Departmental Setup and Processes...

[Andrew Carr]

I wasn't sure what category to set this up in, but I wanted to open the floor to something I hadn't seen discussed much here since I joined.

Again, I apologize for my lack of experience, but I am wondering how you guys have your department set up and how you operate daily.

For me, it is a one man show. I answer all of the incoming leads, schedule appointments, manage our sites and 3rd party merchandising, custom comments, craigslist listing, handle all of the follow-up tasks and phone calls, and am now getting into the social networking, blogs, etc. as well as reviewing vendors, lead sources and the overall direction of the department. Not to mention that in 3 months I will have completed two site re-designs.

When I set the appointments, they work with one of three sales people who are allowed to work my customers because of CSI scores, certification, etc. and we split the commission which is a big part of my pay plan.

We aren't a huge store...I will probably run around 20 units a month (those are on appointments that I set not walk-ins who saw the car on the internet and work with a sales-person) and hope to grow quickly from there. My boss really wants me to get an assistant to handle more of the administrative things. The problem is that I am very protective over everything I do and I don't trust anyone else to do follow up, work plans without pencil-whipping, merchandising, custom comments, and answering leads because I think that the real challenge to internet is getting them in the door in the first place.

If I had an assistant, I could deliver full units instead of splitting the deals and I would probably have a better income. The commissions make up a big part of my pay plan.

I am particularly interested in hearing from those who do about the same volume I do but I am sure I can get some ideas from people in bigger stores as well. I know bigger stores have more than one "Internet Guy". I am concerned that if I delegate the wrong responsibilites that things will fall apart and I won't have the response time, generate as many leads, etc. if I am not at the wheel.

I don't want to have to decide if it's best if I deliver more units personally or if the department generates more sales. My pay plan sort of puts me in that position right now though.

My boss dosen't want anyone in the sales staff counting on internet deals to hit their numbers. He wants internet to be a seperate roof-top. The problem is that right now, it's one guy under that roof-top.

Anyone operate with an assistant or have someone test-drive and handle delivery with their customers so that your response times, etc. don't get bad?

I have only been doing this a couple of months and only ever met one other internet manager and she did it about the way I do it....feeding appointments to sales people.

Do you work your own customers when they arrive or flip them to a sales person?

Anxious to hear your thoughts...

 

[AutoArchitech]

Will the owner let you spend some money to make some of the things you do happen automatically? That could save you a lot of time to deliver cars if you choose to. If you are not busy, you deliver the car. If you are busy, flip it to one of the guys you flip it to now. You get a few more 100% sales (for your bottom line) and other salespeople still get some split deals (so they don't resent your dept.)

You can have the craigslist ads post through a third party, try responselogix to answer the leads right away, etc. This would cost less than an assistant and you are still in control. There are automatic comment generators, pricing tools, etc.

Instead of an assistant, get them to let you spend a little on tools to help you.

 

[Andrew Carr]

Here are my thoughts on that...please keep in mind that I am not trying to be a goon, I am just trying to determine very quickly how my time is best spent. I am only going into my 3rd month and I am on the board to learn from the experience of others. I want to put better processes in place for the store and I want to optimize my income. I really don't want to do one at the expense of the other.

I don't know that I trust Responselogix to provide a quality response that makes it clear to the customer that I understand the request. I have an auto-responder that goes out right away. I like that once I get the request I can send a response with good information that the customer is seeking and answer their pointed question. Also, if a phone number is provided I want to impress them by being attentive and trying to engage them right away.

We tried an automated Craigslist system and it kept getting our account "ghosted". It would allow us to post ads, but they could not be searched or seen. This happened with two different systems and nobody could correct the problem. We decided that was a waste of money. I now have a point and click system that makes nice ads...we limit it to 4 a day so we don't get ghosted again. This isn't really all that time-consuming.

We have a feature in Autoexact (our photo management and free listing tool) that will make comments. The problem is that by no means are they "custom" nor do they really tell you anything about that car. Isn't this an important part of merchandising?

 

[CatherineEdwards]

I don't know that I trust ResponseLogix to provide a quality response that makes it clear to the customer that I understand the request.

Hi Andrew,
I'm the Marketing Director at ResponseLogix and want to provide a little insight on how we execute multivehicle price quotes on internet leads within 10 minutes. Our SmartQuote solution will provide the new car buyer with three price quotes based on the model and trim requested: conservatively equipped, comfortably equipped and generously equipped. In addition, we will provide up to four quotes for pre-owned alternatives.

This is better than an autoresponder because you are giving the consumer choice and this changes the conversation between you and the car buyer from price to a more consultative discussion about options. The SmartQuote is branded for the dealership and the message is customized by the dealer and would come from you. Dealers have full control over pricing and incentives through our extranet.

You are right in wanting to quickly follow up to the initial quote with a telephone call. We find that best practices of our most successful dealers includes calling the car buyer within 30 minutes of receipt of the SmartQuote.

I wish you the best of luck in your new role!
Catherine

 

[Ashton526]

Andrew - we have a similar situation at our Nissan store. There is one ISM, too many leads, and management wants to expand the department. Our ISM is amazing at what he does, but he is letting some of the more time consuming leads fall through the cracks.

Currently, we are about to hire an assistant to handle a lot of the admin work - first response emails, tracking/confirming appointments, deliveries, following up with sold customers, etc. So, we will see how that goes...

I actually posted a thread about this topic earlier this week - might not have been approved. The gist of it was about the long term viability of the Internet Department. My question regarded the basic qualifications of a dealership's sales' staff - shouldn't every salesman possess the abilities and skills to write an email, make a phone call and talk to a customer face-to-face? If so, shouldn't Internet leads be distributed to the sales staff - tracked, monitored, and managed just like any other prospect in a CRM?

I see salesmen working Internet customers everyday - almost every person that comes into the dealership has been online researching the car, its features, and prices. The difference is that these "fresh ups" didn't type their contact info in online and hit the "request a quote" button.

Anyways, I'm also interested to hear how other dealers are structuring their departments

 

[Andrew Carr]

Finally, a response from someone in a similiar situation!

I wouldn't say that I have too many leads, just too many to really work them, work the follow up program PLUS do soup to nuts when they come in to the dealership.

The first couple of months I worked as an appointment setter. The last two I have worked customers from "soup to nuts" through the entire process. The results? I made more money because I wasn't splitting the commissions, but the department sold less cars. If I am test driving, and delivering then who is working previous customers and looking for the next deal?

Since I posted this thread I had a discussion with my GM and made a lot of progress. He feels that I should not be delivering vehicles at this stage, but always selling appointments and following up. We got ahold of a Cobalt study that really opened our eyes about continuing to follow up even 120 days after contact and soft selling the dealership through branding and newsletters to infinity.

He worked out a pay plan to me that is based off of what I make the department do and not how many cars I deliver. I don't have to wonder about what I should be doing, now I can always be doing what will have the biggest impact on the store and it shouldn't hurt my income.

To weigh in on your statement, I would have to lean toward the negative side. I don't think that most sales people can handle internet leads like lot ups. I work with a great bunch of guys, but they struggle to keep up with 10 or 15 activity work plans...they are not aggressive enough to make 60-80 e-mail and phone call attempts per day and stay on top of it all. I think it takes a certain type of person who is willing to work through all of those leads to find the needle in the haystack. Unless your dealership is signifigantly different than mine in that aspect, I wouldn't want any of my guys anywhere near the internet leads until they are in the store. It's just a different animal.

I can see my department getting to a stage where we have two of me if I make the right decisions over the next year or so.

You are exactly right on your last point. Our tracking system recognizes the difference between a walk in that was brought in by the internet and someone who submits an online lead to get all of the information and has to be sold an appointment. I only work the internet leads, not walk in traffic who happened to see the car on the internet.