Jennifer Schrader is the Internet sales and BDC manager at Williams KIA in Traverse City, MI. We were on the subject of reports and how crucial it is for Internet sales managers / BDC managers to track their performance. So I asked her if she would write a quick article on how she came about tracking her performance and how it has benefited her and her department.

Here it is:

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Benefiting from your Reports

Starting in the Internet Sales department for a small buy-here-pay-here dealership with 5 locations I had quickly gained knowledge on how to sell to internet leads. I then moved onto a volume dealership with an increased flow of internet traffic and leads. I had done very well working with the increased volume of leads and was successful with setting appointments and closing sales.

After setting a few sales records for the dealership; I felt the need to track my performance; number of appointments made, shown appointments to customers sold. I decided throw down what was floating in my head into a spreadsheet. Within a short time I had a resourceful report for tracking my MONTH END and a YEAR END SUMMARY results.

I quickly found that tracking; total internet leads to scheduled appointments, kept appointments to appointments sold provide huge benefits and enable you to track your strong and weak key performance areas.

Here are some of the benefits that have been very useful to me and my department.

• Keeps yourself and your team on track
  
• Quicker buy-in from General Management
  
• Measuring your success
  
• Allows you to set obtainable goals
  
• Determines where improvements are needed:

1. 
   
   1. Appointments are down (follow-up needs to improve)
      
   2. Kept appointments down (follow-up and more accurate appointment confirmation)
      
   3. High shows ~ Low Sales (closing the customer needs improved)

The number 1 benefit of tracking your performance is receiving acknowledgement from upper management while being prepared to answer “the questions”. How many times has your GM or GSM asked you for a number off the top of your head regarding status of your Internet sales performance? With this report there are no questions to be asked; everything is there!

My spread sheet reports have been a huge asset for myself and my BDC. I thought I would share them with whoever is interested. If you're not already tracking your appointment to sales performance, maybe these will help.


Jennifer's MTD summary report


Jennifer's YTD summary report

Guest Posting by Jennifer Schrader
Business Development Center Director for Williams KIA

Click to expand...

Email – The love/hate relationship - John Max Miller

Let’s first talk about the love…

Email is really the new telephone. It’s BETTER than the telephone. You never HAVE to answer it; you can even ‘listen’ and not answer it! It doesn’t ‘ring’ at dinner time! You can answer it at 4am and no one is upset by that! It’s more convenient for discussions; you don’t have to be available when someone wants to ‘talk’ to you. Email REALLY is cool…

Now the hate…

I have been using a blackberry since the day they came out. I am an ADDICT! It never leaves my side, wakes me up at night, and takes time away from my family every day when we are on vacation. I spend my day ON email and never seem to be able to get away from it.

Now let’s get down to business… How can email help me make more money?

Email will only help you make more money if you USE IT PROPERLY.

Email is NOT a business toy – it is a tool that if used wrong can cut you so deep you will bleed to death – financially!

Email is about communication! Email must first and foremost GET DELIVERED to your customer. No matter the message and how poorly or how well it is written, it has to get into your customers IN BOX.

How do YOU ensure delivery?

Understanding blacklists and becoming white listed is VERY important in this email delivery space.

Blacklists - If you are sending out multiple emails at a time, you need to make sure that you continually monitor blacklisting sites. These sites are independent non-profit companies that specialize in finding ‘open relays’ where ‘spammers’ may be sending emails from and literally can STOP YOUR EMAILS DEAD IN
THEIR TRACKS. You can send 2500 emails and not one of them ever gets delivered.

Email Blacklist Check - IP Blacklist Check - See if your server is blacklisted will allow you to check if you are blacklisted.

ORDB: Level Up with Crypto & Blockchain Gaming will allow you to check if your servers have open relays and could be blacklisted.

If you are sending emails out of your dealership, over your network, you need someone to monitor your open relays and your black listings. If you become blacklisted, you will need to go through a process to be taken off the black list. This is a process that, if you are sending emails on a regular basis, will have to be CONTINUALLY monitored. Being blacklisted and being taken off does NOT mean you won’t be blacklisted again.

Let’s now get a good understanding of white lists.

Whitelists are, in essence, and approved sender list managed by the ISP’s (Internet Service providers – AOL/Yahoo/Excite etc.) themselves.

In order to be white listed with EACH ISP, you need to go through a formal process and prove/show evidence to the individual ISP that the people you are communicating with have asked for you to communicate with them (permission based). ISP’s, even if you are white listed, can stop delivering your emails to their customers if your emails receive certain levels of “This is spam”, complaints.

You might ask “why would someone who has asked me to communicate with them mark our emails as spam?” Think back to your desktop… When you receive emails, what do you review… advertisements selling you something or emails sent from someone personally to you. This is now where you get into the content of the email issue…

Let’s discuss content!

If you get an email with a bunch of cars zooming across the screen or videos or pictures… what is your first impression?

1. I just received an email from a friend.
   
2. I just received SPAM.

Most people will in less than a second choose #2. Make your emails personal. Don’t send canned responses with canned pictures. ALWAYS put your message first so they see you are writing them a personal email.

People buy from people they like and trust. This is still a people business and ALWAYS will be.

So we all know that delivery is the #1 issue. Get the email to their INBOX!

Manage your open relays on your servers; make sure you are not black listed – weekly. Make a concerted effort to get white listed with ALL the major ISP’s.

And once you know that your emails are being delivered, make them personal and relevant so the customer appreciates the communication and responds by coming into the dealership to SPEND MONEY.

After all – it does not say ‘Church’ or ‘Synagogue” on the front of your dealership! Make money with your email!

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A big thanks to John Max Miller; over at @utoRevenue for writing this
article and clearing up a few questions I’m sure we all have about email and email delivery. If you have more questions or are looking for some help with your email marketing,  John invites you contact him at 1-413-243-4800 or  [email protected] .