I just heard from my "raving fan manager" that it is true. ADP has purchased BZ Media.

nice tips...appreciate the insight.

Good Day Jeff;

Anticipating the opportunity to catch up with a real buddy of mine in the industry, I am hoping I have better luck coordinating with you for a response to this post.

Your mention of the lunch you had with your AutoTrader.com representative reminded me of excellence I celebrated in Lincoln-Mercury and Mercedes and Acura highline sales, here in Atlanta. I am betting that the same "great" who mentored me during my tenure at those stores is affiliated with this AutoTrader.com representative. (or, quite possibly may be the representative himself).

Regardless, I would like to speak with you. It would be good for you to know of this very valuable person, and I would like to get back in contact. So, give me a call at the top of your week.

D. Ramonte Rawls, Founder
Auto Buyer Consultants
770.507.5733 Office
404.403.7476 Mobile

EA: [email protected]
WA: www.AutoBuyerConsultants.net

Jeff,

Excellent write up! It does however strike a chord with me. Being a former Internet Director for a Luxury (Lexus and Toyota) franchise, I understand exactly what you are suggesting in the article regarding third party companies and pictures. On the contrary, our company, BluSolutions, has an inventory management division that delivers the "in house" quality you suggest. We even custom design the window labels in full color. Twenty five images is the standard and professional photography is a must. We have a stringent training program for our photographers that begins with the internal operations of an automobile dealership. Put simply, we have put to market an inventory management solution that has been developed with the progressive Internet Director/Manager/Salesman in mind. The important part of this article you have written is the understanding that the images and data you put online is the FOUNDATION of any successful internet based sales initiative. Great article though! Mark Springer, BluSolutions.com.

Internet Sales Managers and floor sales people are about as similar as they are with relation to the service techs in your service department. To think you can train a sales person who is happy and content to sit on point for the "Up Bus" to stop is not going to be successful in the mining and developing of relationships with an Internet customer. A caveat, however, if your store is a small, upper-end store like MB or Porsche, then perhaps.

To think these customers are the same is equally naive. Spend some time with say a Subaru or Toyota customer who has a portfolio of information on specs and pricing and compare that buying selling experience to the good ole boy looking for an F-350 diesel, and you will quickly learn the levels of expecations are VASTLY different, and if you use the same approach on both customers, you will sell one, but not the other.

Point being, Internet customers usually desire to develop a relationship prior to arrival to minimize haggling. At least, that is my opinion.

You may be right to some extent. However, the reason dealerships integrate a seperate internet department with an ISM is to improve and track sales volume. Not all salespeople like to follow up on leads they don't get in touch with after the first, second, or third call. I have just started a new internet department for our dealership and can vouch for the importance of consistant follow though. Many dealerships allow their salespeople to follow up with leads, and maybe you should get their success rate and compare it to a dealership with an internet department. I've sold vehicles from leads that I found in trash cans left by salespeople who was not able to contact them after the first call. As for the article, Integrated management is good if the dealership wants to spend and train employees on logging every service, parts, sales, and phone message lead on the computer. Every ISM knows that internet lead to sales ratio is very small, and a proffessional trained to specifically deal with this is needed in the dealership.

If you are a dealer and you are using PPC with either google or Overture/Yahoo you are wasting your money. It is not that hard to optimize your site for your keywords and with over 30% of all clicks being fradulent why would you even think of spending the money. I have over 200 profitable website and I use PPC on less than 10 of them. Of those 10 they are big keyword sites so my SEO takes a bit longer. Save your money, buy 3rd party leads, or spiff your sales staff but do not spend money on PPC.

I think this takes place more often than people think. I've been a web developer for YEARS and have witnessed this many times over. It's sad, but what are you gonna do? You can only combat it by tracking IP's and clicks, there's always a workaround.

We use AutoUSA, and other 3rd party LP's, but I tried to cancel them (AutoUSA), but my GM said just have them cap leads at 50 per month. I am not impressed. If their 11% so called closing ratio is the best in the industry, why even use anyone else, and proves how our thinking for getting leads online is changing. Read on! That is still $1000+ a month we can use towards our "AdWords", yes, AD WORDS and killer landing page program we've implemented. We appear in the top 3 on the right of a google search. People SEE OUR URL , people see our toll-free#, they see our name, over and over again, then once they click on the ad word link, we pay .50 cents and they get sent to a killer landing page that encourages them to send OUR DEALERSHIP the tip that , hey I'd like a quote. In addition to the free exposure on the searches, the $1000 I have to pay now to get AutoUSA leads, could be an extra 2,000 clicks into my landing page/form - which I might ad, includes my toll free number. Even at the worst possible scenario, I can create more opportunities for the money than a lead provider with a "purported"11% closing ratio. Hey, I get AutoUSA leads... they're not that great. I think I know where the future is, and AutoNation and AutoUSA are not it.

Hi Jeff,

I just started working with AutoUSA and I am very pleased with my decision to join the team. I am glad that you have been pleased with the services so far. This is my first week on the job and I am overwhelmed by the levels of support this company has. I believe this company is really out to provide the best customer service there is in this market.

The way I came about working for the company and choosing to invest my time and livelihood in them came after very careful consideration. One of my dear friends and fraternity brothers is also the Internet manager for a local dealership here. When he told me about how well he has been treated by the company and his methods to maximize the use of the leads generated by AutoUSA, his conclusion was that working for the company should be a "no-brainer." In addition, another very important person in the life of my family works for AutoUSA and has been very pleased with the corporate culture and the strides that AutoUSA takes to make sure that its people are taken care of. Furthermore, I have done some really neat research on my own have discovered some pretty awesome facts about the company from Phil Dupree, VP of eCommerce for AutoUSA in an article at AutomotiveDigest.com ( http://www.automotivedigest.com/FollowTheLeaders/Dupree_Phil_AutoUSA.asp ). Check it out.

Jeff, I am still learning the in's and out's of things here, and so I cannot offer any explanation for the discrepancy that you astutely pointed out, other than to say I am sure it is the exception and not the rule.

Hope things go well with you and your use of the services.

At Your Service,

Nick Covanes
AutoUSA Newbie
;0)

Good Day Jeff Kershner;

Asking a question is always a means to generating the lead into another. You may know, or may not know already that AutoUSA is a division of the largest retailer of automobiles in the U.S., AutoNation. Being that the leads generated at AutoUSA are facilitated by AutoNation staffers, I have wondered for sometime if there were any really good leads in their packages. I am glad to know they are among the best of your 3rd party lead providers, Mr. Kershner, and I would like to further the discussion. Are there others of your subscribers who have shared your overall experience with the AutoUSA brand?

Yikes...that's a nasty image right there.

Happy Holidays to you too Jeff! See you in 2006!

As I agree with David... there are a few things to remember when sending e-mail to your prospects and clients. Rule #1 - Always send plain text. Most people do not have html email accounts and though they look nice they rarely get seen. Rule #2 - always add an http:// in front of your www. this way it will automatically create a hyperlink back to your site. Rule #3 - Get them back to your site! By publishing your message or special on your site you have a much greater chance for them to respond to submit a finance application or select a vehicle. For more money making ideas visit: http://www.internetautomarketing.com

We've just recently created a virtual showroom and have seen a spike in sales. We are a small time dealer in the INW, just a few cars a month - but the internet has been an amazing, cost effective tool for our small operation. We're looking forward to a very profitable year in 2006 with tremendous growth. *crosses fingers*

KBB's popularity should not be a surprise if you consider what they do- sell us leads. Most customers I encounter with KBB, know what their trade is worth and from Edmunds, KBB, Consumer Reports or some other website "know" what invoice is on a new vehicle.

This is easy to understand. For the new vehicle, customers will gravitate to the lowest "invoice price" on the Internet and conversely will gravitate to the highest trade value on KBB. The desire is to entice the shopper to submit a lead so I can pay $20 for the privilege of contacting the customer.

Interestingly enough, when a customer has held stubbornly to his researched trade value, and I have taken him through the appraisal process (this is critical since all customers rate their car as excellent-good), explained why his vehicle is really not worth as much as he thinks, I simply ask him if HE would pay that much for his vehicle from me, and the answer is generally "no". It is critical the education be done professionally, and "together" so you don't disparage the customer.

At first, I hated KBB, but with a little thinking and work, I have been able to turn it to my advantage.

I don't think that KBB is nearly as accurate as NADA, at least not here on the west coast. I am VERY surprised to see that.

Since this was a nationwide NEW car shopping study, it shows how influential kbb.com is for those types of buyers. The JD Power USED shopper study shows KBB to be even more dominant. For both new and used car buyers, kbb.com was the first visited and most visited for the 8th straight year. In fact, according to the studies, kbb.com gets more buyers than any other 2 sites combined.

Also, kbb.com attracts nearly 1 in 3 of all car buyers (both online and off) each year.

Reyrey just won the Phoenix award
At digital dealer they finally got up to date and the sales force is pumped up to sell they are going to keep selling as long as the product is good.

Call or email me for more information. John Zarlino - Your Car Guy [email protected] or 614-759-3390

In your search of dealership web solutions & hoping to find something new with all the right elements, perhaps you may want to look at a company called Red OnX Software (www.redonx.com). Red OnX has all those elements you say need to be in a dealership website, and we also understand completely how to develop a search engine friendly site for dealerships so that they are getting the most out of their investment. We have found that many providers of web sites and web solutions for automotive dealerships today are designed by companies providing applications to dealers that aren't intended for the web and the buying public (such as DMS applications). Many of these companies don't always know how to maximize the power of the web and thus the dealers loose out.

I agree with you, in that I too have noticed that increasing number of dealers are switching to ADP and ReyRey websites. This could be in part to a few things, namely the major blitz by both companies who are definately getting aggressive with their sales pitches. I know of a few occassions where I have heard that ReyRey Sales Reps have told the prospective dealership that the only solution that will work with their DMS is one from Reynolds. That however is not the case. Additionally as has been previously noted in other comments on your site, Reynolds also uses their Compliance sales pitch to the dealership and if they do not use their system they will not be compliant, which scares the dealerships in to signing with them.

The bottom line to me and the secret to success for an Auto Dealerships is not just having a nice looking website (especially one with the over-use of flash or java), but having a web solution that is effective in turning visitors into qualified leads, with a system that will drive traffic to your site and make it easy for you to convert that traffic and those leads into satisfied buying customers. Red OnX Software ( as well as several others besides Reynolds & Reynolds & ADP) will give you all that and more.
I too agree that in looking at a lot of Reynolds sites, that they are sloppy, difficult to navigate and hard to follow, their vehicle details and homepages lack call to actions and multi photos.

One of the biggest things that these companies have failed to realize in developing sites was pointed out in a recent Gartner Group study, which stated that "50% of web sales are lost because visitors cannot easily find content, products or services they’re looking for on websites". This is especially true for Automotive Dealership sites. A Red OnX Solution, offers dealers a wide range of “call to action” Lead Generation Marketing tools that focus in on what the various types of visitors to your site are looking for. I am also sure too, that there are several other solutions that do to.

The bottom line for a dealership today is that in order for them to be successful selling via the internet, they don't need a website in a box, they need a holistic solution that covers everything from search engines, lead capture, follow up, website, tracking, monitoring, processes and accountability. Additionally, that solution needs to flexible, easy to use, be able to grow with their business and grow with the market and be affordable. That kind of solution, unfortunately I don't see a dealer getting with Reynolds & Reynolds or ADP.

Richard R. Pancoast
Red OnX Software (www.redonx.com)
Vice-President of Sales & Marketing
888-332-6875 (Voice & Fax)
562-209-5534 (Cell)

I would not use an ADP site or ReyRey... by the way wasn't BZresults just acquired by ADP. That could be a really ugly combination.
Being locked into a BZresults contract, I agree wholeheartedly with the negative comments posted here concerning BZ. I have zero faith in the abilities of the BZ's support team, and BuzzTrak is the worst thing I ILM I have ever used. After 4+ years of WebControl and ADP/ReyRey working with a BZresults signed Dealer Group has been a true headache for over a year personally. I had to develop my own reporting program, and bounce in and out of 4 databases to get an educated guess of where we are... Boy do I miss the Daily Operation Control report and Internet Walk-in report from AVV Webcontrol. I would have left for greener pastures by now if I wouldn't be afraid that ownership would actually resign the BZ contract at the end of the term.
BZ's support team recently approached me with a website revision...Wow 2.0! This does nothing to change the way the site is viewed by the search engines, and the site is still the same hard to navigate flash based eye candy they already offer. They will not allow me to add 3rd party tools to the site to better my traffic conversion ratio. Instead they offered a distraction of the promise of a better backend, and a scrolling ticker on the home page of the websites. Well, the backend revision still isn't as good as Dealerskins was over 3 years ago, and a scrolling ticker is so 1999. I feel badly for dealers who get trapped in the BZ program and it makes Internet Sales Pro's have to work harder to convince dealers the web is the only way to go.

I recommend using a DealerOn website, iCarMagic, Jumpstart Automotive or Dealer.com Dominator for SEM and a tight follow up process for success and maximum return on investment.

Do you do any API key code programs?

John Zarlino
614-759-3390 WK #
614-204-2009 CELL #

Jeff,

I know why dealers are going to Reynolds and ADP in droves. In a word; searchability. When you try to search the flashy websites on Google or Yahoo you get mediocre results. These search engines have gone to organic relevance for the search criteria and flash technology is invisible to these search engines, the only two that really matter. Reynolds and ADP are building their sites to attract spidermaze searches which drives more leads. It does not look as nice but gets many more leads. BZ is left in the dust compared to ADP and Reynolds when it comes to search results. These two companies will almost always dominate the search results and they have the advantage of seamless integration with the DMS of the company they were designed by.

These companies do not throw these products in, they charge a premium for the sites. If you are on ADP or Reynolds and using another website provider you're missing not only the integration (these two bitter rivals also integrate with each others systems very well) but the best search engine performance available.

I think the major problem is there are too many small auto dealer service companies out there lacking the financial backing to really expand. They might have great design service but lack a usable CRM and vice versa. After a couple of years of trying to bring their technology to the forefront, they seem to abandon their business model and try to mimic a ReyRey or ADP solution.

However, some wise developers, including myself have hooked up and starting planning a robust suite of tools. Alone, we are very innovative, but always lack something. I myself have designed and maintain some of the Highest SEO ranking High Line dealerships, but I couldn't poll an inventory if my life depended on it. I'm sure you can see where the problem lies. After about 6 years of all of us working independently in the industry as CRM, Website Designers and Dealer Employees we have all just recently met and started our planning.

We gathered all the intel on the competition, worked over their tools and revised with major improvements. Mission Accomplished!

All I can really say is big companies will come and go. In the next year, we'll release the most innovative Online Dealers Services, we'll grow, get commercial, forget our roots, laugh to the bank and come to sites like this to see people complain about us. Or, atleast that's the plan.

Just my 2 cents, maybe just a penny.