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What are the Top 3 questions shoppers ask when they arrive at your car dealership?

Joe,

Most of the questions that customers are asking are in the dealers Inbox's.

Internet managers can pull the top 10 questions that customers are asking online so they can have the content on their website and blogs answering these questions. That way they become the trusted source.

Yes, a dealers website should have the content and should be answering all these questions!
This is what we do.

Manny,

I am looking for what's on the mind of silent shoppers when they suddenly appear on the lot.

The inbox is filled with leads & most of these are driven by CTAs (i.e. get our best price...). Also, leads are sent in a tiny fraction of the total shoppers that come to the site. 99.5% of the rest of the shoppers are stealth. It's these invisible shoppers that interest me today.

Looking at Chat would be better. Chat is an open form that allows a shopper to say anything they want. From my study posted here a few years back Only 13% of the chats had "purchase intent" and even these are driven by the "context' of the moment:

--“Stock# W16242 is a lincoln where is it located , is price negotiable?”
--“I like Stock# k35101, I am interested but need to know are your prices negotiable?”
--“I have a $4,750 trade-in, $2,000 down payment. It shows the price is $35,990. Is there room for negotiation?”
--“I am buying with cash and will be looking to negotiate the best price I can get and purchase something from somewhere very soon.”


All of these are driven by context, meaning the shopper has NO skin in the game, so chat is will not get a full understanding of what drives a shopper to the store.
 
User Story: "I've been on the internet*, done the homework, looked at hundreds of cars and your car is a finalist... is it here?"

"Is it available?" really means "Where is it?"

I know the details, I just want to see how it compares to a few others I have my eye on. I'm ok with the pricing you quoted online. If I like it, I'm pulling the trigger, let's make this easy and I'll be on my way.
 
What's on the mind of the shopper when they walk in?

Do they have the right car with the right price I seen online?
Are the m
onthly installments going to be what I figured online?
Are they going to give me more for my trade like they promised online?

Joe, I was blessed selling 50 cars a month as a salesman, the last time I worked in a store and sold cars was Dec, 2013 for 30 days to research this.
90% of the customers never buy the car they see online.

I'm sure you know this already.
 
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"Is it available?" really means "Where is it?"

I know the details, I just want to see how it compares to a few others I have my eye on. I'm ok with the pricing you quoted online. If I like it, I'm pulling the trigger, let's make this easy and I'll be on my way.

Chris,

The car shopping journey has an "internet process" and a "car dealer visit process". Once they arrive at the car dealership, many shoppers begin the visit with referring to what they saw online, but, because they have more questions than answers, they'll use the online info as a guide, or reference and let the "real decision making" begin.

Parallel EXAMPLE:
I research best 50" flat screen TV. I walk into Best Buy, see a wall full of awesome TV choices, in 5 mins after I cant find the exact one, while I am looking, I am falling in love with one I've never seen online. I pull out my phone to make sure this price is fair and #BAM it's sold.

Replace TV with a car and Best Buy with a car dealer.

Sure, There is the VIN/price driven shoppers that are laser focused and that's all they want. Few shoppers are mentally and emotionally strong enough to walk in and pull the trigger based solely from what they saw online. This is why the dealers with best market prices still have shoppers coming in and wanting to negotiate (negotiating is a price discovery task).

IMO, a car dealer's website is there to sell the store visit 1st and the car 2nd.
 
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"Is it available?" really means "Where is it?"

I know the details, I just want to see how it compares to a few others I have my eye on. I'm ok with the pricing you quoted online. If I like it, I'm pulling the trigger, let's make this easy and I'll be on my way.


Also, there are VIN/price driven shoppers that are laser focused and that's all they want. Few shoppers are mentally and emotionally strong enough to walk in and pull the trigger based solely from what they saw online. This is why the dealers with best market prices still have shoppers coming in and wanting to negotiate (negotiating is a price discovery task).

IMO, most shoppers have an internet shopping experience that looks like this:
confusion_chart.gif

They'll search the internet until they start to become frustrated and realize they need to go to the dealership to move the shopping process along.Read more about this from my DR article a few years back Charting The Internet Car Shopper Experience

IMO, a car dealer's website is there to sell the store visit 1st and the car 2nd.
 
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...Joe, I was blessed selling 50 cars a month as a salesman ... 90% of the customers never buy the car they see online.

I'm sure you know this already.

Yup Manny, there it is, The un-solvable mystery.

QUESTION:
The average car shopper spends weeks to months shopping the internet and almost always buys something else. If the Internet is so damn good, then why does this happen?

ANSWER:
The internet shopping experience is not as good as we presume it to be.

WHY?
Many reasons, but, It's revealed in the very first few questions out of the shoppers mouth.
 
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So... just what are the 1st questions coming out of a fresh up? Do they start with:

Credit Questions?
Trade-in Questions?
Product Help Needed?
OEM Incentives Help?
Purchase Intent?


Examples:
Credit Questions: "I use my credit union, is your rate better?"
Trade-in Questions? "what's my car worth?"
Product Help Needed? "I'd like to look at the Pathfinders"
OEM Incentives Help? "Are there any rebates on the Pathfinder?"
Purchase Intent? "take 500$ off stock #44562a and I'll buy it today"
 
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Manny,

I am looking for what's on the mind of silent shoppers when they suddenly appear on the lot.

The inbox is filled with leads & most of these are driven by CTAs (i.e. get our best price...). Also, leads are sent in a tiny fraction of the total shoppers that come to the site. 99.5% of the rest of the shoppers are stealth. It's these invisible shoppers that interest me today.


--“Stock# W16242 is a lincoln where is it located , is price negotiable?”
--“I like Stock# k35101, I am interested but need to know are your prices negotiable?”
--“I have a $4,750 trade-in, $2,000 down payment. It shows the price is $35,990. Is there room for negotiation?”
--“I am buying with cash and will be looking to negotiate the best price I can get and purchase something from somewhere very soon.”

Most dealers are not going to let you put that their market-based prices are negotiable. You can't put that they aren't or there is no hope for gain. Why do websites have to answer all of the questions? A little mystery is a good thing.

The last thing I wanted on my website was "Make Us an Offer". I have never had an offer that wasn't ridiculous. This is for the website provider to show a higher number of submissions.
 
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...Why do websites have to answer all of the questions? A little mystery is a good thing...

Uncle Joe Rule #83: Car Shoppers make key decisions, Which car and What dealer.

Doug, most stores sell a car to only 2% of their car shoppers. 98% move on. The battle you need to WIN is to let shoppers know you're worthy of making the shoppers "short list" of dealers to visit in person.

Also, I am saying, right here and now, shoppers arrive with more questions than answers, websites DO NOT answer all the questions. Look at eBay motors, no one gives the seller more VDP real estate and VDP story-telling freedom than eBayMotors. It's a car selling failure (unless your in Fla or Tx selling a scarce unit ;-).

How does a dealer sell themselves?
Our Internet Shoppers could give 2 sh*ts about the car dealers donations to humanity, but, throw them WIFMs like: "Buy From Acme Motors and you'll LOVE our 72 hour, 100% money back guarantee and FREE car washes for life, see our reviews, our customers LOVE us!" or "Buy from Johnson's PerfectMotors, see the biggest selection in Johnson City and EVERY CAR has our Low Price guarantee, come to our store and see price comparisons on EVERY car you'll see!"

Now, you've got their attention, now the donations to humanity matter ;-)
 
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