- Nov 23, 2009
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- Catherine
Is the Internet Department dead?
- Thread starter Ashton526
- Start date
Great subject Ashton! I ran 3 stores internet departments with 8 "internet managers". The problem I had when I got the "floor" involved with the leads I never heard back and they took forever to follow up with the leads.
As floor salespeople we know what we have been doing (lot ups). Their focus is there. I used to test floor guys with leads to see if they would potentially be good candidates for the internet department.
As for your set up.....I am a big fan of having specific salespeople dedicated to the internet. Each of your sales people should not handle more than 200 leads a month. Some will say less but you have to give them the opportunity to sell volume 20+ cars or you will lose the good ones. Count how many people come on your lot in one day and count how many internet leads you get in one day and if you don't have more salespeople dedicated to the one with more traffic you are out of whack. There are also tools out there to help make your life easier. Find them and use them.
Here is where I would start:
1) Call your lead providers and see if you are on the right package for your store. Let them know up front you are looking to cut or stay at the same cost and not go up. Things change and you could be on a program that isn't conducive to your dealership. Most lead providers have multiple lead programs.
2) Skim down to 200 leads per salesperson you have selling in your "internet department". You will be surprised how many more cars someone will sell if they concentrate on a lower amount of leads. 200 leads are for the great sales people 100 to 150 for average guys.
3) Monitor your lead sources for 90 days and make adjustments at the end.
4) Call your site provider and see if you can generate more leads from your website rather than paying for leads outside. Make sure this is cost effective for you. check out dealer-seo.com. They may do a better job than your site provider. Do your homework.
5) In 90 days you are looking for efficiency. Run with leads with the lowest hanging fruit.
6) check your site presence online and your dealers reputation/reviews.
7) See if any of your competitors are using your name in their adwords campaign by searching for your dealership on the major search engines. (If they are call them out)
8) From here you build, build, build!
Wow, sorry thats probably way more info than you asked for.
As floor salespeople we know what we have been doing (lot ups). Their focus is there. I used to test floor guys with leads to see if they would potentially be good candidates for the internet department.
As for your set up.....I am a big fan of having specific salespeople dedicated to the internet. Each of your sales people should not handle more than 200 leads a month. Some will say less but you have to give them the opportunity to sell volume 20+ cars or you will lose the good ones. Count how many people come on your lot in one day and count how many internet leads you get in one day and if you don't have more salespeople dedicated to the one with more traffic you are out of whack. There are also tools out there to help make your life easier. Find them and use them.
Here is where I would start:
1) Call your lead providers and see if you are on the right package for your store. Let them know up front you are looking to cut or stay at the same cost and not go up. Things change and you could be on a program that isn't conducive to your dealership. Most lead providers have multiple lead programs.
2) Skim down to 200 leads per salesperson you have selling in your "internet department". You will be surprised how many more cars someone will sell if they concentrate on a lower amount of leads. 200 leads are for the great sales people 100 to 150 for average guys.
3) Monitor your lead sources for 90 days and make adjustments at the end.
4) Call your site provider and see if you can generate more leads from your website rather than paying for leads outside. Make sure this is cost effective for you. check out dealer-seo.com. They may do a better job than your site provider. Do your homework.
5) In 90 days you are looking for efficiency. Run with leads with the lowest hanging fruit.
6) check your site presence online and your dealers reputation/reviews.
7) See if any of your competitors are using your name in their adwords campaign by searching for your dealership on the major search engines. (If they are call them out)
8) From here you build, build, build!
Wow, sorry thats probably way more info than you asked for.
- Apr 7, 2009
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- Joe
Damn good post Ryan.
In your opinion what lead to sales ratio can a top performer can achieve? From your numbers above, I see 10:1. What are your thoughts on new vs used email ups and their closing ratios?
thnx
joe
In your opinion what lead to sales ratio can a top performer can achieve? From your numbers above, I see 10:1. What are your thoughts on new vs used email ups and their closing ratios?
thnx
joe
Sounds like "Digital Darwinism" to me. I am fortunate to have a Owner/Operator that understands the digital trend and supports my efforts and direction 100%. This is critical. The old mindset that still chooses to spend its time and resources on the "Old School" mentality of print ads and radio just because thats how they have always done it will soon wither away. What's the difference between a Internet customer and a regular retail customer in todays market? Not much! If transitioning away form a dedicated Internet Dept is your next step you are well ahead of the bell curve. As a whole there are far more Dealers still trying launch a viable Internet dept much less transition into a Internet Store. Is thiis the next step? I think so.
If I were able to design an internet operation from the ground up, I think I would have a group of 'Internet Sales Managers' just answering phone calls and responding to internet leads. From there they assign the customer into 4 different buckets depending upon urgency. The most urgent are setup with an appointment with a sales person, the least are probably bad leads or just not buyers and are deleted. The middle group that require a bit of massaging to blossom into a sale remain with the folks who can follow up properly.
Thank you Joe, coming from you that is a great compliment. I am going to dance around your question for a couple reasons. 1) depends on make of vehicles sold 2) depends on volume of leads the salesmen gets 3) how good he/she is.
I can only base of averages and what I and other I know have accomplished.
Its been a while but when I worked at the autoplex we received a lot of leads and my best guy was closing around 13%. I was a one man show at a Subaru dealer and I was closing close to 20% but I think that was a special case because of the buyer and the stores structure.
I would try to achieve 15% and if you fall short 3% or 4% you are doing good. I try to keep my guys from things like averages because all you are doing is giving them an excuse to be average. I also didn't listen to the "its slow because its raining" pitch from my guys. I bought box trucks and work vans and had my guys work those on rainy days and we always did really well in gross on rainy days. Construction workers don't work in the rain typically but they take care of "to do's".
New email leads vs used email leads. I would have to say a used email leads carries more weight. Therefore I would suggest that you should close a higher percentage on used email leads.
I can only base of averages and what I and other I know have accomplished.
Its been a while but when I worked at the autoplex we received a lot of leads and my best guy was closing around 13%. I was a one man show at a Subaru dealer and I was closing close to 20% but I think that was a special case because of the buyer and the stores structure.
I would try to achieve 15% and if you fall short 3% or 4% you are doing good. I try to keep my guys from things like averages because all you are doing is giving them an excuse to be average. I also didn't listen to the "its slow because its raining" pitch from my guys. I bought box trucks and work vans and had my guys work those on rainy days and we always did really well in gross on rainy days. Construction workers don't work in the rain typically but they take care of "to do's".
New email leads vs used email leads. I would have to say a used email leads carries more weight. Therefore I would suggest that you should close a higher percentage on used email leads.
- May 1, 2006
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- Alex
As someone who was selling cars when the Internet first started hitting consumers and has now been on the "Internet" side for almost 10 years I can definitely say the differences between a floor-up and Internet lead are almost null. This certainly wasn't the case a few years ago. The tactics that we used online back in the late 90's and early 2000's do not work today because the audience is much more broad. To say the Internet department is dead is true and not true all at the same time.
Why is it true?
The Internet has quickly made itself a viable medium that no one can deny. Whether or not an old school car guy likes it or not, he has to admit that the Internet is having an effect on his customers. Because we all use the Internet we could say that the traditional Internet department is dead and the lines between traditional floor sales and Internet sales are disappearing every day.
Why is it not true?
People. Car people to be exact. We don't know how to hire in this industry and we have a bad enough name to not attract the kind of people we really want. For every 1 Internet lead there are at least 3 phone calls that came in. So, if you're getting 100 Internet leads in a month, it could be safe to assume you really got 400 customers who contacted your dealership off of something they saw online. I don't know about you guys, but even after training all of our sales staff with Jerry Thibeau I still hear them royally screwing up calls. Most floor sales people are cultured to wait on the lot for a customer to physically show up. We train and train and train, but we're having a tough time breaking the culture. Keep in mind that this culture goes back to the days of horse trading long before cars were around.
How do we make it true?
1. Hiring: We need to start hiring people who have a good physical presence (like our traditional sales floor today - not supermodels
) when working with a customer in the showroom and who enjoy speaking to people over the phone. An email is just a device to get someone on the phone, so that really takes a back seat to the other two qualities.
2. If we can't hire right, then we need to start thinking about evolving the industry faster than we'd like to a one-price world. Ladies and Gentlemen - if you don't like "one-price" I have some very bad news for you - it is coming. I don't know how long, but logic, technology, and measurement all point at it. Since the vAuto's, AAX's, and FirstLooks have come around we are quickly seeing a standard in used car pricing. With the Edmunds, KBB's, and every other invoice-showing websites around we're being held to a standard in new car pricing. How much longer do you think it will be before a standard in trade-in evaluations really takes hold? You can argue that none of these are standards today, and you may be able to argue that in the future too, but at the end of the day review sites, facebook, and other social medias are going to continue to talk about the customer service you offer. And eventually customer service will become the true differentiator in dealership competition. So, your people will be transitioned by the market no matter how well or bad you hire. But if you hire well, you'll get more of the $$$ pie.
Why is it true?
The Internet has quickly made itself a viable medium that no one can deny. Whether or not an old school car guy likes it or not, he has to admit that the Internet is having an effect on his customers. Because we all use the Internet we could say that the traditional Internet department is dead and the lines between traditional floor sales and Internet sales are disappearing every day.
Why is it not true?
People. Car people to be exact. We don't know how to hire in this industry and we have a bad enough name to not attract the kind of people we really want. For every 1 Internet lead there are at least 3 phone calls that came in. So, if you're getting 100 Internet leads in a month, it could be safe to assume you really got 400 customers who contacted your dealership off of something they saw online. I don't know about you guys, but even after training all of our sales staff with Jerry Thibeau I still hear them royally screwing up calls. Most floor sales people are cultured to wait on the lot for a customer to physically show up. We train and train and train, but we're having a tough time breaking the culture. Keep in mind that this culture goes back to the days of horse trading long before cars were around.
How do we make it true?
1. Hiring: We need to start hiring people who have a good physical presence (like our traditional sales floor today - not supermodels
) when working with a customer in the showroom and who enjoy speaking to people over the phone. An email is just a device to get someone on the phone, so that really takes a back seat to the other two qualities. 2. If we can't hire right, then we need to start thinking about evolving the industry faster than we'd like to a one-price world. Ladies and Gentlemen - if you don't like "one-price" I have some very bad news for you - it is coming. I don't know how long, but logic, technology, and measurement all point at it. Since the vAuto's, AAX's, and FirstLooks have come around we are quickly seeing a standard in used car pricing. With the Edmunds, KBB's, and every other invoice-showing websites around we're being held to a standard in new car pricing. How much longer do you think it will be before a standard in trade-in evaluations really takes hold? You can argue that none of these are standards today, and you may be able to argue that in the future too, but at the end of the day review sites, facebook, and other social medias are going to continue to talk about the customer service you offer. And eventually customer service will become the true differentiator in dealership competition. So, your people will be transitioned by the market no matter how well or bad you hire. But if you hire well, you'll get more of the $$$ pie.
Ryan, thanks for the tips - good stuff. I just switched lead providers and customized the market zips and radius. Our quality of leads should definitely improve if that "scrubbing" process is what they say it is. Haha, apparently, it's all about the scrubbing...
Alex, agreed - cars are turning into a commodity with customer service being the only differentiator. Furthermore, typical "car guys" are the barrier to internet/floor integration and attracting/hiring/retaining quality communicators is the hurdle that any successful dealership is going to have to overcome.
Ideally, I would like to see the sales floor all qualified to write emails, handle phone calls, and talk face-to-face with customers. Lead distribution should be merit based - those with higher closing ratios would get more leads and more opportunities.
Do you agree that, given you could hire right, this would be an ideal structure?
Alex, agreed - cars are turning into a commodity with customer service being the only differentiator. Furthermore, typical "car guys" are the barrier to internet/floor integration and attracting/hiring/retaining quality communicators is the hurdle that any successful dealership is going to have to overcome.
Ideally, I would like to see the sales floor all qualified to write emails, handle phone calls, and talk face-to-face with customers. Lead distribution should be merit based - those with higher closing ratios would get more leads and more opportunities.
Do you agree that, given you could hire right, this would be an ideal structure?
- May 1, 2006
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Ashton,
Like you, I have to play with the cards I'm dealt. The stack of cards I have to play with works though! So don't take what I'm about to say the wrong way; I'm just responding to your question of "ideal".
In my "ideal" world my job would not exist. My staff would be out of work, and DealerRefresh probably would have some different players talking on it. Let's face it - most of us are here because of the traditional car guy, and we at least owe them a thanks for giving us a job.
- Ideally, I would hire GM's based on their political skills, ability to lead, marketing vision, and their ability to analyze numbers.
- I would hire sales managers based on their ability to lead, speak to customers in any communication fashion, and analyze inventory.
- I would hire sales agents who want process and are enthusiastic not just about a lot up, but a customer who approaches the dealership in any fashion.
So, to answer your question, the best customer buying experience should come from a relationship with only 1 person at the dealership. That person should be the sales agent. And the best customer servicing experience should just be with the Service Advisor. However you define how those people should receive your "Internet" customers boils down to the A/B testing you do.
