Bryant - question for you, why do you feel it's necessary to have the buyer on site for the event? Is it a quality concern? Or a limitation of your technology during the event?

My thoughts: In today's digital age I don't think it is necessary to have the lender on site. Customers feel much less threatened. Go digital!

The last time we had an event like you are describing, the lenders provided us a dedicated loan officer assigned to our store for the weekend. They were not at the dealership but we had a direct dial number to their extension to rehash deals. If you can get that done, it's almost as good as having them at the store.

Bryant - question for you, why do you feel it's necessary to have the buyer on site for the event? Is it a quality concern? Or a limitation of your technology during the event?

My thoughts: In today's digital age I don't think it is necessary to have the lender on site. Customers feel much less threatened. Go digital!

The last time we had an event like you are describing, the lenders provided us a dedicated loan officer assigned to our store for the weekend. They were not at the dealership but we had a direct dial number to their extension to rehash deals. If you can get that done, it's almost as good as having them at the store.

I prefer to simply sell them "as traded" and do nothing except get them past our very liberal state inspection. That way I do not lay claim to any issues on the vehicle whatsoever. I invite the customer to have the vehicle inspected by a 3rd party if they choose. I get all forms signed properly and make NO promises. I have done about 150 like this and have had one comeback.

I put a warranty on every car I finance. This is where 40% of the US used car sales occur, and every dealer you can build a very large business by acknowledging that these cars are older and will statistically have a breakdown. Doesn't matter whether it is a cash or finance deal. Put the customer first. Protect them and they will comeback.

I prefer to simply sell them "as traded" and do nothing except get them past our very liberal state inspection. That way I do not lay claim to any issues on the vehicle whatsoever. I invite the customer to have the vehicle inspected by a 3rd party if they choose. I get all forms signed properly and make NO promises. I have done about 150 like this and have had one comeback.

I put a warranty on every car I finance. This is where 40% of the US used car sales occur, and every dealer you can build a very large business by acknowledging that these cars are older and will statistically have a breakdown. Doesn't matter whether it is a cash or finance deal. Put the customer first. Protect them and they will comeback.

Hey Bryant, I think the only bad lead is the one that 1) You're paying too much for based on ROI or 2) The lead that goes unanswered. Chat leads are golden if you engage the customer properly. I'll bet you have a few people on staff that would love to answer phones and live chats all day.

One of my close friends who owns a store in a rural area has used chat to drive volume by selling the value of visiting his store. At the end of the day people sell cars not technology, but chat does allow those who may not submit a lead to get to know your people and see the value your store offers. I say anytime your people can talk to consumers is a great thing

Successful chat requires a few key ingredients: The right people manning the efforts, the right talk tracks and of course, a killer process to transition the customer. For the customer, chat is simply another choice - another tool for them to feel like they are in control - perceived control if a wonderful thing. It's another version of the value added responses you should be providing customers within your emails as well: Answering their questions, sharing links to pics & videos and engaging enough to make the hop to a phone call. In our dealership this was a conversation starter and when done right it was a helpful on-ramp to opening the discussion up about the experience and working towards the appointment rather than trying to sell the car.

Eric, Well said, I couldn't agree more. I feel it's extremely important to any dealership to have. Like Eric said, it's another choice. I strongly believe it's a choice our increasingly impersonal customer base wants. E-mail, SMS, smart devices and more are moving people at a different pace now. Much like SMS(text messaging) it will only grow with time as people use more digital communications rather than face to face or telephony. I won't give examples for time sake but ask yourself this. Would one of your family members or friends who aren't car people, call or chat first if they saw a car on the computer that they had a question about? People are more comfortable with chat and when that happens you get the lines of communication open to a potential buyer. That's all you can ask for in my opinion. From there, you're people should rocket.

Hi Bryant, to your comment: " I push them hard enough to follow other processes so I worry they wouldn't be that committed to responding to the leads in a timely manner (which I'm sure would just piss off the customer and they would shop elsewhere)." Responding in a timely manner is indeed the cost of admission but only one of the keys... of course no response ("offline" or "leave message") just alienates the client and no chat at all is better than that. ...the next issue ...ONCE "on time response" is achieved is the bigger beast...the processes and scripting. When I was running stores, of course one of the most painful things to do was to listen to the "whos calling (or similar)" calls and die a hundred deaths (am I alone?). A difficult thing to remove from a sales person's personality profile is "qualifying (otherwise known as measuring the difficulty of the deal...and then the effort,enthusiasm based on this assessment)" . Chat works best when it is a warm conversation leading to an appointment if possible and the client's info always (what if the perfect car came in 5 minutes later? It always does when you DON'T get their info). And your sales person not having the answer doesn't offend. If it's a warm conversation, inertia or momentum will get a name and number...just through asking. Very strict processes and inspection is the only way to get a decent yield on this. FYI...NOT SCIENTIFIC but dealers tell me daily in conversation that when they add up all the chats they get...trader and cars.com plus their own dealership website, the classified sites comprise maybe 5 or 10% max of all the action. As a closing percentage, they should close at the same rate if not better then the leads from your website (not 3rd party). I would highly recommend looking at Brian Pasch's book "THE UNFAIR ADVANTAGE". My CEO wrote a chapter that speaks to your exact issue. I have gotten many thank you's from guys doing self managed chat. Get ahold of me if you want the exerpt. I may even have an extra book laying around. GOOD LUCK!

Jeff, I really liked your comment about chat being a "warm conversation". You're exactly right. The shopper is using chat, as opposed to phone or walk-in, because they like the distance it provides and the immediacy. Great thread of information.

Bryant... The challenges you bring up are a key factor keeping us at CarChat24 and other vendors in business. For great advice from a guy who made it work in house and with outside help give Jeff a call (800) 510-7567. We help with free coaching all time because many small stores stick to our free in house software program

Hey Bryant, I think the only bad lead is the one that 1) You're paying too much for based on ROI or 2) The lead that goes unanswered. Chat leads are golden if you engage the customer properly. I'll bet you have a few people on staff that would love to answer phones and live chats all day.

One of my close friends who owns a store in a rural area has used chat to drive volume by selling the value of visiting his store. At the end of the day people sell cars not technology, but chat does allow those who may not submit a lead to get to know your people and see the value your store offers. I say anytime your people can talk to consumers is a great thing

Successful chat requires a few key ingredients: The right people manning the efforts, the right talk tracks and of course, a killer process to transition the customer. For the customer, chat is simply another choice - another tool for them to feel like they are in control - perceived control if a wonderful thing. It's another version of the value added responses you should be providing customers within your emails as well: Answering their questions, sharing links to pics & videos and engaging enough to make the hop to a phone call. In our dealership this was a conversation starter and when done right it was a helpful on-ramp to opening the discussion up about the experience and working towards the appointment rather than trying to sell the car.

Eric, Well said, I couldn't agree more. I feel it's extremely important to any dealership to have. Like Eric said, it's another choice. I strongly believe it's a choice our increasingly impersonal customer base wants. E-mail, SMS, smart devices and more are moving people at a different pace now. Much like SMS(text messaging) it will only grow with time as people use more digital communications rather than face to face or telephony. I won't give examples for time sake but ask yourself this. Would one of your family members or friends who aren't car people, call or chat first if they saw a car on the computer that they had a question about? People are more comfortable with chat and when that happens you get the lines of communication open to a potential buyer. That's all you can ask for in my opinion. From there, you're people should rocket.

Hi Bryant, to your comment: " I push them hard enough to follow other processes so I worry they wouldn't be that committed to responding to the leads in a timely manner (which I'm sure would just piss off the customer and they would shop elsewhere)." Responding in a timely manner is indeed the cost of admission but only one of the keys... of course no response ("offline" or "leave message") just alienates the client and no chat at all is better than that. ...the next issue ...ONCE "on time response" is achieved is the bigger beast...the processes and scripting. When I was running stores, of course one of the most painful things to do was to listen to the "whos calling (or similar)" calls and die a hundred deaths (am I alone?). A difficult thing to remove from a sales person's personality profile is "qualifying (otherwise known as measuring the difficulty of the deal...and then the effort,enthusiasm based on this assessment)" . Chat works best when it is a warm conversation leading to an appointment if possible and the client's info always (what if the perfect car came in 5 minutes later? It always does when you DON'T get their info). And your sales person not having the answer doesn't offend. If it's a warm conversation, inertia or momentum will get a name and number...just through asking. Very strict processes and inspection is the only way to get a decent yield on this. FYI...NOT SCIENTIFIC but dealers tell me daily in conversation that when they add up all the chats they get...trader and cars.com plus their own dealership website, the classified sites comprise maybe 5 or 10% max of all the action. As a closing percentage, they should close at the same rate if not better then the leads from your website (not 3rd party). I would highly recommend looking at Brian Pasch's book "THE UNFAIR ADVANTAGE". My CEO wrote a chapter that speaks to your exact issue. I have gotten many thank you's from guys doing self managed chat. Get ahold of me if you want the exerpt. I may even have an extra book laying around. GOOD LUCK!

Jeff, I really liked your comment about chat being a "warm conversation". You're exactly right. The shopper is using chat, as opposed to phone or walk-in, because they like the distance it provides and the immediacy. Great thread of information.

Bryant... The challenges you bring up are a key factor keeping us at CarChat24 and other vendors in business. For great advice from a guy who made it work in house and with outside help give Jeff a call (800) 510-7567. We help with free coaching all time because many small stores stick to our free in house software program

Bryant, Great question, and the real answer that we found is you just have to look harder. We ditched the "waiting till auction day" and hoping I can fill my list mentality quite a while ago and it's worked pretty well for us. I haven't been to a live auction since probably Sept. or Oct. last year. We do a lot online, and out of our area, but with the shipping cost added to already high prices has hurt our margin, but it's still necessary to get enough cars. The biggest area we improved has been purchasing direct from the public. We get nice, local owned cars without fees and shipping, and the margins are good. It just takes work! We commission our salespeople if they buy a car. It gives them another avenue to make money and they are good at it for the most part.

Bryant, coming from the auction world I've seen a few "tricks" that out-of-the-box thinking dealers have used. (1) Don't just go to "whole-car" auctions, take a look at the damaged vehicle auctions like Copart, IAA, and Manheim's TRA. Yes, you're bodyshop will have some work to do, but you can increase your margin. (2) Try to work directly with your local rental car company reps. All have folks in place that handle their vehicles being pulled from the fleet and while their may be "rules" in place concerning how they are supposed to sell these vehicle there are always deals being cut. You just have to be willing to take that Ford Fusion to get that 2012 Camry that you really want.

Bryant, great question and something we all are dealing with. I run a used car store without a new car franchise, so I definitely feel your pain. Have you tried buying cars out of your service lane? There are several different processes that have been discussed in the forums here about how to go about it.We can scan our next days service appointments in our CRM system to see the year, make and models of cars that are coming in the next day. From there, we can zero in on vehicles we are looking for. If the salesperson who sold the customer the car is in, we will alert them that the customer will be coming in. Through conversation we find out if they would like to get an offer for the car while they are there and you would be surprised at how many say yes. I also run a "We Buy Cars" ad in the automotive services section of Craigslist that generates 5 to 10 purchases from private owners. The other system that has helped me fill my lot without going to the auction is buying off of Manheim Simulcast and OVE with the help of vAuto Provision tool. Hope this helps.

Bryant, Great used cars are hard to find! We do a lot of the same things Bill is talking about & it works very well. We have a sign in service stating "We Buy Cars" and have started having our ASM's ask customers if they are interested in an appraisal, after all who doesn't want to know what their vehicle is worth? We also do a lot of marketing to our customers targeting their trades like blackbook mailers and things like that. When we run different used car ads we always throw in a little "We Buy Cars" starburst. A while back we did some heavy advertising that we would "Beat ANY Carmax appraisal" (Not sure if you have a Carmax near you, but you wouldn't believe the traffic and awesome trades we purchased. Good luck!

Bryant, I would suggest YOUR BEST AUCTION is your Service Drive. Developing a process for Service to Sales is the best way to find the exact vehicles that are otherwise difficult to find. Typically these will be low mileage, one owner, and you will have service history. Dealers that I speak to who have this strategy are typically turning over these vehicles twice as fast vs other used car inventory(on their lot) with higher grosses. Typical dealer comments are: I not bidding against anyone with my Service Customer and I dont transportation costs for the vehicle. You can use data in your DMS to find out more info with your Service Appointments. Hope this helps !!

Bryant The best way to acquire better, nicer, newer pre-owned inventory is 1) recognize those customers in your database that can replace their current car with a newer one and keep their payments about the same, and 2) develop a process around the SVC drive. My best stores have outreach to their database EVERY day, AND have a Manager, and a Salesperson, or a 2-3 person sales team attached to the service drive. Even the smallest stores have 3-5 of their own customers per day coming back to them to service their cars, and many stores have 10+ returning customers. There is also that group of conquest business, those people that service with you but didn't buy from you. Are they driving cars you'd like to acquire, you bet!! You'll need a tool to help you, or the workload will become tedious. ROI if you choose to go this route is STAGGERING. And to think this additional acquisition center, profit center, CSI enhancement, and SVC gross center has been under our nose the entire time. Seek out the best references in your market, or peer group, and 1 or 2 names will surface every time. Best of luck.

Bryant, Great question, and the real answer that we found is you just have to look harder. We ditched the "waiting till auction day" and hoping I can fill my list mentality quite a while ago and it's worked pretty well for us. I haven't been to a live auction since probably Sept. or Oct. last year. We do a lot online, and out of our area, but with the shipping cost added to already high prices has hurt our margin, but it's still necessary to get enough cars. The biggest area we improved has been purchasing direct from the public. We get nice, local owned cars without fees and shipping, and the margins are good. It just takes work! We commission our salespeople if they buy a car. It gives them another avenue to make money and they are good at it for the most part.

Bryant, coming from the auction world I've seen a few "tricks" that out-of-the-box thinking dealers have used. (1) Don't just go to "whole-car" auctions, take a look at the damaged vehicle auctions like Copart, IAA, and Manheim's TRA. Yes, you're bodyshop will have some work to do, but you can increase your margin. (2) Try to work directly with your local rental car company reps. All have folks in place that handle their vehicles being pulled from the fleet and while their may be "rules" in place concerning how they are supposed to sell these vehicle there are always deals being cut. You just have to be willing to take that Ford Fusion to get that 2012 Camry that you really want.

Bryant, great question and something we all are dealing with. I run a used car store without a new car franchise, so I definitely feel your pain. Have you tried buying cars out of your service lane? There are several different processes that have been discussed in the forums here about how to go about it.We can scan our next days service appointments in our CRM system to see the year, make and models of cars that are coming in the next day. From there, we can zero in on vehicles we are looking for. If the salesperson who sold the customer the car is in, we will alert them that the customer will be coming in. Through conversation we find out if they would like to get an offer for the car while they are there and you would be surprised at how many say yes. I also run a "We Buy Cars" ad in the automotive services section of Craigslist that generates 5 to 10 purchases from private owners. The other system that has helped me fill my lot without going to the auction is buying off of Manheim Simulcast and OVE with the help of vAuto Provision tool. Hope this helps.

Bryant, Great used cars are hard to find! We do a lot of the same things Bill is talking about & it works very well. We have a sign in service stating "We Buy Cars" and have started having our ASM's ask customers if they are interested in an appraisal, after all who doesn't want to know what their vehicle is worth? We also do a lot of marketing to our customers targeting their trades like blackbook mailers and things like that. When we run different used car ads we always throw in a little "We Buy Cars" starburst. A while back we did some heavy advertising that we would "Beat ANY Carmax appraisal" (Not sure if you have a Carmax near you, but you wouldn't believe the traffic and awesome trades we purchased. Good luck!

Bryant, I would suggest YOUR BEST AUCTION is your Service Drive. Developing a process for Service to Sales is the best way to find the exact vehicles that are otherwise difficult to find. Typically these will be low mileage, one owner, and you will have service history. Dealers that I speak to who have this strategy are typically turning over these vehicles twice as fast vs other used car inventory(on their lot) with higher grosses. Typical dealer comments are: I not bidding against anyone with my Service Customer and I dont transportation costs for the vehicle. You can use data in your DMS to find out more info with your Service Appointments. Hope this helps !!

Bryant The best way to acquire better, nicer, newer pre-owned inventory is 1) recognize those customers in your database that can replace their current car with a newer one and keep their payments about the same, and 2) develop a process around the SVC drive. My best stores have outreach to their database EVERY day, AND have a Manager, and a Salesperson, or a 2-3 person sales team attached to the service drive. Even the smallest stores have 3-5 of their own customers per day coming back to them to service their cars, and many stores have 10+ returning customers. There is also that group of conquest business, those people that service with you but didn't buy from you. Are they driving cars you'd like to acquire, you bet!! You'll need a tool to help you, or the workload will become tedious. ROI if you choose to go this route is STAGGERING. And to think this additional acquisition center, profit center, CSI enhancement, and SVC gross center has been under our nose the entire time. Seek out the best references in your market, or peer group, and 1 or 2 names will surface every time. Best of luck.