I am in Alex's camp. The home page is like the front cover of a magazine. People glance at the cover, then go to the index. Granted, the cover has value, but the shopper IS ALREADY AT YOUR SITE (i.e. they have the magazine in their hands). Where do people go once they have the magazine in their hands? THE TABLE OF CONTENTS.

It's easy to get hung up on the impact of a strong visual BRANDING MESSAGE that comes from the home page, but, shopping is all about completing a task. The deeper they go into the site, the more important the page becomes to completing the shoppers needs. IMO, The most important page on a site is the VDP (Vehicle Detail Page). Cut corners here and you're rewarding your competitors for delivering a weak story with no fuel to generate a lead.

It's the ease of navigation that's the most important feature of a well designed home page.

Never judge a book by it's cover... judge it by it's well designed "Table of Contents"

I've had better luck getting email addresses saying, "Could I have your email so I can send you the CarFax"?

Then getting the number by saying, "I'll have to check on tha because it's showing in the computer but I don't see it on our lot". Can I call you back win about 10 minutes?" Also, "...can I have your number in case we get disconnected?"

Jeff, you are absolutely right. It is not difficult to have a productive chat that results in a lead, however it does take some practice and there are definitely some "best practices" to follow. I work for a chat company so I see what goes on in the chat world day in and day out. Here are a few things I spotted in the transcript above that could be done differently:

1. It took 45 seconds to answer the chat, that is generally too long. No one wants to hold when they are looking to communicate with you. Most people will drop the chat if they have to wait more than 10 seconds.

2. As chatters, we have to make some deposits to the customer then ask for some information in return (the withdraw). Next would be to confirm that the 4 Runner is a great choice of vehicle.

3. Sending the actual link to the alternative vehicle instead of having the customer search would have been smoother.

4. E-mail before phone is our mantra. People are much more comfortable sharing e-mail addresses than their phone. Something like this might have helped the conversation move differently.

"I'm sorry, that particular 4 Runner has been sold, but we have some others on the lot that are similar, is there an e-mail address I could send some additional information to about those vehicles?"

These are just some points, chat is a fluid game and every conversation is different. Every customer is different, but with practice chat can easily be your number one lead generator!

Well personally I don't agree with it. We use ADP and their CRM sytem with a mixture of other "can't live without product's" that never seem to work the way they are suppose to. And I am a firm believer or perfect what you have first before adding more. While the CRM is the only system I really use constantly it is also probably the most frustrating. I would like to see them get the "glitches" out of what they are already providing dealers before deciding to take on another venture and that they will have more problems with. Just my Opinion. Before I get to spend more money on my Internet Ventures I have to prove the other money being spent is working correctly and providing results, then if so I get more stuff. Makes sense to me!

It amazes me that more people haven't commented on this story. I can think of about 400 million better things to do with my money...but I guess I will join everyone else and go with the company line of..."no comment".

I think the purchase is a smart move to consolidate the fragmented automotive website and digital marketing industry. With Cobalt's OEM deals and ADP's efforts to refresh their website technology and expand their digital marketing services with SkySong, this deal may not have too much overlap.

The key with any merger of this size is to see how the cultures integrate and how the technology leaders connect their technology resources.

Alex, you will never change.... Love you man. Call me sometime.

Mark

Ralph,

Yes, you are right about timing. Timing and perception make the world go round.

There is a problem that I'm much more exposed to these days where a lot of dealers are hiring people who came from their competitor's stores. The plateau of best practices and fresh ideas has a very short elevation. This was the inspiration for my article.

I have to give it to you Ralph - you are the master of making things all about you.

Larry - thanks! Talk to you soon.

Well put Alex, why guess when you don't have to? Hope we can catch up at DD9 in Vegas.

My new email is [email protected] let me know if I can help.

LB

Alex,

Thank you for a thought provoking post that will stay relevant for a long time... Like you, I will also admit to being "guilty as charged" more often than I would like. However, I also want to point something out that I believe is the corollary to the Rule of Equal Incompetence, and closely related to "Paralysis by Analysis". A few years ago I "felt" or "believed" that Click-to-Play display advertising that I built for the dealership I worked at should HAVE TO BE a better performer than the plain old fashioned display ads we were running at the time. I built numerous CTP Video ads, which were fun, entertaining and made use of some great clips that our OEM supplied us with, along with custom video we had shot for making TV commercials... The campaigns kept falling short of expectations, and I put tons of work into making them produce results because I BELIEVED THAT THEY SHOULD WORK. Nothing... Nada.... None of the consumers the ads were targeted at would click on the "Triangle Lense" to play the videos within the ads that they appeared inside of. Then, about 2 years goes by and I am supervising a team of Digital Advertising analysts at ADP Dealer Services. I am trying to encourage them to innovate and be creative... One of the DA Analysts comes to me one day and suggests that we start doing Click-To-Play Video advertising on websites. Ironically enough, he wanted to start with a big Chevy dealership that competes with my old dealership that I had worked at when I tried making CTP video. At first I was going to whip out all my old data... The exhaustive reports, charts and A-B Analysis comparisons which all PROVED THAT CTP VIDEO ADVERTISING DID NOT WORK FOR CAR DEALERS, or so I "Believed" based on the data I had. Data I knew was valid and which I had tried so hard to make the outcome different...

Anyways, I elected not to do that I noticed how excited this analyst was and I let my desire to encourage innovation and creativity amongst the team outweigh my commitment to data empowered, logic based decision making. I encouraged his enthusiasm, gave him several parameters to stay within and let him set up the call with the dealer to introduce his idea. During the call, it was everything I could do to restrain myself from not speaking out and citing the data that was sitting there on my hard drive like a skeleton in the closet.

The dealer approved the campaign, which was for GM Certified Used Vehicles and featured a video clip showing independent reviews from industry experts as to the value of the GM CUV Warranty and financing. Even though I knew CTP Video Ads for Chevy Dealers would not work based on the months of data, numerous campaigns and A-B testing results I had collected trying to prove otherwise!

Imagine the shock I experienced when the CTP Video advertising campaign that my employee constructed worked better than any other display advertising we had done up to that point for any dealer, of any brand! I kept checking the reports and going over the numbers to verify accuracy, but could not find where the measurements were wrong. I now had to sets of data from Google Adwords showing the opposite results for the same brand of dealership, in the same market.

I was very pleased at the excitement and the increased advertising budget the dealer invested showed he appreciated the results as well... But to this day I am perplexed by the difference in results.

What I learned from this experience is that one of the variables in measuring and managing decision making, especially in marketing and advertising, is timing... No matter how much data we collect during a specific time period, when we go back to duplicate those results during a different time period (6 months, a year, 2 years in the future) it is NOT UNUSUAL to get different results.

The other thing I learned... When you are a responsible professional and are measuring and comparing data, but in your gut you know something exists, or you "Believe it should work", and you have a lot of experience to back up that instinct... Do not ignore those "feelings" or "beliefs". Sometimes you do "gotta believe" in something that the data does not clearly reflect and take another approach, a different message, or different placements... Or, maybe a different dealership at a different time.

Of course, we need to measure, compare and analyze... But, we should also use sound business judgment and our management instincts to provide enhancements to the decisions based on data. So, I do not disagree with you, Alex, but I do know that many of us who are committed to digital marketing and a scientific approach to decision making have discovered that not all data is duplicated when the same set of variable are applied at a different time, in the future. And, that is where experience and wisdom should be used to enhance the decision matrix.

Oh my goodness Alex!
You said exactly what my occasional exasperated rantings are trying to get out, and so eloquently.
I am so big on constantly checking my work. I need to know what is working, what is not, and I love any tool that allows me to measure any of this. I prefer extreme accuracy, but even if it is something that can measure a change that occurs in relation to a launched initiative it can be helpful. I have a really hard time with web providers who throw a website up there and just let it go without checking on whether it is working, what is working, what is not, etc. Unfortunately this scenario is painfully common. Just because you build a site and love it, doesn't mean your customers will. SO, you HAVE to check on it.

I work in social media & marketing and it is painful to me when people are stuck in their old ways. Their business has flat lined and they don't want to try anything new because they don't like it or get it. Change is hard. Trying new things is hard. But don't be the toddler at the dinner table who refuses to try a new dish. I mean come on, if you never tried chocolate because it is brown and gooey, you'd have never experienced one of the best foods of all time! Then where would you be?

Holding on the trade is great when you can do it. Of course everyone thinks their 200,000 mile Taurus is in Excellent condition and KBB says its worth $3000 more than it is (on a $1000 car no less) so we have to show them auction data, MMR, Black Book etc. The decucting for reconditioning is a great way to do it.

Sometimes we just have to sell the car at our internet price, the customer has their own financing or pays cash. Other times, they buy everything offered. I even had someone beat me down to 300 below invoice but then lay down for an $899 PolySteel (cost is like $100 including undercoating!). It happens, Sales is a numbers game. If you don't ask you don't get. I even explained this to a 4th grader today selling girl cookies!

Accessories are also the key. I've had pretty good luck with selling a "middle" trim level vehicle and then adding leather / heated seats for example. We have 25 or so Ford dealers who will sell a potential customer a Fusion at invoice (or less) here in Cincinnati. The secret is to build value in me, the dealership, our service department so they won't shop anywhere else. Or if they do, they'll come back to us for value.

We use VAuto in our dealership. What we DON'T do is use it the way suggested earlier in this thread. To justify a number. We DO use it to try and help our managers appraise vehicles other than the used car manager (or on the used car manager's off day). Your idea is a GOOD one.

The OTHER way we make gross is by selling other products. One of the dealers I worked at sold Tire/Wheel. We sell a key replacement warranty, etch, PolySteel all designed to help make gross on a thin internet deal.

Well... If we're going to be selling under invoice and making nothing off of trades, I see the days of the 'salesperson' numbered too. Seriously... There will be very little incentive for motivated sales entrepreneurs to pursue the automotive industry, when it will all be reduced to flats on everything. How many money motivated self motivated people will buy into that pay plan?

Erin:

You are right on point. The days of over allowances and combining dealer cash and actual cash value to appraisal a trade are vanishing quickly. The most successful dealers going forward will embrace a better appraisal process using good real time third party data. With all the makes an models sold, there is a need to look at the market to determine an appraisal on those unfamiliar trades. When I started appraising most of the trades were my own brand, not today.There is a lot of cross-over and lots of makes an models, which makes accuracy even tougher at times.

Customer satisfaction with most appraisal processes in dealerships is not very high. Dealerships need to validate and justify their appraisal with the customer. Over 90% of the visitors to dealership's today have researched their trade, but we all know a lot of the data is not market reflective, because of inputting errors by the consumer, and sites offering outdated data. A Branded appraisal with the reconditioning explained will improve the customer's experience and set your dealership apart from the competition.

There are several tools to help, and I encourage dealers to investigate them. Cost and terms vary as does the data included, but there is a tool to fit every size dealership. I would encourage dealers to investigate these Appraisal Tools they will help you make better decisions and close more deals. Embrace the transparency that exists in today's market place. I was a retail dealer for over 30 years, and three years ago joined NADA to help develop an answer for this transparency.We surveyed dealers in developing our product. The common response was make it easy to use and affordable. AppraisalPRO is the answer to both survey responses. Check out AppraisalPRO www.nada.com/appraisal

Great points Erin, The trade is most likely the most emotional aspect of any car deal. One thing that I did while on the desk was to try and remove the "mystery" out of the appraisal. The customer has shopped at several dealers and has seen the sales persons "silent trade walk" in all of its variations.

As a manager I always took the appraisal as an opportunity to meet the customers prior to the pencil. I would Spend a few minutes sitting with them and asking valuable questions about their vehicle. I would explain how I would come to a value and ask their permission to test drive it and offered to take them with me. Most would decline.

Not only did this ease the tension, but it made the T.O. that much easier, since they already knew me. Having a third party source is also good to use, although I feel that most sources like KBB can be inconsistent. I agree with Jeff's assessment of AAX, the trade value tool is very convincing presentation.

I know the itemized reconditioning expense sheet wouldn't be too complicated, but does anyone have any examples? Perhaps create a thread on the forum where we can post them?

Great post. It all goes back down to building the value in yourself, your dealership, and your brand while also utilizing the right tools to your advantage.

@Jeff, you are completely right. It is always great to be able to offer two different numbers. It gives choices. We know that customers like choices. It also allows for the proper takeaways.

@Ben, you are also correct. We are seeing the used car business become a volume effort now with the Velocity strategy. It is a great strategy because it still allows for huge profits in the end. It also helps feed other departments in the dealership.

I believe the "art" behind presenting a trade value and generating additional front end gross to a deal will be lost in relatively short time. The "science" of programs like AutoTrader's 'Trade-In Marketplace' will eliminate the ability and need to negotiate a trade value.

These programs will essentially provide the customer a guaranteed trade value based off of market data for his/her trade vehicle before he/she even arrives at the dealership. This will be very unfortunate for dealers as it means they will not be able to acquire vehicles for below market value regardless of how skillful they are at the "art" of negotiating a trade-in.

In this new market, all dealerships will purchase pre-owned vehicles for the same price and also sell them for the same price. Thus, there will ultimately be a default profit on all pre-owned vehicle sales. This default profit will be small as well. The days of a $4,000 front end gross profit on a pre-owned vehicle sale because it was skillfully acquired for well below market value at trade-in negotiation and then sold at true market value will be gone.

Selling more vehicles at a greater velocity (credit Dale Pollack) will be the only way for dealerships to generate greater revenue/profit.

This is just my two cents and opinion on where this market is going.

does anyone know a very realiable car dealer in greenwell springs LA ?:;-