Posts Tagged ‘Training’

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Monotonous Multitasking

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

What is listed under the ‘Responsibilities’ section of your Internet Manager’s job description? (Provided you’ve written them one). Monotonous multitasking may as well be. This phrase defines more about what your Internet operators do during their daily grind than any other phrase I can conjure.

When stepping foot into dealerships week after week to train new clients, I hear one of three statements from General Managers and dealer owners:
“I don’t know if I have the right people back there. “
“I don’t think they are doing the right stuff back there.”
“I have no idea what they do back there all day long.”

First off, I do find it amazing, as I pull phrases out of my head while typing, that the term “back there” pops up so often. Isn’t it time we give the BDCs and Internet staffs of our industry a more suitable, front-of-the-dealership, work environment? How many of your Internet departments and BDC’s are in the back of the bus? Oops. I’m sorry. I meant “back of the dealership”? Do you keep them back there so they can be undisturbed throughout the day and have quiet time for all their ‘monotonous multitasking’ or is it to be more ‘out of sight, out of mind’?

With that rant over, let’s look at these three scenarios.
1) You don’t know if you have the right people back there.

Who hired them? What criteria were you looking for? What was their orientation like? Have you provided them all of the training to prepare them for their position? Do you listen to their requests for new technology? Or do they maybe just want more seamless communication with your sales management team and need you to facilitate it?

All of these questions must be answered internally (or reviewed by a trained practitioner) if you truly want to know if you have the right Internet team leading the department into the future.

2) You don’t think they are doing everything they could be doing.

Quite possibly, you are right here. This is something that almost every trainer/consultant will admit after reviewing an Internet team’s process. There are cracks in every foundation. The question is, do you know where to look? Do you have a process, tool or technology that monitors your Internet team for you? Inevitably, when you do the same thing over and over and over, day in and day out, (read: monotonous multitasking), you will lose some of your focus and your passion for what you are doing. Leads can start to look less like customers and more like words on a screen with no value so ensure they are always recognizing the cost of the customer lead. Give your team all of the motivation to perform at a high level, but most importantly, TRAIN them so they understand what the right daily duties are. Then measure.

3) You don’t know what they are doing back there all day long.

Have you provided them a job description detailing their duties and your expectations of them? How do you measure them? If you are being provided reports – as is one of the chief duties that coincide with all of their monotonous multitasking – are you pleased with their performance? Do you even know what metrics they should be achieving? While it is up to them to complete their tasks competently, it is up to you inspect their performance and hold them accountable. If you need to know the metrics you should be achieving, don’t worry about industry standards at first. Just focus on improving upon your past month’s numbers. Every month.

So… what DOES your Internet team do in their room all day long? Know that the position of Internet Sales Manager/Director consists of many small duties (that are major ordeals if not done correctly) repeatedly.

• They answer the lead, but have to do it quickly.
• They must answer all of the customer’s questions, but must do it thoroughly.
• They must send out the perfect email, but must do it in a way that it gets through spam filters.
• They must answer the phones promptly while smiling, but must do it in a way that leads to an appointment while still capturing the customer’s information.
• They must respond back to customer replies, but often have to remove themselves from behind a computer to get the correct information they need.
• They must keep a vigil eye on multiple tools and CRM pages to ensure they are properly engaging every customer every time. (Leads don’t stop coming in when the store closes it’s doors.)
• They must answer questions for salespeople – as Internet managers have become the Mall Information Centers of the dealership world.
• They must solve IT problems and bugs in the system daily, even though they have no experience with IT. (Information Technology and Internet Sales are two entirely different gifts.)
• They must gather data and reports from multiple sources in a myriad of amalgamations, but they must simplify them enough so they can be graded on them.
• They must answer an unending stream of calls from vendors, though they have no final decision-making power usually.
• They must actively seek solutions to problems, vendor ticket issues, qualms, and process breaks, all while fielding calls from others in the dealership asking questions about the very same tools.
• They must complete a number of other issues.

And they must do this every day. Every time. With zero discrepancies. THAT is why the “monotonous multitasking” of your Internet team should not be overlooked as anything but the requirements of their positions. Give them credit for the balls they keep up in the air while juggling a myriad of other tasks asked of them.

Those individuals who can take on several tasks simultaneously to this extent, all while sitting in front of a computer for the majority of the day, are some of the most valuable employees you can bring into your organization. Being adept at monotonous multitasking is a true skill. It is not a problem with your team’s work or work ethic.

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Posted in Understanding Internet Sales | No Comments »



How to Catch an Internet Customer

Friday, January 20th, 2012

An Internet shopper is caught off-guard when he attempts to push for additional discounts after agreeing to an Internet price with the car dealership’s Internet Manager. This comedic video shows what would happen if Dateline NBC’s Chris Hanson shows up and puts a halt to the customer’s efforts.

Starring:
Joe Webb
Arnold Tijerina
Bill Playford
David Hudson
Written by Joe Webb
Directed by David Hudson

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Posted in Funny Videos, Videos | No Comments »



The No-Need Deposition

Sunday, January 1st, 2012

I was speaking to friends at a New Year’s Eve party who had recently purchased a new car. I asked about their experience. They said it was “good”… just as they had expected. They had researched the vehicle online (OEM, Edmunds, KBB and finally the dealership site) before heading into the store. Everything had gone according to plan. I asked if they left the dealership an online review and they said “Yes. Three stars.”

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.

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Posted in Leadership/Sales Management | 1 Comment »



Automotive Email Templates Testimonial

Wednesday, December 7th, 2011

eCommerce Director of Southtowne VW, Bryan Armstrong, shares his success with his factory lead closing ratios after just one month utilizing the DealerKnows Consulting follow-up process method and automotive email templates. His store experienced over a 12% closing rate increase on those pesky leads. Listen to Bryan’s endorsement.

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The Probability of Accountability

Sunday, December 4th, 2011

I arrived roughly 10 minutes early to train a new dealer client last week.  I meandered around the showroom trying to get a feel for who they were as a store and how they presented their dealership brand.  That’s when I came across a salesperson sitting at his desk with a very familiar CRM open.  To my wide-eyed amazement, I got to see him complete ALL of his scheduled calls for the day (roughly 30) in the 5 minutes before the store opened.  All without picking up the phone.  This guy was gifted.

“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.

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Middle Management is Killing Your Internet Sales

Thursday, November 17th, 2011

Here is an article I wrote for DealerRefresh – or read below

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.

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Posted in Leadership/Sales Management | 2 Comments »



A Testimonial for DealerKnows Consulting

Wednesday, November 16th, 2011

Tim Hommer, General Manager of Granger Motors, tells why he recommends DealerKnows Consulting for their Internet sales and digital marketing training.

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Social Spamming – by Joe Webb

Monday, November 14th, 2011

We have grown up with a different concept of advertising.  The way we have marketed ourselves over the years has been far too ‘push’ and not enough ‘pull.’  So when a new medium such as social media presents itself, many believe it is just a new platform we should deliver ‘push’ advertising through.  Understand, though, that this is spam.  Social spam.

 

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.

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Dealership Day Care

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

Sometimes people need to be babysat.  It happens.  Inevitably someone will prioritize something (from attending a wedding to socializing on the showroom floor) over the basic duties asked of them at work.  Or assigned to them in their CRM.

Your CRM is there for a purpose.  For the longest time we allowed our sales teams to carry a notepad in their back pocket to keep track of their customers.  We would trust that they would pull it out once a day, flip through the past few pages, review what needs to take place, and have the necessary notes stored in able to then follow up with the store’s customers.  If not this way, then you had them log all of their opportunities onto an Up Sheet that you would hope they visit once a day to complete some follow-up.  Obviously, these methods fall slightly short of being an “exact science”.

So CRMs (a good CRM anyway) has allowed us to determine the time intervals that are best to follow up with our clients.  They let us choose what method of communication (phone, email, text, etc) to trigger the sales team to utilize.  A CRM gives us the ability to alert our team when a new lead arrives or action actions that must be taken.  We can build out intricate follow-up processes that continue long-term, based on several variables, even when different events occur in the customer’s lifecycle, consistently, on-going, every time.  Well that is all well and good, but it still takes someone to perform a little “dealership day care” to keep the sales and Internet teams using the system to its fullest.

There are two things that salespeople are known for:

Working their pay plans and

Not following up with customers the way they should (or at all)

It’s not their fault.  Our industry seems to magnetically pull in those with self-diagnosed ADHD and lets them run wild in between our walls.  Your sales team loses focus, stops dedicating their energy to the task at hand within the CRM and goes off on a tear about something else.  It requires your Sales Managers to wrangle them up and get them back on point.  This is where your CRM’s dashboard comes in handy.

I often ask dealers, “How do your Sales Managers manage your sales team?”  Let me tell you, nowadays there are no right answers to this question without the words “ensure” “utilizing” and “CRM” in them.  Your managers should be keeping a watchful eye on the CRM dashboard throughout the day to ensure your team is utilizing the CRM to its fullest and actually completing the tasks scheduled for them.  Then your dealership must make it financially rewarding (or punishable) to do so.  If it is 2pm and you see Jimmy drinking his Red Bull and laughing on the showroom floor, take a look at how many of the day’s tasks he completed.  You will see only one of two scenarios.

a)  He’s made only 2 of the 33 scheduled follow-up calls for the day (yet he has time to ham it up with the folks on the floor) or
b)  He made ALL 33 of his day’s calls, somehow miraculously between the times of 9:05am to 9:09am.  Oh yeah, and he left messages on every call.

Your managers must begin “managing” their teams and holding them accountable.  Whether utilization is tracked, measured, and spiffed upon, or simply browbeat into the team, they must start making the calls and emails required of them.  If you want to sell more cars, get your teams to honestly make the calls prescribed for them.  Simple as that.

While your Internet team can fall off the wagon too, it is likely because they can get overwhelmed if they lose any time for the day.  A few leads are missed, an alert isn’t received, a customer comes in that takes more of their time than expected, and there is no catching up.  Unlike the sales floor where the salesperson can just not take a customer for the day and get through all of their overdue tasks, the Internet team has opportunities that pour in…. and never stop pouring in.

The reason our Virtual Dealer Training program was created in the first place is because dealers don’t have the staff or the time to track what their Internet teams are missing. You need someone to perform Dealership Day Care for your Internet teams.  Your Internet Director/eCommerce Director/BD Manager often doesn’t have the time to monitor all email correspondence, but, believe me, it is necessary.  Do you know what your staff is emailing to your customers?  Are they answering their questions?  Are they NOT calling and NOT following up with them?  The CRM allows you to catch these things, but only if you are looking.  While our teams are much more mature than children, they need constant guidance (and positive reinforcement through training) to keep ahead of the class.

It is time dealers do a little Dealership Day Care on behalf of their sales and Internet teams.  You need to maximize the opportunities you are receiving and the only way to do that is to monitor, police, measure, and motivate your teams… through the utilization of your CRM and through consistent training and management.

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How Costly is Your Haircut? A Guide to Finding Internet Training

Monday, October 24th, 2011

People view the services they receive in different ways. Some want immediate service so they find those businesses that can help them immediately. Some want high-class service with high-class ratings and results so they call ahead and set an appointment. They recognize they can afford to wait.

This is not meant to be a gripe session or make DealerKnows sound cocky, stuck-up, or ungrateful. We are talking about a rewiring of how dealers should go about considering future partnerships… be it Internet training or choosing where to get their haircut. We believe people should expect more from the service companies they choose and not rush to a decision. Patience, they say, is a virtue.

DealerKnows Consulting certainly doesn’t take on every single dealer client that reaches out to us for training. Several factors come into play before we determine whether or not it will be a fruitful partnership for both parties. However, recently, two different clients that engaged DealerKnows for their training needs turned away because we “just can’t get to the store fast enough.”

Let it be known that DealerKnows Consulting is not Supercuts. If you want to partner with an Internet training company that is obviously in such low demand that they can begin training the next day, I believe you need to reevaluate what you are looking for in a consulting partner. We do typically book out 3-4 weeks in advance, but please understand, that isn’t an indictment of our level of service, but a testimonial toward it. If you walk into a Supercuts for a haircut, to save either time or money, understand that results may vary.

We are more of a boutique salon. Every customer is different and every “stylist” here is well-trained to handle your individual, unique needs. That is why those customers that go to a Great Clips will go to any Great Clips and expect the same, average service. Those dealer clients that chose our salon of trainers in the past are now our evangelists. They wouldn’t go elsewhere.

Does waiting three to four weeks really affect the success of your non-existent Internet operation? It is 2011. I know you want to right a wrong immediately, but you’ve waited a minimum 10 years too long (and we are giving you a few years credit here) to get involved in digital so will another three weeks destroy your business? No. But choosing the wrong stylist might. You don’t wait until your wedding day to go dress shopping or the day of your 20 year high-school reunion to get your hair cut for the first time. Aligning with an Automotive Internet training company is no different. It is a process that you shouldn’t take lightly.

The only negative we’ve ever received (beyond the recent “you aren’t able to get here within the next few days so you aren’t in consideration”) was on the DrivingSales Vendor Ratings page where we have top marks across the board, but one person said a “con” to DealerKnows Consulting was that “you have to book in advance”. When someone is sought-after, I assure you it is rarely a bad thing.

If you are looking for a walk-in type service that will likely deliver fast food results, it is your choice. Understand, though, that you might end up walking out having received a real hatchet job and your appearance will look worse for it. So ask yourself… how costly could a bad haircut be? Sure, waiting a little while and setting an appointment or scheduling an event isn’t fun, but you do it – just like at the doctor’s office, lawyer, accountant, dentist, high-end hotels and restaurants, salons, heck, even fortune tellers – because you realize that they are professionals and you’re putting your livelihood in their hands. You can’t walk up to the gate and buy a ticket to see the Rolling Stones. They’ll be sold out. And you can’t complain about the lousy seats you get on the airplane when you were the last to call about tickets.

So as you look for a service to fulfill your needs, be it Internet training or hairstyling, decide how you want to look and feel when you are finished. Some people apparently want Supercuts. We are not Supercuts.

DealerKnows Consulting – 847-456-5130

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Posted in Blog, Internet Sales Training | 2 Comments »



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