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.