I work in a small market dealership. When I first started working here, we didn't have much of an internet sales department. I've been in the business for almost three years, and early 2012, I got tapped to take over our internet sales department. I went to work, and with the help of my GM ($$$) I got our lead count up to 140 leads a month avg. from forty, and set up our CRM, and I increased our productivity from 4-6 units a month to 14-18. I am now faced with the fact that I have plateau'd, and am trying to increase our departments sales. I know there is a marketing solution, but I am looking for a boots on the ground sales solution, but unfortunately, I'm the boot on the ground. I handle all the maintence, and I follow customers for 90 days, but I'm not sure how effective I am. If this story sounds familiar to some of you, I would appreciate any advice. I feel that most of what I've learned has been trial and error, and while the burnt hand teaches best, I would appreciate input. If someone could tell me what I'm doing right, and more importantly, wrong, that would be great. We advertise with cars, autotrade, I handle craigslist postings, and we flirt with ebay. We advertise with zag, but its not a focus, we just don't want to lose deals in our backyard.
Rookie ISM in need of a little advice
- Thread starter Jewanski
- Start date
I would be happy to give you some advice. I built an internet sales department for a dealer group (just left) and probably went through a lot of the same struggles you went through. Can you PM me your dealership if you don't want to put it out there? However, I can tell you that there are some tremendous minds on here who if you don't mind taking a little constructive criticism could really give you some great pointers on your website and internet marketing in general. Some quick points I can give you without a lot of detail on your situation:
-Out of the 140 leads, does that include any phone ups or is that strictly email? If there are phone ups in there, who is taking them? Have they been trained properly on how to take a phone up?
-I would consider going out further than 90 days on your follow up.
-How does your follow up breakdown between phone and emails?
-How quickly are you following up?
-What are your follow up emails saying?
I would be happy to secret shop you if you want some honest feedback. Good luck!
-Out of the 140 leads, does that include any phone ups or is that strictly email? If there are phone ups in there, who is taking them? Have they been trained properly on how to take a phone up?
-I would consider going out further than 90 days on your follow up.
-How does your follow up breakdown between phone and emails?
-How quickly are you following up?
-What are your follow up emails saying?
I would be happy to secret shop you if you want some honest feedback. Good luck!
- May 1, 2005
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- Jeff
Gracious offer Aaron. It's never easy to answerloaded noob questions.
So many questions - where to start.
As Aaron mentions, work on bettering your process. Jerry over at PhineNinjas offers one if the best (if not the best) Mystrey shop service. I would recommend having your dealer shopped 5 times a week while using the your recorded coached perfromance and scoring reviews as additional training and each week and day.
Richard, I encourage you to search the forums and blog. We have over 7 years of process and marketing related articles here.
Jeff
So many questions - where to start.
As Aaron mentions, work on bettering your process. Jerry over at PhineNinjas offers one if the best (if not the best) Mystrey shop service. I would recommend having your dealer shopped 5 times a week while using the your recorded coached perfromance and scoring reviews as additional training and each week and day.
Richard, I encourage you to search the forums and blog. We have over 7 years of process and marketing related articles here.
Jeff
With that lead load, combined with you running the entire show - you have likely peaked. To reach the next level, you will need someone else to work the leads with you. The Internet runs 24/7, and despite your best efforts, you need some help as you can only work so many hours per day.
My best suggestion is to motivate/recruit an additional person to round robin leads with you, while working to improve process, and taking a closer look at your website and conversion. PM me if you want to talk and need some more advice. And btw - great job so far!
My best suggestion is to motivate/recruit an additional person to round robin leads with you, while working to improve process, and taking a closer look at your website and conversion. PM me if you want to talk and need some more advice. And btw - great job so far!
