- Dec 19, 2018
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Based on this, I know there are a lot of people who work with a lot of different dealerships, so who has a couple of dealerships that they think are dominating internet lead response?
Test Leads
- Thread starter BillKVMotorCo
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- Feb 9, 2012
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- Todd
I recommend to all my dealer clients I do consulting with that they hire a company to do formal mystery shops and do it quarterly. If you think email response is bad try listening to phone calls and in most cases it’s even worse. Covid “order taking”made bad habits even worse then they already were.
Covid sales people are like covid students. What?!?! I have to do homework and study boo! Unbeknownst to my wife and I, our youngest son used Google translate to get an A in Spanish during covid. Back in classroom barely squeaked by with a C.
I also think professional communications training specifically on the phone is totally outside of the mindset of a sub 25 sales person. They've avoided phone calls successfully their entire life, its no surprise they are at dealerships. They also "feel" bad calling people because they don't like it.
I also think professional communications training specifically on the phone is totally outside of the mindset of a sub 25 sales person. They've avoided phone calls successfully their entire life, its no surprise they are at dealerships. They also "feel" bad calling people because they don't like it.
That's quite a bold idea, but ethical business practices are crucial for sustained success. Fair competition and genuine leads contribute to a healthier industry overall. What are your thoughts?Here's an idea for a company...keep in mind this is pure evil and no one should actually do it.
Setup automation to bombard all of your local competitors with fake leads including, responses, return calls...everything. Watch as they melt down as their conversion rates plummet. They start thinking every customer is not interested, they try every sales technique, pay for training, start replacing sales people, bdc teams, managers...a death spiral of bad morale. Tune it right up to the point before they think it's as a result of a bad actor, like the allies in WW2 after they cracked enigma.
I am certain this has and is being done in most industries but with all the tools today you could make it almost perfect.
In my opinion, I never understood the concept of 'secret shopping' my own stores for Phone and Internet when we have a complete real-time log and recording of all in the CRM. Stores should be reviewing these in real-time throughout the day with correction and coaching coming just as fast (not waiting a QTR). It's been a minute since I secret shopped a competitor because we don't have our own process locked down let alone need to second guess whether our process works by hearing someone else's magic one-liner. If I don't have access to their real conversion metrics, why would I put stock in their process? "Comparison is the thief of joy." - Mom
If I did secret shop someone else all it did was reinforce they may have faked their Internet composite numbers input in a NADA 20Group that a GM or principal attended. "These guys are killing it, let's see what they're doing..." Uhm, they be fudging number to get to the top of the page is what they're doing. Even with that, I still had no bearing whether the rep was following the stores process or going rogue. I've found the best way to find if they're real is just call the store and talk to the "internet" manager. You'll know pretty quick what the reality is.
I have guys running 18-22% on Internet and I have guys running at 3-6%. I don't need to secret shop to start the process of re-directing leads and finding where the holes are with managers and reps. There is no silver bullet. Review leads daily to find the bad actors and if they're coachable, and they have the capacity, send them in the right direction. If they're not, PIP then promote them to customer.
- Apr 7, 2009
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- Joe
- Dec 19, 2018
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- Bill
I get what you are saying, but I like to see what other ideas people have. It's not really about comparing myself with them. It's just like going to different websites to see what someone else has thought of that I haven't. I know I'm not the smartest or most creative guy in the world, so I'm not afraid to take a look at what others are doing.
Although my post was about their performance, my intention going in had nothing to do with that. I didn't set out to compare those things. I was just out to see if anyone had gotten creative about anything. This was just a byproduct. If anyone had been doing anything original, I would have shared that instead.
It was just my response to Todd and hiring a consultant. It was my opinion on self-checking by a secret shop. I think it's a waste of time if one has a CRM and can review their own leads.
I think what you were talking about is the shopping of others. I used to secret shop others a lot because I was convinced there must be something I was missing. For me, I stopped doing that because I was making an assumption if I saw something new and creative it would resonate with online shoppers. The fact is I have lost the ability to even remotely think like an online shopper (and I would argue everyone on this forum has as well). If I was seeing something that was new and exciting it was because it was new and exciting to me. The problem is my lens and context for "new and exciting" is so far off any scientific standard for what an actual 3-year-cycle-online-car-shopper finds of value, that I can't insert it into my process without more data. IF I knew that store was using the same process for 90 days (and it was followed by their team) and it produced a lift in engagement, etc THEN I'd try and implement. This is what is most valuable about 20Group peers. Someone who will pull back the curtain and show you what they're doing WITH proof of success. I'd pull by my curtain for you @BillKVMotorCo...
- Dec 19, 2018
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- Bill
I see it in this context now. I think we'd be surprised how many dealers don't have anyone going through all of their opportunities. I review every active customer every day. I don't know how anyone could be confident their customers are getting the service they expect without doing so. I understand that this might be more difficult to scale as a dealer grows. You manage a larger dealer than I do. I'd be interested to know how your team goes about it.
This is the only reason I could see a consultant assisting with this, but I would say that anyone who has their nose in the business for a while will end up with the same blind eye after a while.
I had no idea how serious this relationship was getting.
