Privacy Statement Inet101.com

Walking Around - Virtually?

When I was working at our family dealership Circle City Motors, one of the most productive management tools I had was "walking around". This allowed me to say hello to employees and customers and get a pulse on how the day was going and whether the facility was in good shape. It allowed me to see if anything needed changing and where improvements were needed


	Ask the Doc. Tell us about your best selling experience or tip and each month the best story or tip receives a nice dinner for two in your area.

I often looked at competitor’s websites to see what they were selling online and how the cars were displayed. You can imagine the frustration when I ran into dead links (these are links that do go where they should because the URL was moved) or when I ended up landing on a page that was a dead end.

In today's virtual world each dealer and general manager should commit to the same thing by clicking around their website and checking to make sure things are in good working order. It is important to navigate your website as thought you were a customer looking to purchase a vehicle. Look for lead leaks. These are places where your websites directs your customers to a third party or to the manufactures website. It is important that once your customers arrives on your website that they find a call to action on each and every page. Your website needs to make your visitors feel as though they have found a good place to go to buy their next car.

In addition, a few clicks through your lead management or CRM tool will tell you what your customers are asking for and how effectively your team is responding. Management by Clicking Around should become part of your daily routine.

Follow-up Strategies
Relevance and Timing

One of the greatest challenges faced by dealerships is discovering the right mix of email communications to stimulate a customer to action. This is always part of a lively discussion among Internet managers at workshops where I often hear “I wish they would just let me know they are receiving my messages” or “I would just like them to respond at all – even if it is to tell me no”. To these statements the best answer is to try to think like your customer.

Thinking like the customer is easier said than done but let’s start with your own experience in reviewing your personal email inbox. The typical email inbox consists of a variety of offers from obscure companies offering you anything from low rate mortgages to get rich quick schemes. Admittedly, spam filters have improved this but nevertheless some get by and then there are some from companies that we actually want to hear from even if we don’t want to act now. We often categorize them as “friend” on our filters. This allows us to scan the email quickly and see if there is an offer that is relevant to our needs.

Relevance is the key to how the email will impact the consumer. Consider how many advertising impressions the average consumer is exposed to each day alone. This is probably overwhelming for the average consumer to absorb so they adapt by “filtering” these impressions by relevance. If it is relevant they will read it and if it is not they will ignore it.

Timing comes next and is equal to relevance. The filter for relevance may allow the message to get through but if the timing is not right the consumer is not compelled to act. In considering the effect of timing once again you may want to review your own experience. You may want a specific car enough to motivate you to do some research through various means – visit the Manufacture’s website, rent one for the weekend or ask a friend about their car. Now that your filter is open to this car you will likely notice that they are everywhere you look – on television, radio, billboards, email - and your desire to purchase is increasing each day. However, you are setting aside a few bucks each day to make the purchase and you don’t have the amount needed yet. Your purchase depends on when you’ve set aside enough money. As a result, the ads you see are relevant but the timing is not right. The consumer typically responds to advertising best when it is relevant and the timing is right!

This concept applies to a dealership Internet marketing. When consumers submit a request for information via your website or a lead aggregator they seldom communicate what stage they are actually in despite radial buttons and check boxes provided to gather this data. We may wrongly assume if they went to the trouble to submit a request they are almost ready to buy. This may or may not be the case. However, we can safely assume that the information they are requesting is relevant to them even if their timing is not now. Passing the relevance test is all you need to know what to do next.

Here are some suggestions:

Subject Line – Your subject line must survive the delete button. Make sure it is relevant to the consumer. Your chances of having the email opened go up considerably if the subject is relevant. Even if they don’t open the email, you gain an advertising impression if your subject includes the type of vehicle they are considering plus your dealership name. Remember, this is a marathon and not a sprint with some customers.

Logo – Second to your subject line is your logo when trying to create a lasting impression on your consumer. Consider your dealership stationary or your business cards – both have your logo on them and afford you the benefit of a quick impression on your customer. I’m certain you would not consider mailing a letter to your customer on plain white paper in a plain white envelope with a business card without a logo. Each email you send should include your logo. It is also wise to include a picture of yourself in the signature line. We you include your photo you become a real person, not just a name and email address.

Message – Variety and value are important when considering your message. Sending boring and wordy messages will not likely motivate the consumer. Get to the point, use graphics, bullet points and customize the message as much as possible. By all means never tell the customer that you are “putting them in an inactive status” or “removing them from follow-up” or “deleting them from your database”. This may stimulate a few to the respond but it alienates many who are waiting for the right time to buy. It also makes you out to be a liar if you continue to send them additional emails. Be creative and focus on benefit for the consumer.

Finally, be patient and use a good lead management tool. When your message is relevant to the consumer and the timing is right – they will buy!

Patience Works
Don't give up!

Just when you think the customer is not worthy of an email or a phone call they often surprise you with a response. My experience has taught me that most people eventually purchase. They appreciate the dealers who send them beneficial information on topics of interest and value. Sales, service coupons, updates on rebates and incentives are just a few of the items that seem to work. It shouldn't matter that your customer does not respond to each email. You normally don't hear from customers who read your newspaper ads or hear your radio spots or even your television ads. When the customer is ready they will respond. Be patient and look at the fact that they don't opt out or unsubscribe as evidence they are still interested.

This is why it is so important to have a process in place that will send slow responding customers relevant emails in a timely manner automatically. Think about it this way, you get 200 new leads per month. You have a 20% closing ratio so you sold 40 cars. This means that there are still 160 people who have not bought yet. Ten months from now you will have 1600 names of people on your email list that have not bought. Assuming that 30% of these people bought elsewhere and did not notify you (why should they?), you still have 1000 slow responding prospects. These people need to be treated with the same courtesy as your new leads because they will eventually buy. An effective follow-up automated email process will keep your name in front of these people and if done correctly, the prospect will consider you as a friend when they are ready to buy.

Compare Your Online Listings and the Competition
Make Your Online Investment Work for You

A typical part of every principal and general manager’s day is to scan their ads in the paper as well as the ads of their competitors. They also tune in to their TV and radio ads as well as to their competitors’. Doing this gives them a feel for how the store is promoted and what the other players in the area are up to, including their rivals’ sales strategies.
A dealership’s advertising program is aimed at driving showroom traffic, sales, and profits. Every day we gather information from a variety of sources to guide our decisions on sales and marketing strategies. Only a few dealers spend enough time online gathering competitive and market information relative to other sources. It is equally important to view and study Internet listings and an online advertisement of competitors as it is traditional media.

It is essential for dealers to realize they should be spending at least a few minutes every day viewing their online media because it is an essential and important part of their media mix. According to J. D. Powers and Associates, over 70% of shoppers start their car searches online; additionally, the Internet is so flexible that dealers can quickly change their strategies and tactics as needed.

One of the things studying Internet advertising enables you to do is compare your inventory and pricing to that of other dealerships. The Internet is a competitive marketplace that gives you the opportunity to generate attractive gross profits as long as your cars are priced competitively. Dealers who pack excessive gross profits into the asking price of a car typically don’t do well. So it’s good to know how your used cars are priced online relative to the guide books and other local dealers.

Remember that your listings provide the first impression of your store to the consumer who has never been to your dealership. Most consumers shop by make and model so your listing is a perfect opportunity for a compelling “meet and greet.” How you introduce the store to the customer tells them volumes about you. Therefore it’s a good idea to have high quality online listings that “tell the story of the car,” “tell the story of your dealership,” and use online coupons or other calls to action.
The Internet is so cost effective and inexpensive in terms of out-of-pocket costs compared to high-cost traditional media that it’s almost easy to understand why the Internet would fall off a dealer’s day-to-day radar screen. But with its exceptional ROI - as well as the rapid growth of consumer adoption and increasing use of the medium by dealers – it’s a good idea to stay on top of yours and your competitors’ Internet classified ads to ensure that you make the most of this dynamic and exciting medium.