Jeff, Thanks for the Gravitational Marketing nod. I'm checking out the site now and it's a intriguing theory!

I might sound like the odd ball here, but, oh well, here goes...

There are too many technology tools.

Let me repeat... There are too many technology tools.

I recently led a sales meeting with the focus on how to improve sales in this "challenged" market. The prompting came from the dealer principal and several of his sales people asking "how can we win the customer of today?"

My response... I had the oldest sales person in the dealership speak. And by old, I mean chronologically and seniority.

What did he focus on?

Process, process, process.

This guy understands the majority of his customers shop on the internet first. He understands the best methods of communicating with his customers. And his tailors his messages for his customers. Those who like text messages, he sends them text messages. Those who like emails, he send them emails. Those who prefer hand written notes and cards, heaven forbidden, he uses his hand, writes the note (or card), places a stamp on an envelope and deposits the note in the mail.

I think we use technology as a crutch in some cases and are looking for the magic pill to attract customers. Paraphrasing one of my mentors, we have become crippled by technology. We look to technology to bring in the customers. All technology should do is aid us in servicing our customers (a big difference). If I want to get a six pack, I cannot take a pill and have a six pack when I wake up in the morning. I have to work at it. Sales is the same way. I need to work. Use all of the tools available, in their proper manner and in your process and the sales will come despite the incentives. Work your customers, maintain a relationship with your customers and they will return.

I’d like to respond to the post by Alex Snyder and the comments by Dan Morgan and Jeff Kershner.

First of all, the question needs to be: “How do we market now? Advertising is just the tip of the iceberg and only a part of the process.

Marketing to today’s generation and future generations must tap into their addiction to instant gratification, as Dan Morgan suggested, but it’s got to be done in a unique and memorable way. Dan is right on target when he says, “I think it comes down to things that we are already using…. lots of thinking outside of the box and using other avenues in order to market them.”

I believe consumers will continue to respond to the familiar incentives, but they need to be PUSHED in a way that feeds their addiction to instant gratification.

How? Start with your lot and connect it to the Internet! Take your incentives and display them so the consumer can use the incentive to get information in a matter of seconds. Bingo! You’ve done it! Make 4000Rebate into 4000Rebate.com and you’ve taken a familiar, secure, visual medium and tied it straight to your inventory in a creative and unique way. Now that’s marketing!

If you’re into statistics, 67% of consumers are already aware of your dealership just from driving by; that’s what Cobalt told us in their 2007 Dealer eBusiness Performance Study. That’s almost double the amount of awareness to your dealership that search engines provide (36%); quoted in the same study. So what are you doing with your lot that is creative? Can you bring consumers to your inventory through a simple, affordable, visual display?

I believe every base has to be covered in order to succeed in today’s economic climate. Combine your incentives, visual displays, and internet advertising to complete your marketing process. Don’t forget why your dealership is located in a prime drive-by location instead some back-alley warehouse. Use every resource you have! The incentive is the PUSH, your dealership is the PULL.

I had been telling the dealership management for a while, that the internet is where its at and where the industry is moving to. The hell with newspapers and radio. Move the money to the internet. They were sluggish in doing it. It wasn't until we were seeing a return from our 3rd parties like Cars.com and when we got our new RWS website, and got on board with VAuto that they it really hit them over the head that we need to get really aggressive and fast. We weren't going to grow and sell more, with that very old school mentality that they had. Luckily I had been saying it for a while and put it nicely to them that "I told them so back 2-3yrs ago". Now they realize whats happening and are more aware of the power of the internet. But I had already been working on SEO and website branding "stuff" that they didn't see the importance of, until now.

My thoughts on the future....
I think it comes down to things that we are already using..lots of thinking outside of the box and using other avenues in order to market to them. All of these 3rd parties definitely help with spreading the name around. But alot of the younger generation as we move along responds to instant gratification more and more (myself included since I'm about to turn 27). Prompt replies to inquiries are huge. It's incredible how many internet dept leads were lost to the non-Internet sales folks here b/c of slow response times to inquiries. Luckily it was a slap to the face of the ISM's and really helped to show the importance of the quick phone call and email response.

I'm also the Scion Champion here and I really get a kick out of Scion's abstract marketing. And that it's not all about "selling a car". It's about an image and it's all about the customer.

Gerald - you're right, but the media fuels the perception. So, how would you market to the current perception?

There is no argument these times are tough. Our dealer has been in the business for over 20 years has not seen it like this. But I don't believe for two seconds it is as bad as "everyone" (the media) is making it out to be. Remember when this all started? Mortgage defaults were around 6%! That means 94% of the loans were good, yet this became a nationals, nay, global crisis overnight. Hmmm.

The current hype has prompted many consumers to hold onto their money for now rather than buying.

For weeks we heard "what if your guys go bankrupt?" What if this, what if that. I am seeing an increase in website activity (yay!) but not a rise in leads (so conversion is dropping a little). Not sure why at this point, but the coming weeks and months will determine how severe and how close we are to the end of this financial distress. Banks holding onto assets which were given them by the Fed to loan to the tax payers is not helping the situation. I have seen a recent increase in the desire of our manufacturer to lend money, though their criteria is still pretty stiff, but at least they are now trying.

I think this will be a correction which has been needed and is long overdue. Too many dealers chasing the same customer. Cull the herd; the strong (smart and bold) will survive.

I think you hit the nail on the head so to speak. When the banks stopped lending money...my ownership group went into a slight panic mode. However; they realized we still need to do business and drive traffic to our stores. I am the e-commerce director for three of our stores. The general consensus was to advertise more online. It was less expensive and more people were exposed to it than conventional advertising.

However; being in the business for 17 years and starting with the internet when it was in it's infancy, I have seen it grow and have reaped the rewards of being pro active with the internet.

Today though,consumers are more weary. Part of it is I believe they are waiting for that great incentive laden deal. It has been ingrained in them that the auto industry is dying and will do whatever it takes to sell cars in these tough economic times. The internet has made it so easy for us to click around and see who is going to be giving 10k off of there vehicles. Times have changed and changed rather rapidly.

We are all foreign import cars who tend to have a higher percentage who shop on line to begin with. However; we are incorporating more dialog via face book and blogs with our sales people and managers at our locations. As you worded it we are trying to build a relationship with the consumer. The time frame is definitely longer and the rewards are greater as we build relationships with the consumers. It has taken a few months for us to start to see some tangible evidence that it is working for us. Our sales for January were our best month since September. We were over 30% from Decemebr and more than that from Novemeber. A lot of it has been attributed to people saying we were friendly and responsive and open about our products.

As my general manger said it " we are planting a message in their head" Look at our product when you are ready to consider a vehicle. come see us....

Times are changing and we need to change with them or we will be left out...

I have had claims pay without submitting the disposal form. So, now I would like to go back and attach this form, how do you do that?

Jeff, Maybe this is going off on a tangent but in regard to inventory and more to the point new is there a combination you would reccomend to revamp a site? I am interested in a combo for both polling and data, configurators, etc basically the whole inventory / display/ research piece. I am also curious as to who has the most or best / easist source of rebates and build data as well focus on new. As many of your pros can tell I am a "newbie so please go easy.

p.s.
I own a photos, data collection, window sticker company. So I'm not coming down on vendors but I have noticed a decline in standards over the years with competitors.

Great thread!
I would like to point out that really, there are only two major vin decoding companies out there. They both do a sufficient job. The actual problems are in two areas.
1) The software we use to obtain the information from the vin decoding company. Many times this info is passed through several software apps prior to being published i.e. DMS, IMS(HomeNet), then off for pricing analysis, then to the website or an online classified. The vin decoder may decode and be capable of sending 200 fields of info however, the software, DMS, IMS, website host etc. might only post 100 of those fields or less. Make sure the software apps that you use are capable of posting, at least, a majority options data.
Many times if a dealership requests alterations, as Jeff mentioned above with HomeNet making revisions to accomodate ADP, a software company will make the changes you need, don't be afraid to ask.
2) Data collection is still very much a hands on process. Usually this task is delegated to the vendor or individual responsible for producing the window stickers and taking photos.
A vendor should be familiar enough with their software to know fields/options that are not decoded and be sure to note those options in the appropriate places.
The responsibility of these vendors has gone from - photos, data collection and window stickers to - photos sometimes, data collection never, (most are completely dependent on decoders), and window stickers when you complain about not having any.
Hold these vendors to a higher standard, tell them what you want. If the vendor doesn't produce I'll bet there is another vendor out there that will and probably at a better price.
If you are doing photos, data collection and window stickers in-house, unless you have two cracker jack associates both on long contracts, find a vendor.

Unfortunately the manufactures do not publish the build data on any brands that I know of except Mercedes Benz. I have been running an Inventory Management business for several years and we pride ourselves on providing our dealers with the best possible option information that is humanly possible. Yes there are those times when we just have no idea what option package a car or truck has installed but if you take enough pictures of the car, the online shopper will in most cases be able to see what options the car has. We take 25 to 35 pictures of every car and that really helps. I have been told by some of my dealers that customers commented on the number of photos and came from far distances to purchase a car because they were able to inteligently make an informed decision.

This is my second favorite topic. Joe you are dead on in that quality and accuracy is important to properly merchandise your inventory online. The device you mentioned in your post makes it very easy to get the packages correct because you can check them off right in front of the car.

You can drive as many people as you want to your site, but the question should be “Are they going to get what they came for?” and “Would they come back”? To paint this picture consider someone comparing your vehicle to another one. If you only send Price and Photos, what do you expect to be shopped on? If you send the right photos, highlighting the unique features and flaws, an emotional description i.e. "no strange odors, never smoked in", and the proper option packages and what’s in them, people can now shop you on those highlights rather than your price. These are the things you would draw their attention to on the lot. Why would you not do this for your online marketing as well? Don’t more people see your cars online than walk your lot? Too many dealers think of their online marketing as just sending data. Would you show a visitor to your showroom the stock # and VIN to a car and expect them to get excited? Probably not, but you spend thousands of dollars per month to market your inventory this way online. And I bet you take more photos or write longer descriptions for eBay? Why? Someone please tell me.

I also like Alan’s idea of having each salesperson adopt a few vehicles and tell that particular cars story. A good inventory tool should also have proper package data and allow you to distribute real content to all of your online sites, not A/C FWD like so many, and not just the package name, but what’s in the package. Out of the hundreds of dealerships I encounter in a week less than 10% are doing this. Most still do not have written descriptions or comments.

Yes,to properly merchandise both new and used takes work. Dealers, ask your salespeople that are sitting around playing "quarters" to "adopt a car". When a trade (or new) comes in, you assign a handful of cars to each salesperson to write up great selling copy on each vehicle. Tell the story: extra equipment, warranty information, owner input, carfax info such as one owner, not wrecked, low mileage for its age, maintenence records, etc. Tell the story as if you were selling your own car, or what you would naturally say to a customer on the lot to get the sale. The key is to get the customer emotionally attached to the vehicle. Have a contest with the salespeople--whoever comes up with the best copy and sells the quickest wins, regardless of who "actually" sold the car. Gift cards, free tickets to the ballgame, whatever. It takes time and work. Next time you're on the internet looking at similar vehicles, read what some independent stores write. They usually have the time, and pour their heart and soul into their vehicle descriptions to get them sold. P.S. you can usually get original equipment/trim package info from edmunds.com. Do the research, do the work, merchandise your vehilces and you'll sell more.

We deal with this issue all the time on the new car side with my company's shopping cart service. Early on we received (loud and clear actually) the consumer feedback, "that what exactly is it you want me to shop and buy online."

If it helps, here is the process we teach as part of our implementation. Most dealer services use an order-guide based product to explode VINs and tell consumers what each option code is.

The process to use in your dealership to handle stock ins is to make sure that the factory options per the invoice are entered. There are tools such as from VIN Solutions to facilitate capturing these for used cars.

What you have to be careful of are the exceptions (naturally). Here is the list we know of:

1) ADP has no field for exterior nor interior color codes. We have our dealers enter those two in the options field as the first two options on every vehicle and parse them out from there.

2) The EDS DMS now owned by ADP and used by all Saturn stores only has room for 4 factory options.

3) AutoSoft only has room for 10 factory options and their export tool doesn't allow the export of the trim code (although their CEO Charlie Prophet who I met at NADA last week has offered to correct this and automate the whole process for us)

4) Sometimes there are factory integration points to help with this. The industry standards organization run by NADA, known as STAR, has a standard around how this data is supposed to be structured and how to handle its interplay between the OEM and the dealer. Few OEMs have adopted it.

5) Reynolds is a better DMS than ADP for this since if you set it up correctly, you can get sub-option codes for packages and preferred equipment listings... but beware... some OEMs have implemented it correctly (i.e. Chrysler)... others have not (GM just uses text for the sub-option codes... text doesn't mean much to an order guide database). Where it is not an integration point, Reynolds also sometimes has a data service you can subscribe for so you don't need to build and maintain these tables manually... but beware... Reynolds takes shortcuts on the packages / preferred equipment groupings essentially making them useless to your web providers unless their service can look up the sub-option listings.

Which brings up the exact point to the concept we were launching at NADA for the OEMS who don't have one of their own...

A contextual, side-by-side comparison of trim level differences and options.

As the precursor to shopping online

Be an online consumer who wants to consider the Saturn Astra. Is a configurator going to help you with what you need to know to be comfortable shopping for your Astra? Would you leave the configuration process comfortable that you had the Astra you wanted? That a better choice wasn't available? What would you do in a configurator where you were flexible as to whether a car had a particular option or package that you wanted?


Think about that as the entry to consumers viewing your vehicles. What should your website look like if it was built to educate them so they could shop online (vs. send you an email inquiry)?

The first point to address this issue is that people are always part of the process! Crap in gives you crap out and expecting a Vin-decoder to provide the details needed to exactly list all equipment is not an option since they do not provide equipment detail to that degree and they admit it; no surprises there.

That said, there is also value in recognizing that some equipment is "weighted" more than others in a car buyers mind and bogging them down with too many details might actually bury the equipment that matters and confuse their buying decision.

As a result, most vendors that rely on "automated" processes have to build in some algorithmic formula to select the equipment that has the highest "conversion" rate or interest for conusmers. Other vendor applications that tout more "granular" comparisons utilize multiple Vin-decoder applications cross-referenced to other 3rd party resources to accomplish an "apple to apple" comparison. Without naming names, I know that some are using that capability as a "differentiator" to define their application in the market because I represent some of them. In their cases, I agree - it is nice to offer more information as long as it is relevant in your application and it improves the "transparency" in the process for your online customers; be they auto dealers or car shoppers.

All of that said, a picture is still worth a thousand words and a video a multiple of that. Any "holes" left in a vehicle equipment list can often be overcome by a comprehensive picture list or video showing everything that a customer needs to know - or at least the ability to narrow down their shopping comparisons to a short list to move forward to find out. There is wisdom in giving a customer just enough information to require them to contact you to find out more! Of course, give them too little and they will simply move on to a more informative site.

The bottom line is that people must inspect what they expect in most of today's inventory posting applications and consistent labeling of equipment is still a dealer focused priority when selling across multiple franchises but tomorrow promises to be better as vendors and OEM's recognize the importance of providing more comprehensive vehicle information online that can be carried across multiple verticles and online channels.

Hey Jeff, I just looked at your drivemb site. Great site, great SEO! You are definitely going down the right road with the detail pages on your vehicle listings. Don't forget to pay some attention to the listings pages. This is a great opportunity to get many more relevant pages indexed by the search engines.

In response to Jeff's last post, I would second his statement about entering accurate information into the DMS. The more accurate the option codes, package codes etc.. the easier it is for dealer service providers to provide VIN decoding from a "style selection" stand point, as well as to list the optional equipment translations and rich content descriptions.

As many DSP's know, when you have access to this information through DMS polling reports for current inventory you can triangulate in on styles, and reduce the amount of work that needs to be done at the IVM level whether it is self service, or full service. (I think both types of services/solutions have been mentioned here).

Alex mentioned some of the complexities of working with this data, the differences between the OEMS etc, and there is no doubt that it is complex. There is a lot that needs to be done with data transformation and rules base to handle the differences not only in OEM, but DMS available data either auto-populated, or dealer manually entered.

From an SEO standpoint, as long as those inventory pages are able to be picked up by search engines as being connected to the dealer website there is a pretty large advantage to having massive amounts of revolving content. Again Jeff describes that well.

Whether the dealer has generic model listings as stand alone, or as lead in to actual inventory, or just a "search new inventory" page - the value of investing the time to list the vehicle with as much information is very high. With so many great solution providers out there, certainly unless the particular franchise/store "owns" the local market - the more data, the more rich listings, the more SEO benefit is going to make a tangible and measurable difference. (I'll leave the quantifiable metrics solution discussion for someone else!)

Note to the group:

I am in a beta with HomeNet assisting with mobileIOL (mobile options gathering tool). It's headed up by Jeff K's good pal Phil Penton.

We've been badgering HomeNet for months to get into the trial, but they refused to release it until it was ready.

I am use to the extra work from beta testing. You need to be organized and be a good communicator as you discover flaws and errors and spend hours working with the developers trying to create solutions.

I wasn't prepared for what happened next.
This MobileIOL has been as close to a flawless testing experience as I have ever seen. This is my 1st beta where I can count the problems on 2 fingers. (now if only my new web site was that easy, I have 64 tweaks & fixes scheduled for it!!)

Shout out to Phil and the HomeNet team for a great mobile data gathering tool and the easiest Beta ever!

Joe

Dan,
I agree with the statement of having the process is easy, however having the people that follow the process is a whole other game. As we all get better at adding technology or trying to better use the technology we have already been using, it becomes more apparent that training all of or people to productivly use what we have becomes the challenge. We all know that having great pictures and compelling descriptions are a huge part in being successful in todays internet driven market. It becomes easy to take for granted when times are good that we have good people. When times tighten up however it becomes more apparent how we have some of our people using what we have or the biggest mistake a dealer can make today.....having only 1 internet person or 3 internet savvy employees with cool titles. (sorry Joe) The challenge today is having everyone from the top down and yes the bottom non-believers up on board with the technology available. The market becomes more internet driven every year and for those dealers or salespeople that don't want to embrace that fact, I feel for you.

Jeff, if their is right data in the DMS... Chrome (DealerTrack company) has a very good VIN to option/package/color specific decoding available... I have gone threw OEM web certification on the first run using Chrome.

thnx Umer.

We have >1000 used units between 3 stores and we have 3 eMarketing Coordinators (cool title Alex, thnx!). 2 are car guys and one is the photo specialist.

No doubt about it, you have to be a car nut to do the job right. You got to know where to look for ABS, Airbags (front, side curtain), LATCH child saftey, Auto hill-hold brake feature, StabiliTrak, Flat tire monitor, Traction control system, Windshield Wiper Deicer, Rollover Protection System, and on, and on...

Litterally thousands and thousands and thousands of features and options, THEN, fit it all on to a 8.5 x 11 window sticker!

HA! Are we having fun yet??!!

I dunno Joe you can always play the numbers game on volume vs quality.

We have personally tried to do Window Sticker service and it is a pain... and gave up. Process that should normally take no more then 10 minutes turns into a full day thing. Have the car but dunno where the keys are. The car is somewhere on the lot... boy try finding a car in winter on a huge lot. Car has not been conditioned for sale... you have had this vehicle for a month... why oh why...

I love flow charts so I created this little flow chart using Gliffy free service... check it out and create your own and share plz.

Great tread!

Who cares about SEO, PPC, Video and all that stuff if your SUV's don't list 3rd row seating as an option?

Let's play mystery shopper.
So you have a customer looking at your 08 Avalanche LT. He's got a print out of an 08 Avalanche LT from a competitor of yours.

Yours is an LT3 and his is an LT1. BUT! You don't know it because your options gathering team hasn't been held to high standards.

If your customer is smart, he'll work you on this "LT vs LT" angle and grind you on price to close the sale.

Extra options INCLUDED on a LT3 vs LT1
-Leather
-Heated Seats
-Memory Seating
-Pass. Lumbar
-InDash 6disc Changer
-Bose Audio System
-Rear Seat Audio Controls
-Integrated Turn Signal Mirrors
-(Nav & Backup camera not avail on LT1)

Gathering options is boring, laborious, grunt work, but... it sells cars. Gathering options correctly has a higher ROI than any PPC/SEO campaign.

Gathering Options correctly and crafting custom comments is why small dealers can have a big internet marketing advantage over the larger stores.

We do it all in house and it's a very frustrating task to do it right... everytime.

Joe