The Eureka! Link

[joe.pistell]

Drew, more Eureka! link evidence. Compare the Eureka! link conversion ratio to the site overall. 16% is a very strong number in my book.

Problem: We cannot tell what the closing ratio is for these visitors, ergo the Eureka! Link Gateway lead tool.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Joe, been trying to follow this thread from my phone and I'm going off memory of reading your comments...so if I'm totally wrong about your insinuation I apologize up front.

So you agree that the new AutoTrader BOB link is a step in the right direction (I do). However you are saying there needs to be more. We need to somehow incentives the customer to SHOW. A Lead to Show incentive? ...a Circus Barker??

 

[joe.pistell]

Lightenup, you wrote:

"Joe, You stated a couple of times that there are still too many unanswered questions after an online automotive shopper has done their research and price discovery... There is so much specific vehicle information, multiple photos, dealership information, payment calculators, links to advice on buying, financing, leasing, insuring, online credit application, etc., what else is left for the shopper to ask other than, "do you still have the car?" ...."

Roll with me Lightenup, you're on a roll, but, LOOK deeper and ask for all the evidence that would agree with your conclusion(s). I ask you... WHERE ARE THE EAGER BUYERS asking dealers everywhere... "do you still have the car?"

FAIL.

Wipe all your pre-conceptions clean and try to find the "HOLE" in shopping trail. We have to remember that this is CATALOG shopping, not ecommerce shopping. Just like your projection TV example, Catalog shopping end-game is a visit to the physical store. Tracking conversions and optimizing for conversions -without embracing the catalog shoppers needs- is a setup for a fail.

 

[joe.pistell]

Lightenup, you ask:

"I'm curious as to what information you feel a shopper can find on the dealer's website that they would not find in the online listings of a dealer doing a good job merchandising their inventory on ATC or cars.com."

IMO, this is the "HOLE" that causes the dis-connect. Many months ago, I was fishing for data for exactly this. See it at: http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/f40/whats-car-shoppers-mind-1025.html

IMO, the only way to do this is a well built study that collects feedback of "in market" shoppers.

LASTLY: SHOPPERS ARE NOT LINEAR. See The Internet Shopper Experience Chart – DealerRefresh

 

[D. Rawls]

Finally Mr. Pistell;

This thread activates the truest matter at hand - how to track what an online lead from any AT or Cars feature/page translates into for the dealers in terms of Transactions.

You are right! (And, to think I was about to write an article per your request called "Takin' Joe's Pistell).

SHOPPERS ARE NOT LINEAR!

Every lead on AT or on Cars will have its own merit. Some are dead set on buying the exact car they clicked through. Some are not set on buying any particular car at the time of their visit to the website. Some have been to Edmunds, TrueCar, and every site affiliated with the car they have an interest in buying. They probably won’t pay much profit to who ever sells them their car, especially if it’s a new car. But, some customers research online and still will pay profit.

The point here is, SHOPPERS ARE NOT LINEAR! (Good job Joe!)

Now, I can expound more on this, but it will probably result in Joe telling me to submit my own article about any service I offer that makes "our industry" better, since I have no relevance to such a high-ranking discussion about this matter of creating ROI. Shame, we discuss socialization, and practice the antithesis of it at the same time.

More to come...

 

[lightnup]

Joe wrote: "I ask you... WHERE ARE THE EAGER BUYERS asking dealers everywhere... "do you still have the car?""

That's my point Joe. They aren't calling, they aren't emailing... they are coming in to look at the car. However, because most dealership pay plans encourage the floor salespeople NOT to find out if the customer saw the car on the Internet (for fear of having to split or give up the entire deal), they go uncounted as a conversion. The behavioral end-game that you are seeking - physical visit - is actually happening, it's just not being documented.

 

[lightnup]

Joe wrote: "Roll with me Lightenup, you're on a roll, but, LOOK deeper and ask for all the evidence that would agree with your conclusion(s).
FAIL."

The evidence is in the dealership's showroom on a daily basis. The FAIL is in the evidence technicians (salespeople) failure to collect and categorize the evidence.

 

[D. Rawls]

J. Kershner;

D. Rawls here superstar champion...

Alright, the 'SHOPPERS ARE NOT LINEAR' comment is the most valuable one in this entire Thread, thus far.

As commented much earlier in this Thread, I believe any new product from AT and Cars will fall short if it does not leverage 'the handshake'.

'THE HANDSHAKE' = (CONSULTANT+CONSUMER) x TRANSACTION

'THE HANDSHAKE'
A can't miss formula for these companies to tout the measure of success they can offer dealer clientele is to produce a means of capturing 'the handshake' earliest, and managing the entire relationship through the consultant/consumer transaction, and hopefully into antiquity.

CONSULTANT
As the eventual manager of the greatest majority of all car deals is the CONSULTANT. Now, in discussions I've had since Joe blasted me for being such a peon, I discovered there are industry personalities who call them "Sales People" or something still more indicative of the traditional hierarchy of auto retail industries that is now obsolete.

An Information Age has most shoppers (well over 80%) absolutely accessing more info than ever before since it is available easily online. 'Easily' is key. A Top Performing Sales Professional (who we call "Consultants") can 'easily' handle all the holes Joe, Mike, LightenUp, and all these potential innovators of AT and Cars products that will somehow become something that traditional advertising has never been-Efficient!

At any traditional online buying service, only one 50% portion of 'the handshake' is trackable. Hence the inability to determine what 'A Million Unique Visitors' means to a dealer client's ROI.

AT and Cars are going to find the next evolution of any online buying service offering with a better value proposition will need to have the ability to track exactly what is happening with the consumer online, and exactly what percentage of them Transacted business with a particular dealer client as a result of any AT or Cars product.

And, in order to deliver such efficiency, AT and Cars will find themselves tapping into the other 50% portion of 'the handshake'. Consultants have always, and always will (in the foreseeable future) manage 'the handshake' of any auto retail transaction. OBS Future will absolutely leverage this!

CONSUMER
A shopper is an independent potential customer of a particular brand or product. 'SHOPPERS ARE NOT LINEAR' is the truest post to this entire Thread, and it takes us along this road. An impulse is necessary to move a shopper from wherever they might be into our 'Transaction'.

Auto retail present is almost out of impulse. The car isn't an impulse most times because 80% of consumers already have studied it well online. Pricing is not even an impulse. AT and Cars must produce a platform for establishing an involuntary inclination prompting to action...

AutoTrader's Chip Perry had the advantage of knowing this 5 or 6 years ago, because I told it to him.

More to come...

 

[D. Rawls]

Great point here Drew;

A threat of Socialization is we are so early into it that some (mostly, older) pro's will interpret its value based upon a particular set of perspectives that would force it into the capsule of success they have experienced in the past. We both know, auto retail isn't exactly touted for futurisitc and innovative approach - been doing it the same way 120 years!

Connecting dealers' consultants with consumers or customers is the exact bottom line, Drew.

However, at Cox, it would be 2021 before they got through the bureaucratic rigamarow necessary to move an initiative forward to do this, so they just keep beating the dead horse. And Cars is number two, they are only there to follow number one. Its how big business works, and why you see the size of traditional employers shrinking and emergence of entrepreneurship spiking as we get into the action months of 2011.

I got a plan, it gets more customers to you/your dealers' consultants, and we can talk about it if you'd like.

 

[D Ramonte Rawls]

Okay Alex;

"B.O.B." or Big Orange Button is something you like. And, it may have some added value. But, its still another widget to traditional advertising approaches that just are not very efficient.

AT could make a gigantic splash with B.O.B. if they used it as a social media marketing campaign. If they borrow from my ABC Exclusive Auto Buying Clubs model and give general consumers the option of placing the B.O.B. across their social media networks as a means of earning a few bucks, then they get DYNAMIC!

Afterall, 'SHOPPERS ARE NOT LINEAR' (right, Joe) and all the doors to AT that can be opened represent an opportunity for 'the handshake' to occur. And, by leveraging social media, 'the handshake' delivered can actually be a warm one - the most valuable one.

I have more on this, Alex...love to share it with you, champion!