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In The Trenches During The AutoTrader Acquisition Of VinSolutions

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As I’m sure you’re probably aware by now, AutoTrader announced Wednesday that they had reached an agreement to acquire VinSolutions.

I was in the unique position to actually be with most of the executive leadership and employees of VinSolutions when the news broke. I was also with HomeNet Automotive when the rumors started that AutoTrader was working to acquire HomeNet Automotive. I also came really close to working directly for AutoTrader as they attempted to recruit me and, ironically, I was actually at an event in Colorado that Chip Perry was in attendance when I was informed by the Autotrader recruiter that I was “not worthy” (their loss). I like to think that AutoTrader is following me around acquiring companies I work for simply because they actually want to “acquire” me. (That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.)

After my initial shock passed, as an employee of a media company, the investigative part of me started paying attention. What I expected to see was executive management in a celebratory mode making plans to roll around in the pile of money they must have just made. I expected phone calls being made and Internet leads being submitted for new Ferraris. I expected VinSolutions employees to be anxious about their future employment and having a feeling that this company, that they all were very proud to be a part of, was at an end. I saw none of that.

What I saw was quite the opposite. Executive management and VinSolutions employees were still talking to dealers. VinSolutions employees were excited. The entire team was customer focused, not acquisition focused. In fact, it really seemed as if VinSolutions had acquired AutoTrader rather than the opposite. They weren’t feeling as if this was the end, quite the contrary. They felt like this was the beginning. They were excited about the incredible resources and value now available to VinSolutions to make their product(s) bigger, better and faster than they ever were able to before.

What makes this acquisition a historic moment is that this is the first time in our industry’s history that a non-DMS company has acquired a company that does what VinSolutions does. VinSolutions wasn’t interested in being acquired by a DMS, because several trends inevitably happen: the acquired company immediately loses half their market share, but they also fall into this virtual black hole eventually disappearing never to be heard from again.  AutoTrader “could” make VinSolutions the hub of their operation powering and integrating with ALL of the AutoTrader/Cox owned properties acquired in recent history.

With all of the properties that AutoTrader owns, they are in the unique position to dominate the automotive market. All of these properties, prior to their AutoTrader acquisition, had stellar reputations within the industry and with their customers. AutoTrader “could” leverage these properties to offer an unprecedented value to their customers. Whether (and how) they do this is still up in the air.

Not discounting the incredible value and loyalty that current VinSolutions customers have, ultimately VinSolutions is more than just another company. In fact, the people DEFINE VinSolutions. Yes, they have innovative solutions and offer the power and convenience of a completely integrated solution to dealers. VinSolutions could easily be named “Mike-Sean-Matt-Kendall-Solutions,” but that would certainly be hard to create a marketing campaign for. Why? The reason is simple. Mike Dullea, Sean Stapleton, Kendall Billman and Matt Watson ARE VinSolutions. Without them, AutoTrader would now own air. I sincerely hope that AutoTrader recognizes this (if they don’t already) and just like a NFL team, these people were signed to 20-year contracts. If you buy the Colts, you make sure Peyton Manning is included in the deal. Yes, VinSolutions’ integrated dealer solution offers great value to their customers. They are continuously looking to improve the value VinSolutions offers to their customers. The dedication and passion that these people, along with the entire VinSolutions team define VinSolutions.

As I talked to VinSolutions’ dealers that are attending this event, their concern had nothing to do with money/price increases, etc. It was completely focused on how AutoTrader would change WHO VinSolutions IS, and who they are is the key to their success. Yes, there are other people who can be a CEO. Yes, there are other people that can run a sales team. Yes, there are other programmers. Yes, there are other people who can be the “website” guy. The fact is that there is NOBODY that can replace these people, perform with the passion, dedication and experience that they have and perform at the level that they do. Disregarding the standard “business as usual” statement, VinSolutions truly has a culture of family. That family makes them who they are.

In my eyes, AutoTrader didn’t acquire a company; they acquired the equivalent of the Justice League of America. Take away any member of that team; the Justice League ceases to exist. JLA without Superman isn’t the Justice League of America. What made the JLA the powerhouse that they were was the collective power that they all brought to the table.

Does the competition need to be worried, absolutely, but not because all of a sudden VinSolutions is now owned by AutoTrader, but because AutoTrader acquired Superman, Batman, the Flash and the Green Lantern and, most importantly, a family.

Originally published on DealerElite.net and ADM

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.

My Apple iPad Review

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I’ve had my iPad for almost 2 weeks now. It’s time for my review.

I was skeptical of it to begin with. I have had an iPhone and I loved  it but dumped it because I got tired of paying 2 cell phone bills. No big deal. As fabulous as it was, it certainly wasn’t the best at what I wanted a cell phone for – making phone calls. I do love iPods as a music device though and I am, in general, a Mac fan. So along comes April 3rd and my “need-to-have-the-latest-gadget” DNA strand kicks in and takes me to a Best Buy to get one. I got there 2 hours before they opened and was 4th in line. Thank God Best Buy (or Apple) didn’t advertise that they were going to be carrying iPads on launch day!

The first impression I got from my iPad was awe. It is fast. It has a beautiful screen. The UI is easy and sleek.

Of course, having a brand new iPad is like having a brand new iPhone or iPod Touch.. it’s not much good without apps.

As I mentioned earlier, I had an iPhone at one point so I had some apps in hibernation in my iTunes. I promptly synced my iPad to get those apps. I did not sync my music, however. I have no plans of carrying my iPad around like an 80-eras jam box on my shoulder nor clipping it to my waist for a jog. If I want music, I have an iPod.

The iPhone apps look horrible on the iPad. They are the size that they would be on the iPhone and either centered on the screen or stretched to fill the screen which makes them pixelated. I’ve only come across one iPhone app that must have provided a free iPad upgrade because it fills the screen natively and looks fabulous (1Password).

So I downloaded a few apps after doing a little research on them. I didn’t want to drop money on useless apps. There are some good free ones though. I’ll get into my favorite apps in a second.

I don’t want to get into all the technical specs just know that the iPad is awesome. I got the 16GB Wi-Fi model as I couldn’t see myself needing more space then that. If you have an iPhone, you know what the “experience” is like. It’s easy to use and fabulous to look at.

Battery life is, so far, what was advertised… about 10 hours. Of course this will vary depending on what you’re doing on the iPad.

I haven’t had any issues connecting to Wi-Fi networks (as some have reported) and it works with my Verizon Wireless MiFi fabulously.

I did have the opportunity to travel with it and it did everything I needed it to. It is also a big plus that the TSA has determined that you don’t have to take it out of your carry-on bag to go through security.

Since an iPad is only as good as its apps, I’ll go into those (or at least the ones I’ve tried out) and give a quick review of my favorites.

Pages – fabulous word processor by Apple made specifically for the iPad. A must have as the iPad does not come with any software to type things into other than Notes. It can read Word documents and save to a Word document. ($9.99)

Numbers – a great spreadheet program by Apple for the iPad. It can read Excel files but it cannot (for the moment) save to Excel format (which makes it kind of useless). My guess is that, due to the backlash about this missing feature, Apple will fix this. ($9.99)

Videos – iPad included video player to watch your videos with. I was concerned that the picture quality would be crap seeing as the video was formatted originally for an iPhone screen. Good thing I was wrong. Videos look fabulous. I’m glad they didn’t try to “up-sell” us to HD movies like they did when they went from the DRM protected songs to the “iTunes Plus” (ie. non-protected MP3s) versions. (Included)

Mail – The iPad mail client is awesome. Reading e-mail is intuitive, easy and fun. (Included)

Calendar – I’ve magically figured out how to sync my Blackberry, Mac, iPad and Outlook to one calendar on my iPad. It’s not perfect but it works. GoToMeeting invitations through Outlook appear as gibberish, though, which is annoying. (Included)

Bento for iPad – a great database program for the iPad. Easy to use and powerful. ($4.99)

Things for iPad – a great organizational tool for task management. The calendar feature included on the iPad doesn’t seem to have a task management feature so if you like “to-do” lists, this is a great one. ($19.99)

iBooks – it’s an e-book reader. It is really cool looking and the UI and animation is fabulous. (included)

Kindle for iPad – another e-book reader. I’ve had a Kindle for a long time now and love it. This will allow you to read any of the books you’ve purchased through your Kindle on your iPad. UI is not as sleek as iBooks. (Free)

Netflix – I was not a Netflix subscriber prior to owning an iPad. I signed up for the free trial just to see how it worked. The program is fast and the videos stream quickly as Netflix adjusts the video quality based on your connection speed. I’m keeping the subscription just for the iPad. I haven’t even had them send me any physical DVDs. I don’t want them. (Subscription-based/ $8.99 per month)

ABC Player – Freaking awesome. All the ABC shows on demand. Looks and works beautifully. (Free)

Twitterific – my favorite Twitter client for the iPad. Works and looks great and its easy to use. Probably not for the power-user though. I upgraded to their non-ad version (Free or $4.99 for upgrade)

USA Today – Reading a newspaper on the iPad is an awesome experience with this app. It’s free for now but will be subscription based come June. (Free currently – subscription based in the near future)

1Password – I don’t know whether this is an iPhone app that was upgraded to an iPad app or what. I just know that I bought it as an iPhone app. In looking on the iTunes store, it looks like they basically upgraded me for free. This is just a secure program to keep track of the thousands of log-ins, passwords, email accounts, etc that you have. ($14.99)

PDF Reader Pro Edition for iPad – A must have for the iPad as you cannot read PDFs on the iPad natively. This one handles large files well and has easy transfer to the iPad via Wi-Fi. ($2.99)

GoToMeeting – Yes, Citrix made an iPad app that will let you attend a GoToMeeting on your iPad. Looks and works great. (Free)

Yahoo Entertainment – Who knew Yahoo could create a fabulous app for the iPad? TV listings and more. Hunt around and you’ll be surprised how full-featured this app is. (Free)

eBay for iPad – I’m an eBay junkie. This app has a beautiful interface and you can manage your eBay activities from it. It could be better but it will do for now. (Free)

Plants vs. Zombies HD – Very fun and addictive game. I never played it on the iPhone but it got well-deserved rave reviews for the iPad so I bought  it. Worth every penny. ($9.99)

Labyrinth 2 HD – OMG! I’ve never played this game before but I’m a fan now. It’s basically just a “move-the-ball-around-a-maze” type game but it looks incredible. It uses the accelerometer feature and it “looks” like it’s in 3-D. Take the free version for a test drive. I did and then bought the full version. ($7.99)

Flight Control HD – Fun game that looks great on the iPad. ($4.99)

RealRacing HD – Spectacular racing game that looks fabulous on the iPad. It uses the accelerometer to drive the car. Just like on the iPhone but bigger and better looking. ($9.99)

Magic Piano – Fun little music generator. It’s really something you have to play to experience. You can even have duets with someone halfway across the world. ($2.99 when I bought it although I saw it for $.99 the other day)

Scrabble for iPad – Just like the board game. Looks and plays great. You can play single player vs the computer or with friends. Way cool if you have an iPhone cause you can use the iPhone as your tile rack. Board games rule on the iPad! ($9.99)

So those are the apps I like so far. I have more but the other ones either haven’t impressed me much or I haven’t used them enough to form an opinion.

My criticisms of the iPad are as follows:

  • The iPad back isn’t flat. It’s kind of curved a little so it doesn’t lay flat on a table.
  • Stare at it too long and your eyes hurt. This is probably just a brightness setting that I can tweak but it’s like staring at a computer monitor for too long – except, in the case of reading, it’s a foot from your face. This part will determine if I keep reading e-books on my Kindle or if I switch to reading on the iPad. I’ll know after my upcoming trip which will happen as I plan to give it a thorough test.
  • It gets kind of heavy if you’re using it laying down.
  • lack of Flash support
  • lack of multi-tasking (although that may be coming with the iPhone 4.0 OS)

I could see a wealth of practical uses for vendors and the automotive industry and I plan to write another article eventually with some ideas. The iPad may be the resurgence of the tablet computer. I’ve always been a fan of tablet computers so this is welcome in my opinion.

Anybody else have any thoughts or know of some great apps that I haven’t mentioned, feel free to comment! I’m definitely interested.

Who Are the Real ‘Suckers’? (Stereotypes and Car Sales)

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I remember my first car sales job. I don’t know what specifically drove me to take that job other than the fact that I was good at sales, needed a job and they hired me. I’m really not a gearhead and I didn’t know much about cars but I figured I’d give it a go. It was a multi-line straight-sell store. I didn’t get any training other than the basic – Say Hi. Land them on a car. Take them for a test drive. Do a four square. – type thing. This “training” still exists within our industry, believe it or not.

One of my first sales managers (and I swear this is true), told me to watch this movie called “Suckers” and that it was a good training video.

Here’s a short clip for those who have not seen it so you can get an idea of what I’m talking about. (Caution: Rated R)


So, now you get the idea. (If you haven’t seen this movie, the story sucks but the cars sales-bits, which account for about 1/2 the movie are hilarious).

There are very few dealerships that have transitioned away from this mentality. The wrappers have changed but the candy bar is still the same. I see sales managers (and salespeople) acting this way all the time. It truly is special when I meet someone who sincerely cares about their customers aside from how much money they will make off of them.

How many times have you offered a customer a screaming deal to move a unit, maybe even at a loss in profit, and they don’t believe you? Why?

Do you treat the person with excellent credit differently than the customer with challenged credit? Why?

This stereotype still exists because this type of behavior does.

I challenge you to truly reflect on your staff and identify the individuals that exhibit these types of behavior. I guarantee you have some. Chances are, you already know who they are. Is this acceptable behavior? If not, will you let it continue?

Before this perception can go away, a true change needs to happen. We can tell customers how great we are and how much we care about them all day long but until all of our processes (and employees) that further this stereotype truly change, the customer perception of us won’t. 

Perception is reality.

Don’t Get Kicked Out! (Building Relationships vs. Selling Cars on Facebook)

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The second dealership I worked at was a brand-new dealership. I mean it literally had no cars on the lot when I first started. There wasn’t a lot of foot traffic. There weren’t previous customers to follow-up with. We worked from an “up” list so there were many moments of down-time where you didn’t have much to do. We could go the whole day and only see 1 customer at that time. At this time, I wasn’t in the Internet Department. I was just a salesperson “on-the-line”.

I took that time to look at message boards that were geared towards enthusiasts of my manufacturer. I found one that was particularly active and started participating. They welcomed dealer/salesperson participation with one simple caveat – they did not want you to try and sell them anything. The salespeople that did anyways, got kicked off the boards. I participated vigorously answering any and all questions people asked with complete transparency. If I didn’t know the answer, I found it. If it involved a different department, I got them involved. After doing this for awhile, I truly became a “member” of that community. People appreciated the interaction and that I didn’t try to sell them anything. They knew I sold cars and that, ultimately, I wanted to sell them a car, but I didn’t try.

By behaving in this way, I was rewarded by many of the forum members buying vehicles from me. Customers were flying to me to buy cars. I was shipping cars all over the country. People were referring other people to me. If someone went onto this forum asking other members where they should buy a car, I didn’t have to say anything. The other members did it for me.

I wasn’t giving the cars away either, I was selling them at MSRP! People were flying in to buy FROM ME at STICKER PRICE (and no, I wasn’t paying for their transportation either). Here’s the forum and a sample thread:

Fresh Alloy forum: Arnold Tijerina at Riverside Infiniti is THE MAN !

(There are more posts like this. Feel free to search around the forum.)

The point of this story is that I took the time to build relationships with these consumers online without trying to sell them anything, was still being profitable for the dealership and making money for myself.

Dealers have many other avenues in which to continue their traditional advertising and capture business – print ads, 3rd party leads, websites, direct mail, email campaigns, and more.

Social media is presenting dealers with an opportunity that either didn’t exist or I didn’t know about back then. (This was in 2003). Dealers have the ability to interact with consumers in a forum THEY control. The message board I was dealing with wasn’t under my control, I was a passive participant until a question was asked.

I’ve seen many dealers start to create Fan Pages. Some I think are doing it right. These dealers seek engagement and to put a personality to the dealership. A great example, in my opinion, is the Walser Automotive Group. Here’s their Fan Page. They’re trying to build relationships on Facebook.

I’ve also seen dealers on the other end of the spectrum who are basically mimicking their traditional online and print ads on their Facebook Fan Pages as much as possible. They’re trying to sell cars on Facebook.

You can take this opportunity to create relationships with the knowledge that the business will come in the future from the evangelists you created…..

or you can try to sell some cars and get kicked off the message boards.

You decide.

It Takes All Of the Pieces To Finish the Puzzle

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Recently, I got the opportunity to spend an entire day at a dealership analyzing their processes and marketing efforts.

There are many pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that any dealership has to put together to end up with a “finished”puzzle that is an online marketing strategy. The particular vendor I work for offers a lot of services (puzzle pieces). It’s difficult to effectively outline all the pieces of the puzzle we have to offer in brief, to a dealer, on the phone. So, it was a nice treat to really let my creative juices flow and assist a dealer with their desire for success, in person and with their full attention, after being able to analyze what they’re currently doing.

Some of the services we offer require a little work on the dealers’ end. More often then not, when I present a “plan” and parts of it require work, people tend to start losing interest. You have concerns from the owner who doesn’t have confidence in his people to actually DO the work. You have management who passes the buck and says “We’ll get Bob to do it!” and then you have Bob who, typically, doesn’t really want to do it. He wants to stand outside, smoke cigarettes and wait for the next customer.

It was very refreshing to be able to analyze a dealership’s online marketing, to look at the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle I can provide and,from that, develop an aggressive online marketing strategy. Then have the opportunity to explain the entire strategy and how all of the “pieces” fit together and why this particular puzzle will work for them… in person and with everyone’s full attention.

Watching a room filled with the owner, all the managers and key salespeople follow along with each “piece” and really “get it” is priceless. They saw the puzzle I had created, saw the value and need for each piece of that puzzle and understood that putting the puzzle together takes work but, in the end, you have art.

I swear I saw light bulbs coming on over everyone’s heads. People were excited, engaged and motivated. There was complete buy-in from everyone.

Too often, the owner (or the decision-maker at the dealership) likes the ideas and strategies but decides to only implement some of them, rather than all of them. On this day, he, and his team, decided to start putting the puzzle together… with all of the pieces.

The confidence and trust given to me by everyone and the knowledge that I truly helped this dealership to grow as a company was priceless.

On this day, art was created and I rocked. (link)

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