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Do you Protect your Internet Sales Staff from the floor?

Making sure the right person or people get compensated for the work they have done to sell a car is very important. If handled correctly it will go a long way to help build trust and create the team effort that’s needed between the salespeople on the floor and the internet staff. I think Dan’s setup is a step in the right direction.

We have gone a similar route in our store. Our internet department consists of a BDC person, a dedicated Internet salesperson and me the Internet Sales Manager. As a team we all work the internet leads, manage the website, the online New and used inventory, Inventory pictures, etc. We also manage the CRM for the store. You all know the drill here.

A year ago I changed our pay structure to one that may be similar. My internet salesperson and I are paid a base salary plus a bonus for Unit sales by internet lead sources for the store and a bonus based on the average gross profit of those same internet sales. My BDC person is hourly plus bonus for appointment set/ kept and a bonus paid on unit sales by internet lead source like us. This has changed our focus as a group and really improved out effort as a team to improve as a whole.

It also eliminated the hassle between us and the showroom. If a customer comes into the store and asks to see one of us in the internet department that customer is turned over to us. We finish the sale and delivery the car. However if one of the many different situations arises that they do not ask for us or get to us. Our focus is not on who gets the deal but on what is the right way to handle the customer to ensure they have a great purchase experience, and of course that the deal gets marked properly.

One process we have in place is the sales person must give the customer’s name and number to our receptionist to log into the CRM before a test drive. We all use the same CRM so if we have been working the customer in the internet department they know right away. So the lead is not duplicated and it is tracked correctly.

I will say that my BDC person is awesome and watches the CRM and all the leads like a hawk.

I have recently added two salespeople from our show floor in the Internet lead rotation. They still work the floor but now also work Internet leads. The first show floor salesperson I added went from 10 sales to 27 sales his first month, 17 internet. That opened some eyes. I just added the second.

We selected these two show floor people base on the success and effort they had when working with appointments set by my BDC person. It’s been nice to watch the attitude change towards the internet department.
 
" I think Dan’s setup is a step in the right direction" .

Before we made the change the internet department accounted for approximately 40 sales a month and 26% of the stores business. We have averaged 85 a month since December ( that accounts for 2 blizzards or it may be higher) & we are now 40 to 45% of the total business. So the system of 2 managers who do not sell or test drive is really paying off.

There are more salespeople on the floor, watching the lot & handling incoming calls. No bickering accept from salespeople who think that other salespeople are being handed deals more often ( man , I don't see any cheese from you guys" ). They do not get the cheese unless they happen to greet the customer. Response time is up. Follow up is more thorough as well.
 
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