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New Internet Manager Questions

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#11
DealerDoc,

I appreciate the insight! I have worked at this dealership previously as a salesman, so I am rather fortunate to truly understand the philospohy around here. There are many new salesman and new manager + new salesman makes it quite difficult to grasp everything.
BUT, as Chris said earlier, I am thoroughly enjoying rebuilding this department and getting to tweak everything. It is hard work and I'm currently handling most deals cradle to grave as my two go-to men were recently promoted to management as well. I am having a hard time easing our newer hires into the transition on an internet lead.. thus far, they haven't been educated enough to do it on their own so I have lead and tried to teach, which has slightly backfired as now most of them expect the hand-holding and deals totally worked for them. I don't mind working for my team, as a matter of fact, I love it! Sales has always been my niche and I love working deals, but in this position, that's not my goal. It is to generate sales and manage our internet department as a whole, which I also love and enjoy.
I am open to any pointers!
 
#12
"Redneckified"?! lol That's some funny stuff right there. With everything you have going on, it sounds like you could use a good laugh too...if so (and when no one is around) check out an old car commercial on youtube called "F" you Baltimore ...Fair warning...it's pretty bad (really bad) but for some reason always cheers me up.

I commend you for leading your team by example. It's definitely tough drawing the line between proper leadership and doing their job for them. You seem to have a great attitude and sense of humor, that will go a LONG way when trying to win over the more tenured salespeople. Whatever you do, don't let the daily grind rob that from you. The moment you become snippy with a bunch of old heads, they'll do everything possible to watch you fail.

A few things you mentioned jumped out at me.

1. Are you able to add to your team, or required to use only existing staff?
2. Have you mystery shopped your biggest competitors to make sure your pricing is set properly?
3. Do you have the stores base line performance metrics to work with? Average leads per month, average response time, average contacts per lead, average customer response rate, closing%, that sort of stuff.

Since adding 50 deals overnight isn't likely, working to make continuous improvements in a few key areas will help keep you sane. Since you are already cleaning up your templates, scripts and follow up processes, I bet you'll start to move the needle before you know it.

If you feel like you're running into any walls, remember to post them here so the rest of us can take a crack at it. A LOT of talent is lurking about!

Take care,

Chris
 
#13
Haha I will definitely have to check that out!

I thoroughly enjoy what I do and a fortunate to be surrounded by many that feel the same. So, hopefully that light will continue to burn bright!

Currently, I think we are wanting to see how I am capable of handling the load and then branch out from there if needed. I think it will be needed, but in the past this department was expanded further than it should have been and productivity wasn't where it should have been so we aren't wanting to make that mistake again.

I have not done any mystery shopping so far, but I do plan to. To asses our pricing as well as follow up, scripts, and word tracks I may stumble upon from other sales teams. Personally, I think our pricing is actually rather phenominal. Our management re-evaluates every 7 days and we always have the "proof in the pudding" to provide to customers to show we really are top ranked in our area, but another hurdle for our salesman to stick to. Although, I will give it to them, EVERYONE I talk to is all about slashing prices even when from their mouths they say they're calling because they knew it was a deal.

And lastly, I don't just yet. I'm working with our CRM specialist to learn all of the reports and access to this.

So far this month, I'm providing almost half of the vehicles sold so I guess I'm not doing too bad. But my eye is definitely on a bigger prize long term. I'm looking forward to working with my sales management and getting us back on track.
I think I've tackled what I can for the time being and we are working on the rest, so we are off to a good start.

There is a plethora of information here and I am just soaking it up.

Thanks for all the wise words!

Catie B.
 
#14
A slightly out of the box idea.

I think Statistics is super important to running an effective online team. ie is it actually relevant if you only have "10" of something? What do all those numbers in Google Analytics and AdWords really mean?

Udacity (founded by the guy who lead Google's self driving car team) offers some excellent free courses, for example:
https://www.udacity.com/course/intro-to-statistics--st101

And if that's too basic, they have MS levels machine learning courses too ;)
 
#16
To anyone viewing or maybe following this post, I have a direct question for once!

As a dealership, BDC, salesman, or any other position dealing with sales, incentives, and specials; what do you do to keep track of monthly specials? I am looking to consolidate this information into one sheet for my benefit as well as my salesman.
Any good ideas?
I know how to access it from the manufacturer but I'm looking to find the most efficient and effective way.
 
#17
Does your factory rep email a monthly grid with specials? I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't already sending exactly what you want to your sales managers. Just need to have you added to the list. Those seem to be the easiest for us to use, one column on the left has all the models and then across the page they list any rebates, apr%, lease special etc for that model. You should have everything you need on one page if possible, so hopefully that's an option.

We have to use something called "map" pricing (the manufacturer mandates we can't advertise pricing or payments under invoice less incentives, or else they send out a team of deadly assassins...) so the only other thing we send out to the sales people and BDC reps are any special dealership created lease payments/offers that are listed on our specials page and differ from the national ones.

One thing I learned early one from a training stand point, was when a customer calls and asks if you have any special offers on X,Y,Z, model, the first words that come out need to be "Absolutely!" regardless if nothing has changed in the past 6 months or not.

Case in point, I watched in horror as a new sales person took a phone call on a new Tacoma Lease. The customer asked if we had any lease specials on the Tacoma and because the manufacture isn't pushing anything, he said NO! lol

After the call I asked him how a 36 month residual of 71% wasn't "special" or if perhaps the 2 years of free factory scheduled maintenance may have sounded "special" to the customer. Even if they are calling for a special rate and the manufacture doesn't have say 2.9% of 1.9%, rates are at all time historic lows. Often times we can get a lower rate anyway, so again the answer is "Yes we do!" lol

A positive and helpful attitude goes a LONG way with most potential customers. Often they are calling to see if you are the kind of person they want to do business with and as long as you convey a positive "can-do attitude", you'll have an appointment in no time.

Hope that helps!
 
#18
So far, we don't receive anything of the nature that any management is aware of.
Of course, as you mentioned my initial response is absolutely then keep the convo going as I locate our specials.
It's a pain to feel like you're caught off-guard or may not be aware of everything that's available to the consumer.
Right now, I am manually doing a compilation of the monthly specials by going into each manufacturer site and it is SO time consuming. There may not actually be a better way, but I feel there has to be something that's more efficient.
 
#19
I'd try emailing each of your factory reps for the Brands you sell and ask them for an incentive matrix or grid at the beginning of each month or program period. You having to sift through the internet like it's a scavenger hunt is ludicrous, not to mention a complete waste of your time. You'll never know about behind the scenes things like dealer cash, year end clearance, final pay, or any other incentive that's NOT a customer rebate. I'm not saying you need to pass all of this info on to your sales people, but as the Manager you need to know what your competition has to work with so you can structure your deals competitively. Your gut feeling is right (it usually is lol) just try asking directly from the source. If that still doesn't get you anywhere, let me know what Brands you need and I'll reach out locally to get you an actual example so you can shame your rep into creating the same thing for you ; )
 
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