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Rick Buffkin

Sausage King of Chicago
Oct 29, 2009
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Guys and girls, It seems really quiet in here on the forums. Whats everybody working on? New project's? Putting out fire's? Re-Inventing the wheel for the car buying process? Don't be bashful, chime in!!! :)

Me? I'm working on a new website pricing application.


What are you working on??
 
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Outside of what I do for my day job, I have created the first Smart TV automotive marketplace and although it does well enough in terms of selling leads back to a number of inventory providers, the real power sits in catching leads from automotive commercials on Smart TV channels. Think one button push from Smart TV commercial(s) to new vehicle inventory and one button push to submit pre-stored credentials for lead generation -> straight to CRM. Native lead generation processes are much more important to the end user (exudes trust) and user experience (ease of use).

There are loads of automotive commercials (Tier One and Two, should be more Tier Three) on platforms like Roku, Apple TV, Samsung TV, etc. and on channels like Hulu, MLB, NFL, etc.
 
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Rick, it has been quiet. Wtf.

They say activity breeds activity and of course January and February are typically not the months for activity. Especially in the current climate, it seems.

Either way I'm glad you asked... (since here lately I've sort of neglected my own thread.)

Over the past six months and since coming back to the dealership, I've really hunkered down on the basics. And when I say the basics, I'm referring to merchandising. Whether it's merchandising our inventory or merchandising our people or our "why buy" message.

I believe if you're stepping into a dealership that lacks proper merchandising, this is the one channel that you can focus on that allows you to quickly effect change.

Inventory merchandising - Great photos, amazing photos, more photos, and video.

I've been focused on walk around videos of our inventory over the last few weeks. From shooting the video to optimizing to using video in our follow-up.

I also jumped back into Reputation Management. Our dealer just won DealerRater dealer of the year and their customer satisfaction award. We are using DealerRater LotShot to garner most of the reviews on the sales side and I just implemented Dominion's PRIME to help manage the reviews and go after more service reviews. Been testing out the new DealerRater Connections feature as well. It's off to a slow start but has potential.

I know this is basic stuff... but too often we need to get back to basics. The stuff that really moves the needle. We can report ourselves to death and sign up for the latest analytics tool and overkill ourselves with a ton of data, but what good is it most times?
 
@Alexander Lau, Thats pretty awesome bro! To be honest, I haven't even given any thought to advertising on Smart TV's. I just looked at your website and it looks like a pretty slick application!
Thanks, well, it works. It's simple and clean (kinda think that's how most software should look and function). However, it does need to be upgraded. It doesn't display enough of the inventory pictures or contain video(s) as it should. Thinking about trying to integrate SpinCar or the like, etc. Unsure of the capability, as these are screens and not pure HTML.

Day job, we've been creating automotive custom channel groupings and multi-touch channel attribution models in Google Analytics. This helps a dealer view their (Google-based) analytics with much more clarity. Fun stuff, very powerful.
 
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I know this is basic stuff... but too often we need to get back to basics. The stuff that really moves the needle. We can report ourselves to death and sign up for the latest analytics tool and overkill ourselves with a ton of data, but what good is it most times?

I completely agree @Jeff Kershner


Day job, we've been creating automotive custom channel groupings and multi-touch channel attribution models in Google Analytics.

Me personally, I really need to brush up on my skill level with GA. There's so much you can do now with GA, I don't think most ppl realize the potential with it. Unfortunately right now it's on the back burner for me with so many other items and issues on my plate.

Right now my main focus is developing and deploying this pricing application. I don't know if I can make it stick but I'm gonna try extremely hard. Since To--yo--ta (I'm sure they're watching) rolled out their MAPP pricing rules a little over a year ago (I think a year ago), our hands have been really tied with advertised pricing online. They are really going for consistent pricing across the boards with all of their dealerships. They set the baseline for what you can advertise a vehicle for throughout all your advertising channels. Once a customer submits their contact info to you, you can take the gloves off and send them any kind of price you want. Your only talking about only 2 or 3 percent of the web traffic to the website though. We all know that form submission rates continue to keep falling every year. Their pricing structure you have to follow almost makes it impossible to manage the old age inventory. I hoping to change that very shortly! :)
 
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Here's one that's not so BASIC....

Diving back into Lead Scoring. I'm always back'n forth with it. IHS/Polk has some great data but I don't always agree with how they present it to dealers.

Either way...

I have all of our leads filtering through AutoHook (formally HookLogic) and being "scored". IHS/Polk looks at several data points and assigns a "score" to the lead. A score of 1-10 with 10 having the highest probability of being in the market to purchase a vehicle.

Through contract, Polk isn't allowed to represent the actual score through AutoHook, BUT you can build filters that represent a particular score while assigning different incentive amounts to each. I break it up into 3 filters Good, Better, Get YOUR ASS on this lead, NOW!!

Example: after a lead going through a filter and receiving a score of "Get YOUR ASS on this lead, NOW!!"

Voucher Code: 22215-6489
Name: John Doe
Email:[email protected]
Telephone: XXX-969-XXXX
Offer: $100 Prepaid Visa® virtual account
Initiative: MB Hagerstown $100 Offer - Polk + Geo


I get a copy of this in my email and from there I copy and paste into eLeadCRM as a note and comment on the that days follow-up, more importantly, I get with the sales person right away.

Someone said "If you're gonna cherry pick leads (and humans do,) cherry pick the right leads."

We don't cherry pick leads :) here at MBH because we're a smaller dealer and every lead counts. BUT, I need my team to be efficient and not get "Lead Fatigue". Which happens to the best of us.
 
Dude... Funny you mention this (Lead Scoring). I'm in the process right now of setting up a trial with Adpearance at our Chrysler Store and using their Foureyes piece. It's been about 2 - 3 months since I saw the Demo at a Chrysler meeting but, it's very similar to Lead Scoring, kinda. It brings the leads that show more intent to purchase in front of the sales reps. I honestly can't remember all the details but, I do remember that part of it. Basically it helps the reps filter the online tire kickers from the buyers. All the website and CRM details for that Lead are imported along with some other jumble. If I recall correctly, it alerts the rep somehow. Txt message maybe, Notification sent to CRM. Can't remember. I'll let you know how it goes though.
foureyes-leadfeed-details.png


Just sitting thinking about your scoring process, do you keep track of your closing percentages and factor in the initial lead scores. Just curious if maybe leads with a score of 5 - 6 have a better closing ratio at 60 days vrs maybe leads with a score of 7 in the same time-frame.

Also, do you find the scores to being pretty accurate??
 
Dude... Funny you mention this (Lead Scoring). I'm in the process right now of setting up a trial with Adpearance at our Chrysler Store and using their Foureyes piece. It's been about 2 - 3 months since I saw the Demo at a Chrysler meeting but, it's very similar to Lead Scoring, kinda. It brings the leads that show more intent to purchase in front of the sales reps. I honestly can't remember all the details but, I do remember that part of it. Basically it helps the reps filter the online tire kickers from the buyers. All the website and CRM details for that Lead are imported along with some other jumble. If I recall correctly, it alerts the rep somehow. Txt message maybe, Notification sent to CRM. Can't remember. I'll let you know how it goes though.
foureyes-leadfeed-details.png


Just sitting thinking about your scoring process, do you keep track of your closing percentages and factor in the initial lead scores. Just curious if maybe leads with a score of 5 - 6 have a better closing ratio at 60 days vrs maybe leads with a score of 7 in the same time-frame.

Also, do you find the scores to being pretty accurate??
WHOA! I heard these guys were at NADA. Looks impressive.