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Jan 18, 2009

IMO, the AT rant here is all about value. Sure we get leads. WHEN WE DISCOUNT! No discount, NO LEADS.

Many of the DR crew here were around when AT was just a baby. Rates were cheap and dealer competition was sparse. The result was lotsa leads for little money. As a bonus, AT had little competition, The Early adopters were rewarded.

AT deserved to raise its rates. It's only mis-step is it used NewsPrint as the "gold standard". AT felt that dealers were going to spend $3-400 PVR,so why not move most of it to AT?

Profit PVR is NOT what it was in the good 'ol newsprint days. AT and the internet have decimated the old school dealer model and whyinhell use old school ad models to justify AT's value? It just pisses me off when I hear this pitch.

The ENTIRE Newsprint industry is crawling into the fetal position and sucking their thumb. AT is a web site, it has none of the legacy costs that newsprint has. AT can cut rates and survive. Newsprint... DOA.

oLd FaT & haPPy

Jan 18, 2009

I am glad to see this new approach from ATC. Dealers in my market are truly starting to notice the changes and appreciate them again. I can’t tell you how many conversations I have had with dealers saying to me “I’m considering cutting out Autotrader.” I always advise my dealer partners against this. I ask them instead to hold all of their providers to a higher standard and to align their ad spend with what is actually generating the most traffic. Their feedback is usually along the lines of “I do understand that AT works but their service and rates are terrible” We all know that for years Dealers have relied on traditional media at a much higher cost and very little in the way of metrics. The difference was the presence of the reps. Traditional media reps are not spread as thin and understand that there is a direct correlation between perceived service and the number of interactions with the dealer. In 2009 Cars and ATC will be focusing on building stronger relationships within the dealership and becoming true partners to their dealers. Those of you that have seen the latest Synovate study understand that online efforts deliver four times more traffic through your front doors than traditional media.

Quite often one question that seems to surface is “Who’s better ATC or Cars?” I like to answer this question by asking “Why wouldn’t you want both?” If they both have close to a $200 million dollar advertising campaign(designed to drive traffic to your inventory), both are recognized as industry leaders, both provide quality reps and service, both have an acceptable ROI, and both deliver different in market car buyers. I ask again “Why wouldn’t you want the advantages of having both?” If you were selling an online department store product would you only want traffic from Wal-mart.com or would you also like the customer base from Target.com? Bravo to ATC for wanting to provide their dealer partners with a higher level of service! If you are a truly consultative sales rep then you understand that your dealer’s online success with both Cars.com and Autotrader.com is in your best interest. Let’s work together in 2009 to provide our mutual dealer partners with the level of service the DESERVE and assist them in transitioning their dollars from traditional media to more effective online solutions.

Jan 17, 2009

David,

This was an amazing post. You really a true humble and professional with class. I like the respect that you show and your willingness to give something a chance.

Jan 17, 2009

Jan 17, 2009

Thanks for spreading the positive message David. I had the pleasuure of meeting you in Vegas and I have to say that the best part of our meeting this year was having the input from the dealers. Chip even gave you guys the opportunity to lay it on the line and point out the problems with ATC and it's reps, but you all took the highroad. Thanks again for your contributions to our training and I hope the company brings more dealers next year, maybe even some that aren't as successful with their advertising on ATC....now that would be something. A couple of nay sayers in a room with 1000 ATC sales reps. They could put that on TV.

Jan 17, 2009

Very interesting post. I think that all of us on the vendor partner side have a common goal this year. Projections are that it is going to be a rocky ride for the industry and those of us that are truly partners need to step up to the plate and help our dealers any way that we can. I know that readers of DR know the importance of online marketing in '09, but not all ISMs and GMs read DR. We feel the burden to educate on changing consumer habits and believe that our ability to help our dealers in this regard may be the difference between some of our dealers writing paychecks or resumes.

Bob, what dealership do you work for exactly? Pardon my skepticism, but on the heels of such a favorable post for autotrader.com, these jabs seem a little, opportunistic. I'm sure your cars.com rep would be happy to talk to you about monthly searches on our partnership sites as well as our main site and engagement metrics which are really more important then viewers per month. Here is my personal email address if you want to take it offline. [email protected]

Jan 17, 2009

In Response to Andrew Wright

Cars.com? Come on man when is the last time they told you they were not going to raise the rates? 14 million viewers per month vs 8 or 9 million. I am dealer that users both and I like what I see with ATC.

andwrig · Jan 17, 2009

Good to hear that the winds of change are blowing at Autotrader but, frankly, I'll believe it when I see it. For years they have taken advantage of dealers and many of us have been left jaded. I have a great relationship with cars.com. I know many that feel good about their relationship with Cars.com. They are very supportive and their rates are reasonable.

With that said, its encouraging to hear that the new leadership is desirous for change.

Jan 17, 2009

Nice post David, exactly how much kool aid did you drink in Vegas?

Jan 17, 2009

Guest Post by David Metter

I know that many of us have taken shots at Autotrader.com in the past. Heck, I have even taken a few whacks at them myself...while they probably deserved it. But too many times, when a company does something good, you never hear about it. That’s why I wanted to take time to give you my review of this year’s Autotrader.com national sales meeting.

Very rarely does an automotive vendor allow a group of their customers to join along in the celebration of their sales staff, rollout of new products and initiatives, and just some general “letting off some steam”. When I was asked to attend, I jumped at the chance. I have had the opportunity to attend a few other in-market national sales meetings in the past and came away with great information that helped our dealerships get out in front of the curve. I figured that this one would be no different. What surprised me was the compassion that was shown towards their dealer customers across the country.

Autotrader.com has had the reputation of being the dealer’s enemy. There are numerous stories regarding rate increases and we have all heard about their national AutoTrader sales blitzes. I have always shared these stories with AT.com’s upper management team, including Chip Perry. Last year, Chip pulled me aside and told me that there were changes that were being made to move away from their old way of selling and managing their customers. As the year went on, I started to see these changes take effect. There were layers removed in the upper management chain. One key addition was the insertion of Alan Smith over all of the sales operations. Alan had managed the customer support center prior to taking on this new role. Coincidentally, at about the same time, they seemed to get rid of some bad apples within their sales organization. This past fall AutoTrader.com held a dealer advisory meeting which included some of the largest and most progressive dealerships and dealer groups in the country. They listened while we discussed our issues and successes. I knew they were listening because their entire national sales meeting was built around those earlier discussions.

From the kickoff to the finale, the message was clear. Their customers come first. Conversations around consulting with their dealers, adding value, and get this...no rate increases until at least 2nd quarter 2010. Now, some of you might make jokes about this but I haven’t had another vendor put that type of thing in writing...ever. Their sales compensation plan was changed to reward their team for retaining their customers and building relationships within the dealerships.

With other vendor meetings in the past, I have been asked to deliver a keynote or sit on a panel. In an interesting twist, AutoTrader.com asked me to help facilitate 3 training sessions around good SEO/SEM practices. Even more interesting, the first class started at 8am on day 2. Now unless you are Amish, nobody attends a meeting in Vegas at 8am, including me, (I am still a little mad about that) but I was pleasantly surprised that the room was completely full and the questions that were asked in the first session were as strong as the second and third. The salespeople attended these classes because they wanted to learn how to help their customers with their business. They are not selling SEO and SEM. In fact, I challenged them to do some homework on their dealership customers and scan their websites for best/worst practices. I can’t count how many people came up to me over the following 2 days to discuss what they had found...and they were in Vegas! Now granted, we were in a bar discussing this topic but that means that they took the time to get online and dig into their customers business practices.

The 3 day meeting ended with their annual sales award banquet. I had a chance to mingle with many of the executives from the company as well as sit at dinner with Bill Templeton, Lloyd Hecht, Dan Crowe and two of their Major Account Managers David Palmer and Lee Herndon. Nothing was funnier than watching the executive team from AutoTrader.com dancing on the stage as the band was finishing a set. I am still trying to figure out what music Roger Hildebrandt was listening to because it sure wasn’t the same music that was playing.

Usually in these types of events they serve a fancy multi-course meal but instead we received a thick cheeseburger and French fries. I will admit that the cheeseburger was great and an even greater message was sent. The evening ended with their annual awards. The most pleasant surprise was how they graded the award winners. Not only did they take annual sales numbers into account but customer retention and feedback as well as community involvement weighed into the decision.

Be careful before you start calling me an Autotrader.com shill or jokingly ask me to stay in my new vacation house in Atlanta. There are few in our industry that is more critical of vendors than me. Just ask anyone who has been escorted out our corporate office. I understand that a good vendor partner is not built in a day but I definitely like the direction that this vendor is moving. Some battleships can’t turn quickly in the ocean. Let’s just give them some time...and maybe a second chance.

About the Aurthor: David Metter is the CMO for
MileOne/Atlantic Automotive

Sep 23, 2013

Got some value out of this, thanks!

Jan 27, 2009

I have adopted a new philosophy on sending out e-mails. What I had found in the last quarter of 2008 was that the customers I was getting in direct phone contact with were telling me that they were just researching for 3-6 months down the road. It was roughly 1/3 of the people I spoke to. WOW, the rebates and incentives change by then. I signed up with a follow up company and I controll the frequency, and the content of the messages, and when a customer expresses interest it gets forwarded to the top of the que. I also added "Non-Selling" emails to the mix, and have received great responses to them. "That was a great article, thanks for not always trying to sell me something". I usually find a couple articles a month from across the web, and now my 10,000+ database doesnt hate my emails anymore (at least they are opting-out less than before). I am now putting my emails together with video embedded in them - the customers like watching a video instead of having to read it.

Jan 24, 2009

I find that it is not only important to send emails for long term follow up but to proceed with a phone call. It may sound very time consuming but the majority of the calls are just leaving messages. Why not let them here your dealerdhip's name so it is fresh in their minds? There is no way better to personalize the emails than to follow up with the sound of your voice.

tracourt · Jan 23, 2009

If you reaaly want to add the personaL touch to your followup emails, check out www.covideo.com.
I have been a reseller for them for a while now and can tell you, it works!
Contact me for any help I can provide.

philipzelinger · Jan 22, 2009

People over processes! I live by that logic but all it suggests is an order of priority and they are not mutuially exclusive. The use of new "automated" applications that use "matrix" based emails tied to initial vehicle selection and payment and downpayment objections in the initiating vehicle lead for the term prior to selling the vehicle - or even after losing the sale - coupled with service patterns and projected mileage and age for ongoing follow up for service based on the distance from the store, time between services and the type of service the customer returns for provides a logic in email follow up that replicates professional sales practices and follow up for an auto industry that is sorely in need of professional salespeople!

As an example, there is a vendor that creates an automated follow up with regular emails and or letters that integrates with the CRM and DMS to include real time payments based on suggested downpayment, current rebates and interest rates coupled with suggested INSTOCK vehicles that will lower the customers payments until they buy or die. PLUS, they are able to determine if the customer has purchased a vehicle by cross referencing with third party online resources so they can change the message to a service offer.

The ability to automatically suggest solutions including payments and information custom tailored to the customer based on their original objections is as close to artificial intelligence as I have seen in follow up systems and it is available today!

Oh yeah, it can and sholuld be done by your sales staff but, are they? If so, never mind!

Jan 19, 2009

You know, there is nothing wrong with automated follow-up campaigns. It takes on average 7 follow-up emails to instigate a response from people. You should put technology to use by automating this, just be careful of de-personalizing the messages and keep consistent with the reason people might be on a list, which brings up the real dilemma...HOW AND WHY SOMEONE IS ON YOUR LIST.

If someone submits a vehicle inquiry, following up with them automatically with similar vehicles in stock makes sense, as Matt Wilson suggest. Adding them to your newsletter however does not. You can resolve this by including an invitation in your inventory follow-up campaign for the person to opt-in to your newsletter.

With MULTIPLE OPT-IN LISTS, automation is kosher. It's more management and maintenance, but it can also be more fruitful.

Jan 19, 2009

I think that follow up is where the fortune is... but most emails but I send are all hand written. MOST IMPORTANTLY I ask for THEIR BUSINESS... and also remind the customer to ASK FOR ME, providing my hours, my cell phone, my email, always.

Jan 18, 2009

I think it’s important to remember that only 25% to 35% of consumers buy a vehicle during the first 30 day cycle. That leaves roughly 50% of your dealership leads still active and depending on the lead type, the remainder will purchase during that next 30 day cycle. If you are currently receiving 400 leads per month, this means about 100 to 125 of the leads are today or this month buyers. That leaves 200 left that are next month buyers. I threw out 25% of the leads for flakes and whack jobs. If the department closing ratio is 15%, that equals twice as many sales in second 30 day cycle. The biggest challenge is to help salespeople to understand that the main reason a lot of prospects don’t respond is because they aren’t ready to talk to anyone yet and to not yield to temptation and focus solely on the low hanging fruit. In any sales arena, the greatest enemy of a salesperson is Pre-Qualification. Sometimes you have to switch shoes with your customer to really grasp how to effectively create dialog.
One of most valuable tools you have in ecommerce is the ability to track the entire sales process. One statistic most managers fail to monitor is the average sales cycle. What I discovered by tracking sales cycles is the average gross profit on customers that purchased in the second 30 day period averaged $463 dollars more per copy than those people who purchase in the first 30 day cycle.
Being able to determine your customers purchase cycle and building a sales process around this information is critical to success. That brings me to my last point…lead accountability, in this challenged economic climate, maintaining a consistent buy or die process for EVERY LEAD is paramount to success.

Jan 17, 2009

Craig,

I completley agree with you. In a process that is longer than 73 days, the follow up times are so spread out that a sales person will not have a chance to get annoyed because the older the lead the less work you need to do. In fact, since we are in the process of sending out personalized emails instead of templates, it might be an idea to template those 100 day leads. It is no different than taking a new sales person and giving them a list of 1000 old customers and have them cold call them to try to sell them a new car except here we are not cold calling, we are just following up because they contacted us first. Your point is a very valid and excellent one. I have always had my set way of running an internet department and setting up processes because they worked for me. However, I try to take those concepts and differentiate every store that I will work at or will consult. I do not want every store doing the same thing. A 100 day follow up might work best in one store while it might really suck at another store that needs only a 70 day. Also, this is a way of branding and individualizing each store to do things their own way.

Jan 17, 2009

Stan,
I understand that process' can and are set up to prompt follow up.....The task becomes treating every call as one of importance and making each call like it's your first attempt. Customers buy at their own pace for some that may be 1 day for others that may be 101 days. My point is salespeople need to stay on top of leads wihout becoming annoying until those people either say "yes I want to buy" or "leave me alone I already bought"

Jan 16, 2009

Craig,

That is exactly what I am talking about. A process can be set to prompt staff of follow up.

Jan 16, 2009

With the number of leads a typical ISM handles each month, considering they don't all need to be contacted daily.....doesn't it make sense to put people on an action plan then contact when prompted regardless of how long they have been in the system? Why not combine some old school "either they buy or die" follow up with the technology available today?

Jan 15, 2009

Philip,

I think that what you are doing is a great idea. It might trigger a response and help generate more business for other departments in the store. This is very much so GM thinking and I like it.

Alex Jefferson,

I have not a done a process for longer then 73 days. The reason why I mention 90 days is because if I was to go into a store (now present day) to setup plans and procedures, it would only make more sense for a few reasons. The customer buying cycle has changed because of the way our economy is, I believe that customer take longer time to make a deal nowadays and want to wait. We do not want to give up an on possible open opportunities. Some people can be waiting on a promotion or a raise while others are afraid they might lose their jobs so they are holding off and some might still be in the same typical pattern. In many cases if a customer has bought or is not interested they will tell you that, ignore your emails, or ask you to opt them out. This is when you know the lead is dead. A 90 day process of 120 process could be setup depending on the CRM/ILM you are using. There are emails that can be created. I think that automated is sometime effective but I think adding personality to them by adding our own creativity as the person doing the follow up will work better. This all depends on your setup, your product, your location, and the kind of dealership you are in. In terms of email marketing campaigns, I use them throughout the follow up process and way after it is finished. A good email for marketing purposes will do one of many things for you, get you a response to the email, the customer will randomly come into your store asking for you to work a deal, or get you a response that says to opt out (which you clear off your list and move on). Be careful with these emails, follow proper procedure to not go against spam laws and also know that a lot of these emails hit spam folders in people's emails. I would send out a broadcast email once every two weeks while some stores do it monthly or weekly. I like every two weeks because you are not bothering the customer too much while hitting them at the appropriate times. It is great to send them out usually on a Thursday morning to gear up for a huge weekend.

Terry,

I think videos are a pretty cool idea on some of the emails as long as every email offers something different. You bring up a great point and this would be something to use in a follow up plan.

Jan 15, 2009

Not bad - only took 6 responses before someone mentioned video...(GJ Terry)

Put your consumer heats on. What would you want - or expect?

Probably an answer(s) to any questions asked. And, probably something that's going to make you say "Holy crap - look what this dealer sent me - I need to go check them out"!

Write something short & sweet.
Scrap the templates.
Spell-check it.

Jan 15, 2009

Add a little more to your emails by adding a video link of the vehicle(s) they are interested in.

“John, I know it’s been 3 days since I sent you an email, but I was thinking about you when we traded in this beautiful 2007 Toyota FJ Cruser. It’s showcased in the two tone yellow and white over black leather interior. It’s 1 Owner and serviced here at the dealer. I have all the records and have attached the CarFax for you to review.

You can take a virtual video test drive from home by clicking this link: http://www.autodealersvideos.com/cars/11822/ and see all the details ”

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