Posts Tagged ‘dealership’

It’s Good to Do the “Get Around”

Monday, August 16th, 2010

One reason study abroad programs are so popular for today’s youth is that it opens one’s eyes up to new experiences and cultures.  Very often, some of our fondest memories in life stem from vacations we’ve taken.  Travel we’ve made.  It’s expanded our thinking and changed our beliefs about how we fit into our world.  Very few things can have as profound an impact as going from place to place.  Getting around.

Each one of our dealerships are their own separate little planet.  As you move from department to department, you pick up life experiences.  Each different department has its own language, its own lifestyle, its own pulse, its own personality.  As it is with most successful GM’s and owners, the more understanding they have about the functions and functionality of each department, the more well-rounded they become in their thinking.  However, to get to know the departments, it takes a little travel. 

Since we are always grooming each individual in our store to be better, it is imperative that you give employees the opportunity to experience life in other departments, if only for a day.  Make it a requirement.  All new hire orientation programs, regardless of the department for which you hired, should insist each candidate spends time in the dealership’s other departments.  Allow your employees (new and current) to witness what it takes to perform the daily duties required of their coworkers from other departments. 

Dedicate one spokesperson (Department Liason) from each department (Sales, Service, Body Shop, Aftermarket, Marketing, Internet, Management, Finance, Parts) and create an internal ‘Study Abroad’ programs where they can see what goes on behind the curtain.  And for dedicating some of their valuable time to the greater good, the Department Liaisons that are taking the shadows under their wing can be promised the first look when a promotion/opportunity comes up in their department.

Not only does it help build organizational rapport, but it gives your employees the chance to see all the work that goes into operating the whole rather than just the section.  If you do right, you hire everyone with the hopes of them being the General Manager of the future.  If this is true, then you must let them travel throughout the other departments  even if just for a few hours a month or a day a quarter.  The understanding of the dealership on an organizational level will be a true benefit to every employee.

You don’t have to distract them from their focus… just let them see through someone else’s eyes.  Their area of concentration will always be their own department, but if you are an employee looking to grow, or a dealer looking to have your employees love the dealership as much as they love their team, then it’s good to do the ‘Get Around’.

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Do You Have a BDC or a BCC?

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

BDC is one of the most incorrectly overused terms in the automotive retail environment. Far too often, the roles and responsibilities of the employees working in these “Business Development Centers” are doing no developing at all. They are simply the communicating with the customers. And there’s the rub.

From what I’ve seen during my limited time training dealers, most that believe they have a BDC have a team of individuals dedicated to answering the phones and sending emails. Well someone would have to do that no matter what, so in this instance, you have a Business Communication Center. You’ve created one place where the basic back-and-forth with customers is handled.
The Merriam-Webster definition of Communication is “a process in which information is exchanged between two individuals”.

While I was last on the retail side of the dealership world, I was running a true Business Development Center. The definition of Development is “the act of improving, expanding, or refining.” My BDC team had responsibilities that far exceeded the realm of basic email and phone unsold follow up communication that is so customary in many other dealerships.

A BDC must do more. They must develop business… on their own… on behalf of the dealership… by being proactive… with sales AND service customers. A Business Development Center creates their own opportunities while a Business Communication Center simply handles the normal dealership interaction that others within the store can handle themselves.

Your typical BCC team will handle inbound calls, manage inbound leads, respond to those leads, make outbound internet calls, and set appointments from each of those avenues. A BDC team should do everything above and more. They should follow up on behalf of the floor’s salespeople with calls to their unsold customers. This call can be done under the veil of a “customer satisfaction manager” call, asking questions about the customer’s in-store experience just a few days prior with the attempt to bring them back in for an appointment.

A BDC should also make post-sale follow up on behalf of each individual salesperson. Know that this doesn’t exclude the salesperson from making their own thank you call, but it should be done in addition to so as to ensure no customer is unhappy with their experience. You can’t rely on your sales team, not only to make the call, but to be truthful about what the customer stated. A second voice on the phone is always a good idea.

At the same time, I feel it is the salesperson’s responsibility to ask for referrals. Provided the salesperson has built the rapport they should have with their sold customer, it is easier to extract referrals if the customer trusts the person they are talking to rather than someone they haven’t met.

You should be actively marketing to your database through both phone and email communication. There is no better way to do this than having your team handle upcoming loan and lease expiration calls. Calls to lease and loan ending clients of the dealership were very prevalent several years ago, but I think they have gone away over time. And that is unfortunate. There is no better client to earn than a loyal one you are keeping. Make sure that you have a team and process in place to make calls to these valuable customers.

Not only is your Business Development Center your first line of defense when a prospect calls or emails in, but it should also be the backstop of the dealership. No customer should ever be marked “lost”, “inactive”, “upside down in trade”, “unable to finance”, or “bought elsewhere” unless another member from your dealership, namely someone from your BDC, has reached out and tried one last time. You need your team to play the role of first and last person to touch each opportunity when possible.

Recognizing that a real Business Development Center is the voice of the dealership on every inbound/most outbound calls, make sure you use them in such a way. While I was managing my BDC, we didn’t only manage the customer relationships inside the dealership, but managed the dealership’s brand outside it as well. I’m a firm believer in investing your time in the local community. We executed many grassroots marketing campaigns where I sent out my staff out into the public (and usually accompanied) to work events. From shaking hands, giving out litte give-aways and tchotchkes, running contests, setting up booths at fairs, and attending multiple chamber of commerce meetings, there was not much my BDC team wasn’t able to handle. If they can be the voice of the dealership and are trained, not only on scripts, but product knowledge and customer service initiatives, there is nothing they cannot handle. This is what I consider true business development.

So either require more from your Business Development Center personnel or start calling them a Business Communication Center. Don’t overpay for someone just because they can handle a script, send out well-worded emails, or exchange information between two parties. If you are going to pay a premium for “development”, make it worth the dealership’s while. Make them sound in the art of improving, expanding, and refining. THAT is development.

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It Takes a Village – by Joe Webb

Sunday, August 8th, 2010

When a lead arrives, a prospect is born. As the lead ages in the CRM systems of our homes, it must be cared for. Every lead has specific needs and it is the responsibility of the guardians of that lead to nurture it. Rules must be set for the lead to follow and certain requirements are to be enforced. One person should not be the sole guardian of each lead. It takes a village.

To ensure a lead reaches its full potential (sale = adulthood), multiple people within your dealership have to get involved. At different points of every lead’s existence there comes a time where different influences must help it along its way to sale.

Simply put, it cannot just be the Internet Sales Manager’s sole responsibility to manage every lead. This is why a Business Development Center is of such importance to so many dealerships. It gives dealers the ability to have multiple hands on each individual lead. If you do not have the benefit of a BDC, you must bring your management team into the mix. However, with a BDC team in place, you are creating both a front line of defense for your dealership as well as a backstop.

If the initial correspondence with an e-lead is handled by the Internet Sales Manager, then I believe you should have a second stage of communication where a representative from the BDC/management team reach out to the customer under the guise of Customer Relations Manager. If a consumer feels as if they are valued and have the attention of multiple people in the store, they may feel better taken care of. At the same time, the second stage calls made from the BDC/management team will alert you to shortcomings the prospect may have felt they had with the original ISM. Much like a BDC call to an unsold walk-in on behalf of the sales floor, a second ear open to a customer’s needs usually yields eye-opening results.

In another instance, when an appointment is set by an Internet Sales Manager, it is only good business to have an additional person reach out and confirm the appointment. Let’s face it…. Doctors are not the ones calling you back to confirm your appointment, it’s the nurse receptionists.

That is the power of the BDC. More than one person making multiple touches to maximize results. It is a team environment. We must make back-up calls for the sales team to unsold customers, to all sold customers, to all set appointments, to all missed appointments, to all potential customers, to all active leads, to all impending lost customers, and to all lease return customers.
And it isn’t just calls that should be made to these consumers, but emails too. Fit yourself with a strong CRM that allows several people to be prompted/triggered to contact each customer (via phone and email) without the lead changing hands. That is a very important trait to have in any good CRM.

A lead cannot and should not be handled by one. It must be handled by multiple. Don’t let the youthful leads of our generation slip through the cracks of our dealership society by letting them fall by the wayside. Guide the leads using different role models at different times through their life to help them blossom into the sale they deserve the chance to be. To raise a customer from lead to sale, it takes a village.

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Don’t Suffer from Analysis Paralysis

Saturday, August 7th, 2010

Any Internet professional that is worth their salt actively tracks the important metrics making their dealerships tick.  We look at the numbers and make little adjustments to the ways we do business, the technology we employ, and the people responsible.  These tweaks help grow your business.  However, there are times when you need to separate yourself from the statistics of the day and look at the big picture.

By now, you’ve been monitoring the performance of your store for the past several years.  With the abundance of internet initiatives sweeping through dealerships, the amount of trackable figures has risen and risen.  My good friend, Gilbert Chavez – Director of Operations for Automotive Avenues – always says

“The best thing about the Internet is that it’s quantifiable.  The worst thing about the internet is that it’s quantifiable.”

Basically, that means dealers have been given the ability, for the first time, to truly track the results from their advertising spends and their performance growth.   However, with so many new metrics that can be tracked (click-thrus, time on site, conversion ratios, geo-targeting keyword searches, social media R.O.E., etc), the job of the dealer has become more difficult.  More dedicated to numbers than ever.   So much so, that you may drive yourself a little batty.

If you’ve witnessed constant growth through your internet initiatives and you are doing things right, you may have hit a bit of a plateau.  Your metrics eventually level off and then seesaw a little up and a little down every month.  I beg of you… don’t suffer from analysis paralysis.  Not that a strong focus can’t get every leveled-off metric to increase slightly, but don’t dedicate all of your time to one measurement that has come to a stand-still.  Turn your attention to the end goal: A happy customer. 

Metrics can’t always measure the happiness of a customer (despite CSI scores and dealership ratings).  Trust your gut, pull your eyes away from the teeter-tottering, roller-coaster ride of performance metrics (if just for a little while) and focus on some basic salesmanship and customer service training.

This way, you won’t have a coronary every time one of your numbers dips a fraction.  You’ll be too focused on the good of the store by measuring the smiles on the faces.  Analysis paralysis can cause blindness to what is truly important:  Your customers.

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Foursquare: The Mobile App, not the Negotiation Tool

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

You can’t spell social media without “me” or “I”. The entire medium has become, through its own nature, a very me-centric platform. People only post as it relates to themselves, their business, or their beliefs, blasting forth their very own personal news channel that they deem worthy enough to share.

Foursquare is one of the newest social networks, specifically designed to cater to those through a mobile application. Simply put, in its most common, understood form, Foursquare gives users the ability to:

1) “Check-in” to different places or add new ones worth visiting
2) Let their presence be known to their contacts and the online community
3) Lay claim of ownership after multiple visits to the same location
4) Earn “badges” for usage levels
5) Leave tips and shouts for future visitors of the establishments

This can all be accomplished through the typical geo-locating (geo-targeting) found on mobile devices. Early adopters of this platform will be at the advantage as they will have simply collected more badges, visits, friends, and lay claim to more territory through their travels.

Now how can this be monetized? Or, maybe less greedy, how can dealers use this to their advantage? I’ve been thinking about this recently while actively “playing” with the system. Sure, this entire post may be directed to the select few dealers on the forefront of online exploration (and many should focus their efforts on the fundamentals of internet sales), but I wanted to head up this topic nonetheless.

Here are just a few ways I think dealers may be able to utilize this new social networking platform.

1) Any customer of the store (unrelated to employees) that are deemed the on-going “Mayor” of the store can have a little plaque in the service drive on a monthly basis (as long as they have the title at the start of the month) is awarded free oil change or a piece of apparel.
2) If the drivers of your courtesy shuttle(s) are given mobile devices to assist with directions or contact back with the dealership, they can help register drop off points of their customers – when delivering them to work. Provided they leave a recommendation commending the customer at that store, the recurring gratitude/retention will be easily felt and you will also be opening up a new channel of places to draw friends.
3) Have your employees check into work (not so you can track their presence on Twitter/FB), but so they can leave tips/shouts letting other customers clocking in know what some recommended specials may be. May also work for those employees you send to conferences – checking out what workshops they are attending while on-site (and not galavanting around town).
4) Actively request reviews and tips from those customers checking in regularly.

Now, I am sure I am missing some obvious practices to benefit your dealership and its consumers. I’d love to hear from you all and see if you can think of some other uses for this new application/network (above and beyond getting your employees using it – which opens you up to a wider network of potential connections – because that is a common need on ALL social networking sites.

So please let your imagination take off and let’s create some first-in-class best practices for this tool.

As an early adopter, very few benefits or activity will approach in the beginning, but over time, as the overall public becomes more in tune with these advanced internet marketing tactics, you will have been leading the way to a dominant Foursquare user.

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Saving Deals

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

I recently sat through a vendor’s webex presentation. It was another in a long line of sales pitches looking for some product endorsement and sales referrals. In this case, their product was designed to help dealerships “save a deal”. This technology, embedded into the CRM and desking modules of our lives, have been available for quite some time. The thought-process of looking back on yesterday’s opportunities to make a deal for today has been around forever, though. Nothing new here.

The challenge of “saving deals” has not been the inability to commoditize those deals needing saving into a software, but it is changing the overall mindset of management. (Granted, having a tech solution to funnel this deal info and print it into reports is exceedingly helpful nowadays). First and foremost, the biggest challenge of saving deals is that management simply has never created the processes necessary to make it a standard way of life within the dealership.

Here are the two most effective ways to save deals that I’ve found while involves just a little effort and time from multiple departments.

1) You must institute daily meetings to ensure that no stone is unturned and no customer is lost without trying twice. Your management staff should collectively review the previous day’s in-store and online opportunities (preferably pulling a detailed report quickly from a CRM module that gathers the data automatically for you) and meet every morning. They should hold daily meetings with F&I to determine necessary actions to finish off any unclosed deals and hold a brief 5-minute one-on-one meeting with each individual sales representative to discuss what can be done to convert lost customers into be-back sales.

2) The second most important step to saving deals is having your Business Development Center be the backstop for your dealership. There are ways technologically to ensure your sales people are making their follow-up calls to past and recent customers, but you have no way of knowing if it was the salesperson that may have prevented the deal closing in the first place. Use your BDC staff to act as a Customer Care Center and let them be a second voice at the dealership for your customers. When you have someone else reaching out to your customers, you are ensuring that no customer is being discarded by a salesperson and you are opening another channel for that customer to discuss a potential deal.

So remember, a dedicated policy of saving deals requires effort from your management, F&I, Sales and BDC teams, but it will all be well-worth it come month’s end.

Joe Webb - Automotive Internet Sales Trainer - DealerKnows Consulting

Joe Webb - Automotive Internet Sales Trainer - DealerKnows Consulting

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Automotive Trainer Creates New Way for Dealerships to Achieve Online Sales Success

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

PR Log (Press Release) – Jan 21, 2010 – Automotive dealers are fighting their way out of the industry’s most economically challenging periods.  With the economy on a slow upturn, dealerships are finding more stability in the market and dedicating themselves to the newest advances in online marketing. 

However, much like the uphill battles facing a myriad of industries, dealers are struggling to compete with those that had instituted internet initiatives in their stores before the nation’s automotive sales plummeted.  Auto industry expert, Joe Webb, President and Founder of DealerKnows Consulting, has created an innovative program to virtually manage the entire Internet sales department’s efforts and implement best practices with the use of web-based softwares, phone tracking solutions, and video chat.  The Virtual Internet Director program ensures that all online advertising campaigns are measured, monitored, and monetized to their fullest.   

“Dealers are getting away from paying the high costs of on-site training.  An automotive consultant will spend a couple of days in the store and drown them in ideas and concepts.  Truth is, it doesn’t always stick.  The teachings of some trainers fades over time.  Dealer employees need long-term guidance, specifically with the Internet departments and business development centers.” 

Joe Webb found success in the automotive industry by personally creating and managing some of the most recognized Internet departments in the car industry.  Webb parlayed his successes on the retail side into a prominent digital marketing consulting firm based out of Chicago, Illinois. 

“I’ve traveled the nation and trained on-site in showrooms.  What I’ve found is that most dealers and their employees need an advocate in their stores daily.  I saw a need to develop a specific training and management program where I can be in these stores virtually…daily.” 

The Virtual Internet Director program as it is being hailed offers car dealers the chance to have a recognized Internet sales expert and consulting leading the team and managing from afar while monitoring up-to-the-minute, real-time online and showroom activities through these CRM (customer relationship management) solutions. 

For a fraction of the cost of in-store consulting, Joe Webb guarantees to put dealerships on the path to online success by reviewing internet correspondence between dealer employees and prospects, measuring the necessary metrics for online profitability, policing the ratios to make sure no e-lead goes unanswered and all vehicles are properly are advertised, mystery shopping the dealer client and their competitors, listening to recorded calls, holding daily calls and video trainings to the Internet department staff, and training on the best-in-class processes of online inventory management. 

“Dealers’ eyes are opening and realizing that it is a breath of fresh air to know that an Internet Trainer is ensuring the success of the departments without the strain of trial and error.  In this economy, dealers don’t have the luxury to spend too much time learning the best processes.  They need help, but don’t often have the budget for it in store.  DealerKnows’ Virtual Internet Director program solves this need.  Basically, a dealer no longer has to worry about their business development centers…it is my job to keep everything growing for them.” 

Webb’s first order of business was teaming with Vin Solutions, an industry leader in offering full-service customer management and website solution software to dealers.  Webb recently became one of the few Certified Vin Solutions Trainers in the nation and believes the Vin Solutions software is one of the few natural fits for his Virtual Internet Director program.

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Your Social Networking Resolution

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

Your Social Networking Resolution: What’s Your Plan or What’s Your Budget?

With the new year upon us, it is time we sit down and determine the ROI of our past (and recent) online marketing initiatives. What has worked for you? What hasn’t? What is your social networking resolution?

Are you going to dedicate your financial resources (ad budget) to the failed or fledgling programs of yesteryear or try your hand at all of the digital marketing tactics you read so much about daily? If it isn’t working, at what point do you cut ties, end your relationship with the old school vendors, and spend time on a more worthy venture such as social media?

If you want to succeed on a social networking landscape, you must first put yourself in your customer’s shoes. You must share their mindset. “What is in it for them?” you have to ask yourself. You need to show a benefit to the consumer for joining you on these networking sites. Stop worrying about what is important to you and start realizing what is important to your audience. This is the greatest obstacle for almost every dealer with a Twitter and Facebook account right now. So few have any idea what the hell to do with them! Remember, your customers are likely on these sites for personal reasons so recognize that it is called SOCIAL networking, not “business” networking.

I’ll tell you – to do it right, you must learn how to educate, engage, and entertain your audience with multiple forms of media and user-generated content to increase customer retention, brand awareness, and positive consumer reviews all while creating interactive, VIP-styled discount/deal/contest programs to elicit referrals, responses, and business. By the way, you can’t be too intrusive, pushy, overwhelming, or generic. Let me tell you… easier said than done. The “doing” takes time, knowledge, dedication, and commitment. More than most dealers are willing to dedicate.

A year ago and a half ago, you could say that social media is still early in its evolution and could have spent time figuring out the best practices on your own. Today, it is too late to experiment. You are losing market share every single time another one of your competitors joins the social site community. You no longer have the luxury to play around and wait to find out the best practices of the medium. If you are behind the social networking times, you have to make a resolution. You’ll need to either rededicate some advertising budget to training – someone who can give you a jump start on the best practices of the platform – or farm out your entire social networking campaigns to a company or group able to control your presence in this online marketplace. Or if you wanted to spend even more money, hire a professional to do it on-site full-time. I don’t know anyone who does the latter, but DealerKnows Consulting based out of Chicago and our Preferred Partners around the nation can assist you with your social media management needs.

So I ask you…what is your Social Networking Resolution? Do you have a plan? If not, you better have a budget.

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Digital Dealer Conference Las Vegas General Session

Friday, April 24th, 2009


General session given by myself (Joe Webb), Gilbert Chavez, and Kim Clouse titled “Please, God…What Does It Take to Sell a Car?”. Filmed at the Mirage Hotel and Casino for spring conference – Digital Dealer Conference 6.

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