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Salary for Internet Sales Manager or Director

His store receives 300-400 leads a month that produces 30 sales a month. He has one man to handle this.

What proposal should I make, to build him a Internet / BDC department which will produce 60 + sales a month?

Wow! I'd say the first proposal is to get more people. In my opinion, one ISM can handle about 100-150 leads/mo and that may be pushing it depending on your processes and tools. If you deconstruct the lead at all, then that number goes even lower. My guess is that with that many leads and one guy, he's only been capturing in-market customers and/or picking off the low-hanging fruit.

Build a BDC which could handle not only internet leads but could also handle service follow-ups and showroom follow-ups. They can handle orphan owners and previous buyers. This in and of itself will increase the ISMs time to focus more on selling.

Then get a couple more ISMs.

Just my opinion.
 
The ISM is clearly becoming, if it isn't already, the most important role at the dealership.

Does traffic come in from print or tv ads? Maybe.

How many sales does the new/used car sales managers drive? Once they are on the lot, sure then can affect the deal flow.

How much traffic is driven by people who check it out online? Probably just about all of it.

The ISM drives all that traffic to your website.

In the regular corporate world that would equate to a Chief Marketing Officer:

Chief marketing officer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paying you like a salesperson when in fact you are driving business for the entire dealership is not the optimal situation.
 
If that one person is just making appointments and letting floor salespeople sell and deliver the car, then I would say a good Internet rep could handle 300 per month.

Then they wouldn't be an Internet Sales Manager, but a BDC.

If the "internet person" is in reality a BDC and they aren't doing any actual sales, the number would go up but I still think 300 leads for one person is too many. If you want to effectively work the lead, whether as an ISM or a BDC, and follow up appropriately, it's not about how many phone calls can a person make in an hour. That's what I call "burning ups". It's quality, not quantity, that will increase your closing ratios.

Reality is though, in MOST dealerships, the internet department has salespeople that work the leads AND sell the cars.

In that case, my statement above is my opinion on what they could handle.

To add to that statement, the HIGHER volume that internet department is doing (ie. the ISMs are too busy selling cars and don't have enough time to properly work the leads), the number of leads each person can handle decreases. At this point, you either reduce the leads or get more personnel and you can't just stick anyone in an internet department and expect performance. An effective ISM has a certain skill set that a great floor salesperson may not. I've seen many "eagles" turn into chickens when going from the floor to the internet department.

I've been an Internet Director for 2 different multiple rooftop dealer groups. One 9RT group which contains within the group the #1 Honda dealer in the world that sells about 1000 units/month (in the one store) and has 15 internet managers in the one store. I've also been over a dealer group with 6 RTs with a 30 person BDC and 14 internet managers. I think I have a good feeling for what a good internet manager (and a good BDC employee) can handle.
 
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Some dealers have internet people who take the lead , gets the customer in, sells and delivers the car.

Other dealers have Internet managers or whatever you want to call the position, that is paid a salary and a flat fee for every sale made that has an internet source.

In my store, we had one manager and 7 salespeople oversee the leads. Now we have 2 managers to handle on average 450 leads a month. We do not deliver , test drive or any thing other than make contact, set the appointments. Since we went to 2 dedicated managers, response time has increased tremendously and the quality of the templates has improved.Sale are up 45% . We keep the wesbite current, list vehicles on craigslist and just started listing on eBay as well.Constantly refining the process.

Plus the job is less stressful than being a "on the floor" salesperson.

I would prefer to not state what I earn. I am happy and have been earning more money than I ever have.
 
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Well, let me give you a little back ground on myself. I have been in the car business for 3 years now. I have been doing the "Internet Manager" job for the last year. We are a "One Price" store and we get paid a flat rate on each car. I have been doing everything by myself up until today. I have increased internet sales by at least 100%. We are a small store with about 125 cars in stock between new and used. Today I was approched by my Sales Manager with the oppurtunity to become a Internet Manager/Inventory Manager. I would be doing everything on the Internet side of things except actually selling the car. I woudl also be buying cars for our inventory from multiple sources. I can tell you we are one of the most aggressive dealers around my area when it comes to the internet.

As for my pay plan:

I was offered $50.00 for every car that sold off from the internet (which would mean only leads I recieve not walk in traffic) I was also offered $25.00 per car I buy. I was offered a draw pay plan of $350/week. Now I am trying to do the math in my head but I just don't see how I can survive right now on that kind of pay plan. Maybe a year down the road when our internet department is even bigger it may work.

I have been working my tail off to get to this point and now I feel like I may be looked upon as not a vital role in the dealership. Does anyone have an idea of what I should come back with that would be fair for both the dealership and myself?
 
Paul - it is a tough question to answer when you're talking about a single rooftop. In a dealer group situation I think the pay scale should *at least* be even between an eCommerce Director who oversees the whole group and a top-performing GM. But for someone who handles a single rooftop, I'd say that person should be on par with a sales manager.

What does everyone else think?
 
Paul - it is a tough question to answer when you're talking about a single rooftop. In a dealer group situation I think the pay scale should *at least* be even between an eCommerce Director who oversees the whole group and a top-performing GM. But for someone who handles a single rooftop, I'd say that person should be on par with a sales manager.

What does everyone else think?

Agree !!!You should Re-write the manual they teach at the Dealer School. Maybe the upcoming eCommerce Managers have a chance! ;)


I have a Base plus a flat fee for every car sold in the store (internet or not) plus volume bonus. The way I get paid i believe to be best or close... We pass the leads (Round-Robin) to our sales crew. This way we hope they are happy and get us accurate sourcing information! ... ... ... ... ...
 
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Paul, I’m currently prospecting for a job and I have 7 years Sales Management and 4 Years Internet Director experience. I have increase sale and GPA with both jobs.
What I’m finding currently is that dealerships are not going to pay anymore then they feel is necessary, so the power to negotiate is almost gone. I have been passed over by a few companies, because they asked me what I would like to make which was much higher what they could pay someone else with less experience.
I know that you should be paid more, but at the same time there are several people that will work for the amount that is offered currently.
Here my advise… ask for a small base or look for Internet Manager position that will pay you better
Best of Luck
David James