Observing my Brother... the car shopper.

My brother is shopping for a car for his wife. What a great observation experience for me!

My rules are to observe only. Answer questions only when asked. I tie my hands behind my back and put duct tape on my mouth, and off he goes...

My brother is no dummy. He runs multi-million dollar industrial construction projects and he custom builds water cooled gaming PCs for recreation. IOW, he has all the intellectual resources needed... AND like most shoppers, he some what knows cars (makes, models not trims). His wife's Hyundai SUV gave him ~100k miles of trouble free use, so he's devalued new car risk (i.e. he'll buy any brand).

I'll track workflow, hours and websites (websites will be colored blue)

Day 1. Website #1 (1.5 hrs)

Research begins with Consumer Reports.​

Day 5. Websites #2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (>2hs)

This evening, he takes CR's recommendation (make/model & trim) and begins to "find what deals are on it". He won't look at [edit] used SUVs because when buying his truck, he discovered the dollar gap between new and used was too small. So, he assumes that the gap is still small. He googles the dealer's website closest to him and finds that the final prices (less incentives and discounts) are more than he wants to spend (this is a common workflow, he picked a loaded unit and was expecting a larger discount).

He googles & goes to the OEM site. He thinks that if he can buy a lesser trim and add some cool features he'll save some cash. On the OEM site, he custom builds the SUV to his preferences, then he wants to use this custom config & click a button to find matches at dealerships in his market...

#FAIL He tries 3-5 times on OEM site and gives up. He googles another dealership site and hits another dead end. He's 2+ hours into this, he's tired and giving up on this Consumer Report pick (FYI, this is where using past shopping data to create a personalized visit can reinforce frustration). It's late, he's tired, he's got multiple tabs open, and he's realized he's back to zero and those 3-4hrs are lost.​

Day 6. Websites # 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 (>2 hrs)

High level research resumes on work breaks with googling Car&Driver, MotorTrend, He mentioned US News but he discounted it. These sites narrow his focus to 2 new OEMs and 2 models. Later that eve, on google he discovers CarGurus and this makes a significant impact to his "not used cars" planning. I see him using 'Gurus site almost exclusively this eve.​

Today, it's been 2 days since Day 6. No forward movement.

He has 2 outside sources pushing him. #1) My wife is an ex-car sales gal, she told him to buy at the end of the month (mngrs deal more aggressively). #2). His trade has 95,000 miles and he's been told >100k is a tradein negative. He's feeling the pressure to act ​

My summary so far.

My brother is 15 websites and ~7 hours into this. He's getting shopping fatigue. He's fully committed to the internet, but, the internet keeps falling short helping him.

More as it comes...

P.S. I see his conclusion coming as clear as day. He is going to be another shopper that will tire from the fragmented shopping UX and abandon the internet and go to the dealer to fill in the gaps. I see this behavior everywhere I look. It's why internet shoppers don't want Digital Retailing ...yet

P. P. S. It's important to point out that the single sessions 2 hours & more were filled with family interruptions. These stops and re-starts caused him to burn up more time trying to recall where he was and regain the workflow.

Join the conversation.. 

When you consider the amount of money and effort dealerships devote to advertising, it’s clear they recognize the importance of a strong consumer brand is critical for success.

According to an eMarketer report, “The US Automotive Industry 2015: Digital Ad Spending Forecast and Trends,” digital ad spend is expected to grow from $7.3 billion in 2015 to more than $12 billion in 2019. Netsertive research found 90 percent of auto dealers are utilizing digital strategies - including paid search, display ads and retargeting ads. In this regard, dealers are far outpacing manufacturers and other auto industry businesses.

With this type of investment in building brand awareness, it’s obvious that car dealers believe that the investment in developing a strong consumer brand will deliver a positive return on investment. Your dealer’s brand is a driving force to establish the credibility that buyers seek out when purchasing a new vehicle.

While building a strong consumer brand is an acknowledged best practice, many dealerships place little effort or have overlooked the importance of creating their Employment Brand. 

What is a Dealership Employment Brand?

In the simplest of terms, your employment brand is the perception that prospective and current employees have of your dealership. In the case of job applicants, it's the sense that prospective employees get when they see a job advertisement or visit your website to learn more about your dealership's employment opportunities.

As an employer, creating an employment brand that establishes credibility, goodwill and trust that attracts top talent is as important as attracting car buyers.

What is the Value of a Strong Dealership Employment Brand?

Your employment brand is the foundation of your recruitment strategy because it showcases your dealership as a potential employer and differentiates you from other local dealers. It can be the difference between the best candidates knocking on your door or simply hiring your competitors’ castoffs.

With each year, the employment market becomes more competitive due to evolving demographic and economic trends, meaning your dealership will find it increasingly difficult to find the top talent. By not investing in your employment brand, you’re settling for mediocrity. You’re sending the message that you’ll hire anyone and everyone, regardless of cultural fit or shared values.

At the same time, your employment brand will set expectations for existing staff members and future candidates. All personnel should have a clear understanding of the characteristics, skills and business philosophy that you value above all. By doing so, you’ll have a better chance of increasing employee retention rates and fostering stronger morale because you’ll have a staff consisting of like-minded individuals working toward a common goal – instead of people just there to collect a paycheck.

How Do You Identify Your Dealer's Employment Brand?

Formally describing your employment brand may not be something that you’ve given any serious thought towards, but it’s likely a concept that has been floating around in the back of your mind since you first started in the car business.

Identifying your employment brand begins by taking a long, hard look at your current business structure, operations, standards and practices.

To get started, consider asking yourself these questions:

• What’s the expected balance between management and autonomy for daily tasks?
  
• Are workers more interested in generating revenue or providing value for customers?
  
• How are teams organized to support overall growth and meet business objectives?
  
• How rigid or loose is the organizational hierarchy?
  
• What level of transparency and freedom of information sharing is expected?
  
• How diverse is your workforce?
  
• Do you have any unique benefits or features that differentiate you as an employer?
  
• How does your dealership participate in the wider community in which it is located?
  
• How do you support employees with benefits and do you provide a clear career path?
  
• What are the most important aspects of your company’s culture that make employees successful?

This is just the start. There are countless other questions dealership owners and decision-makers should be asking themselves to help identify their dealership employment brand. The next step to the process is implementation.

How Do You Promote a Meaningful Dealership Employment Brand?

Once you identify the core components of your employment brand, it’s time to promote your dealership to prospective employees based on those characteristics to attract the right job applicants.

Internally - it's critical that a get buy-in from top leadership. Employees at every level of the organization should be able to recognize that what you portray through your employment brand is the one that actually exists, and the values you uphold match the realities of working at your dealership.

Externally - Digital outlets like social media (esp. facebook), content management, and online job boards have made it exponentially easier to promote and communicate your dealership's culture, values and employee benefits .

Another digital outlet (often overlooked) for promoting your employment brand, is an informative and impactful career website.

When buyers visit your dealership, they’ve done their due diligence and thoroughly researched the vehicle and dealership prior to purchasing. Similarly, job seekers are conducting extensive research when deciding whether or not to apply for a job. Job applicants do judge books dealers by their covers, and a poorly designed career site, or lack thereof, can quickly sell your dealership short as a great place to work.

How are you currently promoting your Dealership's Employment Brand to attract top talent for hire?


Join this discussion with your answer(s) right here in the DealerRefresh Dealer Forums

 

When you're trying to keep your pre-owned lot stocked with high-quality, in-demand vehicles, dealing with auctions can be a costly and time-consuming process. For one, you have to wade through a range of vehicles that don't meet your needs before finding the right model, in the right year, with the right options. You also risk having your price bid up by competing dealers.

Imagine if you could go straight to the source, acquiring pre-owned vehicles directly from private sellers in your target market?

With the Vehicle Acquisition Network (V.A.N), dealers finally have a tool designed precisely for that purpose. VAN saves you time and money by automatically searching the web for vehicles listed online by private sellers, helping you quickly identify your most sought-after models from independent sellers in your area.

Private party listings are today’s best alternatives to stocking your lot and reducing your expenses. As many dealers already agree, buying used cars from consumers is more profitable compared with auctions and even vehicle trades.

There are multiple examples of dealers maximizing profit potential through used cars. Not just independent dealers but franchise dealers too, often creating satellite stores or buy centers for this purpose alone.

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>> Free Download - More Profitable Auto Buyers Handbook <<

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The Vehicle Acquisition Network is a used vehicle acquisition tool that aggregates private party listings and allows searching and sorting by most relevant to wholesale values. The system also gives dealers the ability to initiate contact with these sellers via text message which continues to prove to be the most effective means of establishing a dialog.

Here’s what one dealer has to say about his use of the tool...

Login to view embedded media View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Za_oPW-yMA


Reserve Your Market Exclusivity Today

Interested in learning more? Better act fast! VAN is sold with market exclusivity meaning it’s not necessarily available to every dealer in each market. While there are often enough vehicles to go around for multiple dealerships, market supply is limited which means access to those vehicles using the this tool is limited to select dealers, particularly to dealers running a true profit center.

The Vehicle Acquisition Network is not meant for the average dealer, but for those dedicated to making their used car business as profitable as possible, VAN is a tool you’ll want to consider. Find the pre-owned vehicles you want faster than your competitors, and for hundreds less than you would pay at auction.

Depending on which article you read today you’ll either hear online sales is the absolute only way cars will be sold in the future or that the entire thing is some hyped up nonsense that consumers don’t want.

So, who should you listen to when deciding how to plan your digital strategy for the rest of 2016 and on?
“Does anyone here have any data? Because if we’re just sharing opinions, then mine wins.”  - Netscape CEO, Jim Barksdale

Well as it just so happens, I have a ton of data. Data that’s never been released publicly before, that I’d like to share with you today.

The big experiment and how it all began

For the last 6 months we’ve been running an invite only experiment with over 20 dealerships, ranging from small independents to some of the largest groups in the US.

The experiment was incubated and backed by the Stanford - StartX Fund and run by top Silicon Valley Engineers from Dropbox and Uber.

The idea was simple enough. Add a “Buy Online” button to vehicle detail pages. When the button was clicked, customers would be able to walk through the full checkout process for buying a car - from trade-ins to OEM incentives, real time loan approvals and scheduling delivery or pickup.

Every single mouse click, key press, user interaction was meticulously tracked, tagged and analyzed in a multitude of analytics platforms.



All of this was done to answer ONE SINGLE  QUESTION: Is online sales the future of the car industry?

Now, after months of data collection and analysis I’d like to firmly answer that question.

Let’s start by analyzing a simple data point - what was the click-through-rate (CTR) of a “Buy Online” button when placed on a dealership’s VDP and how does it compare to the CTR of more traditional call to actions (CTA). Our platform analyzed every click on a dealers page to answer this question.

When we began the experiment, we estimated a 2% CTR would be deemed a success.



Fun fact: “Text Us Now” had a .5% CTR and “Save Vehicle” came in at .2% CTR. Obviously, we missed the mark with our 2% estimate by a good bit!

As it turns out, shoppers were almost equally likely to click a high commitment “Buy Online” button as they were to click a low commitment “Contact Us” button. But what happens after they clicked? Did the shoppers actually buy the cars?

YES, they did, 

Shoppers clicking a “Buy Online” button had a 3-4x higher conversion rate than typical online lead sources on average.

Truth be told, at this point our team was skeptical. Typical adoption curves start with just 2.5% of the population (the innovators) being receptive to a new technology - why then were we seeing such high adoption rates?



To answer this question, our team needed to talk to some customers who had bought online. With permission of the dealers, we started interviewing their online customers. The feedback was almost depressing.

The customers didn’t think anything was particularly “special” or “revolutionary” about our online sales platform. They thought it was...normal.

In other words, these online shoppers had absolutely no idea they were using a system only a handful of dealers in the entire world had access to. They just assumed buying a car online was a normal thing that all dealers offered. After all, it’s 2016, who doesn’t buy things online?

So the simple answer to our question was a surprising one: Online sales isn’t the future of car buying. It’s the current expectation of your customers.

Key Takeaways:

• Click through rates for “Buy Online” buttons are very similar to those seen from industry standard CTA’s
  
• Shoppers that click a Buy Online button are 3-4x more likely to purchase a car than traditional leads
  
• Customers don’t think that online car shopping is revolutionary - they think it’s normal and expect you to support it

UPDATE: Some people requested more in-depth data which I've posted HERE. Additionally, you can see a video of the actual product by going HERE and clicking the play button.

[highlight color="#F0F0F0" font="black"]**We have an ongoing discussion around this in the forums right here. You can start from the beginning if you like but the conversation picks back up RIGHT HERE.[/highlight]

It’s a mobile world. Everybody is on-the-go all the time, and the smartest digital marketers are realizing this and making sure they stay in the game.

Although Facebook is desktop-friendly, they have made mobile their specialty with a UI that features thumb-friendly infinite scrolling, seamless third-party integration with Safari, Instagram, and other applications, and push notifications. Because more and more users are on mobile devices vs. desktop computers, Facebook has been able to surpass Google in digital display ad revenues.

Facebook’s success has come as somewhat of a surprise – many research firms published reports forecasting that Google would stay in the lead. Check out the reversal in eMarketer’s predictions on Facebook vs. Google display ad revenue in 2013 vs. 2015:
2013



2015



So, why is Facebook performing so far beyond expectations? Well, for starters, it’s #1 in audience engagement compared to every other social media network. Its mobile app has become a “one-stop shop” of sorts, allowing its users to read the news, find current sports scores, socialize with their friends and families, shop and play games all at once.

Additionally, Facebook has incredible advertising technology unmatched in its industry. The ability to offer custom audiences based on user data that is only available to them puts Facebook and their advertisers in a win-win situation by providing better results than traditional display advertising such as Google AdWords (Related: How To Reach The Car Online Shoppers Your Competition Can’t).

It doesn’t seem like Facebook is planning on stopping any time soon, either. They’re taking on Google’s AdSense with the Facebook Audience Network (FAN) and challenging DoubleClick with their ad server, Atlas. They also have bonus revenue from their video ad network LiveRail – and let’s not forget about Instagram.

If you’re ready to have your dealership take advantage of the power of Facebook advertising, check out LotLinx Deeplinking™ for Facebook to experience 44% better results than AdWords at 66% of the cost.



This blog post used information from this article by Marketing Land: Does Google stand a chance against Facebook in mobile display?

NADA is always an incredible time of hustling, shuttling, walking, conversing, learning, and of course socializing. This year in Las Vegas was no exception. Multiple people I spoke with told me it was their most successful NADA event in a while.

I too had a terrific experience, conducting interviews, making new friends, and catching up with others. Friday and Saturday I spent walking back and forth between the two halls capturing interviews and cameos of more than a dozen folks. On Sunday, Jeff and I were able to walk the expo hall and hit a few booths together as well, this time with no camera action, which was a relief.

The Cars.com party is the only social event I hit. You'll see a clip from it in my video below where the hi-performance rock band Royal Machines put on a fantastic show with guest appearance from Juliet Lewis signing CCR's Green River which was a welcome and pleasant surprise.

 



The video is about 4 minutes in length with good upbeat background music from South Hill Records. The first minute goes from scene to scene showing familiar faces across the industry, then there's about two minutes of greetings from most of them. The last minute of the video is B-roll footage, which you will find is good for a few smiles and laughs.

Please enjoy and share with your friends. Shouts out to everyone that helped make the video come together. I truly appreciated it and enjoyed working on it together.

PS - There's a discussion thread on the forum where some folks took a moment to share offer their takeaways from he conference. If you have something to share be sure to do so by clicking here.

Login to view embedded media View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yyl2q5TtqOw


Included in the video are:

Bill Wittenmyer (ELEAD1ONE), Don O'Neill (CreditMiner),

Caroline Schweich (Fizz Communications), Scott Pechstein (Autobytel),

Tara Wagoner (Autobytel), Keith Gaytan (Automotive Mobile Solutions)

Shane Born (ProMax), Craig Lockerd (AutoMax),

Sara Callahan (Carter West PR), Bruce Thompson (Pearl Technology),

Erik Nachbar (Helios), Jennifer Suzuki (e-Dealer Solutions),

Amanda Hubbard (GoMoto), Karla Buendia (Autobytel),

Tim James (Flick Fusion), Gina Reuscher (Flick Fusion),

Shawn Foster (DealerStrong) , Jeff Kershner (DealerRefresh),

Melissa Maxey (ELEADONE), April Rain (Digital Rain),

Cliff Banks (Banks Report), David Metter (AutoHook),

Ken Potter (The Appraisal Lane), Harry Siskand (AutoSpin),

Casey Ching (Servco), Christine Picchietti (Cars.com)

Christian Ziegler (Dealers United), Barry Brodsky (eAutoAppraise)

Marc Peckler (MAX Digital), Joey Little (Auto Alert)

Danny Benites (Comedian), Mark Tewart (Consultant)

Evan Berney (CarBiz)

Danny Orleans (Corporate Magic)

 

Through endless digital and traditional channels, consumer influence is happening both consciously and subconsciously as they navigate along a digital roadmap equipped with double-digit research touch points that follow no predictable path or straight line. This new age buying behavior makes attributing a sale to ONE source almost impossible.

While new and developing channels provide marketers with an abundant assortment of avenues to reach potential customers, the challenge of measuring the return on your investment (ROI) has become complex.

“Big data” is a widespread term used relentlessly in digital marketing across all verticals. But how can you (dealers) properly leverage big data to attribute a single sale to a single action?

Is it even feasible to attribute one sale to one ad source within the surplus of information available today?

Let’s first properly define Attribution

According to Forbes, “Attribution is the science of using advanced analytics to allocate proportional credit to each marketing touch point across all online and offline channels, leading to a desired customer action.” MarketShare defines it as “giving credit where credit is due.” To simplify even further, attribution is who or what receives credit for a sale.

For car dealers, attribution is synonymous with the conduit that led the customer from screen, to search, to showroom. Attributing a sale or a lead translates to knowing exactly where it came from, how it came to you, and why.

The problem with digital marketing is that this process can be very challenging because there is yet no conventional path to follow when it comes to tracking online (and offline) actions. Attribution helps define which elements of your marketing compounds will result in a reaction, or which will ultimately prove to be effective.

There is a reason Amazon is the #1 online retailer. The master of digital merchandising has the most straightforward attribution chain in the business - consisting of three (3) steps:

1. ...a search
   
2. ...a click
   
3. ...a buy

On the contrary, there's very few (if any) polished “search-click-buy” methods in the automotive industry. But the question is, could there be?  If so, how do we turn it into a measurable science?

The reality is, well below 5% of the total buyers in the market behave in a direct, attributable fashion. Therefore, dealers and manufacturers must focus on the 95% of buyers that physically visit the showroom to purchase a vehicle and really drill down to determine their personal, unique path to purchase. But dealers are not dentists, and drills are not a part of the standard dealership sales toolbox.

According to this Dataium study, “One-third of vehicles purchased today are a direct outcome of internet-generated leads.” Lead conversion must be measured at the dealership level. More importantly, measuring attribution, or the accountability of a sale is of growing importance as more and more media and social networks adapt to a paid advertising model.

Four Tips to Overcome the Hurdles of Attribution:

1. Don’t be afraid to get personal. Customize your messaging based on a user’s previous actions and their digital footprint. The smartphone is regarded as the most intimate device ever. Therefore our marketing must follow suit and get personal. Custom-built, targeted messages elicit fiercer impacts. Consumers not only want personalized messages, but they now expect them, and respond better when marketing tactics convey a dynamically tailored message.

2. Implement a streamlined form-fill process on all devices in conjunction with responsive design. Evolving technologies have arrived that allow geo-targeting on mobile devices that currently provide dealers with a first ever, “showrooming” solution that is 100% measurable!

3. Consumer experience plays a significant role in the attribution process. When considering the experience, focus on the variables that include specific IP addresses, number of pageviews before an initial offer or incentive is provided, and closing the loop with re-engagement and retargeting practices.

4. Attribution is more accurately measured when conversion is streamlined via e-mail or text message delivery. When the consumer data is captured during an incentive redemption, we then know which channel led the buyer to your lot. When you offer something valuable in return for a consumer’s personal information, the probability of them completing the form drastically escalates.

At the end of the day, there is a simple method to the madness. When a customer physically shows up in your showroom, it enables you to collect more accurate information than you ever could from the average online lead form, or even phone call for that matter.
It’s crucial we all take a moment to step back and put aside all the math and the logic. At the end of the day, there is a simple method to the madness. Waiting until a customer physically shows up in your showroom to collect their information enables you to collect more information (and more accurate information) than you ever could from a typical dealer lead form. This is simple quid pro quo; you have to give something to get something. We have to think differently in order to capture the information we need to make smarter budgeting decisions.

To learn more on how to solve attribution confusion please check out our attribution whitepaper, “Automotive Attribution: Fundamentals and Future.”

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Free eBook to Auto Sales Attribution


The Internet has already made massive changes to our industry and more are coming. Keep yourself  so quickly that it sometimes feels that in the time it takes you to get up to speed, you’ve already fallen behind.

This eBook Contains

• Attribution in the Past
  
• Attribution Today
  
• Attribution in the Future
  
• How to Ensure Proper Attribution at the Dealership Level

Click here to download your free eBook now

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How will the recent changes to Google Adwords affect my dealer's Paid Search Adwords Campaigns?

The simple answer is "Not Much."

I'll rephrase that.. Not much for SEM-Master Level Dealers and Agencies. Yes, the right sidebar ads are gone (smell ya later) meaning there are far fewer spots for Dealers' ads to fill. So the question you should be asking yourself is how do I get my ads in the top 4 spots without further breaking the bank?

The answer to this question is simple. Do the things you should have been doing all along.

What Should I have Been Doing All Along?

You know, weird things like ensuring your selected keywords are relevant to your business and the products you sell. Making sure you're geographically targeting locations where you have a history of success, IE Where You Sell Things. Checking the Quality Score and relevance of the relationships between your Campaign(s), Adgroup(s), Ad(s), and Keyword(s) constantly. Making sure your ads contain keywords that are relevant to both your target customer, your ads, and perhaps most importantly your Landing Page URL. Making sure you build and maintain strong ad rank. Let's not forget to include this often overlooked but vitally important negative keywords.

In a nutshell, be sure you are being relevant in Google's eyes and more importantly your customers' eyes.

So Why Did Google Remove The Sidebar Ads?

"Lack of relevance" is one commonly accepted answer. "Money" is another good one.

If you can reach far back in your memory do you ever remember any sidebar ads as being particularly "relevant", as in having compelling ad copy and linking you to the item or idea the ad promised? Me neither.

Let's agree that the ads that typically inhabited the far right "sucked" and as a result Google wasn't making any money off of them. Now I know there will probably be someone that stands up and brings tons of great stats and data on how their position 4-5 ads were half as expensive as the 3 and provided a great ROI. To this person I would have to agree the cost tended to be low BUT the clicks were even lower. Focusing on "just being there" as a strategy is the digital equivalent of going to the high school dance to hide in the back to stare at the girl you like while others dancing with her. Yes you're there but she's unlikely to find you and ask for a dance. You can either be at the party or the life of it - which do you choose?

Is My Cost Per Click Going to Rise?

I was convinced that Cost Per Click would increase drastically but in reality the CPC I've seen across the roughly 90 Dealership Adwords accounts I manage stayed around the same. Some went up .01 - .11 cents before decreasing back to just above their normal monthly CPC averages. In some case I even accounts and campaigns saw enormous drops in CPC believe it or not. The example below shows a Nissan store I have been managing since April, 2015





On this particular account you can see that AVG CPC dropped slightly from approximately November of 2015 until around February 2016 before climbing back. That change equates to a $3.11 (November 2015) to $3.03 (March 2016) difference or in other words "pretty much business as usual" a - 2.6 reduction in cost per click over a 5 month stretch.

Facts about this Account:

• All CPC increases from start (April 2015 - October 2015) were due to extending Advertising Radius to from 25 - 40 miles.
  
• No Display or Re-targeting has ever been run on this account.
  
• This is an aggressive, high-performing Nissan dealership.
  
• The above CPC performance chart depicts a combination of Branded, Model-Specific, Used, and Competitor Campaigns.

How Did You Manage To Keep Your Costs Consistent?

I am happy to share how I kept my Cost Per Click in check even though the recent Google SERP change while increasing my market share. Just ask me.

The recent passing of former First Lady Nancy Reagan was a sad occasion. Many heartwarming stories unfolded, but I found myself particularly fascinated by her personal war on drugs.

In 1980, then soon to be First Lady Nancy Reagan found her calling on the campaign trail. It started at a New York City substance abuse clinic. It continued during her husband’s two terms as president. She was moved by the great work at these clinics and took on the noble endeavor of making drug prevention a part of the public dialogue.

Drugs were a problem in the early 1980’s (See: Pablo Escobar). Mrs. Reagan’s particular concern wasn’t just the infiltration of South Beach nightclubs though. The real fear was our youth. And our schools. We don’t want little Miss 4th grader Sally around, offered, or tempted by drugs.Her recommendation for Little Miss Sally?“Just Say No.”

Three words became the backbone of America’s war on drugs. Three words that are still ingrained in our minds and pop culture today. But Nancy Reagan’s simple campaign faced a pretty big problem. Getting Little Miss Sally to say no is actually pretty hard.Ehhhh Yes?It’s true. People don’t like to say no. Psychology offers us some basic reasoning:

• No creates subtle conflict
  
• No creates guilt
  
• No is awkward
  
• No feels rude
  
• No disconnects us from others

Vanessa Bohns, an assistant professor at Waterloo University, describes that rationale as “We don’t want to reject people. We don’t want people to think poorly of us….”

How about a value size?

I first noticed the thrill of this concept in high school. I was a cashier at Chick-Fil-A. One day, the franchise owner held a contest to entice cashiers to up-sell customers to “Value Size” their combo meal. For 49 cents more, you could get a bigger drink and fries. This is high margin territory in the fast food world. The most up-sells took home first place.

I was determined to win and quickly mobilized a complicated strategy. I would ask 100% of my customers to value size their combo. I know, tricky right? It was simple but I was clearly a brainiac because it worked. Other cashiers balked in the moment. They sheepishly avoided offering the value size. It felt awkward. They forgot. I asked for the business every time and people said yes almost every time.

I’m proud to say I won the contest. The prize was a Blockbuster $5 gift card. Seriously.

So what?

One of the biggest areas of opportunity I see in dealerships is simply asking for the appointment over the phone.

Every day, my company reviews hundreds of thousands of dealership phone calls. We identify if appointments are requested and what happens on those requests. Out of millions of phone calls, a fundamental truth always stands out: asking for the appointment works.

More specifically, shoppers only decline an appointment request 12% of the time. If you request an appointment 100 times, you will receive 88 acceptances of some kind. I like those odds. You should too. The real question is why not ask for the appointment?

It’s not SO bad...kind of.

Unfortunately, our industry leans into a notion that salespeople are stereotypically awful on the phone.

We find that one comically terrible instance to highlight how south a conversation go. You know the type of call I’m talking about. The one where a salesperson crunches potato chips, drops an expletive, and eventually tells the customer a dealer down the street definitely has the car they’re looking for in stock.

I hear a different type of call much more often though. It’s the one where the salesperson is polite and friendly. He uses a few of those phone techniques taught in a training course. It appears to be going well and the caller even seems satisfied with the answers and insight. Then it goes downhill fast. The failure point is hard to tell but it’s right in front of us - it’s when the salesperson hangs up without inviting the shopper to visit the dealership.

This type of call should be a punch to the gut for anyone in management.

The Appointment Culture

The concept of an appointment culture is brewing in automotive right now. Phone calls are skyrocketing. Consolidation is creating more competition. Capturing marketing share is the name of the game.

There are a million urgent things for management to tackle every day though. It’s easy for the urgent to take priority over the important. Don’t let that happen. Make it your mission to build a culture focused on phone excellence. Here are three ways to steer your dealership toward more appointments:

1. Tape a small piece of paper near every sales phone. The paper should read something like: “Remember: Every call has an appointment request.” If this feels too simple, even silly, remember that many salespeople don’t request an appointment only because they forget.
   
2. Talk with phone handlers right after their calls. Ask them if they requested an appointment. If you didn’t hear one requested while listening, give them feedback on how and where it could have happened. The key here is immediate feedback. We tend to learn best in the moment.
   
3. All sales meetings should include a mention of the phone and phone appointments. Every single one. This takes discipline and effort from management but will pay huge dividends.

So yes, I applaud Nancy Reagan for tackling a tough issue with the psychological odds stacked against her. Use those same odds in your favor on every phone call. Heck, you could even run a contest one week. I just recommend the spiff isn’t a Blockbuster gift card.

Nearly every dealer website provider offers a New Car Specials feature, so why is it NOT a big part of your marketing strategy?

Maybe because it's like pulling teeth.

Whether you call them "New Car Specials", "Offers", "Deals", "Incentives", or just simply "Specials" chances are good you have a page dedicated to your best new vehicle offers and chances are equally good you're not using it right. The idea here is to create a stand out offer that is unique to your dealership.

Sure, you are more than welcome to run the regional offers your OEM provides but is it really "Special" when it's the same pricing message all of your competitors can use as well?

SO what exactly are you missing?

All dealer websites have some form of New Car Specials Page. Some "Specials" are built using inventory filters that are set to list the new vehicles by longest days in stock. Others require dealership personnel to log into the website backend and hand pick a few stock numbers, throw on a discounted price and call it a day. While other more savvy dealers build their offers (typically using Photoshop or other photo editing equipment). And the most sophisticated dealers turn their homepage slides into their specials page and link each slide to the model-specific inventory. This too is only "O.K." in the grand scheme of things.

Let's talk about a fully inclusive New Car Specials Marketing approach...

Don't Just Use The 5 Models that Sell for Specials

 
Go Big Or Go Home

You need to pick more than just the 1-5 Models that sell in high volume. Everyone already does that, you need to do better. I recommend creating at least one new car special for every new model that you sell. Even if the 2016 Nissan Versa Note doesn't sell in high volume doesn't necessarily mean that no one will buy it. If there's a customer in your PMA searching for a low monthly lease on a hatchback and you're the only game in town... You Win.

Showcase Multiple Offers Per Special

 
Variety and Offer Diversity will Increase Clicks, Calls, Chats and Online Forms.

OK, I get it, it's a pain in the a$$ to run leases for one price leading model for every model you sell. But this is another way to get a huge leg up on the competition. Just because you have a lease penetration of less than 18% doesn't mean your customers wouldn't consider leasing.

The reality is too few dealers are educating their customers on the benefits of leasing. Take advantage of this situation and showcase the best lease, zero down lease, savings amount, buy price, and APR financing rate for every new model. This will give your customers or website visitors a variety of options. Nine out of ten will have questions about the terms and exclusions which can increase calls, chats and form submissions.



Don't Stop With Just On-Site Specials Optimizations

 
Build a Push and Pull Email Strategy

Having email marketing templates that include your most up to date offers is a great way to get previous leads to resurface and return to your dealer's website. If you are already using a homepage slideshow slides for Specials, then you're one step ahead of the game. Use the images in your slideshow in your email campaigns. This is a great way to repurpose pre-existing website content while encompassing a 360 marketing approach.

Use these slideshow images for both response emails for people seeking more information on special or just want to know more about your best deals. This is your pull strategy at work. I also recommend developing a 3rd set of emails specifically designed to be sent out as email blasts to those who submitted model specific leads in prior months but have yet to purchase. Segment your list correctly and you could be looking at a serious home run month in and month out!

Build a Funnel that Drives as Many Eyeballs as Possible to Your Specials Page(s)

 
Use OEM-themed, sales event banners, homepage slides, VDP sidebar graphics, Pop-ups etc to drive awareness and build familiarly with your visitors. This will help guide them to your best offers without being completely obnoxious. Using OEM themes in your homepage slides, SRP Banners, etc will help drive traffic into your specials. And should help to keep call and email submission levels at their maximum throughout the month.

Hint: you need to update these new car specials at least every two months or when the OEM changes gears.

Streamline PPC Efforts to Include Model Specific Offers

 
I can not stress enough how powerful this method can be. When a customer searches "Ford Focus Lease" and you're the only one showing up with the "New Ford Focus Lease Price" in the results, do you have any idea how much damage this can do to the competition. Don't be surprised if you're the only dealership showing your specials in your ads. Make sure you have a good price and lease for every vehicle.

*Hint: if you're the only dealer showing offers in your ads you don't necessarily need to be the lowest priced. 

Using the marketing strategy laid out above, I have had dealerships result in a 30 - 60% increase in conversion within a few months, and without making any major changes to their advertising budget.

How are you leveraging your New Car Specials?  Comment over in the dealer forums.

As each month comes to an end so begins the nearly week long process of aggregating everything that impacted your sales and service results.

If it was a good month this process is usually shorter, however if the final tally was off from your targets the fact finding mission is usually quite painful. We subject ourselves to this to determine how to repeat past successes and turnaround under-performing subsets of our business.

Here are 4 trends we have found over the years and countless reviews of individual dealership month end results:
1. Good results can lead to reporting with a goal to validate recent efforts that in the past have been subject to scrutiny.

2. Reporting bias is a real thing.  The person who creates the report, even if 100% genuine, will inadvertently portray their findings in a way that feels like an agenda is under the surface.

3. Bad results lead to a ‘CYA mission’ that seeks to remove protected individuals from the cause of the bad month.

4. The effort that goes into determining the decision to stay the course or plot a new one is a highly stressful and demotivating experience for most involved.

Here are 5 recommendations to get your month started faster, with less stress and more focus:
1. Automate your reporting process so no one has to “pull reports” to see what happened.  Every time you hear the words, “pull reports” stop and ask yourself, “What’s the goal?” and “How can we automate this?”

2. Establish a roster of metrics that you will track each month and a system that is 100% independent from reporting bias. Here are the 74 we track

3. Map the decisions you made each month against your results – although this isn’t necessarily causation it does measure the impact your adjustments may have on long term trends.

4. Shift the focus of your improvements to the future versus the past.  Create a dealership forecast based on data, not goals, to measure your progress.  Here is how we built ours

5. Daily and weekly feedback loops are essential to determining how effective you are. Keep the conversation going and everyone’s goals aligned.

The quicker we absorb the lessons from the past the faster we can engage in the future. Stop isolating this review to the start of the month – keep it in front and center each week.  Give your team a break from the distraction of monthly self-appraisals, your customers will thank you with their business in the beginning of the month!

Cause and effect.  This is a simple model to apply to solve problems.

What factors that we can control influence outcomes in our life, our business, or our job/role.

Let’s take a look at Used Cars.

Where do Used Cars come from?

Owners, of course. There is no used car manufacturer. Of course, the auction or other wholesale dealer-to-dealer channels can account for some.

But, did you know that nearly 70% of used vehicle sales by dealers came from direct-from-consumer transactions?  To be exact, in 2014 66% of all used cars retailed by dealers were sourced from trade-in.

How has that number changed over the years?

Well, here is the same % of source of used cars retailed for trade-in and street purchase over the previous 10 years:


I speak with many dealers on a regular basis, they ALL say they would love to improve their New to Used sales ratio.

So what do you think?

I contend that if you want to sell more used cars then buy more. To buy more, you need to have more conversations with prospects about their car. Your own dealer website can be a tremendous source of these particular conversions. Even Tesla recognizes the importance of these conversations.

In order to have more conversations, we need to get in front of more prospects and it needs to be easy.

Take a moment and place yourself in the consumers seat, now go on your own dealer website and step through the process (if you have an online trader-in tool) of obtaining a "trade-in value", just as a consumer would...

How long did it take?
How many clicks did it take?
Was the returned value transparent? (where did the value come from?)
How was the overall experience?

Now do the same on your Phone... 

How long did it take?
Was it easy to do on your phone?
Could you even accomplish it on your phone?

Potential customers are all over your dealership website each day. Most of these customers have a vehicle to trade; a conversation to have. Studies and surveys have shown when visiting a dealer website, researching the value of their trade-in is in the top 3 areas of information they are seeking. Yet, many dealers make it difficult to obtain this information. And when the consumer does finally get to the end of the process, they are presented with a value that provides little to no transparency to where it came from. Making it extremely difficult to even start a conversation.

Cause and effect…

What can you do to improve and increase the number of conversations you're having for acquiring more trade-ins.?

As multi-million dollar local brick and mortar businesses offering people a significant product and service, the expectations for what a dealer can and should be achieving must be high.

While I believe that the majority of dealers do strive for excellence, one area where dealers are not exceeding expectations is with Social Media.

Considering that social media sites such as Facebook have caused a permanent shift in the way we live our lives, conduct business, and advertise, this is a problem that must be solved. The dealers that do solve it will have a huge competitive advantage.

How does this tie in with long-term profitability, you ask?

Market Share Achieves Longevity

The path to long-term profitability hinges on your success in continually growing market share... profitably. Cutting prices eats at your profit so you can’t do that. Reducing marketing expenses decreases your market share, so that’s not a good strategy either.

Growing market share requires increasing exposure AND creating the ultimate customer experience, because an exceptional customer experience goes viral and sustains the business you acquire.

Unlike most franchise businesses where all the local store has to do is provide a customer experience consistent with the global brand, local dealerships do not have this luxury. Local dealers must provide a unique brand experience that engages customers and creates loyalty, advocacy, and influence.

If your dealership does not have a unique dealer brand that gives you a competitive edge, then your competition will continue to eat you (and your market share) for lunch. When the market goes flat (which it always does), you will lose because you can’t grow market share when it’s flat.

Customer Engagement with Verifiable ROI

Growing your market share profitably with verifiable ROI is key. The type of verifiable return on investment dealers need to know requires deep levels of attribution. Attribution such as:

• What percentage of business is from existing customer relationships, what percentage is re-activated, and what percentage is newly acquired.
  
• What the gross revenues and gross profits are in both sales and service as a direct result of a campaign.

Gross Profit Attribution

While running paid social media ads is proving to be effective for branding and top of mind awareness and driving website traffic that is trackable, this form of push marketing does not:

1. Fix the broken engagement funnel
   
2. Provide the type of verifiable ROI described above

Dealers are looking for ways to promote their business and ultimately be profitable with Facebook. But until these metrics and measurements can be attributed through social media advertising, and until social media can be used to fix the broken engagement funnel, dealers will continue to be skeptical of the return on investment and how it impacts their long-term profitability.

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Free eCourse and eBook: Keys to Verifiable Social Media ROI

To assist with this, I (Ryan) have created a free 7-day e-course designed to explore the obstacles and causes behind why dealers and agencies are not able to produce a verifiable ROI with social media, and what it will take to do so (namely DMS and CRM integration with Facebook). The e-course is absolutely free and at the end of the course you will receive a free e-book that contains all the curriculum in the course, and more. It was designed for dealers, automotive marketing firms, and ad agencies alike. Please enjoy![/highlight]