“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.

This doesn’t hold true for all, but it will hit the nail on the head for many.  Your middle management is killing your Internet sales.  Not in a good way.  Not like “Wow!  You guys are killing it!”.  No.  They are hurting your online sales efforts.

How?  What they don’t know, WILL hurt them.  DealerKnows fields many calls from dealers, but even more from their Internet personnel.  What we continue to hear is the pushback your Internet Sales Managers and BDC teams are receiving from the sales managers in your stores when trying to fulfill their job duties.

I previously detailed one of the primary ways in my blog titled “The 4 Words That Make Sales Managers Sound Stupid”.  Those four words?  “Just get ‘em in.”  Without preparing your BDC agents and ISMs with any information, they are expected to coerce a researched, interested party into the store with no value to give them.  Needless to say, the “hallelujahs”, “thank you’s” and “TESTIFY’s” we got through email was great.  That is just one way your managers are hindering your online sales.  Many have no willingness to (or understanding why) give out information to the customers before coming in.  This tactic is killing you.

Another way?  If the sales management insists on handing over a new Internet price for every…single… lead… rather than a researched, validated price structure for all models that the ISM can be trusted to speedily calculate and hand over, then they are hurting your online efforts.  Timing is key.  If your Internet team has to go for them every…single….time they have a new lead and want to give out a price, you are slowing down the response time and likely giving the manager the ability to choose the Internet pricing they give that day, on that car, off the top of their head.  This is killing your response time.

Want to hear more?  Micro-managing.  Who do your sales managers think they are to brow-beat an ISM over their closing ratio, their pricing, or worse off, their customers when they are letting the salespeople run wild on the showroom floor?  If your sales managers are constantly asking your ISMs “What is going on with this lead?”  or “Whatever happened to the folks interested in the…?”, but are not enforcing ANY of the sales folks to call back ANY of their customers that have been in, then they are hypocrites  and they are killing your Internet team’s motivation.

• What are some other ways your sales managers are destroying an online foundation in your store?
• Demanding to handle inbound calls/leads/etc for your store, rather than your BD team, so they can remain in control, yet are unwilling to call to confirm appointments.
• Not demanding the sales team to make appointments as well.
• Not reinforcing the use of the CRM on the showroom.
• Not requiring the sales team to source customers properly.
• Not forcing the sales team to obtain a customer’s email address.
• Taking their sweet, old time to get pricing, availability, truthful spec info and more to their Internet team so they can then pass it on to the interested party.
• Not getting pricing up on the newest pre-owned cars that hit your lot.
• Not supporting new digital initiatives in the store that might help them win ZMOT, while at the same time, not listening to how their sales team handle calls.
• Allowing the salespeople to handle calls.
• Not training the salespeople to handle calls.
• The list goes on
• And on
• And on…

I know I am preaching to the choir here because there are more ISMs and Internet Directors reading this than there are dealer managers and owners likely.  (Sad that the group most thirsty for information and willing to learn and progress are often the ones with the least amount of power to do so.  As is in life.  Still shameful.)  However, if you are a dealer owner or GM, I strongly urge you to open up the blinds, let the light in, and ask your Internet team what they NEED and WANT from the middle management at your store to improve their job performance and the numbers.

Too many great people in eBusiness positions are scared of speaking up for fear of causing waves in the water, but if prompted and protected, they will give you the keys to untold sales.  Look at the hierarchy of the people in your store and make sure the sales managers are not stifling the productivity of your Internet team.  Or keep the blinds closed and watch as they kill your Internet sales one by one.

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.

Some believe that an Internet Sale is a customer that originated as a lead and is sold by your ISM or Internet team.  Since it is sold by the “Internet person”, it is an Internet Sale.  Others believe an Internet Sale is every vehicle bought by a customer who was primarily influenced by information/resources found online.  Dealers tend to structure their pay plans based on the first scenario even though industry leaders preach that to properly dedicate your advertising budget, you have to track and recognize the latter.

So… it’s about Sourcing.  Dedicate energy to training your team on sourcing and designing a way to truly capture a customer’s influencing motive.  Was it the radio ad running during lunch times that brought the customer in or influenced their decision to choose you as a dealership?  Could it be your service department that takes care of them so well?  Or might it have been the two hours they spent online before walking into your showroom unannounced, but prepared?  Don’t you feel it is imperative to know this before you set next month’s advertising budget?

Make sure your team is closely monitoring the sources from where your customers are coming.  You must be sourcing correctly before you hold anyone accountable for ROI.  If a lead is from your website’s Inventory page, you want to know.  If it is from your Inventory listed on Cars.com, you want to know as well.  If it is because they are a previous customer, you want to know.  Some will be internet sales and some will not be… we all recognize that.  However, many sales that appear to be your old-fashioned walk-in or phone up could very well be an Internet sale.  You just don’t know it until you source correctly.

Now let me give you ONE exception of something that looks like an Internet Sale, but in my opinion, isn’t.  (And this will end up being another challenge to a website vendor).  If a customer calls into your dealership from the number on your website’s header, I don’t consider that an Internet Sale.  Not unless they were perusing your site’s back pages before calling the number at the top.  We must realize that a website’s header is today’s white pages.  People don’t check the yellow book in their pantry anymore.  They go to your dealership site and pull the number from there.  If a customer calls after only visiting your homepage, I don’t believe you should count that as an Internet Sale – no matter who handled the call. 

NOW – If a website provider wants to figure out a way to have one specific, trackable number on the homepage’s website header, but a different toll-free number on each back-page website header THEN I believe we could truly source website calls as Internet Sales.  Not until.  If you are a website vendor who does this, please reach out on this post.  If you are someone tracking your store’s Internet Sales, I’d love to hear your opinion on what is and isn’t an Internet Sale at your store.

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

Many of us have a passion for football the same way we have a passion
for selling cars. We sit on our coaches in our living rooms
(showrooms) and play armchair quarterback. We call plays. We tell
the young folks how it used to be. What we would do different if we
were in charge…if we were throwing that pass….if that was OUR
customer.

Majority of sales people are the same. They prefer to sit on the
sidelines and talk about what went wrong rather than get on the field
and get their hands dirty. You need a strong sales manager (QB) to
lead the staff onto the field. The question for dealers is: Is it
best to employ a Game Manager or a Playmaker to your sales desk? NFL
teams live and die by the person (QB) leading their teams as does any
owner relying on a manager to bring the profit.

In my opinion, the “Playmaker” is the Sales Manager that can close
that
deal for the big hit. The huge profit. All of the coins. Mucho
gross. A “Playmaker” Sales Manager gets the biggest scores. At the
same time, they miss their targets quite often. Reaching for the big
deal often gets intercepted and they lose customers with their
arrogance. They can win huge games, but they can also throw away the
easy ones.

A “Game Manager” sales manager, on the other hand, still concerns
themselves with gross profit, but never makes the big hits. Their
front-end is a little lower and their back-end a little lighter.
However, their accuracy (read: closing ratio, if you are still with me
on this poor analogy) allows them to close more deals than the
“Playmaker” and the CSI is always higher.

It is the good old “gross vs. volume” debate. It is up to your Sales
Managers. The QBs of your showroom. Will they bring your players all
the way through a season/year with a winning record? Will they have
some amazing wins, but not make the playoffs? It is up to you when
hiring for Sales Manager to make that decision.

Categorize your Sales Management candidates and determine who you want
to play with. Who do you want to coach? Who will make the smart
decisions, not for their own interests, but for the store’s?

I may go against industry trends, but I’d call a timeout and bring in
a Game Manager for my staff.