Help w/ Internet Buy-in (Long rant/Apologies in advance)

[Pete Jr]

Good morning, everyone!


I want to apologize in advance for the long post but I needed a place to vent, focus my ideas and of course get some excellent advice from you all.


My dealership is in its first year of implementing an “internet” department. We have 11 brands housed under eight different roofs. Only five of those brands have a dedicated “internet” department. It started in our Kia dealership last fall and they expanded the model to our Subaru/Mitsubishi dealerships and our Chevrolet/Cadillac dealerships. I’m currently the ISD for our Chevy/Cadillac dealership.


I have been with the dealership since February. This is my first go-around in the car business, although I have been around the business my entire life. I’ve been in sales the last 4 years. I have a lot of experience in phone sales. I also have my MBA, with a focus in management theory and adult learning/training. When I started, the goal was for me to learn the business and then eventually move into a manager role. When our current ISD left in mid-May, I was promoted to the ISD role.


I can see why our previous ISD grew tired of the position and left our store to be the F&I manager at another one of our dealerships. There is very little buy in to the internet philosophy at our store. Currently, I have two “Internet Sales Reps” who will go cradle to grave. I use that “ISR” term loosely because only one of them is capable of handling internet leads. The other is an older guy who has back problems and can’t walk the lot as much as he used to. On top of my leads, the majority of the time I end up doing the older guy’s lead’s because he’s constantly backed up and leads aren’t being worked properly.


There have been a few events that have exacerbated my frustrations that I won’t get into. The main of which has been the turnover of upper management. We have a new General Manager and New Car Sales Manager. Although I will give them credit that they seem to be more forthcoming when it comes to giving the department more of what it needs to be successful, I feel that we’re ultimately destined to fail. They want to add a few more of our floor salesman to our internet lead round robin however the guys they want to add can’t format an e-mail to save their lives.


Right now, I handle everything when it comes to social media and our web site. However, the one thing that I am not privy to is our lead source budget and the autonomy to select who our lead sources are. This is controlled by one of our SVPs who “oversee” the entire internet process.


I want control of my entire domain because if we aren’t going to do this right, then I really don’t want to be involved at all. I was under the impression that I was going to be able to have some say in who is on my team, how they’re trained, etc. The way that it is now, I’m stuck behind an extra desk (I recently lost my office to the back-up F&I guy). I can’t monitor my one ISR as closely as I would like because we’re all scattered across the building.
I have the talent and desire to make this work but not under these circumstances. I’m satisfied with my base pay but my bonus structure is messed up, changes month per month and my potential is limited.


One of the major hang-ups here is they do not want a BDC sort of set-up. They want their salesman to be able to go the entire process – which I’m fine with.


My goal is to set up a 4-man internet team – the ISD and three ISRs. I need to be able to be in the same vicinity of all 4 of them. I want complete control of my domain – lead sources and everything. I want a space where I can put up a sales board, appointment board, etc. I want to do this right.


My problem now is how can I present this to a group of people that have zero desire to grow the internet team. I’ve pulled numbers over the last 3 months that show an upward progression of internet sales. Not only in total units but in avg. front end and back end gross. Non-internet sales have been on the decline.


Any tips, suggestions, guidance is welcomed. Again, I apologize for the long rant but I needed to get this off my chest. I want to move forward. But I don’t want to come off as whiney (as there may be points in this post where I do and I apologize for that).

 

[kcar]

I remember when Joe told it me all comes down to the HIPPO? Highest paid person in the dealership. And it's true, if they don't want to move forward then everyone gets stuck. Sounds like were your working at now, they have no ambition to figure things out and just "manage". Sometimes it takes convincing though, I kept telling the owner about a BDC over and over for 6 months before it happened, and now we're rocking. Sounds like your management really doesn't want to deal with all of this, they just know the job gets done and they get paid at the end of the month.

You might want to look into a new place to work, sounds like at some point everyone gets frustrated working there. I could never work for a company like that holding me back, if I don't feel like I'm moving forward, it literally kills me. I've read before just keep working get experience and then go after dealership that will better fit you. But having full control is key, I have it at my store, it's incredible how much gets done. You can't really have management make internet decisions when they have no idea how the internet works, lol.

As an ISD you should be able to have:

- Internet Budget
- Lead Control/Sources
- Website Choices
- Internet Marketing Decisions
- Choose your ISR team members, hire and train them, keep them close and monitor them.
- Anything online you control.
- etc

Also how's going to track the salesperson internet lead red robins, I've tried this at my dealership, it FAILS without the proper management to train, track and manage. With new management turnovers, I would not want to be in that situation. Also 11 stores? How are you even going to keep track of that, I seriously doubt the GM per store is going to watch and manage this fully.

 

[Chris Cachor]

They want to add a few more of our floor salesman to our internet lead round robin however the guys they want to add can’t format an e-mail to save their lives.

One of the major hang-ups here is they do not want a BDC sort of set-up. They want their salesman to be able to go the entire process – which I’m fine with.

It sounds like there's a discrepancy here where the sales floor guys aren't really suited to be behind a PC all day. Would it be a better idea to allow the floor guys do what they do best (sell face-to-face), and form a team to handle leads/appointments?

My problem now is how can I present this to a group of people that have zero desire to grow the internet team. I’ve pulled numbers over the last 3 months that show an upward progression of internet sales. Not only in total units but in avg. front end and back end gross. Non-internet sales have been on the decline.

It sounds like the writing is on the wall here. Sales floor guys on the floor, and an in-house BDC team, all working together FTW.

 

[Pete Jr]

Basically, I'm going to sit down with my new General Manager at some point this afternoon and try and to figure out where he stands with all of this. I'm all for a BDC-type situation but not sure if they would make that drastic of a change. I don't think I could talk the owner into a BDC type set-up.

I want to do this right or not at all.

 

[Dayna Wright]

Hi Pete,

I feel for you, I'm sure most of us have experienced GM's & Sales Manager's like yours & it's frustrating. I've managed internet departments that had salesmen work the leads from start to finish & I currently work the "BDC type" internet department. As far as the salesmen working the leads, this has it's pros & cons. I personally think the cons outway the pros. The pros are that the salesmen can establish rapport with the customer right off the bat, which is great as long as the salesman is good at that sort of thing. They can also typically answer most questions quickly. However, the cons are that those salesmen will almost always cherry pick the leads. When you have to balance walking the lot, sales meetings, going out on test drives, delivering the vehicle, working #'s, taking certification testing, following up with past & future customers, etc... It doesn't leave much time to work EVERY lead to it's fullest. Let's keep in mind, the majority of online shoppers are just starting their shopping/research process & aren't necessarily ready to buy today or tomorrow. Salesmen need to nurture the relationship for however long it takes for the customer to decide they're "in the market." If this part of the process is not up to par, then the customer will assume that's how the whole place works. Salesmen will definetly "pre-qualify" their leads & probably discourage some (credit challenged) customers from coming in when they don't have ALL the facts. Of course with this type of Internet Department your old school GM & Sales Manger can safely say, see I told you we can do it better w/out an Internet Department.

The benefits of a "BDC type" of Internet Department is with a properly trained staff (not part time high school kids looking for xtra money) you'll have dedicated people willing to contact ALL leads for as often as it takes, by phone & email. They will likely respond to all leads immediately instead of when they're done delivering a vehicle after hours. They will not pre-qualify & find reasons why the customer should not come out. Their bonuses should depend on making sure the customer comes into the dealership, not whether or not they purchase. Last but not least, the biggest benefit for a dealer group, is that if a customer is interested in a car that's at a different location (one of your other stores,) you won't have to worry about a salesman brooming the customer because he can't sell that car personally. It will be the Dealer not neccessarily the GM that benefits most from this depending on the GM's payplan. The GM will actually benefit too because this should come back to him at times. This happens often at my dealer group & we would lose so much business if it were left up to salesmen. My dealer principals recognize this & they are the one's to defend our department to the whining salesmen/salesmanagers the most.

I know that if they're already saying they don't want a BDC type of internet department, then this will be a tough sell but not impossible. Most GMs & Sales Managers are paid on the net so they are paranoid about any expenses that may cut into their paycheck. Unfortunately in this day & age they still fail to understand the concept of ROI. My advice to you is to explain to them that if they're already paying for Auto-Trader, Cars.com etc, then the HAVE to go the extra mile to make sure that what they are paying gives them a return on investment. If they don't work all those leads they've already paid for, then it becomes an expense. If they do go the extra mile, then they can look at it as an investment that will make their paycheck grow rather than shrink.

Good luck, I hope you're able to convince them. If not, you may want to shop around for a more progressive store. I look forward to an update!

 

[joe.webb]

Pete Jr...
It is first good to know that what you are experiencing isn't uncommon, but is the norm. Regardless of the obstacles you face, you've only been in the industry for 4 years and leaving a recently-acquired job as an Internet Director is likely not the right choice. Not yet.

Buy-in is the quintessential problem with Internet sales. Sometimes it is a lack of effort from the sales team handling leads, the lack of enthusiasm from a BDC, or a lack of understanding and willingness to spend money/enact change from the executive management. Either way, buy-in is earned and not offered. For this reason, I say, stick it out. Let't tackle these in steps...

How do you go about getting your salespeople to handle leads as stringently as you want them to?

1) Demand it. Threaten them if they don't. Remove them from handling Internet leads or phone calls if they don't follow process.
2) Reward them. Put incentives in place to reward them for doing the little things you ask. (Sucks you have to pay someone extra to do their job, but salespeople are inherently lazy creatures.)
3) Train, train, reinforce, and train some more. Have two weekly meetings covering your entire sales team and create an agenda for each training. I.E. Inbound email handling process, What to do when a lead arrives, phone handling, showroom process, How to source properly, etc. Every week. They need to attend the classes or they aren't certified to take emails or calls. You need to be the one to give these training sessions and put a lot of preparation into it. If you are the one doing the hard work, you'll earn their respect.

How do you go about getting your executive management to enact change and trust you with ad budget decisions?

1) Monitor, Measure, Track and Track some more. You need to know every success, every failure, and every hiccup going on with handling leads and phones. You need your data prepared, at the ready, with examples of people slipping consistently. If training is already in place and processes are still not being followed, you'll have the data to show some individuals aren't worthy of handling the leads. (This is the best way for a new structure to take shape. With hard data and examples.)
2) Educate. Owners and General Managers aren't complete idiots. (Well, I think we all know a couple who might qualify, but not all of them are). If you bring your dealers up to speed on the metrics, what you are currently doing, what your goals are, and what you expect a structure/advertising change would bring, that is how you're given leeway to make decisions.

How do you wrap your hands around that many differently operating structures?

1) Get intimately familiar with your CRM. If every line has people handling things differently, you better learn how to extract data with the best of them.
2) Mystery shop. Prepare examples of mystery shops of your own people for their sales managers. Sales Managers don't like looking into systems to find what people are doing, but they most certainly love holding people's feet to the fire when they know they're doing something wrong. Give them the mystery shops to use as it was their own.

One of my primary keys to success was that I documented EVERYTHING. I tracked EVERYTHING. I knew my store's metrics (and others) like the back of my hand. Facts win arguments. Opinions and wants don't win anything. The more you track, the more you monitor, the more you can allow the powers that be arrive at the obvious choice on their own (your choice) once they have the facts in hand. Don't leave. Kiss it until you can kick it... with data.

 

[Dave Erickson]

If it were me I wouldn't focus too much on the past. I'd ask them what goals and numbers they'd like to achieve and keep the plan as simple as possible that gives you the basics you need to make it happen. Down the road you can always fine tune it some more once you delivered and want to re-live a BDC type of set up for example. I'd also already assume they know you can help them. They may not understand your plan or internet departments so I'd try to talk in "their" language as it'll be easier for them to agree to your needs (space for your team, getting control of your leads, not having floor guys in your lead rotation but new ISM's instead). It sounds like they might have even offered you up the floor guys to try to help you. I'd take it as a positive sign (though a bad idea). Just stay positive in the discussion. I'd have something basic in hand. They'll probably tell you they need xyz numbers so just have something you can hand them on paper that shows in a really easy to understand breakdown where you currently stand so they can see that there is a big gap between where the internet department is and where it needs to be. Once it sinks in, then get buy off on your basic needs. Come through for them. Keep them up to date and more buy off will be just around the corner.

 

[Pete Jr]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I'm not quite sure exactly what I want to propose now. I do think that we benefit the most from a BDC set-up, however that will be a hard sell. Our Chevy/Cadillac store neighbors our huge Honda dealership. Their internet department is the wild west over there. If we bring all three stores into a BDC format.

It's hard to demand things when I'm torn between the store management and the upper dealership management. Between the two, I'm stripped of all my power to make any changes.

 

[ddavis]

My problem now is how can I present this to a group of people that have zero desire to grow the internet team.

As soon as I saw that line, I'm out. I don't want to be the voice of doom and gloom. Honestly, I wish you the best. Even with all the facts and figures, you can win all of the battles and lose the war. I have gone in stores and accomplished everything that I said I would. I was fought every step of the way. It wasn't anything personal. Actually, I was well liked. They just didn't want to change.

To be successful, you have to know what you are doing and be willing to put in the work and the hours. Without buy-in from the majority of the staff, I won't even attempt it.

 

[Pete Jr]

Thanks everyone for your replies. It's definitely keeping me focused on what I exactly need to propose.

I spoke to my VP about some of my ideas. He informed me that our owner just does not believe in a BDC set-up. He's just come around to the idea of having an ISD. He just can't wrap his head around the idea of paying someone who will be under the sales
umbrella who "doesn't sell".

Anyway, I brought up some of my ideas regarding hiring specialized internet people. Was informed that this is more of a store-level decision but he was all about what I was trying to accomplish.
Basically, my next step is going to my GM and seeing where he stands in this whole process. I’m putting together an e-mail with all my numbers, proof, etc.

Thanks everyone for your replies and allowing me to vent. I don’t want to give up on this opportunity yet. I’ve been here 5 months and have seen numbers grow and minds change. I’m hoping that with me being more passionate and assertive in my message, they will eventually give me a bit more leeway in what we’re trying to accomplish.