We all forget that we're an industry in the throws of change. HUGE change.
Let's have a sit down and let's look at this Internet Director Pay Challenge, not from the bottom up, but, from the top down. Bare with me. I'll try to make it fun to read.
Let's say Mr. Big Dealer (MBD) has 1,000 units on the ground & he turns his inventory 4 times a year. MBD has an annual sales volume of 4,000 units.
As is the norm, MBD has spent years building his biz, has quite an investment in traditional media and has his branding game working. Let's assume that MBD is spending $350 p/unit retailed in ad spending.
MBD's ad budget is $1.4million dollars annually.
This next step is where Darwin's rule of nature kicks in (strong eat the weak) and now. the fun starts!
MBD has had an epiphany and now "gets it". Gone are the days when Mr. Big Ad Spender had "control" over the shopper. In days past, Mr. Big Dealer's large ad dollars spent would drive traffic to his door. MBD liked this arrangement. But, in our NEW world, MBD sees that 90 of 100 shoppers hit the web from home and work and it's here shoppers decide who they'll visit.
MBD wants confirmation, he institutes a post sale survey and realizes that 95% of his buyers visit his site prior to purchase, yet, few reveal themselves prior to purchase.
MBD says to himself:
"Oh oh. there's a new "Step" in the sales process and I am flushing precious profits down the toilet because I don't have my internet game plan rockin"
MBD asks his web IT people for visitor info to his web site and is shocked. "Look at this! Can this be right? 11,000 visitors per month and I sell 330 of them?!? Whereinthehell did the other 10,670 visitors go? 11,000 visitors and all I got were 93 emails?"
MBD gasps, "It's worse than I thought! Or. wait a minute; maybe, it's better than I thought". Just how big is my web audience? MBD now sees his website as an extension of his lot. His web site isn't there to keep his ISM busy, it fuels his entire operation.
MBD wants change. He drops his MBD ego (aka HIPPO), puts his shopper's hat on and "walks his virtual lot" like a shopper would. 10 minutes into his shopping experience, he mutters "what good is my $116,000 per month ad spend if my pics suck, the options are generic, there are no personal descriptions AND one of my most popular pages, the specials page IS EMPTY!! Arrrgggg. Hey! whyinthehell isn't my web site carrying my "sale of the month" message?"
MBD is now frustrated. "I don't know this web stuff, I know I gotta get it amped up, but whointhehell is knows the Web and selling cars, who is going to help me lead this attack?"
Enter: The Internet Director (ID).
This is my fun little exercise to demonstrate just WHO is responsible (MBD), to WHO the ID should report to and WHY it's not deeply integrated into the Auto Dealer's culture.
This new player, The Internet Director (ID), is deeply involved with all departments (sales, service & parts). ID participates in all marketing meetings, oversees and optimizes the visitor experience and the tools that all employees use to improve MBD's ROI.
Marketing is a "top down" exercise and the ID is deeply involved with the Advertising side of the balance sheet. Paying the ID can be easily offset with a reduction in spending on the traditional side. But, the ID works the web audience to produce ROI (not just shift costs from one side of the spreadsheet to another)
Every MBD's effort should be finding ways to push shoppers to their site. For every 100 units MBD has on the ground, he can expect a visitor to remain for one minute, so, our MBD with 1,000 units has his visitor for 10 minutes. To every dealership, that visit is priceless.
If the ID is given support & does their job, web metrics will improve like: time on site, pages viewed, % returning for 2nd, 3rd, 4th visit. Up counts will increase. Because 95% of buyers visit the site 1st, SERVICE APPOINTMENTS from the site should rocket.
If Mr. Big Dealer (MBD) is truly eager to leverage the efforts of the ID (better pics, options, descriptions, etc.), they both drink some vAuto koolaide and their eyes pop wide open.
MBD works vAuto hard, sits back and waits to see what happens. After week1, the Internet Director tells MBD that call counts and email leads have exploded. By week 2 MBD is seeing a noticeable change in AutoTrader.com and Cars.com traffic (as seen from his post sale surveys). By week 4, vAuto's platform is projecting his annual turn rate moving from 4 up to 5 turns per year. MBD discovers other vAuto dealers can reach up to 10 turns per year.
Mr. Big Dealer busts out his calculator and runs scenarios on how more turns makes his dealership go into RACE MODE. His ad cost per unit will drop, his floor plan per unit will drop, his parts and service department will enjoy the windfall from all the new prep work.
Regardless of size, the Dealer's Website has now become the core of a dealers marketing efforts, and because of this, the Internet Director should be a "cabinet Level" position, involved with all departments.
IMO, smaller dealers should assign this to the GSM and the GSM gets an assistant to execute these tasks.
