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In today's market how do ISM's really track success?

...ISM's like myself have evolved into more of a prominent role in the success of the Sales Department ...how do you really track how well your doing? Sure there are industry averages but who wants to be average?

Stephanie says "how do you really track how well your doing". To help give you some ideas, I want to know WHAT your doing, what your responsibilities are, or, what parts of the entire internet machine you have influence over.
 
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Stephanie , I re-read your post and I am going to assume that your "sphere of influence" is greater than buying leads. if so, then your entire future is based on educating yourself and all around you just how important the Internet is to the ENTIRE operation, not just the "Internet Department".

1st, establish just how important the Internet is to the entire operation.

The million dollar question: How much potential is there? You need to establish a base line to measure from. 2 simple yet critical reports need to be made. Don't let simplicity fool you, these 2 reports have more power to move mountains than any other report I have come across.

Number One Report.

Create post-sale survey (example below). This report will show you (and management) that 80-95% of your buyers were on your home site before they bought. So? Management doesn't see the site as a "gateway" to the show room. This report makes this an undeniable fact. The quality of the info and tools at this showroom gateway either makes the phone ring or they move on.

How much potential is at this "gateway to the showroom"?

Number Two Report.

Using End of Month numbers, divide number of unique visitors to your website by number of sales. This report will show you that you only sell .5% to 1.5% of your dealership's website audience. In other wods, 99 walk and only one buy. Where did the other 99 visitors go?

These two reports will give you an idea on how much upside there is to "working your crowd". You'll need this to help justifying increasing the budget. It will also help you give you a focus on what stats can help you sell more cars.


Post Sale Survey:
A very short and simple one page survey, Multiple Choice answers, made mandatory at delivery. A few on my survey are:

  • Have you bought from us before?
  • If yes, How many vehicles?
  • As best as you can recall, how long have you been looking for a new vehicle?
  • While you were car shopping, where did you get most of your ideas? (check all that apply)
  • How did you hear about us? (check all that apply)
  • Do you consider yourself a frequent internet user?
  • Did you visit internet automobile shopping sites? (please check all that apply)
  • Did you visit our website, ________.com?
  • How did you locate our website, ________.com?
  • Did you find ________.com helpful?
  • How can we make ________.com better?



http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/f43/how-much-change-will-i-see-190.html
http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/f43/what-most-important-site-analytics-430.html
 
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I would like to add something else. Whether you are a success or not depends on your overall attitude about your job.

Are you giving 100% ?
Are doing everything possible to continue to learn ?
Can you critique yourself and ask what can I do better ?

If you answer "yes" , than that is what matters. I don't know if I have all the answers for everyones needs, but when I show up to work, I am constantly trying to improve and give the best effort.

Think like a customer and shop like one !
Dan I believe I have come to the conclusion that my expectations are set so high for results that when i look at the reports I am never satisfied. And becausewe struggle daily as a Dealership to properly log customers I am not getting the accuracy I need to show the results I know we are producing from the Internet side of things.
Your reports were awesome and very detailed as mine are but I believe its internal struggle of am really doing everything I can, are my guys as well trained as they can be to block and tackle. Am I alone? Anyone else have the logging/sourcing problem in their dealership?
 
Stephanie , I re-read your post and I am going to assume that your "sphere of influence" is greater than buying leads. if so, then your entire future is based on educating yourself and all around you just how important the Internet is to the ENTIRE operation, not just the "Internet Department".

1st, establish just how important the Internet is to the entire operation.

The million dollar question: How much potential is there? You need to establish a base line to measure from. 2 simple yet critical reports need to be made. Don't let simplicity fool you, these 2 reports have more power to move mountains than any other report I have come across.

Number One Report.

Create post-sale survey (example below). This report will show you (and management) that 80-95% of your buyers were on your home site before they bought. So? Management doesn't see the site as a "gateway" to the show room. This report makes this an undeniable fact. The quality of the info and tools at this showroom gateway either makes the phone ring or they move on.

How much potential is at this "gateway to the showroom"?

Number Two Report.

Using End of Month numbers, divide number of unique visitors to your website by number of sales. This report will show you that you only sell .5% to 1.5% of your dealership's website audience. In other wods, 99 walk and only one buy. Where did the other 99 visitors go?

These two reports will give you an idea on how much upside there is to "working your crowd". You'll need this to help justifying increasing the budget. It will also help you give you a focus on what stats can help you sell more cars.


Post Sale Survey:
A very short and simple one page survey, Multiple Choice answers, made mandatory at delivery. A few on my survey are:

  • Have you bought from us before?
  • If yes, How many vehicles?
  • As best as you can recall, how long have you been looking for a new vehicle?
  • While you were car shopping, where did you get most of your ideas? (check all that apply)
  • How did you hear about us? (check all that apply)
  • Do you consider yourself a frequent internet user?
  • Did you visit internet automobile shopping sites? (please check all that apply)
  • Did you visit our website, ________.com?
  • How did you locate our website, ________.com?
  • Did you find ________.com helpful?
  • How can we make ________.com better?



http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/f43/how-much-change-will-i-see-190.html
http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/f43/what-most-important-site-analytics-430.html
Hey Joe thank you for your help that was helpful. I will implement your survey and report results.
thanks
Steph
 
Hi Steph,

Our dealership had the following set up. One internet manager and 7 salespeople who would oversee the internet leads. I was hired in March to implement a new strategy. Our company went to two dedicated internet managers and no sales people to review leads.

We manage the leads, send quote & follow up short term & long term. When we have a customer show, whatever salesperson is available, they get the customer. There are times when we need to assign a salesperson prior to customer coming in, but that is maybe 10% of the time.

The thinking was having 2 dedicated people will increase response time, better follow up and increase sales. All of these goals have been met. The salespeople who where helping with internet, are now concentrating there efforts to being on the floor (walk ins) , referals and phone ups.

So basically I think our dealership had the dilema you have and by having 2 dedicated managers, the whole process is easier and more efficient.
 
I am new to the forums but I have a similar setup to danoneil. I manage 6 different dealerships housed under an autogroup. The dealerships are all in one location, or at least in spitting distance - but our ISM's are in one room at one of the dealerships. I made up a spreadsheet that has been evolving since I stepped foot in my role as Internet Director about 7 months ago.

I manually input in information regarding the sale that I receive from the "recap" after the sale (date, salesperson, customer, showroom, trade, gross, gross with holdback, back, lead source). All that information then populates in the other side of the spreadsheet.

I then enter my information I get from my CRM (# of leads per source, # of leads per salesperson, etc).

I then can see closing ratios, cost per lead, cost per sale, net per sale and quite a bit more. I will post up a screen shot if I can.

With 6 stores I had a to come up with a way to monitor everything and even though there is some manual input - it is the best way I can measure cost per lead, closing ratio, net per sale, etc. I have been happy with it so far - but it is ever changing.

EDIT: Removed Image
 
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Marc,

That report looks like a lot of work. Who are you using for a CRM company? I'd suggest you contact them and share your report with them. Perhaps they can create something similar for you. I've seen reports like that in the reporting tools of other CRM vendors.