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Help me help my owner - Incentive Pay for Internet Performance

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Nick Spolec

Peel'm off the Ceiling
Feb 16, 2012
36
5
First Name
Nick
#1
Hello everyone!

Need a bit of advice. For the past half a year, the owner of our dealerships has been trying to develop some type of incentive pay for me. Right now, my title is "Digital Marketing Director". But, I guess that's not really an accurate title. I like the sound of it though....

Now, he's put the ball in my hands and wants me to come up with some type of way to implement a bonus structure to my pay. Now, I've thought about the normal stuff --- traffic amount, VDPs views, leads received... Maybe forming a baseline for all of those from this past year, and basing monthly performance for the next year against those. But, all those are affected in one way or another by things outside of my control --- and I really am at a loss at what I could be goaled on other than those.

Maybe I should explain what I do: Right now, my main responsibilities are handling merchandising duties (pictures/descriptions), customization to the website, online promos, social media, Google adwords.

Any ideas?
 
#2
I honestly don't think you need to have a compensation plan based on metric level performance. To me the core elements of what defines an average, above average and great level of performance have more to do with you successfully implementing and continuing to take on new marketing responsibilities. Every metric you mentioned can be skewed, from bot traffic, direct to VDP advertising (Lot Linx) etc. This means they would first have to go through a, "How do we measure X and Y accurately over time to track Nick's pay" conversation...and that get's annoying.

It is not marketing's job to sell cars. Many organizations make the mistake of paying the marketing director based on sales. This leads to short sighted campaigns for today that sacrifice the brand for tomorrow. I would instead focus on your ability to manage the process of marketing the dealership and the variables that lead to successful marketing

  1. Do we have a clear marketing budget and plan for the year.
  2. Are we (and our vendors) done with each marketing asset at least 1 month in advance (with exception of new car incentives)
  3. How effective have we managed our contracts to reduce cost and stay flexible
  4. Did we ensure each customer facing employee was properly trained to execute the marketing plan
  5. Do we have a system of managing all of the metrics to convert our marketing into sales. Is it simple to use?

The only area I would perhaps incentivize would be budget effectiveness. Which if I were you would be based on the marketing budget vs total gross as a percentage. This can be split between fixed and variable or done as 1 total btw. You would need to define what is included obviously in the "marketing budget" but here's an example:

Total Monthly Marketing Spend: $50,000
Total Store Gross: $375,000
= 13.3%
Then you bonus based on where this falls vs specific level, $ amount per point, etc.

Here is another way to do this here based on sales vs gross: http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/threads/need-some-help-with-compensation.3749/#post-40371
 
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#3
The other thought I had after writing the above was, does this plan fit with the scope of your position?

If you are not directly involved with the selection, management and execution of the primary dealership marketing then this is a plan you should aspire to have based on your growth in the company. Dealers love tying performance variables to results. Some times they do this too much or as a means to inspire the person to self-manage themselves (so they don't have to).

If you don't have direct influence over the primary marketing then you should probably just have a salary with bi-annual reviews. Anything else will more than likely lead to confusion on both parts.
 
#5
jonberna said:
Every metric you mentioned can be skewed, from bot traffic, direct to VDP advertising (Lot Linx) etc. This means they would first have to go through a, "How do we measure X and Y accurately over time to track Nick's pay" conversation...and that get's annoying.
Click to expand...

At a previous dealership I had a pay plan that was similar that our GM came up with. After about 3 months, the tracking just got out of hand and they gave up on it and just gave me a guarantee.

In my current position I run a BDC and make digital marketing decisions for the dealership. My pay plan is based on total sales gross with a few other unit bonuses. I realize I don't "sell" the car but if what I do works it in theory should generate business for the store creating sales. I'm happy with it for the most part and believe it's fair. Just an idea.
 
#8
I've had to do the same thing @Nick Spolec . It's hard for people to see the impact that our positions have until they dont have that person anymore. The amount of money, frustration and BS that is deposited out of the window when you have an in house dude is hard to put a value on. Which is why I like to argue that if 90 something percent of the people that purchase cars visit our website or our vendors site and interact with our inventory. Then I have a hand in 90 something percent of the inventory we sell. Not to mention the amount of service RO's that are written up each month because I updated the service specials on the site.

In short the only way to value this position in my opinion is % gross. That way someone can tell me to do anything and I pretty much am obligated to do it now without worry about if its a trackable lead source for me or not.

Here is how I laid out my job duties at a valuation of 1.2 million annually

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6mJdcX502tEM0U4amxpVnN6NWM/view?usp=sharing
 
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