- Apr 7, 2009
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websites designated for sales people only?
- Thread starter lambval
- Start date
- Nov 4, 2012
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- Jessica
Re: Salesperson Websites
This is
definitely worth checking out for those attending Digital Dealer!
Seems to hit all of this right on the money!
This is
definitely worth checking out for those attending Digital Dealer!
Seems to hit all of this right on the money!
- May 1, 2005
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- Jeff
Here's another option to add to the list...
There's a website / design firm (HigherTurnover) that's been in the space for quite some time now. They tend to work more with single points and provide much needed solutions and services to the independent side of the industry. Jake (the founder) has been a participate here on DealerRefresh before we even started the dealer forums and everything happened over on the blog.
With that being said, when he reached out to me last week to show me their latest dedicated Websites for Sales Professionals. I was impressed with the design examples and features.
"Higher Turnover's new platform gives control of inventory to the dealer or internet manager, while the salespeople can manage the other aspects of their own personally-branded websites. "This means a store with, for example, 50 sales reps is now able to sign up with us to provide each of their reps with their own website, complete with dealer inventory on every site, but restrict things like editing vehicles or viewing sensitive customer info like social security numbers" added Jacobson. "The benefit to the dealer is that it puts much of the marketing on the reps themselves which studies show elicits better response rates. If I were faced with the choice of spending $10,000 on a weekend newspaper ad or getting websites for all my salesmen that makes them want to promote themselves and the dealership, it's a no-brainer. Savvy dealers encourage use of social media among their reps, and this just takes the idea of self-promotion to the next level for the benefit of all involved."
I told Jake I knew exactly where to mention this new offering
- www.CarSalesmanWebsites.com <-- on hell of a URL, right?
.
There's a website / design firm (HigherTurnover) that's been in the space for quite some time now. They tend to work more with single points and provide much needed solutions and services to the independent side of the industry. Jake (the founder) has been a participate here on DealerRefresh before we even started the dealer forums and everything happened over on the blog.
With that being said, when he reached out to me last week to show me their latest dedicated Websites for Sales Professionals. I was impressed with the design examples and features.
"Higher Turnover's new platform gives control of inventory to the dealer or internet manager, while the salespeople can manage the other aspects of their own personally-branded websites. "This means a store with, for example, 50 sales reps is now able to sign up with us to provide each of their reps with their own website, complete with dealer inventory on every site, but restrict things like editing vehicles or viewing sensitive customer info like social security numbers" added Jacobson. "The benefit to the dealer is that it puts much of the marketing on the reps themselves which studies show elicits better response rates. If I were faced with the choice of spending $10,000 on a weekend newspaper ad or getting websites for all my salesmen that makes them want to promote themselves and the dealership, it's a no-brainer. Savvy dealers encourage use of social media among their reps, and this just takes the idea of self-promotion to the next level for the benefit of all involved."
I told Jake I knew exactly where to mention this new offering
- www.CarSalesmanWebsites.com <-- on hell of a URL, right? .
- Apr 25, 2011
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- Jake
Thanks Jeff, for mentioning us. Salesperson websites have always been a challenge to providers for a variety of reasons, and I have to assume that's a major factor preventing other companies from doing what we do. It's a headache at times, believe me. Less money for us than dealer sites, often more work, and other challenges surrounding educating the clients. Whether it's a client who doesn't want to put in any effort for their own success and blames the provider, or their GM who doesn't want to share vehicles with their reps, there are a million ways to squash the idea of a salesperson's personal site. Some dealers (and reps) embrace the idea, and these are the ones in my opinion who are positioning themselves for the next iteration of the auto industry elite.
We've been doing it for over 10 years at this point "under the radar" with our first salesperson client in 2005. There are a handful of providers that offer personal branding solutions, but let's be honest...a decent personal website without inventory can be done for free through several sources, and those are the types of sites that quickly get abandoned because there's no perceived return. The problem is that people visiting the salesperson sites are usually going there for a reason; they're shopping for a car. Not having current inventory drastically reduces the value of the salesperson site so we work closely with clients to show their GM's that sharing dealer inventory with their reps isn't just a leap of faith, it lets them keep control of it and also empowers the reps to market themselves (read: "market the dealership").
More about the abandonment issue mentioned by v8apps above...Earlier this year we made an effort to screen our prospective clients a bit more to ensure they're actually going to use the services we provide. This became a necessity. We have many people who want to sign up on a daily basis, but before we agree to take someone on as a client we ask a lot of questions and make sure they're realistic in what they expect not only us to do, but what they expect to do on their own. It would be great if it were a "set it and forget it" RonCo invention but the reality is, it takes work just like anything else worthwhile. This is key, and what separates the most successful salespeople from others. Unfortunately there are a lot of reps who know it's a great idea but aren't able/willing to follow through.
Last point regarding what Kelly Wilson said above "Any place a dealer's inventory shows up that is out of control of the dealer opens up a ton of issues"...she's absolutely correct, and that's another reason I believe many other website providers have shied away from salesperson sites. We have a lot of GM's initially express concern over sharing inventory. The reality is, though, that any risk is mitigated by having a proper setup from the get-go. Things like restricting editing of price, mileage, etc. by the salespeople are of the greatest importance, so we restrict functionality like that and can even give the dealers their own account to check up on their salespeople as needed. At the end of the day, the dealership sharing inventory is no different than posting it to Autotrader.com or any other classified site. The question I always ask a GM is: "would you allow your rep to post a dealer vehicle on Craigslist with their own phone number?" Inventory exports actually have less room for error, because inventory is always consistent with dealer's software. If a price is inaccurate, it's not the salesperson's fault since they don't touch them, and most likely it's going to be inaccurate across every site the dealer uses, not just their salespeople sites.
I don't want to get too much into specifics here because I'm probably already coming across as a bit "salesy", but if anyone would like to discuss the concept in more detail feel free to contact me directly. I'm also happy to engage here in the forum for the benefit of all...
We've been doing it for over 10 years at this point "under the radar" with our first salesperson client in 2005. There are a handful of providers that offer personal branding solutions, but let's be honest...a decent personal website without inventory can be done for free through several sources, and those are the types of sites that quickly get abandoned because there's no perceived return. The problem is that people visiting the salesperson sites are usually going there for a reason; they're shopping for a car. Not having current inventory drastically reduces the value of the salesperson site so we work closely with clients to show their GM's that sharing dealer inventory with their reps isn't just a leap of faith, it lets them keep control of it and also empowers the reps to market themselves (read: "market the dealership").
More about the abandonment issue mentioned by v8apps above...Earlier this year we made an effort to screen our prospective clients a bit more to ensure they're actually going to use the services we provide. This became a necessity. We have many people who want to sign up on a daily basis, but before we agree to take someone on as a client we ask a lot of questions and make sure they're realistic in what they expect not only us to do, but what they expect to do on their own. It would be great if it were a "set it and forget it" RonCo invention but the reality is, it takes work just like anything else worthwhile. This is key, and what separates the most successful salespeople from others. Unfortunately there are a lot of reps who know it's a great idea but aren't able/willing to follow through.
Last point regarding what Kelly Wilson said above "Any place a dealer's inventory shows up that is out of control of the dealer opens up a ton of issues"...she's absolutely correct, and that's another reason I believe many other website providers have shied away from salesperson sites. We have a lot of GM's initially express concern over sharing inventory. The reality is, though, that any risk is mitigated by having a proper setup from the get-go. Things like restricting editing of price, mileage, etc. by the salespeople are of the greatest importance, so we restrict functionality like that and can even give the dealers their own account to check up on their salespeople as needed. At the end of the day, the dealership sharing inventory is no different than posting it to Autotrader.com or any other classified site. The question I always ask a GM is: "would you allow your rep to post a dealer vehicle on Craigslist with their own phone number?" Inventory exports actually have less room for error, because inventory is always consistent with dealer's software. If a price is inaccurate, it's not the salesperson's fault since they don't touch them, and most likely it's going to be inaccurate across every site the dealer uses, not just their salespeople sites.
I don't want to get too much into specifics here because I'm probably already coming across as a bit "salesy", but if anyone would like to discuss the concept in more detail feel free to contact me directly. I'm also happy to engage here in the forum for the benefit of all...
