AutoTrader Trade-In Marketplace?

[Jeff Kershner]

Jim, we have been on TIM for a few months now (if you have not already read my response earlier in this thread). I'm sorta in the same boat as you in regards to using TIM as a lead gen on my dealers website. It's a lead driver but it's really no better than using BlackBook or Getautoappraise.

As for the being a Buying Center - if you want this to work I wouldn't have these leads rolling into the internet sales department. I would have them going to my used car buyer while making sure he's on board 100% and has been through the training several times. Buying Center = Buying Service NOT Selling Service. Being a buying center is about buying used cars for your lot to resell and not so much about selling a car to the customer.

"B.) a lot of disappointed customers as they think their vehicle is worth more. We do say that we may be able to offer more, but will have to see it in person."

Of course - everyone thinks their car is worth more than what it is...If the values are low, you might consider offering the customer a higher value upfront guarantee, maybe a $500 more guarantee.

Are you advertising your Buying Service in all forms of your advertising?

You might want to consider framing in the TIM appraisal tool on your website. Some of your links are linking out to another window and some are not.

 

[jimbell]

"B.) a lot of disappointed customers as they think their vehicle is worth more. We do say that we may be able to offer more, but will have to see it in person."

Of course - everyone thinks their car is worth more than what it is...If the values are low, you might consider offering the customer a higher value upfront guarantee, maybe a $500 more guarantee.

Are you advertising your Buying Service in all forms of your advertising?

You might want to consider framing in the TIM appraisal tool on your website. Some of your links are linking out to another window and some are not.

I didn't catch that it was going off my site in certain spots which is wierd. Will have to call the website proverder on that. I though they were staying on our site. We are using it with our advertising, which isn't much at all. We are getting a kiaosk next week for the service department. It is very frustrating though for my guys and I think I need to take it off them. The thing that stinks is you can't have just certain ones (i.e. ones from our website) come into our CRM. It is all or nothing. I told AT that has to change. The ones from our site are obviously there for a reason and not just seeing what their car is worth. They are in the market as far as I'm concerned if they are on my site.

 

[Bruce Novicky]

Jim, we have been on TIM for a few months now (if you have not already read my response earlier in this thread). I'm sorta in the same boat as you in regards to using TIM as a lead gen on my dealers website. It's a lead driver but it's really no better than using BlackBook or Getautoappraise.

If it is no better than Blackbook, it is wildly overpriced.

 

[Lrogers]

We actually use the product. We started out with the buy-in center which is the more expensive version which was not worth it. However, we have had a lot of success in the first month of the trade-in center so much so that we decided to keep the product. One of the reasons we may be doing so well is that we are one of the only dealers who does it in the area.
I understand the frustration of marketing for someone else. I do all the marketing for the company and it gives me the creeps to do someone else's work for them.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

UPDATE:

So my Nissan dealer has basically failed with TIM. We went 100% online and were getting leads but no more then what we were getting from Black Book Online. We failed at the showroom process - go figure!!

I personally still believe in the tool and think if used right and built into the process, it's a real win for dealers.

Therefore, I'm not giving up and rolling this into my Mercedes dealer and possibly my Toyota dealer to see if we can enbed it into the process there.

I'll keep this thread updated.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

2 weeks into TIM at my Mercedes store. They get it! They're understanding the tool and how to use it with each and every trade appraisal.

Once you obtain a true understanding of TIM and what it offers your dealer and where AutoTrader will could this into the near future - It's a revolutionary product and service.

Open your eyes and see what this tool truly has to offer....

I'll be rolling this out to my Toyota dealers in the next few months while continuing to update my our progress.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Quick update on my progress with AutoTrader TIM.

My MB dealer is doing very well with it. The sales and management team are loving it. They've baked it into their process on the floor for all trade appraisals.

Toyota dealer - well.... let's just say with ANYTHING, it's all in the people, process and accountability. When TIM is baked into the process and becomes "what you do" with each and every trade - it's a powerful tool. I can't understand why any dealer would not want a tool like this at their disposal.

 

[Andrew Carr]

We are dumping it. We have been on for about 5 months and the program just isn't effective in my store. Just to be straight forward, it's not necessarily a problem with the program as much as it is with our staff and getting the team to utilize it again and again. Autotrader tried to provide support (we have a great rep) and offered up his time more than once to come into the dealership and get it going, but for us it was ineffective. I can see what this tool can do and it does have a ton of potential, but it requires a huge time investment.

The leads (other than those that originated on our site) were garabage. It sounded cool getting a chance to talk to people who were looking at new Chevys and Toyotas here at my Ford store, but those were not easy conversations to have with people. Let's just say that there are better ways I could invest my time. It puts you in front of a lot of in market shoppers, but so many aren't looking at something you have or even something you could get.

It's an expensive solution and I guess that if we can't adjust to life without it we will look into bringing it back.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Andrew, thank for sharing your TIM experience. I hear you and agree with much of what you have to say..

TIM is a strong tool but needs to be baked into the process and there are huge benefits when you move the trade appraisal towards to the beginning of the sales process. . Customers should be using TIM to appraise their own vehicles at the dealership. I would encourage the dealership to build out a TIM Kiosk - this helps reinforce it as being a 3rd party service. The appraisal number is NOT your number but the number from AutoTrader.

Could you elaborate on the "huge time investment"? I have heard this a few times across my sales force. I remind them - documentation reduces negotiation. Let's admit, we spend a lot of time (LOST TIME) in the negotiation process. So time spent on TIM could be saved in the negotiation process.

As for the leads - it sounds like you were a buying center. If this is the case - dealers need to remember they are a buying center this is service is for buying cars and not so much for selling them another car.

TIM Leads from your website VS using KBB or BlackBook or GetAutoAppraise - no advantage there. I would allow the customer to choose between the 2 on your website while reinforcing each with a video to better explain each service. Now that can be a time suck!

From the sounds of it - saying it's an expensive solution I would guess you are on the Buying Center package.

In the end, I'm a firm believe in this product.

 

[Andrew Carr]

We are in fact a buying center. The huge time investment I was referring to was calling and e-mailing leads that were on product I did not have or even worse could not get and trying to introduce our Ford product into the conversation to someone who was using our buying center as an information gathering tool to work with another dealership.

Our used car manager was not really using the product to buy cars all that often. I understand that this is what the program is more geared towards than it is a lead source, but we failed to implement it that way and this was in part due to how the product was presented to us initially.

I think that to get the product adapted into a dealership the right way and fully utilized, you would almost need one full time employee who worked by following up on these leads, scheduling appointments for appraisals, and engineering purchases from people. I don't know how anyone could be making this work without a position dedicated to that cause. That might work in a bigger store with more than one person managing and buying used cars, but it couldnt happen in my store.