Search results

  1. colson

    Evolving Call to Actions - should ePrice die?

    LOVE this strategy. Until I read that I would say that Get e-Price should go away at the point customers stop submitting leads with it. For a particular OEM I worked with we had visibility to all of their website leads/traffic. Get e-Price was hands down the best performing CTA, and lead...
  2. colson

    Witness - The Worst Tactic Ever

    Go easy. They don't have a 100 new cars in stock with both Ford and Toyota. I'm sure Ottumwa appreciates his "No Bull Approach"
  3. colson

    Is There An Automotive Vendor With A Better Customer Support Process Than...

    DriveCentric!!! We deal with all the big ones, and a couple of the smaller players, and no one can match this crew. Things that take weeks and months(LITERALLY MONTHS!!!) take this crew a matter of minutes, and it's almost all done through chat. If it escalates, it doesn't go to Level 2, 3 or...
  4. colson

    Documenting Your Lead Handling Rules

    I'm curious what the rest of you have as your rules to lead ownership/handling.
  5. colson

    Documenting Your Lead Handling Rules

    Sometimes we take this for granted, but I'm realizing a lot of stores aren't documenting their rules. They're typically unwritten, and thereby serve to create more confusion and disillusionment amongst the sales staff as these rules are rarely applied exactly the same way every time. I decided...
  6. colson

    How long does it take to answer a lead?

    That's a lot of effort that may well be unnecessary if we just pick up the phone, engage the customer, earn the right to ask for an appointment, set said appointment and send the confirmation text/email, and lastly log this conversation in the CRM. To answer the question, our goal is always to...
  7. colson

    Dealersocket <> Adpearance Inc. dba Four Eyes

    If you're currently in a contract or contemplating a change, this is something every dealer should be acutely aware of. Charging your vendors integration fees to access your own data because the CRM company you pay thousands to on a monthly basis doesn't provide you the business insights you...
  8. colson

    Anyone know of a good online payment calculator

    Drive it now/Payment Pro is the best I've seen. Great tool. As with anything it's important your staff understands what it is and how those leads were generated. IMO, there is not a better email lead generated than a person who is looking at a specific car on my website and is motivated...
  9. colson

    Internet Lead Follow-up

    Cherry Picking? Hardly! The typical car dealership does not engage on the phone. Nationwide you'd be lucky to receive 1 call in the first 5 days. With this kind of follow up it's no wonder people think internet customers are on a 90 day buying cycle. Furthermore, for the dealers who do...
  10. colson

    Internet Lead Follow-up

    Regarding the decrease in lead volume, I would suggest, if this is true, it has a lot more to do with the abysmal follow up of some dealers and the lack of transparency of so many others. They have driven the consumer deeper into their computer. DealerRefresh has no shortage of digital...
  11. colson

    Internet Lead Follow-up

    @Grant...month in month out our clients find well over 90% of their sold internet leads are contacted in the first 5 days. Once contact is made its all about urgency and giving the customer the reason to use one of those 1.8 visits with you.
  12. colson

    The Internet Director's Role - What should it really be at a dealership?

    Sounds to me like you would prefer to be a marketing manager rather than an Internet Director. In a small store it is very difficult to justify paying someone what you're used to making just as a marketing manager. A multi franchise group would likely be a good fit for you.
  13. colson

    Internet Lead Follow-up

    To Brian's original post, I would be very concerned with a salesperson who thinks a call a day is too much. I have several clients in the midwest doing significantly more than that and the results have been staggering in a positive way. Two metrics that you should look at, but are...
  14. colson

    ReyRey Contact Management Questions

    Actually building processes is CM's strong suit. If you call tech support they can walk you through this in 5 minutes. The rest of the tool gives me nothing but indigestion. 1. No way to sift/sort prospects by type and status. 2. No way to identify active prospects without a future...
  15. colson

    Feedback from dealers using TRUECar

    As long as they require access to the store's DMS I would never have them in my store. Their model will always have a race to the bottom. @ Yago, there was a lot more to it than Scott Painter's poor judgement. Read some out his articles before this all came down. This man has disdain for...
  16. colson

    Seeking innovative pay plan ideas for internet sales managers

    It's also important to note that we posted on hold back. We found grosses were higher this way as it keeps our them pushing to hold the line on pricing.
  17. colson

    Seeking innovative pay plan ideas for internet sales managers

    For mine I always want pay plans that produce results to the bottom line. I've had success with retroactive pay plans with increasing percentages at certain unit levels. Our nissan stores started 20% and 3% back with tier bumps of 5%/1% at 8/15/22. Toyota we set higher tier levels because the...
  18. colson

    How many leads can an Internet Manager handle, effectively?

    In my stores the Internet Department handle all inbound Internet sourced calls and emails. As far as leads go we shoot for 60-80 leads per ISM, supplemented with calls. I think JK is spot on. I do have a couple people who have shown, month in month out, an abbility to close at a higher rate...
  19. colson

    Yet Another "PERPETUAL" Data Feed Contract!!!

    Our solution is to give them access to our inventory feed from CDM only. My main concern was customer and sales data.
  20. colson

    Yet Another "PERPETUAL" Data Feed Contract!!!

    Thanks to Jeff's ealier blog post on Edmunds TMV vs. TrueCar topic, I've been paying much closer attention to contracts that come across my desk. Today's offender is EverCarListed. From everything I've seen so far, I think they offer a great product for minimal expense, BUT paragraph C of...