Regarding Dealix and the example you showed. I have recently experienced a larger rate of those comparison Leads, of which many customers have expressed annoyance of why I would be calling since they didn't request info on my vehicle.( dealix finds no problem with the comparision box being checked because the customer if wanted can uncheck the vehicle and proceed, but you can also just proceed) How can I overcome this, because volume of leads increases but quality of lead has gone in the garbage. Please give me a couple idea's I have a meeting with them regarding this Thursday to discuss. Any Help would be appreciated.

Why do we buy so many 3rd party leads? Nothing burns me more than calling a 3rd party lead, getting a hold of the customer that lives 3 miles from the store, drives by it eveyday and comes to me from another source than our website. Heres the way to make it stop..advertise your url, and if its long, find one that rolls off the lips, put banner ads on local hotspots, licence plate tags, and have your url on all car windows along the top. If you do this long enough you will start getting your own leads and start cutting the 3rd party apron strings.

If selling from the sales floor, I would ask the customer how they found the dealership and the particular vehicle of interest so I knew how to sell to them.

Why should selling to internet shoppers be any different with the technology available?

Which providers buy a bunch of outside leads? Or maybe the easier question is, which providers buy the least amount of outside leads?

CarsDirect, Cars.com, AutoTrader, and AutoUSA (depending on where you specify you want your leads to come from) are a few who don't buy too many outside leads.

Another interesting component is to look at your current leads to figure out how many were duplicates from more than one site. As a dealer who carries various competitive brands (Honda vs. Toyota vs. VW, etc.) we end up with quite a few duplicates. Last month roughly 70% of the leads we received were duplicates. I only purchase leads from three different sources, but a huge amount of them end up submitting another lead through an OEM site or our own site. It brings up the age old question: "Would I have gotten this customer anyway?" I'm afraid there is no perfect answer to the question I posed....and answered

Back to the original question, yes, it would certainly be useful to know where a 3rd Party Site's leads originate from. However, I don't think these people know. They may be the second or third place to purchase the lead themselves. My policy is to not support anything but the primary lead source.

I mentioned in an earlier post about this particular subject. I want to know the sites or other avenues they get leads from so I can say, "Hey, I do not want any more leads from that site", or "give me more from this site". I don't know for sure how honest the rep (from a source other than Dealix as they told me they cannot tell me), but he told me the sites they use and said that all leads I get will only come from those sites, unless of course I buy another lead providers lead from them, in which case they can't tell where exactly it came from. I think that I will go with the guy that can tell me I will only get leads from the sites he mentioned.

I think lead providers do not really want us to know them all because a dealer can go to some sites and advertise for their own leads. For instance, KBB has been calling me to sign up for the lead generator tool for trade appraisals, and in conversation he told me about a product (that he himself does not sell) that would allow me to have banner ads on KBB in key spots.

Correct me if I am wrong, but if I do enough of that I will get my own leads right?

Kudos on reallocating your budget to find a more qualified prospect. I often wonder why dealers pay 3rd party providers to beat them to their own customer.

I would love to hear everyone's comments on this one.

Dean

Yes! It would be so nice to know upfront if you have a price shopper, informed buyer, one that is ready to make a decision in the next few days, or one that is months away. I have always been one to read into the lead before I make the call to look for clues on how to read the customer. Often times with a brief phone call, all is clear. Without the personal call, it is not always easy to get a reply without a price from or starting at, email. Without a reply to the pricing email, you just have to keep sending until the end of time, or they walk in the door.

I think it would benefit you, it's a great way to build rapport with a customer if you know exactly what he/she was looking at to begin with, and what hot points to key in on when your speaking with them

Heather,
Having previously worked for a company that had 4 dedicated trademark and copyright lawyers working in it's legal department (and working for me on web issues), it was our understanding that, currently, there is no protection for you in regards to people using "variations" of your trademarked name. It is understood that they cannot use your business name directly, which would come under the laws and statutes regarding Fraud. But they can get very close to mimicking you, without legal consequences coming into play.

If your company is ABC, Denver for example (officially registered with the state) and you have done interstate commerce, as well as owning and maintaining a web presence under abc.com, again having done interstate business, then you CAN go after people who use your name for any web site outside of your state. I only bring that up because two different businesses may have the same name in two different states. So you may find adwords and keywords in other parts of the US that are using "your" name.

You CANNOT (not until the laws change) stop them from using your companies name for ads, keywords etc., as your businesses name is a publicly used/displayed name. That is, Joe and his wife talk about ABC all the time on the street, using the companies name in conversation. Your company name is listed in directories, lists and maybe even on blogs that say deragotory things about you. You can't do anything about it - unless it is proven that the statements are blatant lies meant to harm your business.

In like fashion, others outside of your company have every right to use variations of your companies name for a new web site - one called ABCsucks.com (we bought several of those to keep them from the competition), for example, or any other derivitive of your name. If you don't want those names to be used, then you have to buy the domain names yourself to block them from being used. Been down that road for months with our lawyers - I know what I'm talking about!

What you CAN do, and many businesses underestimate the power of this concept, is simply hold to the high road, make your business and web site the very best it can be, and outshine everything else out there that would misuse your name. Even blogs or forums - if they say something bad about you, you cannot have it "erased" but you have every right to post a well thought out, balanced retort.

One company I know of in one city even contacted the competition and started a dialogue about taking the high road and asked if they could all agree not to use the other businesses name(s). They agreed and have not had that problem anymore.

Don't fret about sleezy practices on the web (liek the competition using your keywords) - it will eventually all come out in the open and lose it's bite. Just do your best to serve your customers, giving them absolute top notch service and respect, and all that other stuff really will diminish and become unimportant.
Hope that helps.

Hi Heather (and Jeff),

My personal opinion is that trademarking your dealership's name will not do any good. Just perform a Google search for Burger King and see what I mean. Sponsored results appear from Subway, Wendy's and Taco Bell! The airlines tried to prevent this kind of thing back in the beginning of the online travel sites, they wanted to keep expedia and others from bidding on their rightful names in an effort to generate sales...they were not successful. Hope this helps!

Tim Morris

Actually, I think you'll find that Google and Yahoo differ significantly on this issue. Yahoo will not permit trademarked terms to be purchased as keywords. Google does permit this, but will not permit them to be used in ads. Since Google increasingly dominates searches, that effectively means that at present a trademark does not offer the kind of protection we're talking about here.

This is different in Europe, and I believe (I'm not a lawyer!) that litigation continues in this country.

I think Jeff is absolutely right about keyword ads that focus on a particular dealer. Waste of money. Brand and city are much more likely to be productive.

Heather,

Jeff is dead on... Studies have shown for Google that searchers are 3x more likely to click on the 'organic' listing vs. the 'paid' listing. That being said reasearch has also shown that in many instances a good paid listing can uplift the traffic to your organic by xxx%.

As Jeff stated there are links at both Yahoo and Google to report people infringing on your trademark. A simple cease and desist letter can work too from your corporate attorny. If your dealership is unwilling to spend on legal resources to protect its name, then do it yourself. Buy a formatted letter (all over google - do a search) and send it certified mail, return reciept. For extra bang for the buck add ", esq" to the end of your name.

This is something that you should regularly monitor - as new adds pop up all the time.

Jeff, great link and info, thank you... as always, you have the best blog on the Internet for this subject matter.

Do you know the site inventory.overture.com? You might want to go there and type in "Hagerstown Maryland". When you do, you will get a list of all search terms duing the month of June, 2006, that included those two words. Overture is owned by Yahoo so the results you see only represent that one engine. Yahoo has 28% of the search market so if you take the raw Yahoo numbers and divide by .28, you get the implied total number of searches during June, 2006.

A few things might interest you on this, Jeff. One, in your market, 32.2% of all searches during June that included "Hagerstown Maryland" were for vehicle purchase type of information (or, so one assumes from the numbers); two, of the top ten searches with those keywords, seven were vehicle purchasing type inquiries; and, three, if one limits the share of market to the top ten, 72.9% of the searches were for vehicle related inquiries. I have emailed you a very informal Excel spreadsheet on this.

Again, great job Jeff and I continue to read your blog daily.

IMO, all associations are designed to organize a market. It's a very complex form of marketing that is old, but proven. However, with Web 2.0, blogs, word-of-mouth marketing, CGM, etc., the exchange of information no longer needs to be contained within an "association" where the top benefits from the bottom-feeders. Your site (and soon my site: eautosalesblog.com) will be the new venues for the FREE exchange of information.

I do agree with you on the purpose of their certification program. However, I thought that the conference was great! And I do think that dealers sharing their tips and comments on their processes and department ia a terrific idea. Unless you are the competition down the street, I think everyone can benefit from any type of information/education available.

Lets explore this issue:

Here is the mission of the AAISP: "to enhance and improve the professional stature and prestige of Internet sales professionals within the automotive industry, facilitate the exchange of information among and between members, and make available program and service initiatives designed to assist members in the performance of their professional responsibilities"

Realistically Reworded: "to promote the awarenesss of the importance of Internet Sales Professionals, increase communication between Internet Sales Professionals, to provide and profit from programs and services designed to make Internet Sales Professionals feel as if they need certification"

I think you can see where this is going......
I looked breifly into the AAISP and for a minute there everything sounded GREAT! However I researched the conference and realized that the expenses were a little to high($149/year + $395 Registration). Not only that, the whole event is just a "pitch fest" and Sales Training "buy in" attempt. Where is the VALUE?? Having a SEO Seminar with a guy who runs Sales at a SEO Company seems a little fishy no matter how you hide it. The whole Organization just had a bad "freemason" feel to it.....

In conclusion, I'm sure that there is somewhat valueable training available to Hungry Internet Sales Professionals. However, I would like to see the Cost/Benefit Analysis on that one!

Why can Internet Sales Professionals just freely exchange ideas and information through FANTASTIC AUTOMOTIVE BLOG SITES like DealerRefresh and Carfeine.com??

Jake Wirth
[email protected]
[email protected]
(574)606-8925

It is abolutely fair. If I take the time to learn how to RUN an Internet department and its website, why shouldn't I take advantage of the "sheep" in the group who simply watch things happen, and complain when "their" leads are sniped by a more competent competitor? Is it any different from a customer coming in to your dealership with a newspaper ad from a competitor thinking its yours or asking if you can do the same deal? Is it any different (really) than an aggressive sales person on the point getting the majority of the ups?

Remember: Timid sales people have skinny children.

Great article, Jeff. Very insightful. Will be delving into the Google base deal.

Gerald Hand
Internet Director
Toyota of Irving

Trade marks, product names and federally registered marks will only stop advertisers from using them in there ad copy. This practice also known as keyword poaching allows your competitor to buy a company’s name which can be less expensive and better targeted than campaigns that use general terms such as “Mercedes Dealer”.

Unethical or not, Google, Overture and MSN allow it even after several lawsuits. One notable suit on topic was Geico vs. Google in which Federal Judge Leonie Brinkema rejected Geico’s claim that argued that Google should not be allowed to sell ads to rival insurance companies that appear when Geico’s name is typed into a Google search box due to possible confusion for customers and that it illegally exploits Geico’s investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in its brand.

In granting Google’s motion for summary judgment on this case Brinkema said…"There is no evidence that that activity alone causes confusion".

My question to readers is this… If your competitor is purchasing your company name at costs much lower than normal market value, shouldn’t you in some way help out the rise in keyword cost and purchase your own company name in the search?

Natural rankings on your company’s name are great but when this issue pops up it is the visibility of both Natural and sponsored that win the game.

Chad Long
Managing Partner
AutoONE Media LLC

I agree Jeff...what's the difference? But...

I think the real shame is that the majority of dealerships aren't paying attention to the simple fundamentals of natural search results. It's not difficult to master and the average store can spend less than an hour per month getting that job done. Until the dealership takes the time to get ahead of the curve, companies like Yahoo and Dealix (a cobalt company right?) will continue to generate leads by bidding on the dealership name or paying sites that are able to outrank the dealer in natural search results.

Aren't some of these same companies out there hawking PPC campaigns to dealers now?

So let me see if I understand. A dealership pays a monthly fee for a website that utilizes fundamentally flawed techniques (as it relates to natural search engine results) like frames. Then they come back and pitch you on PPC services..'cause, well, nobody can find you. All the while they are selling leads from people looking for you, to your competitor across town because you don't have an agreement with their lead generation division?

The only thing that would sweeten that honeypot is if you could get the manufacturers to pitch it to the dealers for you! But nobody could pull that one off.... could they?

Larry

Bill, Google has a hands off policy regarding trademarks and Adwords. It is up to the the advertiser and the entity holding the trademark to fight it out.


Jeff, congrats on the blog, it is picking up steam!

I don't think it is negative for a competitor to do this unless your dealership name is something unique. The problem with dealerships that are named "Town Name" "Make", for instance Frisco Honda or something like that is users will type those keywords into the search engine looking for Honda's in Frisco. I believe local search is very important for dealers to invest time in as many individuals will make those types of searches.

From my reports, I do notice a lot of users will type in the name of a dealership in the search engine. You want to be the #1 natural search result for those, as people will click on that result.

I hope every dealership has filled out information on Google, MSN, Yahoo etc.. with their local information. For Instance, Yahoo will place 3 local ads(actually Information) at the top of the search that contains a locale.

Well one thing good that is going for your dealership is the #1 spot in lcoal search results. I'm of opinion that down the road local listings is what's really going to count. Specially once Google base gets fully integrated into it.

Also If I find that AdWords or Overture(yahoo) is getting pretty competitive... I bump up the minimums on the other networks... like Miva, Ah-Ha, Search123... etc.

I run into this all the time. Best thing to do is trademark your name…then you can protect it online. I was able to get yahoo to block anyone from buying Sunnyvale Ford for a while, they apparently have stopped blocking it because I see 3 or 4 vendors buying it right now. Google wouldn’t block it without a trademark.

I’m in the process of trade marking Sunnyvale Ford.

Bill Benak
BDC/Internet Director
Sunnyvale Ford

"...We have added a picture of the sales person who is sending the email ..."

That's a good idea!

For those of us that are working with a larger staff, Here's an idea that I'm just beginning to develop.


We all know how customers like to mystery shop AND we all know how they dislike the haggling, I'm building a method where we can get the customer to show themselves by picking a rep that they'd like to deal with.

Customers like to choose their cars, why not their reps? I'm doing a total makeover on our site, it's about 2-4weeks out and I'll be adding this feature into it.

I'll keep you posted on weather shoppers like to choose a rep.
JP