Salary for Internet Sales Manager or Director

[JesseJ]

Hello everyone. I've been lurking here for awhile, but I figure it is time to jump into the conversation. I have been an ISM for just over one month now so you can imagine I'm playing catch up and then some. I'm absolutely amazed by how knowledgeable some of the folks on this forum are. I've learned quite a bit. I am wondering if any of you veterans could give me any feedback on my current pay plan, if it seems fair and what I should be striding toward.

My disclaimer is that I graduated with a Bachelor's degree in journalism just under a year ago. I was a sports reporter for the last three years and had not worked a day in the auto industry prior. The reason I landed my position was my slew of tech and social media skills, photography background, etc.

I make a base each week of $350. On top of that I make $25/appointment and a monthly sales bonus: (0-9 sales: $25/sale, 10-14 sales: $50/sale, 15-19 sales: $75/sale, 20 or more: $100/sale).

That pay plan seems to be fairly generous although the top-end sales goals seem out of reach at the moment. We receive anywhere between 90-160 leads a month. It fluctuates a lot but seems to hover around the low 100s. In February (started responding to leads on the 14th), I generated 16 appointments and 5 sales out of 60 or so leads. So far in March, I'm at 23 appointments and 5 sales so far out of about 90 or so leads. Some of the appointments came from last month's leads.

We are very small. We keep between 20-40 used cars on the lot and are Internet department is basic. Our website leaves something to be desired and we don't put a lot of money into third-party internet services.

My responsibilities include but are not limited to:

-Photography and soon to be video for the cars

-Website maintenance

- Social media campaigning

- Basic things like price-checking, taglines, etc.

Just about anything that has to do with an internet department is my responsibility here. There is no delegation of any kind. I'm curious to hear some feedback. Thanks a lot and I look forward to participating on this message board.

 

[Alex Snyder]

Hello everyone. I've been lurking here for awhile, but I figure it is time to jump into the conversation. I have been an ISM for just over one month now so you can imagine I'm playing catch up and then some. I'm absolutely amazed by how knowledgeable some of the folks on this forum are. I've learned quite a bit. I am wondering if any of you veterans could give me any feedback on my current pay plan, if it seems fair and what I should be striding toward.

Jesse - welcome

Congratulations on the new job and the BA. Writing can definitely aid you in preparing better content for your online efforts.

I realize your main objective is to garner whether your current payplan is adequate and that is something nobody here can answer. Payplans are personal and are designed off the main business goals your boss is after. It is tough to gauge what proper pay should be when commenting from the outside. There is the local market that affects the income level, cost of living, your actual resume, and the history of the dealership.

From the numbers you've laid out, it looks like your closing ratio for last month was 8% (5 ÷ 60) and your closing ratio for this month is at 5% (5 ÷ 90). Last I heard the average dealership's closing ratio is around 8% on Internet leads. The more experienced have closing rates around 14% up to 24% (just depends on how sales from Internet sources are counted). So, there is a lot more room for you to grow.

It is still early in your automotive career, but if you want to weigh your pay with something closer to home, get your hands on a sales person payplan.

Latham.....Latham....Latham.....New York? I recall driving through there when I was moving from Virginia Beach to Burlington, VT.

 

[JesseJ]

Thanks Alex!

Yes indeed. Latham, NY is just a few miles north of Albany.

So from what I understand, you are saying that your pay scale is reflected by the market, dealership's expectations, my experience etc. That all makes perfect sense of course. The close rate increasing also makes sense. I guess what I'm wondering is, how much room is there to grow? Would you expect pay to increase with the size of the dealership if I moved to a larger market? Or is it too hard to generalize that way?

The one other question I forgot to ask. Is it common for internet sales managers to get the demo car perk?

 

[Alex Snyder]

I guess what I'm wondering is, how much room is there to grow?

There isn't a ceiling in sales. There may be a ceiling on the dealership you're working for though. You'll figure that out in time.

Would you expect pay to increase with the size of the dealership one is working at or is it really to hard to pinpoint?

It really depends on the dealership's buy-in to the Internet. In any job, I would expect my pay to grow with my individual growth as long as my individual growth directly benefited the company I was employed by.

The one other question I forgot to ask. Is it common for internet sales managers to get the demo car perk?

It sounds like you're on par with sales agents on the totem pole right now. Do sales agents have demos at your store? You just have to figure out where you are in the pecking order and make sure your benefits are equally fair.

 

[JesseJ]

There isn't a ceiling in sales. There may be a ceiling on the dealership you're working for though. You'll figure that out in time.

We have a couple sales guys who get pretty close to six figures, but their pay plan is worlds apart from mine since it's based on a percentage. I think this pay plan pretty decisively dictates a ceiling of around $60,000, of course that is assuming my base pay or incentives never changed which they would eventually.


It really depends on the dealership's buy-in to the Internet. In any job, I would expect my pay to grow with my individual growth as long as my individual growth directly benefited the company I was employed by.

This is a primary concern of mine. I'm barely in the door. The Internet department is a bit bare. Our website is through dealer connection. It's a free service, but we bought the "premium" service on top of it. It still feels free. We are about to cut cars.com and they cut ties with auto trader a while before I came on board. We have a multi-generation family owned business with a lot of customer loyalty, local referrals, etc. It's not that they half-ass the internet department, it's that they feel they've gotten by well enough as is. Still a concern for someone in my seat.

It sounds like you're on par with sales agents on the totem pole right now. Do sales agents have demos at your store? You just have to figure out where you are in the pecking order and make sure your benefits are equally fair.

Yes, salesman are eligible for demos after 90 days and 30 sales. We are small, so there are only four salesman currently but during the summer it will likely be around six. It seems like everyone and there brother (literally in many cases) gets a demo here.

Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying the job very much. I just always like to know where I stand and what I should be shooting for. This career path is very new to me so I'm just fact finding at the moment.

Thanks again Alex, this is very helpful stuff.

 

[Chris Cachor]

Re: Salary for digital media specialist?

I am someone that takes care of all of the dealership vehicle photos, website maintenance, print ads along with various other tasks, and am curious what the average rate of pay for someone of this position. It is a somewhat blurry subject in the sense that I am the first person to do this job at my place of work, so I am just seeing if anyone else has a person like myself at their dealership, and what they make.

The responsibilities that I have are:

- Photography of each vehicle
- Cleaning the photo booth
- Custom vehicle comments/descriptions (website)
- Photoshop each photo for maximum quality (average of 30 per vehicle)
- Posting vehicles to Craigslist
- Web banners (slideshow on homepage)
- Print ads and all other graphic design within the business
- Coordinating with TV advertisers (graphics/logos)
- Stationary design
- Facebook, Twitter, YouTube updates
- Basic IT trouble shooting in the sales dept.
- Window stickers
- Occasional online pricing updates
- Customer assistance when all sales reps are occupied
- Website maintenance (Dealer.com drag and drop style)
- Video uploads to our website
- Updating online specials
- Creating Excel charts
- Web traffic analysis
- Autotrader and Cars.com maintenance
- Test leads within Dealer.com website
- Washing vehicle exteriors if they are dirty before photographing
- Misc. tasks

I typically do about 25-40 vehicles per week and work 50-60 hours. What would somebody like myself typically get paid?

Any information would be very helpful.

Thanks!

I'd say @ 50-60 hrs/wk salary of ~45-55k sounds right depending on the location.

 

[Eley Duke]

Re: Salary for digital media specialist?

I am someone that takes care of all of the dealership vehicle photos, website maintenance, print ads along with various other tasks, and am curious what the average rate of pay for someone of this position. It is a somewhat blurry subject in the sense that I am the first person to do this job at my place of work, so I am just seeing if anyone else has a person like myself at their dealership, and what they make.

The responsibilities that I have are:

- Photography of each vehicle
- Cleaning the photo booth
- Custom vehicle comments/descriptions (website)
- Photoshop each photo for maximum quality (average of 30 per vehicle)
- Posting vehicles to Craigslist
- Web banners (slideshow on homepage)
- Print ads and all other graphic design within the business
- Coordinating with TV advertisers (graphics/logos)
- Stationary design
- Facebook, Twitter, YouTube updates
- Basic IT trouble shooting in the sales dept.
- Window stickers
- Occasional online pricing updates
- Customer assistance when all sales reps are occupied
- Website maintenance (Dealer.com drag and drop style)
- Video uploads to our website
- Updating online specials
- Creating Excel charts
- Web traffic analysis
- Autotrader and Cars.com maintenance
- Test leads within Dealer.com website
- Washing vehicle exteriors if they are dirty before photographing
- Misc. tasks

I typically do about 25-40 vehicles per week and work 50-60 hours. What would somebody like myself typically get paid?

Any information would be very helpful.

Thanks!

digital_specialtist, are you interested in moving to Virginia??

We’re a Chevy, Buick, GMC, Cadillac dealership getting about 300 leads a month, 250 of those being GM third party. We are a new dealer.com client, have the Cobalt site as secondary, one person BDC, (basically answering leads, setting appointments, and making CSI calls) wanting to change to a “cradle to grave†internet sales department, and our “BDC†be our support department for all you listed, including Fixed Ops support!! Right now, I am the guy doing most everything you mentioned, we want to bring in house our own pictures, window labels, web graphics, window stickers, etc.

My goal is for us to stop being a "regular every day car dealership" and become an "eCommerce Dealership"! I am looking for someone that can do everything you are saying you do, except you wouldn’t be washing any more cars !!

Eley

 

[Alan®]

Was just looking to see what other people make.

Basically was hired 3 months ago as an Internet Lead Coordinator. We use Elead around 600 ups a month. There were two sales people that handled them beginning to end and did on average less than twenty cars a month before I got there. They hired me and I began vetting everything making contact with each and everyone of the almost 700 leads a month. I make $10/hr. 40 HRS a week with no chance at overtime. $9 an appointment. $12/car sold. I typically have 30 appointments show a month with 30-50% that actually buy. Which puts me at less than $22K take home. We have one other guy that doesn't do anything but handle taking the photos of the inventory and making sure they are posted. And he makes around $30K take home.

On top of this. I have been asked on numerous occasions to work not only my own leads from beginning to end but walk ins from beginning to end with no extra compensation offered on top of that.

We ran into a problem where people were working leads when they werent supposed to be stealing other peoples ups because we had sales people working the leads instead of ISM's just trying to get people in the store. My GM then basically proposed to shut down the internet department all together and start handing out leads to everyone essentially eliminating my department. In a panic I went home and spent the entire night putting together a proposal to turn things around.

Proposition in hand I presented was given approval and now have not been able to get anyone to move on it but still am berated by complaints from my managers about our closing ratios(even though like i said earlier the number of appointments and cars sold has doubled).

Any ideas thoughts? Am i wrong for thinking I'm grossly underpaid?

 

[FiveStar]

Hey Guys and Gals! I have a couple questions, hoping someone can help.

First, I have 7 years of new/used auto sales experience at one of the larger Atlanta area family of dealers. I took 8 months off from the business to explore other options and really clear my head knowing I would eventually get back in the business because I love it. I have an interview at a Chevy dealer in town and it's for an internet sales position. I was contacted by an ex boss who I worked for in the past asking if I would be interested in interviewing for the position. Naturally, it struck my interest so I agreed. My first question is what sort of pay plan should I expect, I know we will nego. everything as I don't want to just lay down for whatever they offer. I want to know what an average salary is for an internet manager as I've always been commission only. The store probably averages somewhere in the 50 unit range a month.

Also, any help with average pay plan for appointments, units ect. I would like to go off a flat rate per unit as in the past I was always 25% of gross but after the PAC's and Doc Fee's kept going up profit was always hard to come by with all the competition in the Atlanta Market and the buyers paying all the money and some at the Auction. I'm going into this blind and really need some kind of ammo so I don't feel underpaid, after all that's the number one cause of keeping a sales person negative is they aren't making any money.

At a normal franchise used lot I would carry a 25-30% closing ratio (not including the customers that couldn't buy because of credit) averaging 20 cars a month with only phone and lot traffic, always top 3 for salesmen of the month. I told myself I would not get back in the business unless I had at least 3k a month salary, is this unrealistic for an internet sales manager? Too low? I know nothing about the pay plans for internet sales managers so any help would be great. Thanks so much!

 

[ddavis]

I look at dealer websites and positioning on AutoTrader and Cars.com. I need a life, but the Internet has become my passion. We have been involved with the Internet for a decade and most dealerships don't have a clue. I assume that people that come to websites, like this, share my passion.

My last General Manager used to say that I was the "best in Texas". I do admire his judgement.

I was paid $75 per car with sales under 75 units. $100 per car over 75 units (back to the first unit) with bonuses for having a response time of under 5 minutes, 100% custom descriptions on all new and used vehicles, 100% of all vehicles priced, and a closing ratio (sales to leads) of 15%.

At that store, the Internet Director was just under the General Sales Manager. We had one third of the salespeople but made up 70% of the sales. Our average gross profit (front and back) was higher that the floor.

I was never able to get everything done in a 60 hour work week. Done right, it is the hardest job in the dealership.