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Pay for Internet Sales Manager/Director

Hello Everyone. It has been a while since I first started posting.

I have been working for the last few months as the ISM for a dealership in TN. I handle most of the same things that other have described from Social Media, Website, SEO, Inventory, etc. I do not do any direct selling, I pass the leads to a dedicated ISS. I also do backup F&I for the dealership as well and run the desk from time to time. And handle the overall IT and some of the general marketing for the dealership (i.e. print).

As for compensation this is what it is currently.

$500/week draw.
$25/unit sold across the whole dealership
$100/Internet Lead Sold

At 100 cars per month (with 25% of those as Internet Deals) I would make $5K including the draw.

Plus I get paid on any products I sell when doing F&I.
I would like to get feedback from others to see if this sounds low, high, good, bad or whatever. Since I am new to the automotive dealership world I want to get your feedback.


Well, I don't know how your cost-of-living in TN compares with MD (I assume it's a fair amount lower), but I'd say that sounds pretty good...if, and it's a big if, your dealership actually does 100 a month. I've been burned a few times by pay plans that looked good based on projected numbers and were truly hateful even at 70-80% of those projections.

$5k in my area would be about my lower limit for putting up with the Internet Director position. I've left more than one shop because they struggled to get me to that point.
 
Being a good Internet Director comes down to customer follow-up and marketing. Most are only concerned with the follow-up. This makes it a low level Sales Manager's position. If your department constitutes the majority of the dealership's sales, you should be compensated for it.
 
One Man Internet Department

-Photos and video walkarounds of all our used cars, including editing and uploading on DSL
-In-House SEO and SEM - Wordpress blogs, microsites, website content, social, adwords management
-Manual classified ad posting (we have less than 100 cars)
-Reporting
-Manage TV, Radio, external campaigns for used cars and rental
-Graphic/banner design for digital and non-digital campaigns
-Tech Support / Geek Squad / 'hey my computer turned off wtf' *turns monitor on* 'youre macgyver its amazing'

No prospect responsibilities anymore. GM took control of those.

Salary: a little less than 40k
 
One Man Internet Department

-Photos and video walkarounds of all our used cars, including editing and uploading on DSL
-In-House SEO and SEM - Wordpress blogs, microsites, website content, social, adwords management
-Manual classified ad posting (we have less than 100 cars)
-Reporting
-Manage TV, Radio, external campaigns for used cars and rental
-Graphic/banner design for digital and non-digital campaigns
-Tech Support / Geek Squad / 'hey my computer turned off wtf' *turns monitor on* 'youre macgyver its amazing'

No prospect responsibilities anymore. GM took control of those.

Salary: a little less than 40k

I feel for ya! Unfortunately, your job description does not yet entail "Customer Facing," and traditionally in this business, you need to be Customer Facing to earn the Big Bucks. Rightly or wrongly, I don't think too many will argue with that reality.

Ask our IT people! Not too many more important duties than keeping us up and running and efficient. But I don't think you'll meet many who think they are well-paid in the automotive sector.

You did mention one interesting word, though: "Salary." That's not a word often associated with the Big Money. The Big Money usually accompanies Retail Hours (nights, weekends) and Commission.

But change, I'm sure, will come in due time... good luck!
 
One Man Internet Department

-Photos and video walkarounds of all our used cars, including editing and uploading on DSL
-In-House SEO and SEM - Wordpress blogs, microsites, website content, social, adwords management
-Manual classified ad posting (we have less than 100 cars)
-Reporting
-Manage TV, Radio, external campaigns for used cars and rental
-Graphic/banner design for digital and non-digital campaigns
-Tech Support / Geek Squad / 'hey my computer turned off wtf' *turns monitor on* 'youre macgyver its amazing'

No prospect responsibilities anymore. GM took control of those.

Salary: a little less than 40k

Can I hire you?
 
I've been in the automotive industry about a month and a half so anyone's feedback is welcomed.

I am in charge of anything that has to do with the internet/technology. I handle all GM leads from start to finish(when I can), 3rd party leads(autotrader, cars.com etc), redesigning the website for both our stores working with an outside website company, making changes to our Cobalt website, heading up the implementation of Imagiclab(We have no CRM, ILM. LM or anything at the moment), taking photo's, writing descriptions for all cars, email marketing, online marketing and the list goes on.

I am also Solely in charge of IT. My big IT project right now is the entire infrastructure at the new body shop we are building(Network, servers, workstations, phones etc.) I order everything, install and setup everything and keep it running. Any issues that requires the least bit of technical knowledge are sent to me. If someone's computer is running slow its immediately my problem. Before me they were paying an local computer company to do all this and were getting taken to the cleaners. The money saved here is probably enough to cover my salary.

This is a completely new position at this dealership. I've got great buy in from the dealer principal but they haven't done anything to keep up with technology in the last 10 years so we are way behind. Current salary is 50k. We arrived at that because we had no idea where to start and are going to keep it there for my first couple of months and then figure it out from there. My first month was basically just familiarizing myself with the car industry and researching all the available technology that is out there and figuring out what needs to be done to create an online presence and get into the 21st century. We're at about 100 leads a month with a very large majority of that coming from GM. We do a poor job with our website and anything 3rd party like autotrader. Leads should really start to increase after the first of the year once we go live with our new sites and imagiclab.

In a couple of months when it's time to figure out my pay plan what is the best approach? I'm very confident that in 6 months from now the internet department could generate 25 sales a month. Do I want to get paid a flat amount per internet lead sold plus a base salary? Should I get paid for appointments set? I'm looking for a fair way to do it that will allow me to share in the success of the internet department with the dealership.
 
I'm very confident that in 6 months from now the internet department could generate 25 sales a month. Do I want to get paid a flat amount per internet lead sold plus a base salary? Should I get paid for appointments set? I'm looking for a fair way to do it that will allow me to share in the success of the internet department with the dealership.

Are you the only one in the Internet department? If so, Do they plan on hiring someone else to help?

The biggest piece of advice I can give you is to stick with the sales/leads. Train or hire someone else to do the rest with your help. If you're holding any gross at all, working cradle to grave selling 20-25 deals every month should pay you $100,000-$150,000. The IT stuff isn't worth that much unless you're in charge of a 4-10 man department as a Director.

For what it's worth, I did 2 years of Vocational School in high-school in Cisco's networking class for CCNA and half the CCNP. I started "temporarily" selling cars after HS so I could put myself through college to get a bachelors degrees. Long story short, I never went to college and the only networking I do is Social media lol. Sell 21 cars your first time and let me know how you feel then. Having a $10,000 check in your hand puts things in perspective very quickly.

Unless you absolutely hate selling cars, IMO you should stick with the selling side. Help out with the rest and train your replacement for IT. You have a good situation, you're in at the ground floor.
 
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Are you the only one in the Internet department? If so, Do they plan on hiring someone else to help?

The biggest piece of advice I can give you is to stick with the sales/leads. Train or hire someone else to do the rest with your help. If you're holding any gross at all, working cradle to grave selling 20-25 deals every month should pay you $100,000-$150,000. The IT stuff isn't worth that much unless you're in charge of a 4-10 man department as a Director.

For what it's worth, I did 2 years of Vocational School in high-school in Cisco's networking class for CCNA and half the CCNP. I started "temporarily" selling cars after HS so I could put myself through college to get a bachelors degrees. Long story short, I never went to college and the only networking I do is Social media lol. Sell 21 cars your first time and let me know how you feel then. Having a $10,000 check in your hand puts things in perspective very quickly.

Unless you absolutely hate selling cars, IMO you should stick with the selling side. Help out with the rest and train your replacement for IT. You have a good situation, you're in at the ground floor.

You are obviously a talented salesperson. As a veteran, I can go to any state supported school tuition free. I took the four CCNA courses and didn't learn one thing that would help me as an Internet Director. Being a geek is not one of the prerequistes. Being a top notch salesman will help you much more.
 
You are obviously a talented salesperson. As a veteran, I can go to any state supported school tuition free. I took the four CCNA courses and didn't learn one thing that would help me as an Internet Director. Being a geek is not one of the prerequistes. Being a top notch salesman will help you much more.

You are 100% correct, The CCNA didn't help at all for Internet Sales (I'm not a director, but I doubt it would help there either).
I abandond the "IT" carreer path when I started selling cars and I've never looked back.