Brian,

Sorry for the late reply. We have two phone monitoring systems: ADP/Cisco and iMagicLab. We use ADP/Cisco primarily as an incoming call tracking system and iMagicLab records specific outgoing calls. As a company, we probably spend more time listening to the outbound calls because most of the inbound calls go to our BDC and the BDC manager listens to those moreso than our sales managers.

With roughly 150 people making a minimum of 8 outbound sales calls per day, the majority of sales call volume is on outbound. Thanks to the BDC, the largest opportunity is on the outbound side, so that receives the bulk of our focus today.

I have no idea what the overall management team is spending, in time, on call monitoring. I do know that time is spent on one-on-one training based off of what was monitored. However, I can say that we suffer from the same issue most dealerships do: managers don't know how to use the phone appropriately either. Most of our managers are experts at working with a customer while they're physically in the showroom, but have trouble effectively transitioning to a world where the customer has all the control.* This is a focus for me in 2010. Hopefully another DealerRefresh contributor (Jerry Thibeau) will be along to help me in that endeavor soon!

Does that answer your question? It is probably worth its own article.

*I have to condition this statement by saying that our sales floor is far better at working in the new world than they were even in 2008. However, traditional dealership training was in place for many of our managers (myself included) when we were sales agents, and that was a time when the Internet either didn't exist or was not a place you spoke to customers directly. Due to the economy changes I've found our management team to be more eager and open to learning and I plan to help them learn a ton more in 2010!

Alex,

This was an excellent break-down; its one of the "car-guy" areas I'm not really involved with...

I hear a lot of the same rumblings from afar - I've already passed this along to a couple of people as well.

Thanks.

@alex
In your dealerships, how many hours a week are invested in listening to the recorded calls that come in to the dealership? Are they graded or scored in any way?

I was interested in this because I come from a call center data management background. I know that dealers use CallSource and WhosCalling for tracking call volume from various ad sources. I was interested if dealers are using different scripts, A/B testing on improving phone skills and phone scripting processes.

Alex,

Your article was excellent. The message was clear. I also want to ditto Mike Correra's coments. Mike, you hit the nail on the head.

It's been a few years since I was a Sales Manager at a dealership. I may be old fashioned but, what ever happened to the 15 minute "One on One" weekly meeting with each Salesperson from their Sales Manager?

Back in my day as a Sales Manager all I had to follow up with and call for appointments was the daily log sheet. I would of killed to have today's technology like Autobase, Higher Gear, etc... My "One on One" meetings with each salesperson would of been so much more productive.

In closing, Happy New Year!

Ray,
Please check in on us...lots do.
As far as customer experience watching us here,

You may learn something.

That is an excellent point Mike. Thank you for bringing that up.

one i would like to add is that the CRM, any CRM, needs to remain a tool and not used as a weapon. if the sales staff lives in fear of the CRM because the GM, GSM, Desk and their Closer are constantly hunting thru it to find all the faults and then beat the sales staff up with them its soon loses its effectiveness. as we are training on the importance of making the calls we need to remember to repeat that making the calls is not a punishment but a road to the reward of a commission! sometimes its good to step back and realise that all the process management is only a means to the end, which is the sale of a car! I hope everyone has a happy, and safe, new year! all the best to you all

Craig,
I believe in a strict policy concerning maintaining an active tool to manage prospects and customers. My point was those that manage relationship and do not understand the customers experience, will fail. I will monitor Action Toyota and report in social media your progress and throw in a few mystery shops to boot. Best in the New Year.

In regards to stats, I was trying to be conservative on the numbers, thank you John & Jerry for jumping in. I think if you are in a College Town, Higher dollar demgraphic,High-end brand, the percentages will spike to larger percentages. I would say less than 30% of the Dealers can really tell you how many calls, ups, internet leads have come into there stores and created sales, and if it was a be-back or fresh-up with or without a CRM. I can tell you this year has changed a lot of people. Dealers, GM's, Managers, salespeople are starting to pay attention to the reports and functionality and are actually looking forward to our monthly calls.

@John,

John in this context by "hype" I meant the obsession the industry seem to have with social media. Not a bad thing in fact I used it very effectively at motortrendsonline.com, and write about social media quite often.

Secondly I would argue that social media is a separate topic, in fact what salespeople should be doing with CRM they should also be doing with social media.

Engaging customers, answering questions, helping them with issues, and following up on concerns.

Is there something in the list above you would not have a salesperson do with CRM?

The only difference, the conversations that take place in social media do so in public rather than within your CRM system, the good and the bad.

While I DO NOT want to turn the comments in this post to social media, I am compelled to address comments that these things are separate, they are not and in fact social media is closer to CRM than it is to marketing.

@Mitchell

Seems like every post I read lately has something to do with social media. In fact most of my posts lately have been about social media so, I was glad to see one that wasn't about social meida, that's all.

Who's agenda are you referring to yours or mine?

Thanks John. I probably misinterpreted the use of the term "touch you," thinking Guy meant "contact" rather than exposure to the dealership.

@Mitch - I am in dealerships of all sizes, franchised and independent, working with their sales staff every day and, like you, I have been in this business for over 27 years. There are still professionals and not-so-professionals on the sales floor.

I just thought your original assessment was rather derogatory toward salespeople in general and I wanted to point out that it's management's responsibility to hire, motivate and, if necessary, develop professionals rather than lazy salespeople who don't take their jobs seriously.

Hope you have a Happy New year.

Again, phone, Internet and walk-in traffic is NOT mutually exclusive. Internet should account for 80+/-% of all your traffic, walkin, phone etc. If it doesn't your sales people are lying to you or you have a pay plan set up for sales people that makes sure they do.

Alex, Great article. One could write a book on CRM and you've certainly nailed some of the better chapters. This would be a great forum discussion thread.

@lightnup, Thanks for the laugh this morning. You said what I was thinking.

As far as the 60% number by mentioned by Guy, I can validate some of that. I did a study on a little over 100 dealerships using CRM last year. I looked at the percentage of customers who were Walk-in, Internet & phone. Internet represented 40% of the customer base while, phone was around 30%. In any given day other than Saturday, most dealers are logging more Internet & phone-ups than walk-in traffic.

First off, we have the best pay plan of all Acura dealers in our region so we don't "Nickle and Dime". Secondly, when I was a salesperson I had my own CRM called my looseleaf that I carried with me everywhere and followed up regularly so I know there are salespeople out there that can, and do, do a good job. The problem is there are less and less of them. Our sales staff, for the most part, have been here on average over 5 years and are good salespeople. They are not, however, above taking short cuts and "knocking out" their To Do list without actually doing the job. They cherry pick! I've been in this business 27 years and the caliber of salespeople have dropped significantly over the last few years (read Why We Suck Why We Suck! – DealerRefresh). As your new years resolution maybe you should go back to working in a dealership, any dealership, and see the quality of salespeople and then get back to me.

And 60% is a low number - it is actually over 80% that will touch you by Internet alone.

There are a lot of stats out there, and if no one comes back with any I will dig some up for you. BIG key to remember - touching you by Internet cannot be narrowed down to just email. Most online shoppers are 2nd and 3rd generational shoppers and have realized that in-store email processes are really bad, therefore they avoid email. That drive many people to the phone and directly to the showroom. JD Powers stated that over 42% of used internet shoppers do not phone or email but go directly to the store. If you're still only counting emails to measure interactive advertising success you're setting up a risk.

Guy wrote: "Over 60% of all your buisness will touch you by phone or Internet."

Guy, can you please provide the study or documentation for this statement? It contradicts the theory that a vast majority of people arrive at the showroom without having called or emailed first.

Thanks.

@Mitch

Perhaps two of your 2010 New Year Resolutions should be to, 1.)develop a better attitude toward your sales staff and, 2.)have your sales managers stop hiring lazy people who don't take their jobs seriously.

Managers who see their employees as "inherently lazy" tend to be condescending and somewhat dictatorial and end up with lazy employees who don't take their jobs seriously... and who harbor bad attitudes toward management. You get what you expect.

As a professional car salesman who had my own effective CRM processes in place long before CRM became a buzzword, and who was encouraged by management to view my position on the sales staff as if I were running my own business, I disagree with your characterization.

As an aside, valuing your salespeople with a good comp plan and not nickle-diming them with ridiculous packs and other little management "gotchas" will also help you keep motivated professionals who take their jobs seriously. (Not saying your store is guilty of this, but many are and you can usually tell just which ones just by walking in and seeing the caliber of the employees they are able to retain.)

Speaking on both sides of the fence, Dealers and Vendors have a responsibility to making the processes effective. And Alex consolidating systems is a 1st step. Every store has a system or best practices. My dad had a saying in the business. "There is a million systems, but if you deviate, you no longer have a system" So a Vendors job is to understand what the Dealer wants to accomplish and set those processes in place, and if the Dealer gets off track, as a vendor you better monitor let him know his process is breaking down. That is how you become valuable to a Dealer as a Vendor and he looks forward to your input monthly as a Consultant. Dealers should hear from Vendor on suggestions that work in other stores. Do you know what the Dealers benchmarks are? How can you help him raise his penetrations? The biggest process improvement that we see in CRM is making sure the phones are integrated into CRM and those calls are set up on an immediate process or schedule. Over 60% of all your buisness will touch you by phone or Internet. Phone has been lost with the high focus on internet over the last few years. Dealers are now starting to get back to that most basic opportunity. Happy New Year everyone.

Boy it was early when I first wrote this.

Larry,

What this post has to do with Social Media I have no idea so why would anyone bring it up? Personal agendas always get in the way.

Mitchell

I think everyone is living in some kind of dream world. Salespeople are inherently lazy and if left to their own devises would never pick up a phone, send a letter, an email etc. The fact that a CRM exists to "force" them to do a job is reason enough to have one and use it. I believe the point of the article is that it's not good enough to just set it and leave it but to be constantly monitoring your sales staff to make sure they are looking at their "tasks" as people. People who buy cars. Maybe now, maybe later but they do buy cars and the salesperson who maintains a good relationship with their customers (stemming from a good first experience) will be the ones who succeed. I have seen salespeople who never have to take a fresh up and just work their customer base. Unfortunately, I'm seeing less of that. If salespeople took their careers seriously, we wouldn't have to be talking about this. It's up to us, the managers, to insure the future of our dealerships!

Social Media is an entirely other topic, and it is not "hype" that can be ignored. It's not 1984, and marketing a dealership or selling cars in the same way will lead to disaster.

Larry,

What this post has to do with Social Media I have no idea so why anyone would anyone bring it up?

Very glad to see so many still focused on what get the job done and not side tracked with all the social media hype.