you have a strategy in place to maximize the results from those e-mails? You cannot sell a car without establishing a dialogue with the customer first, whether through a phone contact or an e-mail response. Reality is that you’ll have many customers who choose not to respond to you and/or respond at their leisure. The lack of response and inability to get a hold of customers is frustrating to many Internet managers and many choose to stop following up with these leads. A well thought out e-mail strategy can increase your responses, thus creating more dialogue with customers, which will translate into more sales.

Many Internet CRMs come with “canned” auto-responders and e-mail templates that most Internet departments alter with bare minimum changes (typically the addition of the customer’s name and contact information). You should scrutinize these e-mails and tailor them to your dealership’s Internet sales strategies whether you are focusing on price or value. These are really the only two things you have to sell at this point. You can sell customers on the fact that they should buy from you because you have the lowest price. Or you can sell customers on why they should do business with your dealership (value) avoiding price as much as possible. If you can get customers into your dealership without quoting them a price, you will increase your grosses in your Internet department. There are conflicting mindsets towards the best sales strategy to use with an Internet customer – quoting versus not quoting – and the research shows that neither method works better than another. Of course, this is a generalized statement and depending on what your competition is doing, you maybe forced to use one strategy over the other.

[In today’s market, providing a quote to your customer is mandatory. If you’re not providing quotes, you are losing business. The information available to consumers today is such that they can get pretty much any information they want, if they look. By not “helping” them, you are only alienating them from your dealership. They will get the information. Do you want to be the dealership they remember as “helpful” or the one they remember as “typical”?]

Most Internet managers are concentrating on selling a car way too early in the process. You cannot sell a car to someone you have no dialogue with. What Internet managers need to realize is that your first goal in your process should be to sell the customer on an appointment, not a car. Without contact with the customer and/or getting the customer to come into your store, you’ll be hard pressed to sell them anything.

Internet customers tend to be more educated and less spontaneous. Some of them go on the Internet because they are intimidated by the typical sales process and/or have had a bad experience in the past. Some simply don’t have the time to shop several dealers looking for the best deal. Internet customers should be treated with a soft approach at first. Once contact is established, you can tailor future follow-up and/or your approach on an individual basis, but until you figure out why your customer went on the Internet in the first place, why do anything that would hurt your prospects of establishing contact?

An effective e-mail strategy will include some, if not all, of the following elements:

• Always be polite and courteous in your e-mail’s tone.

• Make sure your e-mails look professional and do not have grammar or structural errors.

• Always give more to the customer than they’ve asked for. If you’re a quoting store,give them quotes on more than just the vehicle they’ve asked for a quote on. Show them a model up and, perhaps, a similar pre-owned vehicle with low mileage.

• Ask how you can be of service in every e-mail. Always over-deliver. You need to stand out from your competition.

• Never be aggressive in your e-mails! You’ll turn off your customers, reinforce that you are no different than any other salesperson and you’ll only hurt your chances of getting a response from an uncontacted customer.

• Do not bombard your customers with e-mails. The more and more frequently you send e-mails, the more likely your e-mails will end up in trash folders unread and/or get tagged as spam.

• Use standard e-mail etiquette in all your emails (no all caps, etc.).

In my opinion, an effective e-mail campaign strategy should look like this:

1. You should have an auto-responder acknowledging your receipt of their information request that promises only what you can deliver. If you can respond within five minutes consistently, then tell the customer that. If you cannot, do not promise them that, as you’ll only accomplish instilling a first impression that you cannot deliver on your promises.

2. Your second e-mail to a customer should be personalized and sell your Internet department and why they should do business with you. Why should the customer come and see you and/or the Internet department versus the normal sales department. You should be selling an experience at this point and be telling the customers how doing business with the Internet department will make their buying experience hassle-free and convenient.

3. Your third e-mail should be selling the customer on why they should do business with your dealership. What benefit would the customer get from buying from your dealership rather then your competition?

4. The preceding three e-mails should be within the first 48 hours of the receipt of the lead. After that, you should have different e-mails being sent on days four and six, with follow-up e-mails twice on week two and once per week every week thereafter.

Keep in mind – your dealership can tailor the messages in each of these e-mails. Just like you have a consistent sales process for your salespeople (meet, greet, needs/wants, etc), you should have a consistent process within your Internet departments.

Keep in mind that I’m mainly talking about uncontacted leads although I feel that the elements I mentioned above should always be used. These e-mails are the only impression an uncontacted customer has of your dealership. You wouldn’t want a dirty car on your showroom floor so why have a “dirty” e-mail?

Perception is reality. What perception are you giving your customers?

Listening When Your Customer Says Nothing (Raving Fans)

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I recently finished reading “Raving Fans” by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles .

I was familiar with the concept of a “raving fan” both as a business ideal and as a consumer prior to reading this book.

One thing that really hit home was the concept that you’ve got to listen hardest when the customer says “Fine” or is silent and that silence in itself is a message.

Their point is that people have been so disappointed with businesses that they really don’t expect you to change and/or fix the problem so, when you ask them, they simply say “fine” or they say nothing at all.

I thought back to all of the cars I’ve sold and the manufacturer surveys that have been sent out. We all thrill at the great ones and are disappointed with the bad ones, especially the bad ones that we feel are undeserved. All dealerships want great surveys returned by customers and want the bad ones to get lost in the mail. We completely focus on the returned surveys.

What about all the surveys that aren’t returned?

What message does that send to us?

In my perspective, there are only a couple of scenarios.

The first is apathy. The customer simply doesn’t care or feel like taking the time to complete the survey, whether good or bad.

The second is that perhaps the customer had a bad experience and is just polite and/or doesn’t see the point in returning the survey as they don’t feel anything will get fixed.

We all know the idea that satisfied customers tell 3 people while unsatisfied ones tell 3,000. It’s easy to identify these two camps through returned surveys but….

In which camp are the people who didn’t return the surveys? Do you know?

An unsatisfied customer who does not return the survey is still an unsatisfied customer and, if you subscribe to the above idea, will tell just as many people about their bad experience as the one who did give you feedback via a survey.

We act on the bad surveys because we are motivated to act. We are motivated to act because we don’t want the manufacturer to get involved. We don’t want bad reviews on the internet. We don’t want our managers to get angry with us. We want to protect our CSI. Maybe we truly want satisfied customers. There are a lot of reasons for this motivation.

What we do not have is motivation to act on unreturned surveys.

To create raving fans, we have to pay attention not only to the customers that said something but also to the customers that didn’t.

I’m a big Tommy Bahama fan. I’ve always loved their clothes for their comfort and quality. Yes, they are pricey but, in my opinion, worth it. Recently, I went to a conference. After the conference, I visited an amusement park and proceeded to go on every water ride in the park effectively drenching myself. Seeing as the day was young and I had planned on going out that night for some networking and fun, I went to a shop nearby and bought an outfit consisting solely of Tommy Bahama items including a pair of Tommy Bahama flip-flops (since my shoes and socks were also soaked). The next day, I visited Disney World wearing the flip-flops and, after three hours, literally could not walk because the flips flops were tearing up my feet. I was walking around the park barefoot. Inevitably, I just left as my feet hurt so bad.

Upon my return home, I emailed their customer service and told them of my horrible experience. They emailed me back asking some questions (what model of the flip-flops, etc.). I didn’t have the tags since I wore them out of the shop (and the shop was across the country) so I emailed them a photo along with photos of the sores on my feet created with their flip-flops. To make a long story short, they told me I could drive 100 miles to return them and that, in the future, I should probably break the flip-flops in before walking in them for too long.

What?!?! Break in flip-flops?!?!?

Needless to say, I was a raving fan but I am no longer.

In this case, I chose to say something because I had just read this book and wanted to test the theory out. I was disappointed.

In another, similar experience, I bought a pair of Maui Jim sunglasses in 1999. A couple of years ago, I dropped them and managed to break the lenses (they were glass). Keeping in mind that these sunglasses were almost 10 years old, I went to their website, got their warranty/department address and sent my sunglasses to them with a blank check to have them repaired. (I really love those sunglasses.) Not only did they fix them for me and send them back, but they included a note thanking me for my business and returned my check. I will never buy another brand of sunglasses again. In fact, I still have those same glasses and have since bought another pair of Maui Jims. Needless to say, I am a raving fan of Maui Jim.

In the automotive industry, it is said that a customer is worth $290,000 over their lifetime to your dealership.

How many customers have you lost simply because you didn’t pay attention to your customers when they didn’t say anything?

By asking questions of customers that you have no feedback from and then acting to fix any problems that may be the reason for that lack of feedback, it’s possible to create a raving fan the fastest and with the least amount of effort. That customer who may have seen no point in telling you anything because they didn’t want to be disappointed could be made into a raving fan instantly with a sincere inquiry followed up by proactive solutions to any issues that may exist.

While the value of a customer to Tommy Bahama is most assuredly smaller than that of a car dealership, considering that the outfit I bought that day which consisted of a pair of shorts, a shirt, and flip-flops cost $300, it certainly cannot be insignificant.

Tommy Bahama lost a raving fan and gained a bad review posted to the internet for anyone in the world to see…. over a $65 pair of flip-flops.

The Right Stuff (Identifying Great Internet Sales Managers)

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What skill set makes a great Internet Sales Manager?

It’s not as easy of a question to answer as you may think regardless of where in your organization’s hierarchy you have this position. I’ve seen so many types of people in the Internet Sales Manager position and many that have failed. I’ve seen excellent salespeople “promoted” to the ISM position just to see them fall on their face and have that confidence and cockiness they had shattered and I’ve seen that person who couldn’t“close” a door, succeed beyond everyone’s expectations.

So, how exactly do you decide who the “right” person is to make your department successful?

Some dealerships choose their top salesperson with the thought that he/she can pump out even more units given more people.Some will actually put the person who’s NOT selling cars in there with the hopes of a turn-around. Some go the “experienced fleet manager”route. Some put their new (or green-pea) salesperson in there. For the most part, NONE of these are the “right” person for the job.

Am I a mystical guru that can foresee the future? No, of course not and my forthcoming opinions will certainly have exceptions. (Keep in mind that the ability to communicate and use a computer is assumed.)

The top five personality traits of successful Internet Sales Managers are as follows:

  • Excellent phone skills
  • Persistent
  • Customer-Service Oriented
  • Aggressive
  • Organized

You notice I didn’t include “good sales talent”. There’s a reason for that. In this industry, everyone’s used to looking for that person who has sales talent – whether it’s as a liner or a closer. When looking for a good Internet Sales Manager, sales talent is certainly important but it’s not in my top 5.

Why?

What qualities does it take to get a person from an e-mail or phone call into your store?

Phone skills are a MUST. If they cannot talk on the phone, they should not be in your Internet Department. I would consider this to be THE most important attribute that an excellent ISM can have. If you have any call-monitoring services, you know who those people are. They’re the ones you are consistently letting your OTHER salespeople listen to as examples of how to properly make/receive a phone call.

You need someone who’s persistent and doesn’t give up on that lead that they’ve called 6 times and emailed 4 times who’s never responded. This happens way too much. Persistent is definitely a key to success. Do you have someone who always makes their phone calls and follow-up to the point that customers are calling you asking you to please have “Joe”stop calling me? That would be someone to start looking at.

You need a customer-service oriented person. You can’t stick your closer in there and label it as a promotion because they inevitably try to“close” the person over the phone and that will only alienate the customer. Remember,many customers have chosen to shop for a vehicle and/or gather information via the internet because they are intimidated by the retail sales process. By mimicking the retail sales process within your internet sales department, you will reinforce the experience that the customer is trying to avoid in the first place. You need someone with a pleasant phone voice that can transmit through phone lines sincerity and genuineness.

Of course you need an aggressive person. One of my “strategies” if you will (and I’m sure many salespeople also do this)is that I start making calls until I get that person whom I get a feeling I can sell a car to“soon”. I liken this to the fish nibbling at the bait. Once I get that nibble, I’ll work all day to “reel” in the fish,focusing on that one nibble to create a sense of urgency (“Hey fish, I have more worms in the boat.”). The “aggressiveness” that I am talking about here is the ability to know when there is genuine interest and being able to identify and cultivate a sense of urgency within a particular customer, not the ability to be pushy.

You definitely need someone organized, as they need to keep up with every lead and know what’s going on as they juggle replies and phone calls. It doesn’t matter how good your CRM is (assuming you have one), if your Internet Sales Manager cannot sound like they know that EXACT customer’s needs and wants when they do make contact, it will be that much harder to build rapport.

Sales skills are secondary to all of this because getting the customer into your store is their primary job.

Once the customer is in your store, you have a whole sales staff that can make sure they leave in a vehicle if your Internet Sales Manager cannot accomplish that. 

Sales skills and processes can be trained, personality traits cannot.

Find that “eagle” with the above abilities and you have the makings of an excellent Internet Sales Manager.

Sometimes, The Solution Isn’t Change

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Many dealerships attempt to solve poor sales by either replacing people or by replacing services. It’s my opinion that, in most cases, neither of these will necessarily solve your problems. People may just need training and/or supervision. Services may only need to be properly utilized.

Case in point: Internet Departments.

An Internet Manager sits down with a GSM or GM to look at why the department didn’t sell as many cars as management (or the owner) would have liked. They look at the cost per sale and the ROI of their internet services (sometimes). From this they determine that X service isn’t working for them and decide to cancel and replace it with this magical new service that will fix everything.

Here’s what they usually don’t look at:

  1. Are we implementing the service (and its processes) as they were designed to be?
  2. Are we properly working the program?
  3. Is there accountability for it’s implementation and use?
  4. Are we doing the work?

Say we’re talking about internet leads. You can’t solely base decisions on whether you’re selling cars from them if you haven’t determined that whatever process you have in place to work those leads… works.

If your employees aren’t calling the leads, I guarantee that you won’t sell any cars from them. Does that make them bad leads? Of course not!

There are two parts to any service… the tool and the work. If you haven’t analyzed both, you could be canceling the best service you have and the one which would provide you with the most ROI… if it were being used properly.

The internet departments of dealerships are the least monitored departments in most dealerships with the highest income potential.

You see, any service you subscribe to takes work. I have yet to run across any service that will magically sell cars for you without any work on your part. If it’s an internet lead, you have to make the phone calls. If it’s a video product, you have to take the videos. If it’s a consultant, you have to listen to them.

You get the idea.

Do you replace the driver if the car isn’t working properly?

Do you replace the car if the driver doesn’t know how to drive?

In the first scenario, fixing the car is the solution. In the second, you teach the driver how to drive. It could also be both.

You have to know what the problem is before you can solve it.

The next time you consider canceling a service (or replacing an employee), make sure to know what the problem is before you try to fix it.

If you don’t, you could be trading in a Ferrari.

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