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The Evolution of an Automotive Customer

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#21
Jerry -

I sort of agree with your evolution concept, although I think that the internet is far more interactive than just "words" - I really like the Flip Video and HallMark Cards ideas.

My BHAG is to decipher WHY the prospect who contacts me via an internet lead CHOSE to do that rather than the alternatives??? If we all agree that roughly 20% of the traffic will actually fill out a form to submit a lead...can we then figure out if they are somehow unique? If they are unique, can we construct the proper response which will gain the best engagement ratio???

Great topic - thanks for the stimulation!
 
#22
Thanks for the article Jerry.

@Joe - "building rapport and selling the appointment are where its at!" right on.

I've never trained some one to go from phone to email but ALWAYS from email to phone. Of course this is where most dealers are challenged.

However, it's imperative to obtain the customers email during phone conversation for any additional follow-up or to send that online thank you card. Which works by the way. I was using Blue Mountain Online cards years ago. It works but like anything you need to be consistent.

Good timing too - I was just training a few of my sales people on AIUA / Attention - Interest - Urgency - Action. Four Letter That Will Sell you More Cars This Month - http://www.dealerrefresh.com/4-letters-that-will-...

Here's one for you . During the training I had a sales person tell me "if there's no phone number then I'm done with the customer, if you don't want to provide me the information I need to help sell you a car, then go somewhere else." Dude was straight up serious. Don't kid yourself, mentality is throughout the dealer body.

Of course I gave him an interesting look and tried to provide some reasoning on why he's missing out on sales with an approach like that. Maybe I got through...

@Kevin - are you using the Flip share software? I'd love to whitelabel it. I've sent as far as contacting a few higher ups there to see if it was at all possible. I was denied each time. I love the "card" template the software provides.

Good stuff.
 
#23
@Jeff, we are just using the Flip share software that is installed on the camera. I have found that if you do a quick demo (setup a test lead, hit stopwatch when it arrives in CRM, go outside and do a quick clip of the car and sales rep, go inside and send it, stop the watch...) and the sales rep sees how quick and simple you can send it, then the idea is quickly embraced...
 
#25
I couldn't agree with you more. I have made it my mission to train my internet sales team to be able to use the word "no".Selling the appointment and not the price/car/etc is huge. Too much information keeps customers away and gives them a reason to never visit. A well worded way of telling someone that they need to visit the showroom to get all the information they want is way more powerful than giving up that information right away.
 
#26
I still think it is all about getting people on the phone. When it comes to email, the national email open rate is somewhere about 11%, which means that people ignore about 89% of their emails. Can you blame them? All of the useless spam and junk that hits our email everyday can get very annoying. Email is good to try to get a customer engaged and if used properly it will help get the customer on the phone.

When it comes to pricing we need to remember that only about 20-25% of customers are solely motivated on price. However, people still use price as a barrier. This scares off a lot of untrained or improperly trained people in the business which leads them to give away gross. The important thing to do is to look at the big picture and find out what is really the reason why they want to buy a vehicle. Also, don't forget to sell them on a value package proposition. If you build value, reasonable consumer will ultimatley buy from you.

The bottom line is that you need to separate yourself from the competition. If five dealers in one area are doing the same thing, do something different to peak the customer's curiousity. At that point, you will succeed.
 
#27
Stan Sher wrote: "I still think it is all about getting people on the phone."

Stan, It's all about getting people to the dealership, the phone is just another step in the evolutionary process that helps us accomplish our end goal.

What's for lunch today?
 
#28
Stan wrote (Stan, your getting quoted a bit here) - "When it comes to pricing we need to remember that only about 20-25% of customers are solely motivated on price. However, people still use price as a barrier."

We just had a joint Local/Toyota Market study performed and lowest price was number 7 on the list of what a customer is looking for when purchasing a vehicle. I tell my sales people all the time "Price is the carrot the customer uses - it's all they have to use to their defense." Understand the customer and move on.
 
#30
@Jeff I don't know if I would call it a carrot or about it being #7 on the list, I can tell you this. We are analyzing the results of a large joint MBU and UserTesting.com study where we have filmed over 100 users as they search for a vehicle online.

I am 1/3 of the way through the analysis and the numbers so far are that in 60% of the cases prices was one of the deciding factors for the customer to choose and contact that dealer, but it was never the only factor.

Will present all the findings at #DD9 and will be posting a summery and all of the videos on the MicrositesByU.com blog.
 

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