Your CRM is the BEST Marketing Decision Driver, Right?

[ed.brooks]

...When I look at the focus thats been turned to digital over the past 7 - 8 years, it's been freaking MASSIVE!!! Then I look at and try to compare these items on a improvement gauge. On one gauge you have website applications, dashboards, social, chat, etc!! In short terms "Products" for the dealer to purchase and what the "Industry Experts" say is important. On the other gauge you have internal items like, lead handling, phone skills, appt setting skills, employee turnover, training, etc. I don't know what to label that guage. Lets just short label it STM ($hit that Matters)....

I think you are entirely correct to put 'products' and 'process' into two separate buckets @Rick Buffkin . Your $hit that Matters (I love the name) bucket is what I usually refer to as Operational Competency. The best dealers strive to be not just Operationally Competent, but Operationality Excellent. Vendors can play a role in helping dealer become Operationally Excellent (more on this later), but much of this has to come from within. Another bucket would be making smart marketing decisions. Yes, it's a bit like chewing gum and walking at the same time, but sharp dealers can do both at the same time.

...To me and I think most dealers would agree, people are any dealerships most important asset. It seems like with every new and shinny digital object that has come out every year, the focus on that primary asset is less and less.

If you look back over the years, I have been excited by two 'shiny objects' and have been pretty disdainful of most. I was a full on QR Code naysayer. Same with Periscope and Meercat. I didn't think pure social had much going for it (but I have seen the value in advertising on social). The two exceptions were 'Reputation' and, now, 'Attribution'.

Reputation affects everything you do, and your reputation is largely dependent on your Operational Competency -- on how well you take care of people, both your customers and your employees.

I believe Attribution is going to affect every marketing decision a dealer makes. This should never be a dashboard that a dealer has to fuss over, nothing that takes time away from making important decisions, but rather something that helps making smart decisions faster, simpler, and indeed, smarter.

I apologize if I've gotten off of the subject that the thread was originally about. I'm simply trying to convey that while attribution is very important and it's awesome that the technology is there now, there's items thats just as important that's being neglected. I know there's alot of vendors in here that read the post. A question I pose to you is, when was the last time you visited your dealers?? Did you meet with only the Manager or did you actually meet with the boots on the ground and explain your product to them? Did you actually sit down and make some phone calls to the leads with them?? Maybe explain the experience a visitor has when they visit your website?? What a customer actually see's when they visit your website?? You kinda know where I'm going with this! I'm talking about becoming more of a partner with the dealer, instead of simply another vendor with a new dashboard.

I can't speak for every vendor, but I generally spend about 4 days a week in dealerships. I spend time talking with GMs and Service Directors and also spend a lot of time with the boots on the ground. I don't generally answer leads or make phone calls with them unless management asks me to help with training. Honestly, do you want 20 different vendors training your people with 20 different strategies? And again, if you raise your hand, absolutely, I'm happy to help.

I know, Attribution could be seen as the next shiny object but I honestly think it's a game changer.

 

[john.quinn]

I think you are entirely correct to put 'products' and 'process' into two separate buckets @Rick Buffkin .

I know, Attribution could be seen as the next shiny object but I honestly think it's a game changer.

Hasn't it been a game-changer for the last 20 years? C'mon... we've all been playing this game. These flavor-of-the-month buzzwords come and go faster than Netflix' hottest new series.

Just when 'The Newsroom' ends, 'House of Cards' begins.

 

[ed.brooks]

Hasn't it been a game-changer for the last 20 years? C'mon... we've all been playing this game. These flavor-of-the-month buzzwords come and go faster than Netflix' hottest new series.

Just when 'The Newsroom' ends, 'House of Cards' begins.

@JQuinn OK, Reputation was and is a bit of buzzword, but that doesn't make it any less important.

Vendor supplied attribution metrics have been around for 20 years, yes, but I don't think the data was as credible as dealers needed to make smart decisions.

For the first time, we have highly credible data from analytics companies that don't have a 'dog in the fight'. That is why I think this is a game-changer.

 

[john.quinn]

@JQuinn

For the first time, we have highly credible data from analytics companies that don't have a 'dog in the fight'. That is why I think this is a game-changer.

I mean this in all honesty, Ed: I sincerely, truly hope you are right.

But I gotta run -- Bigfoot has been spotted in Burlington, and I'm gonna try to get a photo....

 

[Alexander Lau]

One of the best ways for dealers to truly understand PPC (paid search, display and video pre- | mid- | post-roll) value, set-up an attribution process using competent software. You (more than likely) already know your spend, learn to calculate your cost / lead and cost / acquisition by pulling sales numbers against it. You'll know if your spend is working and / or if good leads are there w/o the sales, there's a larger issue at hand. If a dealer sees great cost per lead numbers, yet poor sales it's usually an issue with their internal sales process. Bad BDC, CRM or Sales Teams (or all of the above), so there is value in understanding that as well, I would think.

@Rick Buffkin from an older post. I believe this covers part of what you were saying, in your long vent. LOL! which was great...

 

[ed.brooks]

I mean this in all honesty, Ed: I sincerely, truly hope you are right.

But I gotta run -- Bigfoot has been spotted in Burlington, and I'm gonna try to get a photo....

I thought @Alex Snyder was the photographer?

 

[Chris Leslie]

I'm gonna start this off by saying 3 things that no one is going to like.

1. Brian is wrong and his headline is text book click bait. Nothing against the guy but he is a vendor and he is selling you.

2. Conversica is nothing more than a robo-dialer for email and is aiming to take out your BDC and sales departments.

3. CRM's are 100% the best tool to use when making marketing decisions.


Thats right.. Shots fired..

It's not the CRM's fault that they are not used how they should really be used for marketing. Just because most dealers out there will simply run a source/sales report and start throwing dollars in the direction that has the best percentage doesn't make the CRM less valuable. The argument shouldn't be "Don't Trust your CRM" when it should really be "Don't Trust the way YOU use the CRM"

Customers are only worth something once they become a customer. Which means all the traffic in the world let alone the path they took to get there is worthless if they don't buy anything from you. CPE is a bullshit metric and has no standards for good or bad. Sales are what matters and you get sales by having customers.

Customers = Sales

If you use the data you already have about who your customer really is and not what you think they are. You have the ability to design the campaigns, creative and message that speaks to them and drives them to the places where they can become customers. Sometimes thats a walk in off the street and sometimes that is a lead form or phone call. In any case the only proper way to attribute how a person became a customer that turned into a sale is the channel they came from. For example. Lead forms give us customer information directly.

Attribution = Customers


Marketing is all about getting your business in front of the people who are most likely to be your customer at the right time with the right message. Guess what, your CRM knows the kind of people that buy your stuff. They know where they live, how old they are, what they buy and so on. So your message needs to drive people to a source that is in line with the medium of the message which can be attributed to turning a person into a customer and a customer into a sale.

Marketing = Attribution


Sales are a result of having customers, having customers is the result of having ways for people to tell you they want to be your customer, or attribution. Attribution is a result of the Marketing you bought.

All of this is a really long winded way to explain that...

If you market to people who are like the people in your CRM you will sell more things.

 

[Alexander Lau]

I'm gonna start this off by saying 3 things that no one is going to like.

1. Brian is wrong and his headline is text book click bait. Nothing against the guy but he is a vendor and he is selling you.

2. Conversica is nothing more than a robo-dialer for email and is aiming to take out your BDC and sales departments.

3. CRM's are 100% the best tool to use when making marketing decisions.


Thats right.. Shots fired..

It's not the CRM's fault that they are not used how they should really be used for marketing. Just because most dealers out there will simply run a source/sales report and start throwing dollars in the direction that has the best percentage doesn't make the CRM less valuable. The argument shouldn't be "Don't Trust your CRM" when it should really be "Don't Trust the way YOU use the CRM"

Customers are only worth something once they become a customer. Which means all the traffic in the world let alone the path they took to get there is worthless if they don't buy anything from you. CPE is a bullshit metric and has no standards for good or bad. Sales are what matters and you get sales by having customers.

Customers = Sales

If you use the data you already have about who your customer really is and not what you think they are. You have the ability to design the campaigns, creative and message that speaks to them and drives them to the places where they can become customers. Sometimes thats a walk in off the street and sometimes that is a lead form or phone call. In any case the only proper way to attribute how a person became a customer that turned into a sale is the channel they came from. For example. Lead forms give us customer information directly.

Attribution = Customers


Marketing is all about getting your business in front of the people who are most likely to be your customer at the right time with the right message. Guess what, your CRM knows the kind of people that buy your stuff. They know where they live, how old they are, what they buy and so on. So your message needs to drive people to a source that is in line with the medium of the message which can be attributed to turning a person into a customer and a customer into a sale.

Marketing = Attribution


Sales are a result of having customers, having customers is the result of having ways for people to tell you they want to be your customer, or attribution. Attribution is a result of the Marketing you bought.

All of this is a really long winded way to explain that...

If you market to people who are like the people in your CRM you will sell more things.

"2. Conversica is nothing more than a robo-dialer for email and is aiming to take out your BDC and sales departments." IMO, there is some truth to that, but it's a good tool nonetheless. I've installed it at a super group and have witnessed a 5% increase in closing rates. Supplemental help, those BDCs that are overwhelmed with data / leads and they were with 15 tops. Conversica is just a tool (not a be all; end all) and it's what you make of its power with know how.

Similarly, and I agree with your comment on CRMs (should be used for marketing) but that depends on the power of the CRM -- there are some awful products out there. Again, it's what you make of its power with know how.

Anyone? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle

 

[ed.brooks]

....All of this is a really long winded way to explain that...

If you market to people who are like the people in your CRM you will sell more things.

You absolutely will sell more things if you keep in touch with existing customers. This is a perfect use of your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system! It's also great at tracking interactions with your perspective customers after they have contacted you.

What your CRM doesn't do very well is explain why those customers bought or why those perspective customers contacted you. What influenced those people -

Consider the scenario Steve White wrote about in this blog post,

"A customer first discovers your dealership via a third-party auto listing site. Then they come back to your site later by searching your dealer name on Google and clicking on an AdWords listing, which perhaps was right above a free Google organic listing for your website. By default, in Google Analytics, that AdWords click took 100% credit for that visitor, assuming as a fact that it was incredibly valuable, when it may have had no impact at all on whether or not that sale was made."​

That scenario was written about the limitations of Google Analytics, but the premise holds true; if you don't know what influenced the consumer, you are marketing in the dark.

 

[Chris Leslie]

If you take what Steve says above as truth then all you are doing is making decisions on data after the fact which is not indicative of next months sales when you apply it to automotive.

For example if I am pushing trucks this month I might skew my budgets based on demo, interests, zip etc. Even with multi-touch attribution I am not able to make a more informed advertising buy next month when I am pushing convertible camaros based on the data from the previous month.

You have to take Steve's post with a grain of salt for the simple fact that he is a dude selling a product and will always make things out to sound worse than they are.

He says that 83% of people visit a dealers website. I would argue that 100% visit a dealers website so in that case everyone is potentially an "Internet Customer", So what. If the information that got in my crm didn't come from the web but rather the visit to the store than that's the source. The goal isn't the manner in which the customer information got to me. The goal is did I get more people added to my crm that are more like my current customers or the ones I am targeting this month or not? Because if they are more like the people I have already sold, I am more likely to sell them too.

The other reason multi touch falls short is it doesnt help the situation of... If I am targeting college age women who live within a 10mi radius of the store and all i got in my crm this month if middle aged white men from the 10 mi outside of town. I dont care how many touches on that attribution train you go down. You are absolutely doing something wrong.

At the end of the day you are only marketing in the dark if you don't know your customer(s). The ones you've already sold.