Why only three?” I asked.

Then they told me how the only reason they gave three stars was because the salesperson kept trying to make them feel bad after the sale.

“Feel bad? After?” I asked. It turns out their salesperson kept saying over and over “My manager is really upset at me for selling the car this low.”

“My manager is pretty pissed off he has to let for of this car for the price you got online.” ETC. Etc.

We’ve all heard this before (and if you’ve been doing this for a while, you may have even had a manager tell you to say something similar to a customer.) Allow me to say that, in today’s world, saying these unnecessary statements AFTER the deal is made is only begging for negative reviews.

After hearing this (and laughing a little), I asked myself, ”Why?” Why does this still go on? Why did it go on in the first place? I’m sure, in all of the sales I’ve made and customers I’ve closed, I’ve even said this to a customer before. Why would anyone do this? I’ve never heard of a customer relenting and saying – “Okay, then just raise the price $400 more. I don’t want them feeling bad.” Or “You shouldn’t get in trouble for it. How about we add on a few hundred more just in case.” NO. That’s insane.

As a manager, if you accept a deal… live with it. Urge your salespeople to deliver top-notch customer service after the sale and hope for returning service department traffic. Or don’t accept it. You aren’t a guilt-trip artist. You are a sales manager. It doesn’t work anyway and you should recognize that it doesn’t do any good.

If you tell the customer this to cover up the fact that you are gouging them in the wallet, then why mention anything? It is akin to having a royal flush in poker on the draw and then immediately saying “Wow. I’ve got nothing. What a terrible hand of cards. I hope you folks don’t take advantage of my miserable hand here.” NO. That’s stupid.

If you are a salesperson and this is a tactic you’ve tried, ask yourself what good it could possibly do. There are several phrases that we are accustomed to saying or hearing that are No-Need statements. There simply is no-need to say them so why say them at all. If you know of any other “No-Need” statements, I’d love to hear them.

“Left message, LM, LM, LM, LM, Flip to Lost, Flip to Dead, Flip to Bought Elsewhere, LM, LM, LM”.

Essentially, this gentleman had no desire to call a single customer back, but was more dedicated to simply getting his workload off of his plate for the day.   He was throwing away opportunities to both interact with his current clients and, in some cases, sell a car.  This is happening at your store too.

There are three things I know about the majority of salespeople in our industry.

1)  They will work their pay plan.  Whatever it is, they’ll work it.
2)  They won’t follow-up with their customers

3)  They won’t follow up with their customers.

I see managers hypocritically hold BDC and Internet teams to a high standard of number of calls made, number of appointments set and shown, but I find it amazing how they don’t hold their own sales team (those that they actually manage) accountable.  In my experience, the lowest probability of accountability happens on the showroom floor.  Your sales managers are around your salespeople so often, they easily overlook everything they aren’t doing.  You could almost remove the word “manager” from their title at all.  This needs to stop.

Salespeople won’t make their calls on their own.  They just won’t.  Even if you ask them nicely or schedule the call for them in the CRM and demand them to make the calls, they will find a way to push off, put away, hide, falsely complete, delete, bury, or kill that action scheduled for them.

You MUST actively train, track, and hold accountable your team to ensure they are making all of their follow-up calls, unsold calls, sold calls, lease retention calls, birthday calls, anniversary calls, bird calls, cat calls, or any other calls you have scheduled in the CRM for them.  Otherwise, without being held accountable, they will almost always take the path of least resistance, cycle through their day’s tasks and eliminate their opportunities to connect with a customer.  They simply don’t have their feet held to the fire enough.

There are systems out there (PBX boxes, call monitoring/recording software) that can increase the likelihood that accountability will become part of your showroom (and management) process.  Whether you invest in the technology, the people, or the training, you must demand that your entire sales team performs the duties asked of them in the CRM.  It is not just your livelihood; it’s theirs as well.  They just aren’t held accountable enough to realize it.

Countless dealers have created Facebook pages and begun the slow, arduous task to understand it.   However, those two tasks should happen the other way around.  Instead of comprehending the needs, wants and wishes of their online social sphere of friends and followers, they just start more ‘push’ advertising.  It is akin to turning on the car and driving off… when you are 13 years old… before you have a license or even understand how to operate the vehicle… just because you saw it on TV and it looks doable, doesn’t mean it is without training and knowledge.

Prices and deals and Interest rates, oh my.  You can still see dealers sadly posting their inventory to their Facebook walls, tweeting out about the new model in stock, and offering below invoice pricing on their pages.  None of these ways work.  It is not the right vehicle to promote your vehicles on.  It isn’t the right medium.  Not for your followers.  Your Facebook page cannot be a new version of your newspaper ad.  Twitter and Youtube cannot be the where radio station-style ad spots are blasted out.

Look at how you are engaging in discussion, creating awareness of topics that are important to your followers.  Nobody gives a good gosh darn (that is me being civil) about the awesome deal you have on the 2005 Camry.  Not on the social networks they don’t.  Post those types of content and in-your-face advertisements on a social landscape and you will be discarded like a Viagra ad in an email inbox.  You are social spamming them.

As I travel around the nation meeting Internet professionals, I’m am starting to see more and more people who are puffing out their chest and walking with a bit of a strut because they are the top dog at their dealership.  They must be great because they’ve been there for so long.  One individual recently told me “I’ve been doing Internet since 1995 so I must be doing something right if I’m still here.”  No.  No, you are wrong.  If you have been exploring (and commanding) this space for 16 years and you are still in the same position, maybe there is still some room to move and improve.  Stagnant water never thinks it’s a tidal wave.
A good friend of mine in the industry always said “Don’t confuse activity with accomplishment.  Just because someone has done the job doesn’t guarantee that they are any good at it.”  In other words, if you want to walk around with that air of authority and confidence, you better have achieved some impressive results.  You better have some statistical, documented data backing up the fact that you are as great as you think you are before you walk around high and mighty.  The longevity in a position does not prove that you have been successful at it.  It just means that you are serviceable.  Just because you have had your Internet title for 10 years doesn’t mean you are an industry leader and captain. It means you’ve been a dedicated soldier.  Don’t go giving yourself medals because you have battle scars.  You need to have been given them for all of your battle victories.
So, I urge you to be open-minded when you attend these upcoming automotive conferences.  Listen and learn at these events the same way even the true industry experts do.  The time of servitude at your dealership doesn’t play a role in how well you’ve performed during it.  Your success cannot be quantified in years, but with accomplishments.  Your 20 years spent in this industry at your desk might have awarded you the ability to come to a conference, but it doesn’t prove that you know all.  For a few days in October, I ask you to become a student. There is always room to grow.

Disastrous results occur when a car dealership sales manager hires someone solely based on one small skill-set the position requires rather than look for someone that can handle all the Internet responsibilities.

Starring – Tyler Jennings and Joe Webb

Another DealerKnows Studios production

I know many of you are smiling right now because this phrase, this idiotic phrase, single-handedly is the most ridiculous request told to you daily.

In an effort to give a customer information that will bring them into the showroom floor, the Internet Manager states things such as,
“The customer wants to know if we have any in stock?”
“Just get ‘em in.”

“The customer wants a price on the vehicle they asked for.”
Just get ‘em in.

“The customer wants to make sure they can get approved before they drive in from 3 hours away with their family after attending a funeral.”
“Just get ‘em in.”

Now do you see how stupid this saying is? As a Sales Manager, do you take a TO, sit down in front of the customer and say, “Just buy the car.”
But I want to know the payment.
“Just buy the car.”
I’d like to drive it first.
“Just buy the car.”

No. you don’t say that, because that would obviously be a stupid thing to say. You give the customer reasons to purchase from you. You must provide information to them that assists in their decision. You have to understand that online shoppers, those people speaking to your Internet and BDC teams, are seeking the same information, and you need to allow your staff to deliver it to them. I’m not advocating negotiating through email and phone, but at least educate your staff as to how to overcome those questions. Your role as manager is to provide some insight and word tracks to your team so they understand to how to address the customers’ specific requests and earn the right to ask them into the store.

In 2011 (as it has been for some time), both in-store customers AND Internet shoppers have needs. They need information before they make a purchase. They need their questions answered before they make a decision. Your sales management team must learn to empathize with the Internet shopper (and their BDC team) and recognize that people in search of answers aren’t just going to come in if you refuse to give them the answers.

My manager said you can come in and he’d be happy to help you with that.
Did he give me a price like I asked?
No, he didn’t. But I’m sure he’ll make you a great deal as we are a large dealership that does our best to earn a customer’s business.
Good. Then what’s the price?”
(5 minutes later)
To the manager: She wants to know a price.
“Just get ‘em in.”

This circle jerk occurs on your showroom floor in the (lack of) communication between your Internet team and your Sales Managers EVERY DAY.

Sales Managers need to stop sounding stupid, start addressing customers’ questions, and put their Internet and BDC team in a position of power with transparent information or they will eventually hear “Just pack your bags” because you cannot survive in this marketplace with these idiotic, flippant requests to your Internet or sales team. It doesn’t work like that anymore. If you are unwilling to say to a customer “Just buy the car” without giving ANY information, value or benefit for them to do so, then you have not a leg to when trying to defend the phrase “Just get ‘em in.”

That is all.
Signed: Joe Webb and Internet Managers/BDC Agents everywhere.

They were vagabonds and pick-pockets, always looking for the edge to take advantage of you and fleece you on something (purse, wallet, game tickets) if you weren’t watching your belongings. Some would go to the extreme. If they saw you grilling out in your backyard, they’d walk right in through the open front door and steal the paintings white off your walls. They were almost magicians at taking from you without you ever noticing.

Well we have Automotive Gypsies as well. They are right there, taking from you, and you don’t even see them. You do nothing to prevent it because you are unaware they are taking money away from you.

The Gypsies of the automotive world are these lead-generating website on YOUR Google Page One, singlehandedly stealing your customers right out from under your nose. They live and breathe off of you and your business. They optimize their own sites for your dealership’s name and gather leads that should be yours. They take your business, customers looking for you specifically, and they sell them off to the highest bidder. These Automotive Gypsies are scavengers and will take whatever they can get their hands on.

They litter Google Page One with both organic positioning – based on their optimized content about YOUR dealership or they actually pay through PPC campaigns, leeching right off of you.

Here are some of the top Automotive Gypsies I see:

AutoSite.com
AutoND.com
Autodealerbase.com
Autobodyalliance.com
Autodiscountgroup.com
AutoSales.com
Mystore411.com
Quickr.com
Vast.com

I’m sure there are some others I’ve missed so feel free to share them with the rest of us. They are a dime a dozen and worth less than that.

Some of these are sometimes just microsites to third-party lead providers trying to maliciously get in on YOUR opportunities such as:

Edmunds (everyone who wants to harvest leads buy PPC on dealership names)

Autotropolis – Going after YOUR organic internet shoppers because they are optimizing their site with keywords involving your dealership name and city in an effort to sell your leads right back to you – or your closest competitor.

Some are local directories, using solely PPC/SEM to break in onto your turf, such as:

Autos.aol.com – local directories where they can search for other cars.

Superpages.com.

I strongly urge you to start keeping a close eye on the 10-12 spots that take up your dealership’s Google Page One.

Are they all of your online entities and digital assets that you control or are they Automotive Gypsies, slyly pickpocketing your dealership of its leads right from under your nose?

It is time you claim all the spaces on Google surrounding your own name. Do your best to dominate these sites and move them down the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) so you can protect what is rightfully yours. Automotive Gypsies aren’t deadly. They are just dangerous to your bottom line if you let them run wild on the streets of Google.

Keep your eyes open. Do you see them? You may not even noticed they’ve been hanging around you all along. They’re tricky little buggers and the first step to preventing their mischief is by seeing them in the first place.

- Joe Webb, DealerKnows Consulting

With the 9th Digital Dealer Conference fast approaching, it’s never too early to begin preparing for the experience.  If you are one of the lucky dealership professionals attending (along with a thousand of your peers), make sure you get everything out of it you need.  To do so, start with a plan.  Either your ownership or you see this conference as a valuable enough learning institution to spend hard earned dollars for you to attend.  So, don’t take it for granted.

Steve Stauning of Kain-Stauning and Pladoogle wrote just last week in his Dealer Communications blog about the five ways to get the most out of the Digital Dealer Conference.  It was a great piece and I want to both add to that list and flesh it out a little more.

It is imperative you attend this conference with a list of goals to achieve because I know the bright lights and loud slots of Vegas can get you off course.  However, this conference is too important to waste.  Again, let me say, you don’t want to take it for granted.

I hear back from attendees often after their trip to a Digital Dealer conference. The first thing their owners and general managers ask is, “What did you learn?”  Before you can answer that, you first need to have questions going into the conference.  So let’s start planning ahead.

What are you currently missing?  What is it you are doing that isn’t generating the dollars that it should?

What technologies are you most interested in exploring?  What new skills would you like to come back with?

Once you’ve answered these questions, go to http://digitaldealerconference.com and look at the agenda.  Read the descriptions and determine which ones you think will most benefit you and your dealership.  Write down a couple for each time slot. There are ten slots with seven sessions each – 70 workshops in total. (There are three general sessions also, one each day.)

After doing this, you’ll want to look at the speaker’s page.  Who is giving that session?  Are they a practitioner (senior management level from a dealership), a trainer/consultant, or a vendor? Does that matter? Watch the speaker’s video and see who you might connect with most while watching.  That is how you can set a game-plan.

For every three sessions you see that involve topics right in your wheelhouse, check one out that you have no involvement with.  This type of ‘big picture’ learning can help you grow in the future.  Get your own agenda set before the sessions begin so you don’t stand there lost in front of the big agenda board trying to flip a coin as to who to see.  In other words, do your homework.  You will be thankful you did.

Next, check out the 80 or so exhibitors that will be in attendance.  (Just click on the exhibitor tab on www.digitaldealerconference.com and you’ll see the list there.)  Surely a few of these have been calling on you for a while asking for a little of your time to view a demo.  Why not set it up there?  When the hall first opens, go and meet those solutions/companies that have been blowing up your phone.  Schedule a specific time for a demo of their product while on-site.  (Often, these vendors give special deals if you sign up on-site so having your ducks in a row and planning ahead could save some cash.)

Then visit the booths of those companies you already use.  If they aren’t one of the “big boys” in the room, they may be willing to give back for your valued patronage and take you out one evening as a little payback.  This is when the squeaky wheel gets the grease, so to speak.

In addition to the sessions and exhibitors, you do not want to miss the Peer Networking Tables that begin and end the conference. You sit at a table with eight of your peers (people from other dealerships) and a moderator. This is a great place to discuss challenges and solutions you may have, as well as picking up new ideas to take back to the dealership.  (As a regular moderator of the Networking Roundtable, make sure to track me down.)

Lastly, take notes throughout.  Write down every new idea and progressive ideology you can from the sessions and gather all of the detailed info you can from each vendor you speak to.  This will save many headaches in the future when you try to remember who offered what service at which price.

So prepare yourself as you would if you were gearing up for a test — especially considering you may be asked to take one when you return.  If you plan ahead, you have the chance to come out the smartest person in the class.