Monthly Percentages

[ryanabbott]

Yeah. I'm good too. No apologies needed Joe! There're many things that I can do to improve the numbers. I know this and I know all the best practices. But inside my dealership group there are processes. I have been slowly changing the way things are done. It's a work in progress and a challenge I look forward to. I was simply asking for benchmarks that I can work towards.

 

[Aimsmith]

Don't trust as in too high or too low? I'm not a big fan of Rey Rey though and we have one more year left with them.

Ryan,

I wanted to make sure you understood what I meant by "very poor." I followed this thread from the beginning since this has been my area of expertise for many years. Here are the stats you presented:

Internet: 16% Leads/Shown
35% Shown/Sold
6% Leads/Sold

Phone: 40% Leads/Shown
31% Shown/Sold
13% Leads/Sold

Here is the way they should be presented to be of any value to management:

Monthly BDC Report

Internet Leads received: 200
Appts Set: 80
Appts Kept: 50
Appts/Leads Sold: 25

Phone Leads received: 100
Appts Set: 50
Appts Kept: 30
Appts/Leads Sold: 15

Now the percentages you show will be presented based on complete information. Management can then make sound decisions on your effectiveness. The numbers you see there will give you the percentages I averaged consistently in my BDC over a two year period. However I was using my own contact management system and had complete management control over every aspect of the center's operation.

If you are interested in learning more about presenting verifiable, meaningful results that management will get excited about just let me know. I would be happy to help you.

Rand

 

[joe.pistell]

Goodness Joe... is that post really necessary here? What's with the tone? You owe both myself and all members of this forum an apology in my opinion.

Rand,

Here are the circumstances that caused YOU to get the "tone" in my reply... here is the thread post by post.

• Ryan bares his business frustrations to the community with a request to compare performance stats.
• His instincts tell him "My feeling is that our leads to show are good but once we get them in the door we can't sell them. Is that what these numbers tell you?"
• You tell Ryan his performance is "very very weak" and you want to talk about the... CRM??
• I ask you: "On what basis do you say these are "very poor". Please establish yourself and your findings"
• Your reply talks about yourself, your 5000 hours (yawn), no mention of your data nor your process behind your opinion.
• (I may be wrong, but my instincts tell me your self-serving reply reeks of a vendor setting up a "solution" (that's selfishly unrelated to this thread)).
• Ryan follows and tries to put the focus on internal processes. Your reply goes off on some tanget where you put on the position of authority and rank Ryan again as "very poor, a 2 out of a possible 5".
• THAT DOES IT. where's your data. How do you arrive at your... opinion?
• Again, I call you and your lack of visibility out.
• Your answer AGAIN with no data, you say: "...The rating I gave was based on the numbers, all of the numbers not just part as I tried to explain to Ryan in my reply"
  
• Rating? Rand, did you read the post, Ryan has a process problem. What does your "rating" measure? Is it related to his gut telling him that he has a hole in the store process that's causing his store to under perform?
• WE DON'T KNOW Rand, we don't know...
  

 

[joe.pistell]

Ryan,

I wanted to make sure you understood what I meant by "very poor." I followed this thread from the beginning since this has been my area of expertise for many years...

Here is the way they should be presented to be of any value to management:

Now the percentages you show will be presented based on complete information. Management can then make sound decisions on your effectiveness. The numbers you see there will give you the percentages I averaged consistently in my BDC over a two year period. However I was using my own contact management system and had complete management control over every aspect of the center's operation.

If you are interested in learning more about presenting verifiable, meaningful results that management will get excited about just let me know. I would be happy to help you.

Rand

Rand,

I wanted to make sure you understood what I meant by "my very poor tone." I followed this thread from the beginning since this has been my area of expertise for many years.

Here is the way your numbers should be presented to our community:


Now the numbers you show will be presented based on complete information. Ryan and our community can then make sound decisions on your measurements. The numbers you see there will give Ryan the comparisons he asked for from the beginning.

If you are interested in learning more about presenting verifiable, meaningful results that our community will get excited about just let me know. I would be happy to help you.

 

[Jerry Thibeau]

Here is how I would look at the numbers:

Internet Leads	100
Contact Rate	60%	60
Appointed	50%	30
Shown	70%	21
Sold	48%	10

In my opinion people do not focus on contact rate and that should be an important part of the equation. We could even add another category, how many dials per customer. Most do not make enough dials. It's one call and done, this puppy is on auto pilot now. Or they make a second call the next day at the same time they made the first call. In the first few days, Internet leads should be called multiple times. Would you like to hear the techniques I teach on this?

Note: the numbers above do not represent what I think should be achieved, they are just random numbers used to make a point.

 

[joe.pistell]

...In my opinion people do not focus on contact rate and that should be an important part of the equation. We could even add another category, how many dials per customer...

I like that JT. I've never broke that out. Would you rate a reply to an email as one contact and a telephone discussion as a higher scoring contact?

In your opinion, what would be the hallmark of a high email contact rate? I am thinking replies that are quick, thoughtful and personal (non-template like), followed with a strong dose of sweat (aka persistent work).

IMO, almost no other dealer does this, so, the upside is that any rep that works this process should see better results than the "auto-pilot" rep.

thoughts?

 

[ryanabbott]

Joe and Jerry, I completely agree that persistent contact should be the process. You're right Jerry, most ISM try and call the prospect the same time every day and then get frustrated when they can't connect. You have to be creative and constantly try new things to connect. I tell my guys all the time, do something that separates you from the pack. I tell them not to send out templates. Since we got rid of TruCar, our quality of leads have very much improved while our quantity has gone down. This gives my team more team to spend with each prospect and not just constantly wait for the new lead to come in.

 

[Jerry Thibeau]

Contact via e-mail is not as good of contact when a phone call is made. On the phone you have voice inflections, instant interaction and so much more. It's much easier to make the appointment on a phone call than it is in an e-mail. One an internet lead is on the phone, it's now a phone-up. The phone is the bridge that will help appoint more Internet and Chat customers. I once wrote about this: The Evolution of an Automotive Customer

This picture also depicts what I am saying:



To answer your question Joe, I would track both. Contact rate from e-mails as well as phone calls. A poor contact rate on e-mails would indicate one of two things, either your not replying to them fast enough or what you are saying in your e-mail is not effective. More people need to start utilizing video when engaging a customer in an e-mail. I am a huge advocate for sending a personalized video with each first response. That's after you've tried calling or if there is no phone number. If I do get them on the phone, they will get a thank you e-mail that will include a video. You've heard about NLP? With video you're catering to audio and visual customers, you become real person!

To answer your other question, I would strive for a 70% or higher contact rate. I'd like to see some dealers start tracking this and let's see what numbers we come up with. When I worked for a CRM company, I saw some dealers achieve these types of numbers.

 

[Jerry Thibeau]

Here is my phone process when call fresh opportunities:

First Call made in the morning after 9AM. I get voice mail they get this message: Hi Ryan, It's Jerry Thibeau from ABC Motors, I have some great news for you, please call at your earliest convenience. I can be reached at 585-749-2015. If I don't hear from you this morning, I'll try you again later today.

Second Call is made late morning before lunch and dialed from my cell phone. If I get voice mail I hang up! Why do I hang up you ask? In case it's the cell number I am calling I want the customer to see they had a missed call and then when no message is left they'll be curious as to who called. many will hit the redial button, now I have them on the phone. Make this call from the work phone and the call might not get routed to you.

Third Call is a repeat of the second. Now the customer has two calls from the same number and they really get curious. If no reply, perhaps we have a home phone number which leads us to a fourth call.

Fourth Call dialed from the work number and after 6PM in case it's a home number we are dealing with. If I get the voice mail I will leave the same message as I did in call 1, but at the end I will say, "If I don't hear from you tonight, I will try you again tomorrow."

Then on day two I repeat this process. Some might say I am pestering the customer, but you can't say I didn't tell the customer what to expect. If a customer came in and complained that one of my reps called to much, I would apologize to the customer and then spiff the rep for doing a great job. When is the last time you had a customer complain about a rep calling too much. IMHO that doesn't happen enough in our industry.

The above will lead to a higher contact ratio!

 

[ryanabbott]

Good Information. Thanks Jerry.