Having recently attended the JD Power Conference as a panelist, I was very concerned and highly upset about the session on OEM Website Strategies, present and Future.
This panel was moderated (dominated) by Dealer.com and it's clients

Aside from completely ignoring the creditability and class that this event has been built on over the years (I have spoken or been on a panel every year), my problem with the panel moderated and dominated by Dealer.com and it’s clients…is that much of the information was very incomplete and did NOT represent any other successful strategies and ideas that are taking place as we speak.

Our success with Mazda as the exclusive web provider has produced very custom websites for the dealer, while still maintaining the brand equity Mazda requires. Dealers have been extremely happy and dealers that don’t want to participate, don’t have to. Novel.

This was a perfect example of how the OEM HAS taken the dealers life into account when developing their web strategy; A very hot point for the dealers on stage with good reason. This would have made the discussion so much more relevant and accurate

Moreover, Dealer.com and Dealerskins are 2 of 4 preferred web developers for Nissan. Nissan’s philosophy is to give dealers a choice of four companies that have proven they can build compliant websites, and also offer national incentive and sales event updates across multiple vendors. A CRUCIAL point that would have completely changed the course of that conversation and encouraged dealers that there CAN be a positive OEM/Dealer website initiative that can please everyone…a point that would have been FAR better to end that discussion on.

Being a much larger data set, and a far better web strategy, why was Nissan not the panelist??? Because they use more than just Dealer.com for their strategy? Of course, this would have blown Dealer.com’s sales pitch of only using one provider to have the best solution. It’s not true.

Frankly, the Subaru web initiative is one of the smallest (with only about 100 dealers participating) and has statistically NOT been one of the more successful. (We have multi-line dealers with Nissan, Mazda and Subaru and their Subaru site ironically performs the worst!)

It should Never have been the ONLY example of OEM website strategies on that panel. Mainly because Dealer.com has other OEM relationships that are NOT exclusive that would have made far better examples.

There should never have been ALL clients of the moderator’s company on that panel. That defeats the whole purpose of these panels and destroys the opportunity to give the listeners the most accurate, most intelligent, most diverse, and most comprehensive information available. Instead they left with the understanding the Dealer.com is the only company that has this “website thing” figured out.

In the years past, Kevin Root from Cobalt and I were that same panel to give at least two opinions from the web builder’s side. It was much more valuable and informative to listeners. This year NO other web developers were given a chance to represent their successful strategies with much larger and more successful OEMs. I’m just extremely disappointed and frankly offended that this was allowed to occur.

You do not realize how competitive and difficult the web dev space is.

In the wake of the current economic disaster in our industry, NO company can afford to have their main competitor handed such a falsly acredited competitive advantage of this magnitude.

The worst part ultimately…the dealers were not given the proper information in which to make important business decisions for their livelihoods and THAT should be the only reason why any of us are in this business…the dealers pay all of us….they deserve accurate, non biased, multi-channeled, verifiable, statistically valid information.

Alex,
Thanks for the constructive critique. We did feel a lack of dealer participation. But we understant their stress.

A couple of quick points,not to defend, but explain:
- There was ground breaking info in our opening presentation. Watch that video
- Yes,we needed more dealers. We tried. Based on dealer feedback from last year, we elminated the dealer-track breakouts. They told us they wanted to be with the OEMs.

Would like to hear more thoughts on how to improve the conference:

Gene Cameron
[email protected]

The Ford Fiesta Movement appears to be a brilliant campaign. What a great way to kick off the new 2011 Fiesta.

John,

That was a big portion of Farley's presentation - The Fiesta campaign was a massive undertaking.

I followed several of the participants on twitter...brilliant campaign as it created a massive folloing of people who wanted to become drivers and those who simply want to see the drivers' exploits.

I remember someone asking at JD Power if these participants' experiences were genuine? I can't see how they couldn't have been more genuine.

Drivers we tasked with specific activities on top of their daily usage...the reactions I saw seemed to nothing but genuine.

Simple premise: Let the consumer customize their experience.

I saw an interview over the weekend from Blogworld expo, which was apparently happening at the same time, and same city as JD Power round table.

I saw a bunch of videos, but one had a couple of FORD guys talking about the results they're getting from a campaign where they gave some FIESTAS to I think a 100? or so people so they could demo it and blog about it with no restrictions. Apparently they've had a huge response.

Did you hear any mention of that at JD?

Here are some results from oct 2nd,
- 4.3 million YouTube (YouTube) views thus far
- 500,000+ Flickr (Flickr) views
- 3 million+ Twitter impression
- 50,000 interested potential customers, 97% of which don’t own a Ford currently.

Kevin / Alex @scottmonty (Scott Monty) Global Digital Communications Manager with Ford did an outstanding presentation on Ford's digital initiatives you can get his presentation @ slideshare.net/scottmonty it worth looking at

Larry - thank you for the response! I certainly appreciate and agree with your perspective. You're absolutely right for the majority of the dealers out there, and I must admit that we're guilty of not doing some of the things you referenced as well as I would like. On DealerRefresh, and at conferences especially, I like to play the wildcard to spark some debate. My posting about moving forward without building some foundation first is certainly a metaphor for a building that is going to topple over. However, that metaphor doesn't work the same way in dealership process today.

From my own personal experiences I have seen where moving forward is fixing the core. Somehow, installing the furniture before the concrete slab is laid is actually improving the quality of the concrete!

This is a recent realization for me, but the more I think about it the more I'm realizing it is the truth. There is one key point I didn't make in that article, and that is I monitor what our employees are doing across a wide breadth of mediums. Without doing that I could never connect these dots and help people recognize the areas they're doing well in for the benefit of the areas they're struggling in.

Kevin - I'm glad you pointed out Google Caffeine. Jeff or I need to write about that one. I've been doing a lot of comparisons on Why Melbourne is a Hub for Adult Math Education in Australia | Compare Caffeine and am finding some holes in our current strategy if this truly is the future of organic Google search results.

Good review Alex, and well appreciated. We carry 15 brands, but not Ford, and I have to commend Ford for its efforts and success in the last 18 months as they entered the downturn in our industry and have done quite well compared to most other brands. And I agree completely with your 2 quotes regarding coop and digital advertising approval, and especially have your own website looking different than your OEM and your same brand competitors in town (Cobalt and GM sites!!!). Speaking of which, with the rollout of Google "Caffeine", duplicate content looks to be penalized, and template websites that cannot be customized for each individual market would appear to have some trouble in front of them...

Alex thanks for your comment and applause. I try to take off my vendor hat at every one of these events I am asked to speak at. You're right I had not read your post; New Dealership Processes until just now.

Very interesting to choose to break something forcing a new way of doing things, I absolutely agree with it. This concept is crystallized for me in Seth Godin’s book All Marketers Are Liars. It’s a great read.

You're also right that I go to the extreme with it. As dealers we think in extremes and I wanted the dealers in the audience to take at least that away from this panel. The more time I spend analyzing the TX. Direct Auto sales model the more I realize that many of the things we do in our dealerships are distractions and by focusing with intensity on the fundamentals we will get much farther than trying to be first in the next big thing (the silver bullet)

These fundamentals being:

1. A human optimized main random access website, focus on the user everything else will take care of itself – Google

2. Proper online merchandising of your inventory, the right pictures the right way (taken by you not some disinterested 3rd party)

3. Vehicle listing strategy, Paid sites & free sites

4. Pricing strategy, not the cheapest just competitive and priced to turn not for max gross (a hard one for a dealer to grasp)

5. PPC straegy for conquest customers

6. Finally a conversion focused strategy using microsites and conversion paths for all of the above

If a dealer can get these things dialed in then they can move on to the longtail and advanced elements of online marketing like social media if you don't have this foundation then the longtail isn’t sustainable.

Hope that makes sense and again thanks

Sorry about that Eric. I am going to have to add your last name to spell check - lol. You're a Miltsch again.

Alex,

Great summary...appreciate the mention. Great seeing you as well.

Farley's presentation was incredible; one theme that rang out to me on a consistent basis was the need to connect to our customers on a new emotional level - one that provides the customer the ability to customize an element of their experience.

(and this can apply to the consumer from the retail level all the way up to the OEM level)

Great to see everyone and finally meet so many of the people I've connected with online over the years.

Oh yea, Alex - my mess of a last name has 5 consonants in a row...Miltsch.

John Doe,

What state are you in? Is your market saturated w/ same brands? I.e., I'm in SoCal, there are 16 Honda dealerships in about a 30-40 mile radius.

Are the Internet teams emailing and phone calling? Are they giving price over email?

Are they "working" the deal or not trying very hard?

How many leads are duplicates? When using multiple lead providers, and getting that many leads I've found about a 15% duplicate- lead ratio.

80 cars in stock new/used is a problem! How many of those prospects would have purchased if you had the inventory?

These are some of the things I would ask/research to figure out where the issue is.

Keep Pushing!

Ok, obviously my name isn't John Doe but after you read what I'm about to post- management would #@!*% me if the location was disclosed, naturally.

Lead count includes 100% verifiable contacts for most online advertising sources; emails and phone calls to 800#'s. Total does NOT inlcude local calls or walk-in traffic. Sit down for this one...

Just over 800 emails and phone calls received in OCT with total units sold- somewhere around 50. Lead sources include manufacturer websites, dealer websites, Autotrader, misc Homenet outlets- nothing weird or eccentric. We carry two prominent import brands with a total of 80 new/used vehicles in inventory.

Have fun with this one- thankfully my job function is soley to optimize websites and ensure proper lead distribution to CRM and copies of leads to all managers company email in text format.

Do the leads suck- or are processes lacking?

We can never let a "process" interfere with a customer! I've seen soo many managers put the process before the customer and watched many a buyer leave frustrated! That's not to say we run everything in a state of chaos, however; we need to make sure our processes put the customer first!

Question: How many Internet department's are out there looking to gain market share from out of there target geography vs. just staying local? Thanks!

Joe

I have to figure out a way to get more leads. I'm stuck with what Nissan sends me, including all the 3rd party leads I get, but lately it seems the quality really, really sucks. Knowing this is a pure numbers game, I'd love to quadruple my leads to 500 vs. the 150 I get. I know for a fact, I will sell 4X the cars and make 4X the money (for the dealership) - but getting my GM to see this is a stretch. My owner hates the internet and doesn't care if we have a website but I know this is a place to make money. Any ideas??

Ralph - never post again without a drink in hand! I'm glad to hear we're on the same page, and I think we were on the same page last night too.

Ralph Paglia,

That was by far, the most entertaining, personable, fun read from you ever!

I highly recommend you write only when tired. And, when you're really looking to smack one out of the park, starve yourself too!

"...shredding the Internet and BDC team’s processes apart like pulling strips of string cheese..."

hahaha... somehow that made sense!

I'm seeing some marketing savvy sales people leverage Dealerrater to build their own personal brands online and promote the quality of their customers buying experience. They are using the personal reviews to create a distinct advantage against their competitors but also their own dealership colleagues. The positive mentions of their names by their customers is allowing them to spread that message in other online communities. It really keeps them focused on earning a good review. It's one of the best tools to build their OWN name in our business.

Alex,

I caught this post of your on the tool bar i built which shows DealerRefresh, Kain Automotive and ADM on the same mashed up scrolling feed, and... I just had to respond because you have discovered something i learned the hard way, and which most people think I am nuts when describing. When I first started working at Courtesy Chevrolet in Phoenix, I came from a job at Reynolds which had me working with their CRM team for several years. I firmly believed that it would be a waste to attract customers in any way if the sales team was not yet trained to follow an effective process, regardless of whether we are talking about showroom, phone or Internet, I (like so many others) believed in "Plan, Prepare, Train BEFORE Inviting Customers. So, my first two months at the Chevy store I was like a Grizzly Bear with a King Salmon, focused and shredding the Internet and BDC team's processes apart like pulling strips of string cheese (I'm at the Red Rock in Vegas and hungry). And, we started making process... I was damned proud when we went from a 7.2% Internet Lead to Close Rate and from 8% to 11% Incoming Sales Call to Close rate. Then one day the dealer (Bill Gruwell) asks me to come to his office. After I explained what I was working on and showed him the numbers (bragging somewhat), he was polite but not smiling... The store's total sales had gone down and he expected my work to yield INCREMENTAL sales, not just doing a better job of tracking everything so my team got on more deals and we were able to claim a higher percentage of the store's business... He already knew how much business the Internet was brining in, and that's why they hired me... Or something like that. I am paraphrasing based on memory, so Bill, Scott and Mark if you read this please forgive me if I don't get it word for word... The bottom line was this:

Stop trying to perfect the processes and get more people into the dealership! get more leads, get more phone calls and if the CRM and Process performance ratios stay the same, we will sell more cars. So, being the smart ass that I seem to be less and less of as I get older, I said to Mr. Gruwell something like this:

"More leads is easy sir, it is just a matter of budget, figure an average of $20 a lead and multiply that by the number of increased leads you want me to get and it's as simple as that..." (today I know what a f*&^#ing idiot I must have sounded like. But, the Gruwells are VERY sharp operators and Mr. G did not blink... He took a pencil and piece of paper and said something like: "OK, so can I use 7% closing rates as a safe average?" As my chest puffed out, I said "Yes SIR, my processes are so pure and so effective, you can count on me for BETTER than a 7% Close Rate... Sir, YES Sir!". So he looks at me and says "OK, I am giving you an extra $20,000 a month to generate 1,000 more leads and sell an extra 70 cars above and beyond what you did last month...". As I walked out, I had that gnarly knot in my stomach like when your holding an Aces over Kings Full House in a Poker game, slap it down and the other guy quietly lays down 4 Deuces... Yet, the "Idiot Lesson" I would receive had only just begun. After I went to every known lead provider and found out we were already buying every Chevy lead we could get in the Phoenix Market, out of sheer desperation i turned to online advertising and microsites which meant I had no time to monitor processes... I was able to get lead volume over 5,000 a month, processes be damned, and somehow everything fell into shape and we sold thousands of cars... But ONLY after I threw away the blueprint and focused on opening up the spigot of customer communication opportunities. Which somehow seems like a similar experience to what you described in this post... sort of... OK, cut me some slack here, I am in Vegas and sleep deprivation does weird things to people!

Seth Godin had his own article on the About Page: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/09/f... ...just wanted to add it here.

The best About Us page: http://www.thefordstory.com

You nailed it Alex. I think everyone gets so focused on "Selling Cars" that they forget the basics like what makes you different and why they should buy from you.

Great article. I look at the About Us page as the best way to let everyone know what you are about both on a business and a personal level. If your dealership is sponsoring events, that should be on there. I agree that social network pages should be on that page as well. I also think that reviews from DealerRater need to be on there. It is a great opportunity to include videos of testimonials and even a letter from the Owner or GM. It is the best opportunity to add personality to the dealership.