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Floor Traffic Advertising Source Collection

bpreston

Grease Monkey
Apr 29, 2009
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Bobby
Hey guys,

In the internet department advertising source tracking is obviously a lot easier to track and in turn more accurate, although far from perfect, than floor sales advertising source tracking.

The first problem is that we aren't asking and then once you start cracking the whip you start get adverting sources, but are they accurate? No.

I know it's never going to be close to perfect, but what do you recommend in order to increase the accuracy of floor traffic advertising sources?

A vendor gave the idea that prior to penciling a deal to have the sales person provide the customers with an advertising source questionnaire that simply says something along the lines of "How did you hear about us? Circle all that apply" and then lists several internet sources, TV ads, radio ads, etc.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks,

Bobby Preston
 
A vendor gave the idea that prior to penciling a deal to have the sales person provide the customers with an advertising source questionnaire that simply says something along the lines of "How did you hear about us? Circle all that apply" and then lists several internet sources, TV ads, radio ads, etc.

Works even better if there's a prize given away every now and then. One for customer and one for salesperson who entered the winning customer.
 
A salesman's job is to ask, and I was once told you can have anything you want in life if you're willing to ask. So without the salesman asking your hands are tied. Another solution is to have a different coupon code for each media and hope floor traffic brings it with them. And finally you could have dedicated telephone numbers for each media, and the virtual numbers will track calls, before they actually come to the dealership.
 
I am going to defend the salesperson here. Not something I do often, but I will on occasion. As managers we sometimes forget what is was like to be a salesperson. There's a lot to remember as we're selling a car. So many steps, paperwork, process, that it's very easy to forget to execute on everything. That's whey they have managers to remind them. So if it's not happening, I look at the manager. It's just as much their failure as it is the salespersons.
 
A vendor gave the idea that prior to penciling a deal to have the sales person provide the customers with an advertising source questionnaire that simply says something along the lines of "How did you hear about us? Circle all that apply" and then lists several internet sources, TV ads, radio ads, etc.

That process usually yields decent results..it's best to use the icons/logos and graphics to give a visual representation. Like anything, you need to be consistant with it. It HAS to become part of the process.
 
Works even better if there's a prize given away every now and then.

So reward what should already be done in the first place?? LOL. IMO, you need to have complete buy-in at the store, including salespeople. On stores I consult with, I always take about 5 min to go over the VALUE of the salespeople actually sourcing correctly. The "reward" to them is more qualified/buying customers coming in. The results should also be shared with the salespeople/managers. Nothing will make people start accurately tracking results if their ad budget relies on tracked sales to source.

A salesman's job is to ask

AMEN!

dedicated telephone numbers for each media

Make sure you turn on "whisper" for all the tracking number. A small announcement that TELLS the person taking the call where it came from.

--Drew
 
So reward what should already be done in the first place?? LOL. IMO, you need to have complete buy-in at the store, including salespeople.

Trust me I am not in favor of paying people extra to be doing what they should be doing in the first place. But, salespeople are coin operated and when you put a little something extra on the line they come through. If you can't get salespeople to collect an e-mail address when that's a direct benefit to them, you're certainly are not going to get them to collect an ad source. That's why they are salespeople and not managers. So if the dealership has a low collection rate, I blame that problem on the management not the salespeople. If you're managing the process on a daily basis, you can correct bad behavior before it impacts the whole month. So if I am a manager and I have some spiff funds to allocate, I might use them on things like this.

:2cents:
 
A salesman's job is to ask, and I was once told you can have anything you want in life if you're willing to ask. So without the salesman asking your hands are tied.

I definitely agree it is the sales person's job to ask for the ad source, but like Jerry said, sales people do have a lot going on and therefore it is only a matter of time before they don't ask. Plus, even if they do ask are they getting the correct response? Like Jeff mentioned having a sheet with actual pictures of the website they might have been on or TV ad they saw will likely increase the odds of an accurate response.
 
We started using the graphical icon representation of ad sources on a survey and it yielded good results the first month we used it (capturing 38% of ups.) We offer a $50 gas card to the winning survey as well as the salesperson who turned that survey in so it is an incentive for them to have the customers fill it out.