Last week our Director of Sales, Russ DeVries, participated in one of DealerStrong's semi-annual SuperGroup Meetings. Scheduled to coincide with the Industry Summit at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas, the SF SuperGroup includes dealer principals and senior management from some of the highest volume SF stores in the country.

Russ spent the day rubbing elbows with these VIPs before presenting his own confidential specialized data relating to the economics of an Internet sales lead. He focused on the key metrics that these dealers must track and gave them suggestions for increasing conversions in their digital marketing funnel based on IFMG's 25+ years of experience.

These were the top 3:

1. Know which concepts, costs and metrics drive a dealership's lead performance.
2. Test, test, test. From landing page design to traffic sources to calls-to-action (CTAs), everything can be tested to optimize conversion. Focus on influencing consumer behavior.
3. Identifying lead traffic sources that convert at a lower cost per lead.

And as an added bonus, Russ got to see our friend from the Howard Bentley Budget Center, Kevin Laten.

Russ DeVries, IFMG's Director of Sales (L) and Kevin Laten, Special Finance Manager at Howard Bentley Budget Center

For more about why they get along so well, check out the Success Story in our eBook "Special Finance Quick Start." You can download it here.

Last week our Director of Sales, Russ DeVries, participated in one of DealerStrong's semi-annual SuperGroup Meetings. Scheduled to coincide with the Industry Summit at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas, the SF SuperGroup includes dealer principals and senior management from some of the highest volume SF stores in the country.

Russ spent the day rubbing elbows with these VIPs before presenting his own confidential specialized data relating to the economics of an Internet sales lead. He focused on the key metrics that these dealers must track and gave them suggestions for increasing conversions in their digital marketing funnel based on IFMG's 25+ years of experience.

These were the top 3:

1. Know which concepts, costs and metrics drive a dealership's lead performance.
2. Test, test, test. From landing page design to traffic sources to calls-to-action (CTAs), everything can be tested to optimize conversion. Focus on influencing consumer behavior.
3. Identifying lead traffic sources that convert at a lower cost per lead.

And as an added bonus, Russ got to see our friend from the Howard Bentley Budget Center, Kevin Laten.

Russ DeVries, IFMG's Director of Sales (L) and Kevin Laten, Special Finance Manager at Howard Bentley Budget Center

For more about why they get along so well, check out the Success Story in our eBook "Special Finance Quick Start." You can download it here.

We're full on in the throes of summer - haven't even hit the dog days yet, though the thermometer here in Richmond says otherwise - but it's time to start thinking about the fall.

They're already advertising back-to-school sales so why not?

One thing we're really excited about is the 2012 Subprime Conference coming up in September. Thanks to our sister company, Dominion Dealer Solutions, and the organizers at Auto Dealer Monthly, we're going to be on the show floor at the Paris Las Vegas in booth # 508 for the duration.

Really exciting stuff!

Special finance is something that's really near and dear to our hearts, and we're encouraged to see it making a comeback the way that it is.

They've recently posted the agenda, which you can find here.

We just know you'll want to circle those exhibit hours and come see us.

In the meantime, follow us on Twitter using our handle @carloanco to keep tabs on what's going on in special finance.

See you in Vegas!

We're full on in the throes of summer - haven't even hit the dog days yet, though the thermometer here in Richmond says otherwise - but it's time to start thinking about the fall.

They're already advertising back-to-school sales so why not?

One thing we're really excited about is the 2012 Subprime Conference coming up in September. Thanks to our sister company, Dominion Dealer Solutions, and the organizers at Auto Dealer Monthly, we're going to be on the show floor at the Paris Las Vegas in booth # 508 for the duration.

Really exciting stuff!

Special finance is something that's really near and dear to our hearts, and we're encouraged to see it making a comeback the way that it is.

They've recently posted the agenda, which you can find here.

We just know you'll want to circle those exhibit hours and come see us.

In the meantime, follow us on Twitter using our handle @carloanco to keep tabs on what's going on in special finance.

See you in Vegas!

We haven't seen the latest results for Q2 from Experian Automotive yet, but a couple of news outlets are still keeping our favorite topic - subprime auto finance or "special finance" - in the spotlight:

• In recent days, FICO announced the findings from their most recent quarterly survey of bank risk professionals. According to their results, they found that "more than 50 percent of respondents expected the auto sector to see the largest increase in 2012" when it came to borrowers with subprime credit. Big quote for us:

"We are clearly seeing a loosening of credit in the auto finance market, with lenders responding to increased consumer demand," said Dr. Andrew Jennings, chief analytics officer at FICO and head of FICO Labs. "This is good news for car dealers and it should help the auto sector continue its recovery."

• Automotive News used this press release as a jumping off point for their article "Subprime car loans are gaining...", coupled with the follow-up article "...but growth is disciplined, so far" to tie in to additional color provided by Wells Fargo.

• The best piece of recent news was provided by Auto Remarketing, which actually published the results of an informal poll by Melanie Zabritski director of automotive credit for Experian Automotive.  The best quote: “There is just a great sense of optimism for the marketplace of expected growth. I think we’ll see the growth both in volume as well as more of the subprime business coming on the books.”

And when you’re done there, don’t forget to check out our Volume Estimator to see how you can get your piece of the resurgent special finance market.

We haven't seen the latest results for Q2 from Experian Automotive yet, but a couple of news outlets are still keeping our favorite topic - subprime auto finance or "special finance" - in the spotlight:

• In recent days, FICO announced the findings from their most recent quarterly survey of bank risk professionals. According to their results, they found that "more than 50 percent of respondents expected the auto sector to see the largest increase in 2012" when it came to borrowers with subprime credit. Big quote for us:

"We are clearly seeing a loosening of credit in the auto finance market, with lenders responding to increased consumer demand," said Dr. Andrew Jennings, chief analytics officer at FICO and head of FICO Labs. "This is good news for car dealers and it should help the auto sector continue its recovery."

• Automotive News used this press release as a jumping off point for their article "Subprime car loans are gaining...", coupled with the follow-up article "...but growth is disciplined, so far" to tie in to additional color provided by Wells Fargo.

• The best piece of recent news was provided by Auto Remarketing, which actually published the results of an informal poll by Melanie Zabritski director of automotive credit for Experian Automotive.  The best quote: “There is just a great sense of optimism for the marketplace of expected growth. I think we’ll see the growth both in volume as well as more of the subprime business coming on the books.”

And when you’re done there, don’t forget to check out our Volume Estimator to see how you can get your piece of the resurgent special finance market.

It's unofficially Consumer Privacy Awareness month here at Carloan.com, which means we're focusing on how auto dealers work with sensitive customer information.

As I wrote about earlier, this is a topic close to our hearts because of the sheer volume of  car loan applications we work with on a daily basis. Each one of those applications is a person who applied online, in good faith, expecting to be able to talk to someone about buying a car. They put their trust in us to handle their information confidentially and make sure that we are not putting them at risk for identity theft.

We work hard to make sure that we're upholding our part of the bargain.

So I turn the question to you out in the field: what are you doing to protect your customers when they provide you with all the goodies that come on an application for financing?

We'll provide you with some tips and best practices as this series of posts continues, but here's a little food for thought, courtesy of Lifehacker:

"ID thieves can use an social security number to procure your medical benefits, social security, unemployment, file false tax returns, and even pawn off their criminal charges when they have run-ins with the law on you. The possibilities are limitless with the right information and an informed thief. A credit report will not show you if anyone is running up criminal charges as you, using your medical insurance to finance medical procedures, or creating a fraudulent job history report by working under your information."

[Full article is here]

Putting aside the legal implications for your dealership if you're at fault -- you don't want to be the person responsible for that happening to one of your customers, do you?

Watch this space and follow us on Twitter to read the rest of this series.

It's unofficially Consumer Privacy Awareness month here at Carloan.com, which means we're focusing on how auto dealers work with sensitive customer information.

As I wrote about earlier, this is a topic close to our hearts because of the sheer volume of  car loan applications we work with on a daily basis. Each one of those applications is a person who applied online, in good faith, expecting to be able to talk to someone about buying a car. They put their trust in us to handle their information confidentially and make sure that we are not putting them at risk for identity theft.

We work hard to make sure that we're upholding our part of the bargain.

So I turn the question to you out in the field: what are you doing to protect your customers when they provide you with all the goodies that come on an application for financing?

We'll provide you with some tips and best practices as this series of posts continues, but here's a little food for thought, courtesy of Lifehacker:

"ID thieves can use an social security number to procure your medical benefits, social security, unemployment, file false tax returns, and even pawn off their criminal charges when they have run-ins with the law on you. The possibilities are limitless with the right information and an informed thief. A credit report will not show you if anyone is running up criminal charges as you, using your medical insurance to finance medical procedures, or creating a fraudulent job history report by working under your information."

[Full article is here]

Putting aside the legal implications for your dealership if you're at fault -- you don't want to be the person responsible for that happening to one of your customers, do you?

Watch this space and follow us on Twitter to read the rest of this series.

In my last post I made a comment about all of us being consummate sales professionals.

That got me to thinking - how did we get here? We had to start somewhere, right? I'm in marketing now, but I spent five years working the phones as an inside sales rep for a software company out in Silicon Valley.

Not quite the same as working in sales at a car dealership, but bear with me.

A key part of getting up to speed when I moved from operations into that sales role - besides understanding the product and our target customer better -  was understanding the sales process from both sides of the table.

For me, it was a combination of mentorship, training and straight up experience in working the phones that got me to where I needed to be. As a result, by the end of my first year, my regional sales team was consistently outperforming and earning President's Club trips (the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua was really nice and Atlantis was killer, but the hands-down winner was Monaco).

But the piece of the puzzle that built the foundation for that high level of performance was training. Not just on the products, but on the process of selling and how to work with a prospect until they become a customer.

This emphasis on training is an approach that we take with all of our dealer partners in the Carloan.com Dealer Network. When they sign up with us, they are automatically enrolled in our 14-Day Quickstart to teach them how to work with the prospects we deliver.

It's just one way we make it easier for our dealers to get to the sale faster and see the return that we know our programs can deliver.

[Note: I'm not saying that you'll get fancy trips from us -- I'm  leaving that to you to offer when your team is killing it with our finance leads.]

My question to you: do you have something like our 14-Day Quickstart to get your team up to speed when the join? How often to you revisit it to review their habits and how they're performing?

In my last post I made a comment about all of us being consummate sales professionals.

That got me to thinking - how did we get here? We had to start somewhere, right? I'm in marketing now, but I spent five years working the phones as an inside sales rep for a software company out in Silicon Valley.

Not quite the same as working in sales at a car dealership, but bear with me.

A key part of getting up to speed when I moved from operations into that sales role - besides understanding the product and our target customer better -  was understanding the sales process from both sides of the table.

For me, it was a combination of mentorship, training and straight up experience in working the phones that got me to where I needed to be. As a result, by the end of my first year, my regional sales team was consistently outperforming and earning President's Club trips (the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua was really nice and Atlantis was killer, but the hands-down winner was Monaco).

But the piece of the puzzle that built the foundation for that high level of performance was training. Not just on the products, but on the process of selling and how to work with a prospect until they become a customer.

This emphasis on training is an approach that we take with all of our dealer partners in the Carloan.com Dealer Network. When they sign up with us, they are automatically enrolled in our 14-Day Quickstart to teach them how to work with the prospects we deliver.

It's just one way we make it easier for our dealers to get to the sale faster and see the return that we know our programs can deliver.

[Note: I'm not saying that you'll get fancy trips from us -- I'm  leaving that to you to offer when your team is killing it with our finance leads.]

My question to you: do you have something like our 14-Day Quickstart to get your team up to speed when the join? How often to you revisit it to review their habits and how they're performing?