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I love shopping my competitors and non competitors -

Can you please share with us what exactly you learned from this endeavor that you did not already know? While you're at it, I'd also please like to know why you believe a salesperson who is paid on commision should participate in your quest for knowledge while they are on the clock trying to earn a living? Can't you just ask somebody for a copy of their templates? Frankly, I fail to see what else someone can get out of this.

Knowledge is power.

You happen to have a very similar Jeep Wrangler your competitor is selling down the street. A lead comes in on that vehicle. You're pretty certain, through shopping that competitor, that they're not the best at getting back to internet leads (1-2 day response time)...so what do you do? You get yourself or your sales guy on top of this lead ASAP and throw out all the incentives, options, etc. to them. Looks like your chances on that sale just got a whole lot better, and you know it - not just hoping.
 
Can you please share with us what exactly you learned from this endeavor that you did not already know? ... Can't you just ask somebody for a copy of their templates? Frankly, I fail to see what else someone can get out of this.

hmmm ... grasshopper, new to this are we?
Patrick, hate to drop this on ya... Whether you realize it or not, you and your staff are at war. If that dosent make sense to you, then... er...:huh?: why not? hahaha. Every manager that creates a battle plan needs intelligence to assess the battlefield. The manager needs someone to probe the enemy lines on his behalf. This person is called the scout. He's called different names, you've seen him before:

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Scouting activities are Very Darwinian. If your team is not scouting, then you're one step down the food chain (and thats NOT good!) Merchant scouting has been going on since the dawn of man and will be going on long after your gone.

Just a tip from your 'ol uncle Joe. Try it some time... it's very revealing and helpful info and fun too!
 
Can you please share with us what exactly you learned from this endeavor that you did not already know? While you're at it, I'd also please like to know why you believe a salesperson who is paid on commision should participate in your quest for knowledge while they are on the clock trying to earn a living? Can't you just ask somebody for a copy of their templates? Frankly, I fail to see what else someone can get out of this.

If you carry new cars, then your manufacturers are mystery shopping you at least once a month. Some of them go so far as to turn the email mystery shop into a phone call.

Your vendors might be shopping you. I know prospective vendors are shopping you to see if they can sell you something in an area you're weak.

Your competition is shopping you.

Hell, some of the most engaged traffic to my dealership website is referred by DealerRefresh, and I know some of those guys are shopping us.

If this keeps you up at night....well....sorry.
 
Patrick...

You seem to have taken this news of shopping your competitors as some type of negative endeavor or how dare I know what my competitors are doing. This is a simple business practice that has gone on for as long as business has existed.

It's finding the answers to "why is that guy selling more cars than I am " .

You learn if your prices are competitive. If your not competitive with price points, you lose sales.Which effects the money my company can earn. It also happens to effect my pay check.

Sometime I see some neat things that stores are doing, such as free items (oil changes, service's etc..) . I can also study different templates companies are using and decide if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

This is all I am going to say to you. It's business. I could give a rats ass about the other guy.

I want to make money for my company and myself. It's like studing game film.

Do you think the Patriot players think it's unfair to watch film of the team they are going to face on Sunday ?

Do you feel sorry for the pitcher that throws a curve ball on a certain pitch count and one guy steps up to hit a home run ?
 
Joe's war analogy is spot on. In fact I've never even considered the car biz anything but war. And really sales in general. I think that is what has attracted some us to this industry and kept even more of us around. That and the money anyway!
There are lines that can be crossed. I mean it's one thing to mystery shop the competition and take up 10 mins of their time and it's a completely different thing to abuse a log in from a disgruntled ex-employee of the competition. You've got to have thick skin in this business.
 
Do you know how many newly-hired 'salesmen' come straight to our Internet Department and asks nitpicking questions about our strategy/ads/what we pay for?

A shit-load.

Just today one of our closers was asking me about what makes our site different from others. I asked him to name another dealers site to compare it to, and he mentioned our prime competitor's site. He recently quit that dealer and came here. He asked what I would do to make that site better.

I analyze each and every competitor, even though we are a medium used car dealer with 80-90 cars, closing at 40-60%. From the dirt lot, to the franchise dealers. I find marketing holes to fill that other dealers have not touched. I will chat, compare, email, call, visit, to gather competitive intelligence, as well as find ways to improve our company's operations.