Need more leads? Whenever sales are slow, one of the first reactions from salespeople, and sometimes their managers, is to proclaim they need more leads or better leads.

In response, they might run a lead generation campaign which results in a temporary lift in lead volume. The problem is, when the campaign ends, the lead volume drops back to less than optimal levels.  

A better, more consistent approach is to build a lead generation process into your culture. The process should also include lead follow up, so you’re maximizing the potential of every lead.

If sales is a numbers game, then your CRM is the PlayStation. Lead volume is an important number, but equally so are connection rates, set appointments, appointment shows and closing rates. The answer to more leads is to build a sales culture around the CRM and to focus on CRM usage.

I’m a big believer that usage and enforcement of processes must come from the top down. In the most successful stores, it’s typically a GM, GSM or Sales Director who is the CRM power user. We like to call this person the CRM Champion, and I always recommend appointing one person for this role—and please don’t appoint an IT person. How can you expect your sales team to use the CRM if senior sales management isn’t using it themselves, or enforcing its usage?

The best way to enforce CRM usage is to build an activity-based process. This starts with logging every person that walks into your dealership. I don’t care if they’re just stopping by to look or they say they’re not ready to buy. If they’re in your dealership, log them.

The same goes for logging phone ups. Whenever a person calls, for whatever reason, the call should be logged. Not logging phone ups is probably the largest area of missed opportunities for dealers.

Logging every lead is critical because it’s impossible to manage and follow up with leads unless they’ve been logged in the first place.

Salespeople should also be trained in the art of prospecting both in person and on social media. Get to know your customers, ask for referrals and learn how to master the phone.

Whether you believe it or not, the customer who was on your lot yesterday really does want to be followed up with. If they don’t answer your phone or text, keep trying. They’re not trying to insult you, maybe they’re just busy and you’re not a top priority. After all, most people don’t need a new car right away.

I also recommend that lead generation be addressed in daily save-a-deal meetings. When one deal is closed you have to know where the next deal is coming from. The lead is the beginning of the deal, and most salespeople need to learn how to prospect and generate their own leads. If you don’t coach them or hold them accountable, you’ll hear the inevitable, “these leads are terrible.”

Your CRM Champion should also be using the CRM on a regular basis for equity mining and to find past customers that can be turned into new leads.

For lead generation to be part of your culture, you also need to implement performance mandates. Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.

The best way for the CRM Champion to manage performance is by activities. When I was starting out in sales, I was unmanageable, like a speedboat in a no-wake zone. So, my manager managed me by activities. He assigned me tasks, and I completed them, or there were consequences – which usually affected my pay.

Identify the six or seven most important activities that salespeople must do in order to close the deal. Assign those tasks to every salesperson, then hold them accountable. The best way to enforce accountability is with a monetary consequence. Try scaling bonuses and commissions based on how well each stage of the deal was recorded in the CRM.

Finally, always demonstrate how the CRM can make an individual more successful. Most people are not inherently organized or detail oriented, but a CRM forces you to become that way.

The CRM is much more than a lead repository and communications system. When set up correctly, the CRM becomes the process that leads to success. So, if you ever hear someone on your sales team complain about leads, investigate the team’s usage of the CRM. When your sales culture is built around your CRM, lead generation never stops.

What’s the definition of multi-tasking? It's doing a lot of things at once, and most often, that means doing them poorly. In fact, research proves that multi-tasking is largely a myth; our brains are not wired to focus on multiple things at once. Studies show that multi-tasking ruins productivity, causes mistakes and dampens creative thought.

Yet, many people keep trying, simply because they have too much to do and too little time to do it in. The solution is simple: get your priorities straight and accept the fact that you won’t be able to do everything, because everything can’t be a priority.

Whether you’re in sales or service at a dealership, your CRM can help you manage activities and complete tasks. But it can also overwhelm you if you’re not prioritizing correctly. If you log in every morning and see 100 tasks marked as “high priority,” you know you’ve got a problem.

On the other hand, if your to-do list isn’t long enough you’ve got a problem as well. Most people have a longer list than they can get through. If you can breeze through your daily tasks with time to spare, you don’t have enough to do.

To help prioritize what’s really important, take a step backward and focus on the big picture.

The Pareto principle states that 80 percent of your results come from 20 percent of your work. The hard part is determining which 20 percent produces the results you want.

Is your top priority to sell more cars, or is it to take care of customers’ needs? Taking care of your customers will always lead to more sales, but if you’re focusing on the sale you might not be taking care of the customer, giving them a poor experience with your business.

It doesn’t matter what business you’re in; taking care of your customer is always your No. 1 priority, so they don’t give their business elsewhere.

Knowing this, create workflows and processes that focus on taking care of customers, and always flag these items in your CRM as your highest priority. When I have a list of phone calls to make, I always call customers back first.

It might be more difficult to prioritize one customer over another. Are unsold showroom customers a higher priority than sold? Are customer-pay service customers a higher priority than warranty? What may seem obvious on the surface isn’t always; this is where you can use your CRM to run revenue reports that will shed light on who your current and potential VIP customers are.

Yes, ideally you would take care of all customers equally. But it’s more crucial to take care of your loyal and repeat customers, ensuring that they get the red-carpet treatment every visit.

For most people, the second priority is going to be their team. Your co-workers need information, approvals or advice in order to accomplish what they need to do. Almost every workflow in your store involves more than one person, which is why, after customers, your co-workers should be next on your list of tasks or callbacks.

After your customers and co-workers are taken care of, then you can focus on priorities that will create new customers, such as filling your pipeline. If you’re in sales, this may seem counter-intuitive. Shouldn’t you always be prospecting? The reality is, if you prioritize and take care of your current and sold customers, you’ll get more referrals and sales than you would by chasing random leads. 

Many productivity experts recommend having your priorities and task list for the next day all set before you go home at night. That way, first thing in the morning you can get to work instead of wasting time figuring out what to do first.

I always recommend “eating the big frog first,” that is, tackling the most difficult and most important priorities first. Get that 20 percent of work that produces 80 percent of results out of the way. For this reason, try to avoid scheduling meetings and phone calls in the morning (unless they are part of the 20 percent).

It’s important to establish priorities up front and verbalize them to staff, so everyone is working on the same page. Trying to prioritize tasks “on the fly” is not a good idea as it’s too easy to be swayed by outside influences. For example, when your boss says he or she needs a report on his desk ASAP, you might be tempted to immediately drop everything to do it, leaving a VIP customer’s need unmet.

Also, revisit your priorities on a regular basis; at least annually if not quarterly. This is because your store’s priorities might change. If you’re trying to increase sales gross, you might decide to focus on CPO; if you want to increase customer-pay ROs, you might concentrate on fine-tuning digital marketing strategies.

There is only so much time in a day, and you will never have more time than you do right now. Everything can’t be a priority, so allocate your time carefully and focus on what gets results.

The decision to switch to a new CRM is not one to be taken lightly. On a daily basis, your sales team relies on your CRM for new leads and opportunities, to remind them what needs to be done, guide them through car deals and keep them on track to meet business goals.

Yet, just about every dealer has switched to a new CRM at one point, typically because of a change in management, but sometimes because they want to try the latest shiny new technology.

Whatever your reason for wanting to switch, here are a few tips to guide you through the vendor selection process and help you make a decision you won’t regret.

Don’t Chase Utopia

If your current CRM isn’t working for you, it’s important to figure out where the source of your problems lie. If your new sales manager is requesting the switch, ask for a list of reasons why. Then do a little investigating. For each reason, identify whether the issue is a product, vendor, process or people problem.

Make a list of features that are most important to your team. Write down your sales process and ask potential new vendors how their CRM can be customized to your processes.

Vendor Presentations

Do you remember what you ate for lunch two weeks ago? How about two days ago? If the answer is no, how do you expect to remember all the details from three different vendor presentations over the course of a few weeks?

Taking detailed notes during presentations is important. Have a written list of questions for each vendor, plus a checklist of your most important features with room for notes on how each feature works.

Without detailed notes, it’s common for dealers to confuse one vendor with another, forget which vendor had which feature, or the benefits that one vendor offers vs. another.

Then again, some dealers go overboard in the opposite way. They create a 28-page product RFI with endless questions, 90 percent of which don’t have anything to do with what they really need.

A happy medium between these two extremes is recommended.

Identify a CRM Champion

The relationship between a CRM vendor and dealership tends to work best when the dealer assigns a primary point of contact. Many years ago, we dubbed this person the CRM Champion.

The role of the CRM Champion has changed over the years. Originally, this person made sure all the ups were logged, opportunities were captured, and input information from daily work plans into the CRM because the salespeople wouldn’t do it.

Now, salespeople are responsible for entering details about their own ups, conversations and work plans. The role of the CRM Champion today is more about setting KPIs, tracking goals, and monitoring daily activities to hold the team accountable. Your CRM Champion should also know how to mine your database for new opportunities, in addition to your regular ups and leads.

The CRM Champion trains new team members and sometimes plays the role of coach. This is an important role, so be sure that whoever you assign, or steps forward, is passionate, dedicated and detail oriented.

Allocate Enough Time

When you move to a new house, it’s a great opportunity to get rid of all the junk that you don’t want to move with you. That’s why people have garage sales and haul bags of stuff to donation centers.

When you move to a new CRM, the same concept applies. Your current CRM probably has hundreds of templates that haven’t been updated in years. Do you still have your 2005 Thanksgiving email promoting free turkeys?

Prior to installation, audit and update all templates, and eliminate old ones. Review your processes to see if there’s room for improvement. Update workflow schedules to make them more efficient.

Be sure to allocate enough time to do all this before your installation. Better yet, make this a pre-requisite for your team to accomplish these tasks before you commit to switching.

Don’t Commit to Long-Term Contracts

The grass isn’t always greener on the other side. When you make the switch, you may find yourself standing in a pasture with a septic tank, so why commit yourself to a long-term contract?

Fifteen years ago, contracts were the norm. Over the years, the industry evolved to where month-to-month commitments became the standard. Recently I’ve noticed the pendulum has swung back to long-term contracts. The reason for this is because implementing a new CRM has costs associated with it, and dealers don’t want to pay for everything up front. So, vendors accommodate them by incorporating the cost into a contract. Then the dealer is committed.

So, you save a few bucks up front but you’re stuck with a CRM you hate for a year or more. It’s actually cheaper to pay up front than to buy your way out of a long-term contract.

Also, be cautious of contracts that contain auto-renewals. What your vendor may not tell you is that the auto-renew kicks in 60 days before the actual date of renewal. Read the fine print and give yourself options, not obligations.

Following these tips should help you make the right decision for your dealership, and your sales team will thank you.

Are the headaches associated with bringing vehicles up to certified pre-owned (CPO) program standards worth it? For dealers, there’s certainly more work, money and time involved with finding, reconditioning and certifying vehicles for CPO programs.

On the surface, it may seem like the higher margins don’t really justify the higher cost of reconditioning and manufacturer fees involved.

But the financial equation isn’t that simple. The fact is, CPO programs attract a certain type of customer that is willing to pay a bit more for a used vehicle in good condition, along with a warranty, roadside service and other perks. This is exactly the type of customer you want in your database, and you have to look at the long-term value of that customer.

Additionally, CPO vehicles are typically sold with 12-month to 24-month warranties, which means you will have several opportunities to cultivate a service relationship with a new customer. What is that opportunity worth?

The key to making a CPO program successful is deciding that it’s going to be successful. Like any investment, the secret to maximizing ROI lies in your ability to streamline operations and create process efficiencies. This includes sourcing, reconditioning and marketing your CPO vehicles.  

Don’t Rely on Auctions

To maximize CPO gross margins, it’s important that you don’t pay too much for a vehicle to begin with. Sometimes you can find a good deal at an auction, but many times you can’t. Your used car manager should know how to spot a good deal and when to pass. If he doesn’t know, help him create a formula.

The best source of vehicles for a CPO program are the cars you have already sold. Do regular database searches to find vehicles that fit your manufacturer’s criteria. With the addition of an equity mining tool, it’s easy to identify former customers who are in a position to trade-in their vehicle.

Additionally, set up a vehicle exchange program in your service lane. Creating a process to approach and make offers to service customers will net a steady supply of vehicles for your CPO program.

Improve Your Recon Process

If you’re serious about maximizing the profitability of your CPO program, an efficient reconditioning process is an absolute must. The ability to track vehicle progress, set alerts at every stage and hold personnel accountable for deadlines is necessary.

One of the biggest benefits of a CPO program is that the vehicles sell quickly and deliver higher grosses. But you can’t sell a car that’s sitting in your shop. Every day it sits, you lose gross. In the event of a service backlog, you’re probably better off paying techs overtime so you can get your CPO vehicles turned in a timely manner. Do the math.

Promote Your CPO Program

Think of your CPO program as an investment. You have created an efficient process to source vehicles at a good price and push them through recon. You’ve paid the manufacturer fees, and you have a supply of excellent CPO vehicles on your lot ready to be sold.

The last piece needed to maximize your ROI is marketing. There’s demand for your product, but people can’t buy something they don’t know exists.

Many dealers are afraid to promote their CPO program, believing that some of their customers will buy a CPO instead of a new vehicle. You know what? They’re right.

At some point during the purchase process, some new car shoppers will decide that a CPO is a better option for them. That decision will be made by your customer based on their financial situation, not on anything your salesperson did or didn’t do. When a customer comes to this conclusion, your best salesperson will not be able to dissuade them, nor should they even try.

I’ve talked a lot about how the role of the salesperson is changing in the auto industry. We should not be selling; we should be helping the customer make a decision that’s best for them. If your salesperson tries to push a new vehicle that a customer doesn’t want, there’s a good chance that customer will leave and buy a CPO from your competitor.

Wouldn’t you rather get the CPO sale instead of no sale at all?

First, the margins are higher on CPOs so you’re netting more profit overall. Second, only a certain percentage of new car buyers will decide to buy a CPO, and you’re not losing them. You’re still selling a car and gaining a potential service customer. CPO sales should be celebrated, not treated like red-headed stepchildren.

Third, promoting your CPO program with marketing campaigns is going to create more new opportunities than it will ever cause you to lose. Think about consumers in your area and/or in your database who are still driving 2008, 2009 or 2010 vehicles. They are probably ready to upgrade soon. Chances are they won’t be buying a new vehicle, but they may be very excited about the opportunity to purchase a CPO. To them, a 2015 vehicle is new.

Finally, establishing your dealership as a trustworthy source for CPO vehicles is an extremely appealing value proposition for many consumers.

Don’t be afraid to invest in your CPO program. If you stay committed and create efficient processes, the gross profits returned will add substantially to your bottom line.

Many dealers prefer using internal BDCs so they can keep control of leads and processes. Other dealerships use an external BDC for cost, management and efficiency reasons. Just about every dealer believes it’s a choice: you either set up an internal BDC or outsource to a third-party virtual BDC.

Yet, some of the best efficiencies and results actually happen with a hybrid BDC solution. In a hybrid set up, an external BDC does most of the “heavy lifting” related to chasing down sales leads, then hands the hottest leads over to your internal BDC. On the service side, the external BDC handles most of your inbound calls, which many dealership service departments struggle to manage effectively.

A hybrid BDC solution is ideal for dealerships with size constraints on their internal BDC due to staffing, management and/or budget issues. Let’s say your dealership is an average store selling 100 to 150 cars per month. To handle 400 to 1,000 phone calls per week, you need four full-time people and one manager to oversee them.

Bottom line? It’s difficult to set up an internal BDC for less than $10,000 per month, and that’s on the shy side.

Of course, you could be one of those dealers that believe your salespeople should be able to make all the prospecting and campaign calls, and your service advisors should be able to handle all the inbound service inquiries. The reality is, most salespeople don’t have the personality, patience or phone skills necessary to make the requisite calls, and your service advisors should be spending their time with the customers in front of them, not on the phone setting appointments.

Now, let’s say you want to use a hybrid BDC solution. For about 25 to 30 percent of the cost of an internal BDC, you can outsource most of the heavy lifting type calls that include:

• Inbound service calls
• Outbound sales and service campaigns
• Sales and service appointment setting and confirmations
• Internet leads follow up
• Unsold showroom traffic follow up
• Declined service repairs follow up

Whenever an external BDC agent has a hot sales lead or sets a service appointment, they transfer the customer over to one of your internal BDC agents to finish the call. Your internal BDC agents deal with fewer calls and spend more time on the phone with your customers, delivering a better experience.

With this setup, the average dealership mentioned above could probably get by with two highly-skilled internal BDC agents, versus the four agents plus a manager. The cost may be the same or even slightly less, but your ROI will be significantly higher.

The nice thing about a hybrid BDC solution is that you can decide which tasks you want your internal BDC to perform based on your staff’s skill sets. For example, maybe your internal BDC takes and makes all inbound and outbound calls, while the external BDC follows up with Internet leads and unsold showroom traffic.

The key to maximizing your ROI is taking the time to identify the strengths and weaknesses inherent in your current phone processes. Then, outsource to an external BDC to cover areas of weakness, while freeing up your internal BDC to focus more time on areas of strength.  

After switching to a hybrid BDC solution, it’s not unusual for a dealership to see immediate increases in service and sales appointments, as well as RO count and corresponding revenue. Typical results include:

• 25% of outbound service calls are eliminated when an external BDC schedules and confirms service appointments
• 72% of inbound service calls are converted into appointments
• 97% of calls result in additional information gathering on customer
• 84% customer contact rate with two valid phone numbers

External BDC agents are trained to stick to scripts, and therefore tend to be more effective at collecting valuable customer data such as emails, phone numbers and current addresses. This data contributes to higher marketing campaign response rates.

But the primary reason why a hybrid BDC solution is so effective is that it allows your staff to focus their attention on the customers in front of them. You still get to keep control over your branding, messaging, lead-handling and other processes. Yet, instead of having to sort through 100 leads to find the hand-raisers, your external BDC does that for you, then hands over the 20 people who responded and are actively seeking assistance.

The next time your internal BDC is experiencing overwhelm, you may want to try a hybrid BDC solution to ease your load, improve customer experience and boost sales and service revenue.

As a salesperson, do you wait for leads and ups, or do you go out and actively prospect for new customers?  No matter how great a salesperson you are, sales is a numbers game. If you want to sell more, you need to talk to more people. If you aren’t talking to enough people, you need to prospect.

I believe that for the most part, prospecting is a lost art. In today’s world, many salespeople believe that posting on social media constitutes prospecting. Although it could be considered a form of prospecting, it’s not nearly enough.

Nothing beats genuine, in-person connections. Prospecting is the art of cultivating mutually beneficial relationships, which means you should not be prospecting just so that you can make sales. That will happen as a byproduct, but it’s not your goal.

Prospecting is really about making friends—lots and lots of friends, and treating them well. Here are a few tips.

Talk to Strangers

We often tell our kids, “don’t talk to strangers,” but adults with successful sales careers know to skip this advice. You want to talk to as many people as possible, wherever you go.

Think about all the business establishments you frequent on a regular basis; restaurants, bars, dry cleaners, gas stations and banks, for example. Do you strike up friendly conversations with the people who work at these establishments? Do they know what you do for a living? Be proud of what you do. You provide a much-needed service. Almost everyone drives a car. 

Find the time to attend community and social events. Talk to people and take an interest in what they do. Don’t try to sell them anything. Offer to exchange contact information in case you can help each other out in the future. Then mean what you say. If you can help them out in any way, do so.

Be Social

Social media can be used as a tool to help you prospect, but you have to be careful what you post. Are you posting a lot of selfies standing in front of vehicles you want to sell? Are you posting messages advertising your dealership’s sales or promoting yourself as a salesperson?

Social media is for sharing, not selling. As a salesperson, use these platforms to share useful information that a car shopper might want to know. For example, what does MSRP mean? Tips for maintaining your car. Tips on how to find a great deal. If you provide genuine value to your network of family and friends, they will pay attention to you. 

Become a Subject Matter Expert (SME)

If you sell cars for a living, you should be an expert on cars. Share your knowledge without looking for a sale in return. When you are helpful and provide useful information, people will like you. If people like you, they will remember you when it’s time to buy a car, or when they hear that a friend wants to buy a car.

I have done this all my life. I try to help people get what they want. If someone needs something, I will point them in the direction of someone else who can help them, even if it does not benefit me at the time. Why? Because paying it forward brings good things back to you.

Ask for Referrals

Keep in touch with every customer to whom you sold a vehicle. At some point, you’ll ask them for a referral. Just don’t be a pain about it. Don’t always ask for a referral. Check in with your customers on a regular basis, and only ask for referrals every third or fourth time.  The worst they can say is no.

Know Your Numbers

How much income do you want to make? How many cars do you have to sell per month to make that income? Use the metrics in your dealership CRM to help you set some prospecting goals.

Your lead-to-appointment ratio and appointment closing ratio are probably pretty consistent. So, how many conversations with new prospects do you need on a monthly basis in order to set a certain number of appointments? One hundred? Two hundred?

Divide that number by working days in a month and make those conversations a priority. Know your number, whether it’s six or twelve conversations a day. Do whatever it takes to meet your goal on a daily basis.

If you want to be successful in sales, learning how to prospect is a must. Yes, it’s work, but it doesn’t have to be arduous. Talking to people, taking a genuine interest in what they do and helping them achieve their goals should be fun and rewarding, on a personal level as well as a professional level.

Did you know that the self-improvement industry in the U.S. is a $10 billion market? That means there are a lot of people out there who are not achieving their goals. Of course, there are also dozens, if not hundreds of self-help gurus taking advantage of this situation and dishing out advice on how to be successful.

If only success were as simple as drinking a bottle of magic formula.

The reality is, whether you’re selling cars or performing oil changes, only you are in control of how successful you will be. Ultimately, it’s up to you to create your own formula for success. Expect it to take time and allow plenty of room for trial and error.

When I started selling cars many years ago, I learned about the three P’s: preparation, practice and persistence. In retrospect, this formula has served me very well throughout my career, so I thought I would share it with you.

Preparation

Success requires mastery. Mastery requires knowledge. To gain knowledge requires research and preparation. When you get an Internet lead, do you jump right on the phone to call the person or do you take a few minutes to review their questions and research the answers?

If you have a job interview scheduled, do you research the company’s products and services before your appointment? Do you prepare for the interview by creating and rehearsing answers to commonly asked questions?

Preparation is particularly vital if you are starting out in your career or starting a new position. As you gain mastery of an action and knowledge of a subject, you won’t have to spend as much time in preparation mode.

Take the time to research and prepare for phone calls, meetings, presentations and projects that are assigned to you. Preparedness elevates your image as a professional and helps you to appear calm, collected and knowledgeable. No matter how smart you are, “winging it” will only get you so far in life and in your career.

Practice

Everyone knows that the more you repeat an action, the better you will become at that action. This applies to selling cars, swinging at golf balls or reconciling balance sheets.

Yet, repetition alone is not guaranteed to improve your skill levels. You have to be able to evaluate your practice, identify and learn from mistakes, adjust your approach and try new methods. If you have a 12 handicap, you’ll never learn how to be a scratch golfer without making adjustments to your swing.

I call this proactive practice. If you practice something every day and don’t see an improvement in your results, you need to change something.

If you’re not sure what to change, identify several people who have achieved success in your field. Emulate and practice their actions. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. There’s no need to re-invent the wheel when someone else has already figured out how to be successful at something. Practice, evaluate, identify, learn, adjust, try, repeat.

Persistence

One of the biggest mistakes I see young (and some mature) professionals make is to rely on motivation to propel them into action. Successful people never wait until they feel motivated to do something. Do you think you will ever feel motivated to make 50 sales calls? I never did.

Motivation does not fuel persistence. Persistence fuels motivation. Get on the phone and start making the calls, even if you really don’t feel like it. Start that horrible project you’ve been putting off even though you’d rather visit your dentist to get a tooth pulled.

When one of those calls turns into a sale, guess what? You’ll suddenly feel motivated to keep dialing. When the horrible project is finished, you’ll feel a huge sense of relief and ready to take on another, even bigger project.

The road to success is littered with tasks that are boring and mundane, but absolutely necessary. To be successful, you must do the things you don’t THINK you have time to do. If you take the time to do what others won't do, you will be miles ahead of them in terms of success. 

 Remember, nothing pays like persistence.

The three P’s are the primary ingredients in my magic formula for success. They have served me well, but ultimately, only you can decide what works for you. What’s in your bottle of magic formula?

Atlanta, GA – April 24, 2018 – ELEAD1ONE today released a free eBook called “The Auto Dealer’s Guide to Digital Retailing.” Designed to be a resource for dealers, the eBook presents an in-depth review of the challenges involved with purchasing a vehicle online, and of current consumer and dealer expectations. Additionally, the eBook shares practical tips on how to prepare a dealership for changes associated with digital retailing.

“Dealers can no longer ignore rising consumer demand to complete at least some of the vehicle purchase process online, but many dealers have concerns about the technology,” said Bill Wittenmyer, Partner of ELEAD1ONE. “Our vision is that dealerships will remain central to the online car-buying process. This eBook presents a business model that expands opportunities, not limits them.”

“The Auto Dealer’s Guide to Digital Retailing” provides guidance on how to integrate online car-buying with a dealership’s current sales process. Industry sales trainers Jim Ziegler and Mark Tewart contribute their insights and advice for dealers who are considering implementing a digital retailing solution.

The eBook addresses process changes that will inevitably occur due to an online car-buying process, including staff roles and responsibilities. A digital retailing solution checklist is provided for dealers in the process of researching vendors.

“Even though consumer adoption rates for complete transactions online will be relatively slow, dealers need to act quickly before third-party solutions gain brand awareness and market share among car shoppers,” said Wittenmyer.

Download your free eBook by clicking on this link: “The Auto Dealer’s Guide to Digital Retailing.”

For more information about ELEAD1ONE visit http://www.elead-crm.com.

About ELEAD1ONE

ELEAD1ONE, the benchmark in automotive software, helps dealers bridge the gap between sales, service, and marketing operations. The company’s automotive-only contact center, CRM, and service drive technologies are the foundations of their unique suite of products that drive its clients forward through strategic business advantage. Headquartered in Georgia, ELEAD1ONE has over 1,500 employees nationwide and serves more than 8,000 dealerships across the United States and Canada, including six of the top ten dealer groups.

ELEAD1ONE continues to lead the industry standard by providing insight to the community, identifying trends, and through the continuous development of personalized retail solutions that help dealers operate more profitably. For more information, visit our Website, like us on Facebook, YouTube, or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

Atlanta, GA – April 10, 2018 – ELEAD1ONE today announced that its DealBuilder digital retailing platform was honored with two 2018 Automotive Website Awards (AWA) at the NADA Convention & Expo. Additionally, ELEAD1ONE’s Service1One service retention suite took home an AWA award in the Fixed Ops category. The three awards were presented to ELEAD1ONE at a ceremony hosted by PCG Companies on March 22nd at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, NV.

“Digital retailing was a major theme at NADA this year, and the response to our rollout of DealBuilder was incredible,” said Bill Wittenmyer, Partner with ELEAD1ONE. “We are thrilled that forward-thinking dealers are embracing this new technology as a way to attract new customers and improve their car-buying experience.”

PCG Companies’ Vanguard award is a new category this year, presented to companies and products leading the way in new developments in the automotive industry. A statement on the AWA website summarizes why ELEAD1ONE received this prestigious honor:

“The portable DealBuilder Showroom and the Online app provide all the tools for dealership personnel to manage the buying process. It is structured to be convenient and satisfying for the consumer and yet, highly informative for dealership management. A key separation factor of DealBuilder is that the financial calculations are done with ELEAD1ONE’s industry-leading desking suite, and payments are calculated to the penny in all 50 states and counties in the U.S. DealBuilder can truly facilitate the entire process - automated and streamlined – all the way through loan and lease documentation and delivery.”

DealBuilder is a digital retailing application that guides customers through the entire car-buying experience, while allowing dealers to own the leads and retain control throughout the process. DealBuilder can be used either in-store with DealerBuilder Showroom, or on a dealer’s website with DealBuilder Online. The Showroom and Online versions are synchronized for a seamless online to offline experience. Both apps are fully integrated into ELEAD1ONE CRM and can be used on a desktop, mobile tablet or smartphone.

According to PCG Companies, ELEAD1ONE’s Service1One platform distinguishes every important step in the dealership service experience, from intake to repair completion, while streamlining operational processes and incorporating crucial marketing tools to help dealers capitalize on every possible sales opportunity.

The Service1One suite centralizes every component of service drive technologies into one comprehensive view; including online service scheduling, lane applications, multi-point inspections, shop management, automated marketing and service advisor training.

For more information about DealBuilder and Service1One, visit http://www.elead-crm.com.

About ELEAD1ONE

ELEAD1ONE, the benchmark in automotive software, helps dealers bridge the gap between sales, service, and marketing operations. The company’s automotive-only contact center, CRM, and service drive technologies are the foundations of their unique suite of products that drive its clients forward through strategic business advantage. Headquartered in Georgia, ELEAD1ONE has over 1,500 employees nationwide and serves more than 8,000 dealerships across the United States and Canada, including six of the top ten dealer groups.

ELEAD1ONE continues to lead the industry standard by providing insight to the community, identifying trends, and through the continuous development of personalized retail solutions that help dealers operate more profitably. For more information, visit our Website, like us on Facebook, YouTube, or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

Dealers are great at creating expectations. They advertise their dealerships as family owned, friendly, hassle-free and low-price leaders. These promises are what motivate the customer to call in the first place.

Then the expectation gap opens up. Typical problems that dealerships run into include:

• Calls getting put on hold, transferred to voice mails, routed to a carousel of wrong persons, or worse, disconnected
• Customer does not get the information they called for, such as a price quote
• Nobody returns the customer's call

When these things happen to your customers, your dealership instantly loses credibility. You promote how easy it is to do business with you, but that's not what customers experience.

It's not difficult to fix your phone processes, but it does require a strategy. Try these tips to help bridge the customer expectation gap at your store.

Get a Call Analysis

If your digital marketing strategy is effective, you are receiving more calls than ever before. Approximately 50 percent of car shoppers who use their phones to browse inventory find it easier to "click to call" rather than fill out a lead form.

Phone leads outnumber Internet leads by four to one and are probably your best, low-funnel leads. If you don't have the personnel and training in place to handle this increased call volume, you are likely losing money.

Do you know how many inbound calls your dealership receives each day? Do you know how many are answered? Most dealers find a call analysis very eye-opening. If you've never had one done for your dealership, I highly recommend it.

Consider a Virtual BDC/Call Center

Many dealers believe their staff should be answering phones and having those initial conversations. This would be great if it actually happened or if these calls were handled properly. The irony here is that if your employees are doing their jobs, they are often away from their phones and with other in-store customers.

Another reason why dealers are hesitant to have a BDC is that their sales managers and service advisors want to be in control of their own scheduling. That's because they want a schedule that's best for them and not necessarily what's best for the dealership. If a service advisor wants to leave at 5:00 pm, do you think he's going to schedule a 4:30 appointment?

Dealers that have committed to setting up a BDC or outsourcing their calls to a BDC service rarely go back to the 'old way.' They immediately see the benefits, including:

• More phone calls answered
• More sales and service appointments
• Shop capacity is maximized
• Increased customer satisfaction
• Big reduction in employees playing phone tag with customers

I realize that setting up, staffing and managing a BDC can be an expensive proposition. Many dealers find it's cheaper and more efficient to outsource their calls to a professional BDC service.

Sell Expertise, Not Appointments

In many dealerships, this may require a paradigm shift. It’s important to understand that you are selling information and expertise, not appointments. Your dealership advertises a hassle-free experience, but when a customer calls to ask a price, most times the salesperson refuses to give it to them. Instead they try to sell the appointment. That's not exactly hassle-free.

I've worked in the car business for many years. I used to agree and be a whole-hearted believer in selling the appointment. But the mentality of today's shopper has changed, and this is no longer the best approach.

For one thing, car shoppers research online extensively. Before they call any dealers, they know the model and make of the car they want. They know the price range they believe is fair.

By the time they call your dealership they're in the process of elimination. When a customer calls they want to confirm three things:

• Inventory availability
• Pricing
• Whether you are someone they want to do business with

If it’s difficult to do business with you over the phone, the customer immediately thinks, "What's it going to be like when I get there?" Consumers already have trust issues with car dealers. Don't make it worse by playing games with them.

I'm not saying just to quote a price and be done. Every phone call is an opportunity to sell yourself and your expertise, and to sell your dealership's value proposition.

Remember that when a customer calls your dealership, you've got one chance to make a great first impression. Ensure that your phone processes quickly connect customers with your staff. Give customers the information they’re looking for, and they’re more likely to do business with you in return.