I have never been a huge believer in negative reinforcement. The tough thing as a manager is to figure out what actions to take when you have repeatedly told your guys what to do and they fail to listen.  So what is the best way to handle a situation like that?

     We have been trying for years to fix an ongoing problem we have had at the dealership. We ask our sales consultants to turn in a "guest trek card" every time they talk to a guest. It is a very easy thing to do, but they still struggle to stay on top of it and get all their cards turned in. There is always a million excuses as to why they weren't turned in (none of which I buy). I have tried to help them see the big picture and to understand the importance of tracking all of our customers, but they don't seem to care. I have taken half deals, but they don't seem to care. My final attempt was to put together a negative spiff program associated with turning cards in every day. As you may guess, it went over like a ton of bricks when I threatened their money.

     Unfortunately for them, I'm at the point where I don't care anymore and I don't see any other solution to the problem. I thought about a positive spiff program but I feel like I shouldn't have to pay them to do their job. But maybe there is another solution and I'm failing to come up with it.... Any thoughts?

     I have never been a huge believer in negative reinforcement. The tough thing as a manager is to figure out what actions to take when you have repeatedly told your guys what to do and they fail to listen.  So what is the best way to handle a situation like that?

     We have been trying for years to fix an ongoing problem we have had at the dealership. We ask our sales consultants to turn in a "guest trek card" every time they talk to a guest. It is a very easy thing to do, but they still struggle to stay on top of it and get all their cards turned in. There is always a million excuses as to why they weren't turned in (none of which I buy). I have tried to help them see the big picture and to understand the importance of tracking all of our customers, but they don't seem to care. I have taken half deals, but they don't seem to care. My final attempt was to put together a negative spiff program associated with turning cards in every day. As you may guess, it went over like a ton of bricks when I threatened their money.

     Unfortunately for them, I'm at the point where I don't care anymore and I don't see any other solution to the problem. I thought about a positive spiff program but I feel like I shouldn't have to pay them to do their job. But maybe there is another solution and I'm failing to come up with it.... Any thoughts?

We just got another price bump from our vendor that we pull credit through. We have been pretty happy with them, but we feel like they are starting to get a little bit on the expensive side.

We are considering switching to another company if the cost is lower. I'm not really sure if there are that many companies available. I thought I would throw a quick post to see what other companies you guys use and what kind of fees they charge you. Let me know please...

We just got another price bump from our vendor that we pull credit through. We have been pretty happy with them, but we feel like they are starting to get a little bit on the expensive side.

We are considering switching to another company if the cost is lower. I'm not really sure if there are that many companies available. I thought I would throw a quick post to see what other companies you guys use and what kind of fees they charge you. Let me know please...

     I have been hearing quite a bit lately about a website called truecar.com. I know enough about the company because of the information that I have read on their website.

     One of the features that they offer is to show an average of the previous transactions on the same unit that you are considering buying. I really like the sound of a tool like that and I am starting to think that it could have a few similarities to Vauto.  We would like to see if that data of previous transactions is accurate and how they get the information. I would also like to know where they are getting the information from. Does anybody know anything about this company above and beyond what you can read on their website?

     Also, they have a feature where dealers can sign up with them and the dealer will receive leads that will send the people to their store. Next question: Does that work? Is it worth the money for how many leads they send you? Let me know if you can shed any light on the subject please!

     I have been hearing quite a bit lately about a website called truecar.com. I know enough about the company because of the information that I have read on their website.

     One of the features that they offer is to show an average of the previous transactions on the same unit that you are considering buying. I really like the sound of a tool like that and I am starting to think that it could have a few similarities to Vauto.  We would like to see if that data of previous transactions is accurate and how they get the information. I would also like to know where they are getting the information from. Does anybody know anything about this company above and beyond what you can read on their website?

     Also, they have a feature where dealers can sign up with them and the dealer will receive leads that will send the people to their store. Next question: Does that work? Is it worth the money for how many leads they send you? Let me know if you can shed any light on the subject please!

     We have always had etch (ATP, VTR, etc) as a pre-loaded back-end product the entire 10 years that I have worked at this store.  We haven't really had any issues selling the product and usually have around an 80% penetration between new and used.

     You would think with the success that we continue to have with etch, we wouldn't consider making a change. We are though! We are having more and more customers question what it is lately and they seem to be way more educated about it.  We figured we could get ahead of the curve a little bit and replace our etch with something a little less common.

     After looking in to it for a while, we have decided that pre-paid key replacement program would be our best bet. We aren't willing to drop the etch yet though. It is still really profitable and it is too risky to give up that guaranteed back-end money. So, we have decided to test the waters for a while to see if our customers respond positively toward it.

     I decided to throw this post out there to see what other people's opinions are regarding etch. I assume most dealerships either currently offer the product or have offered it in the past. Have you guys had much success with etch? Do you still use it? If you don't use etch, what is a viable alternative? Let me know your thoughts...

     We have always had etch (ATP, VTR, etc) as a pre-loaded back-end product the entire 10 years that I have worked at this store.  We haven't really had any issues selling the product and usually have around an 80% penetration between new and used.

     You would think with the success that we continue to have with etch, we wouldn't consider making a change. We are though! We are having more and more customers question what it is lately and they seem to be way more educated about it.  We figured we could get ahead of the curve a little bit and replace our etch with something a little less common.

     After looking in to it for a while, we have decided that pre-paid key replacement program would be our best bet. We aren't willing to drop the etch yet though. It is still really profitable and it is too risky to give up that guaranteed back-end money. So, we have decided to test the waters for a while to see if our customers respond positively toward it.

     I decided to throw this post out there to see what other people's opinions are regarding etch. I assume most dealerships either currently offer the product or have offered it in the past. Have you guys had much success with etch? Do you still use it? If you don't use etch, what is a viable alternative? Let me know your thoughts...

     We are considering make a couple of changes to the way we handle our internet leads. First I will explain a little bit about what we have done with our leads in the past vs. now and explain our logic.

     When we got a lead in the past, we would make an attempt to call the customer and set an appointment first. If we failed to make contact over the phone with the customer, we would then send out a price quote with 2 quotes on a new vehicle and 1 quote on a used vehicle the same day we got the lead.

     For the last 2 years or so, we have done the exact same process with the exception that we switched to sending the 3 price quotes after 5 days. The reason why we made the switch is because we partnered with a company called Travor and they recommended doing the quotes after 5 days to give us some time to build rapport with the customer and identify what they were actually looking for.

     We have averaged an 11% closing percentage on our internet leads this year but we have a goal at 15%. We feel like we are losing some deals by not doing a price quote up front but that is purely speculation. Also, we haven't closed our leads from Ford at a very high % lately. We feel like if we make the switch back to sending the quote the first day, that we will be able to push that percentage closer to where we want to be. Any thoughts???

     We are considering make a couple of changes to the way we handle our internet leads. First I will explain a little bit about what we have done with our leads in the past vs. now and explain our logic.

     When we got a lead in the past, we would make an attempt to call the customer and set an appointment first. If we failed to make contact over the phone with the customer, we would then send out a price quote with 2 quotes on a new vehicle and 1 quote on a used vehicle the same day we got the lead.

     For the last 2 years or so, we have done the exact same process with the exception that we switched to sending the 3 price quotes after 5 days. The reason why we made the switch is because we partnered with a company called Travor and they recommended doing the quotes after 5 days to give us some time to build rapport with the customer and identify what they were actually looking for.

     We have averaged an 11% closing percentage on our internet leads this year but we have a goal at 15%. We feel like we are losing some deals by not doing a price quote up front but that is purely speculation. Also, we haven't closed our leads from Ford at a very high % lately. We feel like if we make the switch back to sending the quote the first day, that we will be able to push that percentage closer to where we want to be. Any thoughts???