• Stop being a LURKER - join our dealer community and get involved. Sign up and start a conversation.

Setting up a Photo Booth

gulp... Its like I died and went to heaven! I'd PAY $20 for a guided tour of that place. Wow.

This is a classic example how SELECTION drives ENGAGEMENT.

From a business POV;

as amazing as this place looks they are probably not spending on every car's advertising budget more than many other dealers (lets say... $500 a car to do all that with website, etc). They just embraced e-commerce 110%.
 
Yago,

They're not in the same business we are.

That is true, but here was a day in the past were they did things the way we do and they changed.

You may know my first business was the data collection/photo service. Over 10 years I have been personally involved in signing 400 dealers. Not even once one asked me: "what is the best you can do?". What every one asked me is: "the other guys didn't show up enough, would you?" or "the other guys charge $12 a car, would you do it for $11.50?".

Still my biggest loss of photo/data business is the seasonal guy that shows up to the dealers, he got a homenet license or some other tool, bought a camera, and undercuts me by a dollar or so. Average dealer in WA sells 75 used cars a month, so they will save $75-150 with the change.

What bother me is not actually losing the business, I get the business back when the new guy's cycle is over or we sign something else. What still puzzles me is that a business with a $50,000 to $80,000/month advertisement budget still asks "how cheap" rather than "how better".

In that sense we are in the same business as these guys: the business of understanding what has the power to change our business.
 
Saving money has always to be a priority for a business owner, that going into 2013 we lack the foresight of the importance of ecommerce marketing for the business is appalling.
Dealerships need to look at the three major variable expenses and see how they relate to eCommerce. This is very important if you are getting 50, 60 or 70% of your busines through the internet.
This is where the money is. A dealership that wants to cut the fat without getting into the muscle needs to be looking at Salesperson's Compensation and Incentives, Interest Floor Plan and Advertising.
With the velocity approach (new and used), you are getting away from average gross profit with a new focus on departmental net. Not looking at those three accounts and determining how they can be manipulated to serve the cause is absurd.
Over my career, I have spent weeks crunching number in those three. I could easily write a book on this subject. It would be the ultimate cure for insomnia.
 
Saving money has always to be a priority for a business owner, that going into 2013 we lack the foresight of the importance of ecommerce marketing for the business is appalling.

If a dealership wants to seriously look at controlling expenses, it isn't in saving a dollar on pictures. The key of cutting the fat without getting into the muscle is in the three largest variable expenses:
  • Salesperson's Compensation and Incentives
  • Interest, Floor Plan
  • Advertising
How do these expenses relate to eCommerce? If a dealership is getting 50, 60 or 70% of their business from the internet, they need to address how these accounts can be manipulated to serve the cause. For any dealership that has made the leap to the velocity approach, they need to have their heads buried in these three. Think about it. You are getting away from the "old school" focus on average gross profit to departmental net.

I could easily write a book on this subject. I will call it the ultimate cure for insomnia.