Dealer e Process
Big Data To Make Selling Cars a More Rewarding Job
Big Data will change the way salespeople interact with shoppers in the store. Eric Miltsch does a great job every morning of providing this community with a top-ten list of internet news items. Today he served up a particularly good article from the New York Times about the way data is now being captured in brick and mortar stores, like Nordstrom. As this technology goes down in price and up in value, dealers will be able to utilize it in stores as well.
We can learn a lot about our future from fight between big-box retailer and ecommerce sites. Most retailers have a split between online and in-store sales that is at least 80% to 20% one way or the other, and many of their shoppers are not combining the two prior to purchase. In our business, well over over 90% of the sales are made in the store and roughly 90% of all sales are to shoppers who use both the internet and the physical store before they buy.
We are never going to be the earlier adopters of retail methods for collecting data, in the store or online. However, we have an opportunity to tie the two together like no other retail industry. We still intercept out customers in the store with a human. So we can do more than hit them with an e-coupon at the right time, we can ask them the right question and match them to the right vehicle, financing, service contract, etc..
All this needs to be automated. And several vendors are working in that direction. The future for people inside the store is not so much about collecting data or analyzing it as utilizing the benefits of it in the conversations they already have with consumers. Knowing what questions will change the entire nature of the frontline salesperson in a way that is more successful and more enjoyable.
Dealer e Process
Big Data To Make Selling Cars a More Rewarding Job
Big Data will change the way salespeople interact with shoppers in the store. Eric Miltsch does a great job every morning of providing this community with a top-ten list of internet news items. Today he served up a particularly good article from the New York Times about the way data is now being captured in brick and mortar stores, like Nordstrom. As this technology goes down in price and up in value, dealers will be able to utilize it in stores as well.
We can learn a lot about our future from fight between big-box retailer and ecommerce sites. Most retailers have a split between online and in-store sales that is at least 80% to 20% one way or the other, and many of their shoppers are not combining the two prior to purchase. In our business, well over over 90% of the sales are made in the store and roughly 90% of all sales are to shoppers who use both the internet and the physical store before they buy.
We are never going to be the earlier adopters of retail methods for collecting data, in the store or online. However, we have an opportunity to tie the two together like no other retail industry. We still intercept out customers in the store with a human. So we can do more than hit them with an e-coupon at the right time, we can ask them the right question and match them to the right vehicle, financing, service contract, etc..
All this needs to be automated. And several vendors are working in that direction. The future for people inside the store is not so much about collecting data or analyzing it as utilizing the benefits of it in the conversations they already have with consumers. Knowing what questions will change the entire nature of the frontline salesperson in a way that is more successful and more enjoyable.
9 Comments
Dealer e Process
I friend of mine just responded to me with a link to an article on how Big Data is being used to stop suicide among veterans, http://www.fastcolabs.com/3014191/this-may-be-the-most-vital-use-of-big-data-weve-ever-seen This is a great example of data that is changing human conversations. These models are not perfect. They are not going to lead to an email telling someone they are about to take their own life. They are going to lead to a question coming from a human, the right question or questions at the right time in enough cases to save lives. The same will be true for enhancing quality of life within the showroom.
DealerTeamwork LLC
Dennis - this activity is definitely coming, and it may even arrive sooner than we think in the form of intelligent sites that are able to read our behavioral data before we arrive to a website. Imagine the website pulling in your desktop or mobile history, or even your social graph (Facebook) or knowledge graph (Google) to provide you with the content you're most interested in seeing without having to search for anything - it's already there. Better experience, more accurate information and improved performance. That's what I see...
Stateline Sales LLC
The biggest problem you have with all of this "big data" is exactly what is pointed out in the article about Nordstrom's. Consumers are opting out from being tracked and it's negatively impacting consumers perceptions of businesses that use and collect the data. We as an industry are at a tipping point. We need to dial in what we have before adding more confusion to the mix!! http://www.drivingsales.com/blogs/iMagicLab/2013/07/12/how-will-sell-cars
KonigCo
Thanks Dennis, I believe that it is important that we understand "big data" and more important, how we can use that information to shift our everyday interaction with consumers. I think Google and Nielsen did a good job in March of sharing some info on how the mobile consumer is interacting and the relevance between their online (mobile) engagement to their in-store purchases http://www.google.com/think/research-studies/creating-moments-that-matter.html Thanks again for sharing the post and I look forward to having you on our weekly Hangout on Air next week to discuss the vendor ratings system you have here at drivingsales. Be sure to share the link so others can watch our conversation live! http://koing.co/hangoutsonair
KonigCo
Apologies everyone, my fat fingers did a typo. The correct address for the weekly hangout is http://konig.co/hangoutsonair Thank you very much to Paul Rushing for the heads up :)
DealerTeamwork LLC
Paul - that's the key factor: making it into something that people don't want to opt out of. Take Google now for instance. It's delivering me info only I am interested in seeing. It may all be worthless or even considered spam to another user - but it's special to me. That's where I see this going. Users have warmed up to retargeting over the users and they know it happening. It'll just get smarter and more personalized.
Stateline Sales LLC
Eric I agree if the data is being used to improve the user experience the users will adopt it. For now no one is doing a great job with this not even the big G. Its why I have two browsers open on my desktop. One is logged to he G and the other is not and all tracking is disabled..
Dealer e Process
Paul, I deeply appreciate your article last week and your continued involvement in this issue. I saw your article as being more about the use of data to know what to purchase or continue to purchase. I’ll add to that post regarding that issue. With respect to how data will impact showroom operations, let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. 1. Some shoppers are opting out, not all, not even most. 2. Some shoppers are taking a dim view of this practice, which is one of the benefits our industry has as a follower. If the cultural shift turns increasingly negative or accepting of the practice within big-box retailers, we will know before dealers invest. 3. We do need to use the data we have now, and that requires systems that make things simpler and easier. I think we all agree paralysis by analysis is a bad thing. Automated analytic tools that get you the information you need when you need it without even requesting is the future. It’s tempting to try to identify a handful of data points dealers should care about. No one has time to deal with the mountain of data dealers already have at their disposal. However, the dealer taking this approach will be at a competitive disadvantage to those who employ systems sifting through the data with little or no human involvement to produce better information when the salesperson or decision maker needs it. Data is but a means to better information. Better information relative to selling vehicles with time left to focus on the practice of selling those vehicles is what we need. We cannot get the focus on selling if we try to analyze everything, and we cannot get the rich information we need by simply discarding most of the data. We need automated systems that will turn the increasing amount of incoming data into increasingly valuable information. There is almost certainly more agreement here than first meets the eye. I think progressive guys like you will be leading the effort to get dealers there.
Auto Buyer Consultants
A specific answer to the question about using big data to sell more cars is being provided by my partners at eShare, Sean Marra and Eric Miret. They have leveraged data aggregation into a GUARANTEED!!! way for dealers to sell more cars. The company has plays on big data in other sectors, but the automotive offering is the headliner. These guys are doing really BIG things with big data. (learn more here www.ePush.us/#automotive) Also, to the point about auto retail not being a place of early adoption for big data, you all are the data. In order for big data to have massive effect on industry, their must be large multiples of transactions. Big data has no finer home for optimization and study about how to make it of best use than right here in automotive. Few industries are able to generate the type of data created by automotive retail. The sheer size of each transaction is a distinctive factor - and, the growth potential for 20 Million plus transactions by the end of the decade means every one from IBM to the White House (including Google) has their 'Glass' on us.
Dealer e Process
Where Your Hard ROI Don’t Fit
I keep hearing bold talk about hard ROI justifications for things like branding and even customer service improvements. The sayings generally go along the lines of if I can’t measure a hard, direct ROI from an investment I’m not going to make it. With this way of thinking, you can be the Dollar Store of car dealers but you can’t be the Nordstom or Tiffany of car dealers.
Over the years, clients of my customer satisfaction research included Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons, Fairmont, Atlantis, and Disney. None of those companies got to the price points they command by getting a measurable return from every little thing they did. It just can’t be done. If you make up your mind your store or group is going to have a premium brand image (e.g. Carl Sewell), then you are going to do some things just because you can trace them back to improved satisfaction, even if you can’t quantify the exact amount of financial gain coming from that investment. Improved satisfaction can lead to higher loyalty and advocacy, but it takes time, often years. Additionally, it is difficult to know what the rate of loyalty and advocacy would have been today if the actions to improve it had not been taken years ago. There are just too many other variables causing noise.
Let me be clear, it is okay to not make any investments in anything you can’t directly and immediately measure results from. However, it doesn’t mean you’re a better business person for doing things that way. It means you are a different business person. I’ve made a very nice living measuring things so business people could make better decisions with the information, because it works. However, that doesn’t mean anything not resulting in a quickly and directly traceable profit is not worth doing.
For those looking to provide extraordinary service, let me caution that you must be disciplined about it. Many of the over-the-top stories about customer service in fact were over the top. The classic story of Nordstom refunding a customer for tires when they in fact never sold tires is an example. (note: Norstrom doesn’t do this today but was reported to have done it once). Fresh flowers in the restrooms may be nice, but it may also be over the top. Let’s start with restrooms that are kept clean. Don’t use the some-things-cannot-be-measured card as an excuse to do whatever it is you feel like doing. The core point of the hard-ROI people is that we need to become less reliant upon gut feel in our decision making. They are absolutely right about that, even if they (we) can sometimes be just a bit impractical about measuring every little thing. Remember my grandfather's old saying, you don't need a whole lot of research to know a donkey has two ears.
12 Comments
DrivingSales
Great comments Dennis. Hard ROI isn't always available. I had a conversation with a dealer at NADA who had put offers on a few stores that were for sale in my region. This particular dealer did not "win" any of these deals and the reason was that the CSI scores at his existing dealerships was too low and the manufacturers said no way. Now that's some hard ROI concerning customer service that wasn't immediately available two weeks, two months, or even two years ago.
Southtowne Volkswagen
So true. You can't measure the ROI of a "Thank you", but I guarantee it's there.
DrivingSales
Dennis, I'm always amazed at how you make me chuckle as you teach me a great truth. I hope that you publish a book full of family sayings some day soon. I'd like to start working those into my every day dialogue.
Dealer Compliance Consultants, Inc.
Brilliant Dennis, absolutely brilliant! Thank you.
CIMA Systems
Great blog Dennis. Having been in the Sewell stores myself, it is clear they are there for the customers experience. Every day we (People) have a recipe, that we follow. A Dealership is no different. They have a recipe (Plans, processes and procedures) they follow on a daily basis. Where a recipe goes bad, is when it does not work and the cook won't make the changes needed. ROI is one way to measure an ingredient in the recipe. While some ROI measurements are fluff, they still can give you an ROI measurement that has value. Dealers need to remember, plate frames and inserts have a place in the recipe, but try to measure that ingredient. Last but not least, you can't expense your way to a profit. Deleting ingredients, only makes the flavor bland and not palatable. rwelsh@cimasystems.NET
Unified Brand
Great message. Any way to get this in front of every dealerships' controllers? :-)
Dealer e Process
Thanks for the kind words! Guy, I know your question is a bit in jest, but it is the big issue isn't it. Knowing how to best make decisions is useless until it persuades the person(s) making them. I find that the audience for DrivingSales is mixed. It some stores, the whole store is bought in and keeps up to date with it. At other stores it is the decision maker, and at other stores it is exclusively the influences who are active online. Progress in this area will come from in-store influencers as well as vendor influencers passing along the best practices to more and more decision makers. Hopefully, those decision makers will eventually figure out that they too should be tuning in. For those of us who have the data and are self-proclaimed thought leaders, the challenge is to deliver information in a way that not only informs those reading it but empowers them to share the message with confidence and credibility. I constantly question whether I am just doing a good enough job to win converts to best practices or whether I'm creating apostles for known best practices. The former is good, but the latter is great!
Align Research
Good one, Dennis. Successful dealers must be disciplined with expenses and investments. That's essential. But smart business people often make decisions based on gut feel and incomplete info. They experiment and take chances. What's right for one dealer or business is not necessarily right for another. In addition, ROI can be tough to measure, especially when it takes years for results to come in. For example, raising service satisfaction can lead to improvements in the sales department. Sewell, Nordstom and many other businesses know this.
Apple Chevrolet
Great article Dennis. No one believes ROI is not important, but it's not the ONLY thing that is important. We give a free car wash and vacuum to every car we service. Where's the ROI in that? And yet when you read reviews and satisfaction surveys, it is one of the things our customers say repeatedly (along with great customer service) that they love about bringing their vehicle to us. Trying to measure the ROI to that may not give much satisfaction, but the rewards are staring you right in the face (like two donkey ears).
Dealer eTraining
Great post. After working for some of the best and smartest owners and GMs I have learned how to breakdown costs (investments) versus net profits. I did just that for a dealer yesterday as I created a plan based on a $17,500 monthly budget, a $120k eCommerce/BDC Director, 4 BDC reps, and 4 yearly college interns. After factoring the costs I found that the dealership will still keep $1.3 million in profits annually.
Sharp Hooks Automotive Internet Solutions
Reading this reminds me of a cartoon that I saw. A clerk is behind the counter at a sporting goods store, holding up a fishing lure. The caption: "it won't catch fish but fishermen". Why are dealers wanting to see ROI? They have seen too many snake oil salesmen. What do Nordstom, Tiffany, Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons, Fairmont, Atlantis, and Disney have in common? Great public perception. What about car dealerships and car people? Do you actually think that having a great facebook page will make a difference? If a dealership needs to make cuts in advertising, they need to look at ROI.
Dealer e Process
Where Your Hard ROI Don’t Fit
I keep hearing bold talk about hard ROI justifications for things like branding and even customer service improvements. The sayings generally go along the lines of if I can’t measure a hard, direct ROI from an investment I’m not going to make it. With this way of thinking, you can be the Dollar Store of car dealers but you can’t be the Nordstom or Tiffany of car dealers.
Over the years, clients of my customer satisfaction research included Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons, Fairmont, Atlantis, and Disney. None of those companies got to the price points they command by getting a measurable return from every little thing they did. It just can’t be done. If you make up your mind your store or group is going to have a premium brand image (e.g. Carl Sewell), then you are going to do some things just because you can trace them back to improved satisfaction, even if you can’t quantify the exact amount of financial gain coming from that investment. Improved satisfaction can lead to higher loyalty and advocacy, but it takes time, often years. Additionally, it is difficult to know what the rate of loyalty and advocacy would have been today if the actions to improve it had not been taken years ago. There are just too many other variables causing noise.
Let me be clear, it is okay to not make any investments in anything you can’t directly and immediately measure results from. However, it doesn’t mean you’re a better business person for doing things that way. It means you are a different business person. I’ve made a very nice living measuring things so business people could make better decisions with the information, because it works. However, that doesn’t mean anything not resulting in a quickly and directly traceable profit is not worth doing.
For those looking to provide extraordinary service, let me caution that you must be disciplined about it. Many of the over-the-top stories about customer service in fact were over the top. The classic story of Nordstom refunding a customer for tires when they in fact never sold tires is an example. (note: Norstrom doesn’t do this today but was reported to have done it once). Fresh flowers in the restrooms may be nice, but it may also be over the top. Let’s start with restrooms that are kept clean. Don’t use the some-things-cannot-be-measured card as an excuse to do whatever it is you feel like doing. The core point of the hard-ROI people is that we need to become less reliant upon gut feel in our decision making. They are absolutely right about that, even if they (we) can sometimes be just a bit impractical about measuring every little thing. Remember my grandfather's old saying, you don't need a whole lot of research to know a donkey has two ears.
12 Comments
DrivingSales
Great comments Dennis. Hard ROI isn't always available. I had a conversation with a dealer at NADA who had put offers on a few stores that were for sale in my region. This particular dealer did not "win" any of these deals and the reason was that the CSI scores at his existing dealerships was too low and the manufacturers said no way. Now that's some hard ROI concerning customer service that wasn't immediately available two weeks, two months, or even two years ago.
Southtowne Volkswagen
So true. You can't measure the ROI of a "Thank you", but I guarantee it's there.
DrivingSales
Dennis, I'm always amazed at how you make me chuckle as you teach me a great truth. I hope that you publish a book full of family sayings some day soon. I'd like to start working those into my every day dialogue.
Dealer Compliance Consultants, Inc.
Brilliant Dennis, absolutely brilliant! Thank you.
CIMA Systems
Great blog Dennis. Having been in the Sewell stores myself, it is clear they are there for the customers experience. Every day we (People) have a recipe, that we follow. A Dealership is no different. They have a recipe (Plans, processes and procedures) they follow on a daily basis. Where a recipe goes bad, is when it does not work and the cook won't make the changes needed. ROI is one way to measure an ingredient in the recipe. While some ROI measurements are fluff, they still can give you an ROI measurement that has value. Dealers need to remember, plate frames and inserts have a place in the recipe, but try to measure that ingredient. Last but not least, you can't expense your way to a profit. Deleting ingredients, only makes the flavor bland and not palatable. rwelsh@cimasystems.NET
Unified Brand
Great message. Any way to get this in front of every dealerships' controllers? :-)
Dealer e Process
Thanks for the kind words! Guy, I know your question is a bit in jest, but it is the big issue isn't it. Knowing how to best make decisions is useless until it persuades the person(s) making them. I find that the audience for DrivingSales is mixed. It some stores, the whole store is bought in and keeps up to date with it. At other stores it is the decision maker, and at other stores it is exclusively the influences who are active online. Progress in this area will come from in-store influencers as well as vendor influencers passing along the best practices to more and more decision makers. Hopefully, those decision makers will eventually figure out that they too should be tuning in. For those of us who have the data and are self-proclaimed thought leaders, the challenge is to deliver information in a way that not only informs those reading it but empowers them to share the message with confidence and credibility. I constantly question whether I am just doing a good enough job to win converts to best practices or whether I'm creating apostles for known best practices. The former is good, but the latter is great!
Align Research
Good one, Dennis. Successful dealers must be disciplined with expenses and investments. That's essential. But smart business people often make decisions based on gut feel and incomplete info. They experiment and take chances. What's right for one dealer or business is not necessarily right for another. In addition, ROI can be tough to measure, especially when it takes years for results to come in. For example, raising service satisfaction can lead to improvements in the sales department. Sewell, Nordstom and many other businesses know this.
Apple Chevrolet
Great article Dennis. No one believes ROI is not important, but it's not the ONLY thing that is important. We give a free car wash and vacuum to every car we service. Where's the ROI in that? And yet when you read reviews and satisfaction surveys, it is one of the things our customers say repeatedly (along with great customer service) that they love about bringing their vehicle to us. Trying to measure the ROI to that may not give much satisfaction, but the rewards are staring you right in the face (like two donkey ears).
Dealer eTraining
Great post. After working for some of the best and smartest owners and GMs I have learned how to breakdown costs (investments) versus net profits. I did just that for a dealer yesterday as I created a plan based on a $17,500 monthly budget, a $120k eCommerce/BDC Director, 4 BDC reps, and 4 yearly college interns. After factoring the costs I found that the dealership will still keep $1.3 million in profits annually.
Sharp Hooks Automotive Internet Solutions
Reading this reminds me of a cartoon that I saw. A clerk is behind the counter at a sporting goods store, holding up a fishing lure. The caption: "it won't catch fish but fishermen". Why are dealers wanting to see ROI? They have seen too many snake oil salesmen. What do Nordstom, Tiffany, Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons, Fairmont, Atlantis, and Disney have in common? Great public perception. What about car dealerships and car people? Do you actually think that having a great facebook page will make a difference? If a dealership needs to make cuts in advertising, they need to look at ROI.
Dealer e Process
The Apples and Oranges of Dealer Marketing
The wealth of data being provided to dealers from their vendors is truly incredible. Twenty years ago, dealers thought it was amazing when I could show them cost-per-thousand numbers for their radio, TV, print, and outdoor advertising. Today the amount of marketing data available to a typical dealer has increased more than one-hundred fold.
This spawned a number of additional products available to dealers, from full business intelligence tools like our own DrivingSales Data to an array of dashboard products designed to organize the data. That's the good news. The bad news is some of these products are mixing apples and oranges. The purpose is to have valid, reliable information for decision making. Mixing incompatible data can lead to precisely inaccurate results that drive dealers in the wrong direction.
DrivingSales recently conducted a research project to uncover the true meaning and compatibility of vendor metrics. We found a wide range of cases where metrics with the same name do not mean the same thing from vendor to vendor. None of these vendors are necessarily wrong, but it is wrong to group their metrics together in a dashboard simply because they have the same label attached to them.
The complete report is available for dealers and vendors alike in the latest edition of Dealer Innovation Guide, http://drivingsalesinnovationguide.com. Over time, vendors will come together around standards and third parties, like Google Analytics, will provide apples to apples comparisons. Those provide everything from simple dashboards to complete business intelligence suites will understand which metrics can be aggregated and which cannot. Until then, more and more research like this will be need so dealers can know what to trust.
8 Comments
PCG Consulting Inc
Dennis, I couldn't agree with you more that our industry needs to create a lexicon of terms and definitions. For example, think of the word "leads". If website form submissions are "leads" then we could mix up job applications, finance applications, and sales leads. That of course makes no sense. Inventory VDP and SRP views have a wide range of meanings, and third party classified sites seem to feel that they are defined differently by site. So, as the industry moves toward data warehouses and business intelligence tools, a lexicon needs to be created. Sign me up if you plan to organize a committee on this project.
Bob Smith Motors
Glad you brought this up Dennis - it is something we have been struggling with in our Internet 20 Group as we discussed. Analytics are taken from one URL but we have a portal and 4 micro sites along with two OEM mandated sites. Marketing is mainly on the portal but the data is just from our Honda store. Some in our group have RVs too which can mess with the gross averages. F&I revenues is another bone of contention as to what is or is not included. Some things just can't be split out when there is more than one roof top. Cost of Websites was another issue, some of us were dividing the cost between 5 URLs others were putting in the whole cost so the range was from $280 to $2800 for Website costs. Apples to Apples is tough, but we have to try to get it as close as possible. Love what you are doing Dennis - Love the Driving Sales Think Tank! We all benefit immensely!
Dealer e Process
Thank you Brian and Jon. Brian, we do need to work together on these things, and it's always a pleasure to do so with you. Jon, you are pioneering something wonderful in the Internet 20 groups. I've enjoyed watching the progress of the groups and the growing profitability of the members. One of the wonderful aspects of the 20 group is that you do talk and you do uncover these things. There will always need to be a balance between time spent improving the inputs and time spent increasing profitability with the good findings coming from the outputs. Over time, the shift has been from the former to the latter. Members seem to be getting more from the groups each time they meet. Thank you for your pioneering leadership in this area.
Apple Chevrolet
Dennis, thank you. Analytics and data have become overwhelming and confusing for many dealers. On the one hand it is exciting to see information that was never before available. But on the other hand, it is increasingly difficult to organize, interpret and make use of the vast amount of information. It would help tremendously if there were benchmarks and agreed upon terms for what we're seeing across the spectrum.
DealerKnows Consulting
Collecting the data is imperative to understanding the store's opportunities and shortcomings. It's hard to move forward without garnering the right data. You're right that there needs to be universal understanding of the data terms so everyone can measure the same logic. The most difficult part for dealers, however, is taking the data and actually enacting corporate structure/policies to improve their performances. That is the biggest gap in understanding. Data to directives.
Dealer e Process
Joe, few people understand that link form data to information to profitable action items the way you do. Some trainers and consultants fear data; it holds them accountable. The good ones realize the availability of a well constructed database allows them to do more for dealers and show credible results. As the need for people in math-oriented positions outstrips our education system's supply of them, it is a certainty that most dealership are not going to find all the talent they need in-house. Long live the out-sourced expert.
Dealer e Process
Tom, I don't want to oversell DrivingSalesData.com; the system we are building is much better than the system we have available today. However, dealers can access it for free. After putting dealership data into the system, you can see your data compared to the average of other dealers in the system, benchmarking. The system is strictly for marketing strategy. The privacy policy is designed to protect dealers, and It does not collect data at the VIN, customer, lead, or employee level.
Southtowne Volkswagen
The wide array of interpretive analytics can be confusing at best. Morphing the data to quantifiable action plans can be even more so. When OEMs, Vendors and Dealership personnel quit trying to manipulate reporting to look good rather than be good changes can occur. Thanks for a great post and sharing the link
Dealer e Process
The Apples and Oranges of Dealer Marketing
The wealth of data being provided to dealers from their vendors is truly incredible. Twenty years ago, dealers thought it was amazing when I could show them cost-per-thousand numbers for their radio, TV, print, and outdoor advertising. Today the amount of marketing data available to a typical dealer has increased more than one-hundred fold.
This spawned a number of additional products available to dealers, from full business intelligence tools like our own DrivingSales Data to an array of dashboard products designed to organize the data. That's the good news. The bad news is some of these products are mixing apples and oranges. The purpose is to have valid, reliable information for decision making. Mixing incompatible data can lead to precisely inaccurate results that drive dealers in the wrong direction.
DrivingSales recently conducted a research project to uncover the true meaning and compatibility of vendor metrics. We found a wide range of cases where metrics with the same name do not mean the same thing from vendor to vendor. None of these vendors are necessarily wrong, but it is wrong to group their metrics together in a dashboard simply because they have the same label attached to them.
The complete report is available for dealers and vendors alike in the latest edition of Dealer Innovation Guide, http://drivingsalesinnovationguide.com. Over time, vendors will come together around standards and third parties, like Google Analytics, will provide apples to apples comparisons. Those provide everything from simple dashboards to complete business intelligence suites will understand which metrics can be aggregated and which cannot. Until then, more and more research like this will be need so dealers can know what to trust.
8 Comments
PCG Consulting Inc
Dennis, I couldn't agree with you more that our industry needs to create a lexicon of terms and definitions. For example, think of the word "leads". If website form submissions are "leads" then we could mix up job applications, finance applications, and sales leads. That of course makes no sense. Inventory VDP and SRP views have a wide range of meanings, and third party classified sites seem to feel that they are defined differently by site. So, as the industry moves toward data warehouses and business intelligence tools, a lexicon needs to be created. Sign me up if you plan to organize a committee on this project.
Bob Smith Motors
Glad you brought this up Dennis - it is something we have been struggling with in our Internet 20 Group as we discussed. Analytics are taken from one URL but we have a portal and 4 micro sites along with two OEM mandated sites. Marketing is mainly on the portal but the data is just from our Honda store. Some in our group have RVs too which can mess with the gross averages. F&I revenues is another bone of contention as to what is or is not included. Some things just can't be split out when there is more than one roof top. Cost of Websites was another issue, some of us were dividing the cost between 5 URLs others were putting in the whole cost so the range was from $280 to $2800 for Website costs. Apples to Apples is tough, but we have to try to get it as close as possible. Love what you are doing Dennis - Love the Driving Sales Think Tank! We all benefit immensely!
Dealer e Process
Thank you Brian and Jon. Brian, we do need to work together on these things, and it's always a pleasure to do so with you. Jon, you are pioneering something wonderful in the Internet 20 groups. I've enjoyed watching the progress of the groups and the growing profitability of the members. One of the wonderful aspects of the 20 group is that you do talk and you do uncover these things. There will always need to be a balance between time spent improving the inputs and time spent increasing profitability with the good findings coming from the outputs. Over time, the shift has been from the former to the latter. Members seem to be getting more from the groups each time they meet. Thank you for your pioneering leadership in this area.
Apple Chevrolet
Dennis, thank you. Analytics and data have become overwhelming and confusing for many dealers. On the one hand it is exciting to see information that was never before available. But on the other hand, it is increasingly difficult to organize, interpret and make use of the vast amount of information. It would help tremendously if there were benchmarks and agreed upon terms for what we're seeing across the spectrum.
DealerKnows Consulting
Collecting the data is imperative to understanding the store's opportunities and shortcomings. It's hard to move forward without garnering the right data. You're right that there needs to be universal understanding of the data terms so everyone can measure the same logic. The most difficult part for dealers, however, is taking the data and actually enacting corporate structure/policies to improve their performances. That is the biggest gap in understanding. Data to directives.
Dealer e Process
Joe, few people understand that link form data to information to profitable action items the way you do. Some trainers and consultants fear data; it holds them accountable. The good ones realize the availability of a well constructed database allows them to do more for dealers and show credible results. As the need for people in math-oriented positions outstrips our education system's supply of them, it is a certainty that most dealership are not going to find all the talent they need in-house. Long live the out-sourced expert.
Dealer e Process
Tom, I don't want to oversell DrivingSalesData.com; the system we are building is much better than the system we have available today. However, dealers can access it for free. After putting dealership data into the system, you can see your data compared to the average of other dealers in the system, benchmarking. The system is strictly for marketing strategy. The privacy policy is designed to protect dealers, and It does not collect data at the VIN, customer, lead, or employee level.
Southtowne Volkswagen
The wide array of interpretive analytics can be confusing at best. Morphing the data to quantifiable action plans can be even more so. When OEMs, Vendors and Dealership personnel quit trying to manipulate reporting to look good rather than be good changes can occur. Thanks for a great post and sharing the link
Dealer e Process
The AutoNation Brand
A
utoNation announced that nearly all of their stores will carry the AutoNation name, similar to CarMax. The shift from the AutoNation collection of stores to an AutoNation brand carries with it a lot of implications. Experimentation will undoubtedly continue, but a brand image demands a high degree of uniformity. You can't have one GM trying to become the second coming of Carl Sewell and another GM under the same brand name going on TV in a clown costume and acting crazy. Some degree of uniformity with respect to promotions becomes mandatory under a brand strategy.
You can't have one store delivering full value transparency and another refusing to price their vehicles online. So there needs to be a uniform level of transparency across the brand, and AutoNation appears clear about their dedication to transparency as a competitive advantage. Already, stores uniformly offer a three-day, 150-mile money back guarantee.
Brand uniformity is easier across used cars, and CarMax has done a good job of it. AutoNation is not including its highline vehicles as part of this move. Selling Bentley under the same brand name as Smart is a bit like trying to expand the Kmart name across Tiffany stores. There will need to be some level of uniformity around the quality level of used vehicles and the quality of customer care provided. The more different the product mix is across a retail brand strategy the greater the need for uniformity around how those products are merchandised and delivered.
Much of the uniformity necessary has already taken place. It would be a mistake to announce a national brand strategy and then hope it can be pulled off. AutoNation has not been secretive about its long move in this direction. By the firm's own accounts, this has been in process for at least 13 years. Other dealer groups appear to be taking similar steps toward the same objective. It will take time.
CNN compared the AutoNation move to becoming the McDonald's of car dealers. I'm not sure that is a good analogy. There are some things AutoNation still cannot do, like national advertising. Outside of manufacturers, only AutoTrader.com and Cars.com have enough national coverage to cost effectively buy advertising on a national level. (I know others have done it, but I said cost effectively.) AutoNation claims to have no ambition of becoming a truly national brand. However, AutoNation already had branding strategies within various regions. There is a reason they are moving forward with a national brand strategy. This strategy of a national brand without national distribution would have been less beneficial in a TV era than it will be in the Internet era.
While I am not permitted to discuss the online marketing I performed for one publicly held dealer group. I can say the Internet has opened new opportunities for retailers with a widely recognized brand name selling dozens of nameplates. In my first book, Sales Integration, I suggested some of the changing opportunities. This first is but one of the many milestones to be crossed in the future of automotive retail.
(Sources used include public documents and articles from AutoNation, Automotive News. CNN, Sun Sentinel, and Bloomberg)
7 Comments
DealerTeamwork LLC
Such a smart - and overdue - move by AN. The decision to keep the highline out of the mix is also a wise move; their entire marketing efforts always seemed very fragmented and inconsistent. And even so, they still did a great job at connecting on the local level with their customers, this should make their marketing efforts even more productive and efficient. (Kudos to their original social marketing team as well: Gary, Stephen and Mallory)
Maryann Keller & Associates
Great post. I agree with Eric; this decision should have occured a long time ago. Better late to the dance than never.
Southtowne Volkswagen
The logistics of this are nightmarish yet this. is a long overdue move.
FordDirect.com
Dennis, good points. My first thought: Welcome to Point-Click-Buy. 2 years and they will be nationwide. My second thought: Lots of risk. What if stores don’t quite go along? There is no unrigging this bell.
Dealer Compliance Consultants, Inc.
I think this is a great idea. If they do this right, it should greatly enhance their reputation and that of car dealers in general. It should also raise the bar for independently-owned dealers and groups much as CarMax has raised the bar in the used car markets they serve. All-in-all a great move forward for the industry.
Lifestyle Integrated Inc.
I happened to have been part of the initial AN rollout back in the mid-90s in Florida. At first, well-known dealership names were preserved, partially because they wanted to use the AN brand for the used car superstores. The Autoway brand name was then rolled out to the new car stores in FL. The consolidation of branding should certainly benefit in reducing their marketing overhead and as pointed out by previous comments, improve the overall consistency in customer expectations. I can tell you from having worked for other national retailers through many acquisitions, once you navigate through the internal cultural hurdles, the benefits to the consumer are very evident. Interestingly, it was not the shuffling of the store names that caused the most heartburn within. It was the adoption of the "one-price" strategy that sent many of the ants off the driftwood.
Auto Industry
I wonder if there is transparency at AutoNation between their management and their sales staff, let alone consumers. How is transparency defined? Do we reveal all of our costs and negotiate the margin. Do we inform consumers of the margin we are actually making, INCLUDING hold back, trunk money, star step, carry over, etc? In most stores who brag about their "transparency," none of this is in place. The sales people aren't even provided this information.
Dealer e Process
The AutoNation Brand
AutoNation announced that nearly all of their stores will carry the AutoNation name, similar to CarMax. The shift from the AutoNation collection of stores to an AutoNation brand carries with it a lot of implications. Experimentation will undoubtedly continue, but a brand image demands a high degree of uniformity. You can't have one GM trying to become the second coming of Carl Sewell and another GM under the same brand name going on TV in a clown costume and acting crazy. Some degree of uniformity with respect to promotions becomes mandatory under a brand strategy.
You can't have one store delivering full value transparency and another refusing to price their vehicles online. So there needs to be a uniform level of transparency across the brand, and AutoNation appears clear about their dedication to transparency as a competitive advantage. Already, stores uniformly offer a three-day, 150-mile money back guarantee.
Brand uniformity is easier across used cars, and CarMax has done a good job of it. AutoNation is not including its highline vehicles as part of this move. Selling Bentley under the same brand name as Smart is a bit like trying to expand the Kmart name across Tiffany stores. There will need to be some level of uniformity around the quality level of used vehicles and the quality of customer care provided. The more different the product mix is across a retail brand strategy the greater the need for uniformity around how those products are merchandised and delivered.
Much of the uniformity necessary has already taken place. It would be a mistake to announce a national brand strategy and then hope it can be pulled off. AutoNation has not been secretive about its long move in this direction. By the firm's own accounts, this has been in process for at least 13 years. Other dealer groups appear to be taking similar steps toward the same objective. It will take time.
CNN compared the AutoNation move to becoming the McDonald's of car dealers. I'm not sure that is a good analogy. There are some things AutoNation still cannot do, like national advertising. Outside of manufacturers, only AutoTrader.com and Cars.com have enough national coverage to cost effectively buy advertising on a national level. (I know others have done it, but I said cost effectively.) AutoNation claims to have no ambition of becoming a truly national brand. However, AutoNation already had branding strategies within various regions. There is a reason they are moving forward with a national brand strategy. This strategy of a national brand without national distribution would have been less beneficial in a TV era than it will be in the Internet era.
While I am not permitted to discuss the online marketing I performed for one publicly held dealer group. I can say the Internet has opened new opportunities for retailers with a widely recognized brand name selling dozens of nameplates. In my first book, Sales Integration, I suggested some of the changing opportunities. This first is but one of the many milestones to be crossed in the future of automotive retail.
(Sources used include public documents and articles from AutoNation, Automotive News. CNN, Sun Sentinel, and Bloomberg)
7 Comments
DealerTeamwork LLC
Such a smart - and overdue - move by AN. The decision to keep the highline out of the mix is also a wise move; their entire marketing efforts always seemed very fragmented and inconsistent. And even so, they still did a great job at connecting on the local level with their customers, this should make their marketing efforts even more productive and efficient. (Kudos to their original social marketing team as well: Gary, Stephen and Mallory)
Maryann Keller & Associates
Great post. I agree with Eric; this decision should have occured a long time ago. Better late to the dance than never.
Southtowne Volkswagen
The logistics of this are nightmarish yet this. is a long overdue move.
FordDirect.com
Dennis, good points. My first thought: Welcome to Point-Click-Buy. 2 years and they will be nationwide. My second thought: Lots of risk. What if stores don’t quite go along? There is no unrigging this bell.
Dealer Compliance Consultants, Inc.
I think this is a great idea. If they do this right, it should greatly enhance their reputation and that of car dealers in general. It should also raise the bar for independently-owned dealers and groups much as CarMax has raised the bar in the used car markets they serve. All-in-all a great move forward for the industry.
Lifestyle Integrated Inc.
I happened to have been part of the initial AN rollout back in the mid-90s in Florida. At first, well-known dealership names were preserved, partially because they wanted to use the AN brand for the used car superstores. The Autoway brand name was then rolled out to the new car stores in FL. The consolidation of branding should certainly benefit in reducing their marketing overhead and as pointed out by previous comments, improve the overall consistency in customer expectations. I can tell you from having worked for other national retailers through many acquisitions, once you navigate through the internal cultural hurdles, the benefits to the consumer are very evident. Interestingly, it was not the shuffling of the store names that caused the most heartburn within. It was the adoption of the "one-price" strategy that sent many of the ants off the driftwood.
Auto Industry
I wonder if there is transparency at AutoNation between their management and their sales staff, let alone consumers. How is transparency defined? Do we reveal all of our costs and negotiate the margin. Do we inform consumers of the margin we are actually making, INCLUDING hold back, trunk money, star step, carry over, etc? In most stores who brag about their "transparency," none of this is in place. The sales people aren't even provided this information.
Dealer e Process
Lithia's Multimillion-Dollar Lesson and What Dealers Can Learn From It
Earlier this month, Lithia Motors Inc. agreed to pay out $2.5 million to settle a class action claim that it violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) when sending a series of just two broadcast text messages to its customers, messages that Lithia asserts customers opted in to receive. After reviewing court documents and SEC filings, DrivingSales has discovered that Lithia could have been liable for more than sixty times as much as they settled for. Lithia, or its agent, made one simple mistake seven months ago that cost the dealer group the equivalent of over 1,000 units worth of gross profit and a mountain of good will among its customers. The facts that follow tell a story every dealer should hear and take heed to.
In April of 2011, Lithia sent text messages to approximately 58,000 of its customers with the help of DME Automotive, a joint venture between JM Family Enterprises Inc. and DME Holdings LLC. The text message gave the customer the ability to opt out of future text messages; unfortunately, a technological glitch caused the opt-out to malfunction. Approximately 6,000 customers who received the first text message tried to opt out, but were included in the second text message that was sent to approximately 48,000 customers.
The settlement gives $175 to each recipient of the first text, another $175 if the second text was received, and an additional $150 if the recipient of the second text had attempted to opt out of the first text. This settlement appears to be a bargain for Lithia relative to the $500 per violation specified by the TCPA and the fact that Washington state law allows for triple damages, $1,500 per violation. Even at the settlement rate, total payout to all impacted consumers would amount to $20.5 million according to court records. The $1.74 million set aside for the plaintiffs fund is based on the assumption that only 8.5% of those consumers impacted will actually make a claim.
Breakdown of $2.5 million settlement:
· Fund of $1.74 million paid out to plaintiffs
· $600,000 in fees and expenses to plaintiff's attorneys
· $10,000 incentive award to McClintic
· $150,000 to administer the claims
The lesson for dealers is that the penalties for violating the TCPA are so severe that defendants of these class action suites are nearly forced to settle for a lesser amount to avoid the extraordinary liability of a loss in court. Indeed, the $600,000 paid to plaintiff's attorneys was the lowest amount the court had seen.
It is also important to note that no damages were claimed from the text messages. This could have further increased the settlement amount. Additionally, Lithia maintained throughout the case that each customer had opted in to receive text messages through at least one of several processes. Lithia never acknowledged knowingly violating the regulations, and there was no evidence brought forth that they had.
One would be hard pressed to find any flaws in Lithia's response to this claim. They appear to have handled it expertly in every way, yet they still face a payout that is many times greater than the gross profit potential of the campaign itself. We reached out to both Lithia and DME for additional tips to pass onto the dealer community. Their mutual lack of response is understandable.
Lithia claimed in the court documents that this was their only text campaign. Before long, 58,000 of Lithia's customers will receive a notice regarding the incident, ultimately saying that Lithia did something bad to its customers. In many respects, the settlement notification may be more damaging to Lithia's marketing than the fact that the text messages did not stop when they were supposed to.
A solid mobile strategy is essential for dealers, and some texting activities are certainly on solid ground. There is no reason any dealer should shy away from texting a service customer about the status of their vehicle if that customer has given them permission to do so.
Broadcast texting, on the other hand, should be left to the pros. Vendor selection should not be made solely on the basis of price. Ask about the vendor's experience and qualifications, and insist on a small, controlled test before embarking on a broadcast campaign. Make your broadcasts to small groups, and make them contextually relevant to the group.
Most of all, recognize that outbound communications to customers phones is an entirely different set of regulations than you face with emails, websites, print, television, radio, or outdoor. Dealers have a reputation for pushing the envelope on advertising, but people's personal phones invite no such push. Behave as though one of your opt-in customers is an attorney just waiting for you to make a mistake. With this much money at stake, that scenario is not far-fetched. Remember, Lithia sent just two text messages. There was only one chance for 6,000 people to recognize that their opt-out had not worked and to cash in on it. The result was a competition over which plaintiff would control the multimillion-dollar class action claims filed in two separate U.S. courts.
The industry has never faced stakes anywhere near this high. Court documents make it clear that DME participated in the financial settlement – they may very well have covered the majority of the claim. A quick visit to DMEautomotive.com shows that the firm continues to offer text-messaging services.
No Comments
Dealer e Process
Lithia's Multimillion-Dollar Lesson and What Dealers Can Learn From It
Earlier this month, Lithia Motors Inc. agreed to pay out $2.5 million to settle a class action claim that it violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) when sending a series of just two broadcast text messages to its customers, messages that Lithia asserts customers opted in to receive. After reviewing court documents and SEC filings, DrivingSales has discovered that Lithia could have been liable for more than sixty times as much as they settled for. Lithia, or its agent, made one simple mistake seven months ago that cost the dealer group the equivalent of over 1,000 units worth of gross profit and a mountain of good will among its customers. The facts that follow tell a story every dealer should hear and take heed to.
In April of 2011, Lithia sent text messages to approximately 58,000 of its customers with the help of DME Automotive, a joint venture between JM Family Enterprises Inc. and DME Holdings LLC. The text message gave the customer the ability to opt out of future text messages; unfortunately, a technological glitch caused the opt-out to malfunction. Approximately 6,000 customers who received the first text message tried to opt out, but were included in the second text message that was sent to approximately 48,000 customers.
The settlement gives $175 to each recipient of the first text, another $175 if the second text was received, and an additional $150 if the recipient of the second text had attempted to opt out of the first text. This settlement appears to be a bargain for Lithia relative to the $500 per violation specified by the TCPA and the fact that Washington state law allows for triple damages, $1,500 per violation. Even at the settlement rate, total payout to all impacted consumers would amount to $20.5 million according to court records. The $1.74 million set aside for the plaintiffs fund is based on the assumption that only 8.5% of those consumers impacted will actually make a claim.
Breakdown of $2.5 million settlement:
· Fund of $1.74 million paid out to plaintiffs
· $600,000 in fees and expenses to plaintiff's attorneys
· $10,000 incentive award to McClintic
· $150,000 to administer the claims
The lesson for dealers is that the penalties for violating the TCPA are so severe that defendants of these class action suites are nearly forced to settle for a lesser amount to avoid the extraordinary liability of a loss in court. Indeed, the $600,000 paid to plaintiff's attorneys was the lowest amount the court had seen.
It is also important to note that no damages were claimed from the text messages. This could have further increased the settlement amount. Additionally, Lithia maintained throughout the case that each customer had opted in to receive text messages through at least one of several processes. Lithia never acknowledged knowingly violating the regulations, and there was no evidence brought forth that they had.
One would be hard pressed to find any flaws in Lithia's response to this claim. They appear to have handled it expertly in every way, yet they still face a payout that is many times greater than the gross profit potential of the campaign itself. We reached out to both Lithia and DME for additional tips to pass onto the dealer community. Their mutual lack of response is understandable.
Lithia claimed in the court documents that this was their only text campaign. Before long, 58,000 of Lithia's customers will receive a notice regarding the incident, ultimately saying that Lithia did something bad to its customers. In many respects, the settlement notification may be more damaging to Lithia's marketing than the fact that the text messages did not stop when they were supposed to.
A solid mobile strategy is essential for dealers, and some texting activities are certainly on solid ground. There is no reason any dealer should shy away from texting a service customer about the status of their vehicle if that customer has given them permission to do so.
Broadcast texting, on the other hand, should be left to the pros. Vendor selection should not be made solely on the basis of price. Ask about the vendor's experience and qualifications, and insist on a small, controlled test before embarking on a broadcast campaign. Make your broadcasts to small groups, and make them contextually relevant to the group.
Most of all, recognize that outbound communications to customers phones is an entirely different set of regulations than you face with emails, websites, print, television, radio, or outdoor. Dealers have a reputation for pushing the envelope on advertising, but people's personal phones invite no such push. Behave as though one of your opt-in customers is an attorney just waiting for you to make a mistake. With this much money at stake, that scenario is not far-fetched. Remember, Lithia sent just two text messages. There was only one chance for 6,000 people to recognize that their opt-out had not worked and to cash in on it. The result was a competition over which plaintiff would control the multimillion-dollar class action claims filed in two separate U.S. courts.
The industry has never faced stakes anywhere near this high. Court documents make it clear that DME participated in the financial settlement – they may very well have covered the majority of the claim. A quick visit to DMEautomotive.com shows that the firm continues to offer text-messaging services.
No Comments
9 Comments
Dennis Galbraith
Dealer e Process
I friend of mine just responded to me with a link to an article on how Big Data is being used to stop suicide among veterans, http://www.fastcolabs.com/3014191/this-may-be-the-most-vital-use-of-big-data-weve-ever-seen This is a great example of data that is changing human conversations. These models are not perfect. They are not going to lead to an email telling someone they are about to take their own life. They are going to lead to a question coming from a human, the right question or questions at the right time in enough cases to save lives. The same will be true for enhancing quality of life within the showroom.
Eric Miltsch
DealerTeamwork LLC
Dennis - this activity is definitely coming, and it may even arrive sooner than we think in the form of intelligent sites that are able to read our behavioral data before we arrive to a website. Imagine the website pulling in your desktop or mobile history, or even your social graph (Facebook) or knowledge graph (Google) to provide you with the content you're most interested in seeing without having to search for anything - it's already there. Better experience, more accurate information and improved performance. That's what I see...
Paul Rushing
Stateline Sales LLC
The biggest problem you have with all of this "big data" is exactly what is pointed out in the article about Nordstrom's. Consumers are opting out from being tracked and it's negatively impacting consumers perceptions of businesses that use and collect the data. We as an industry are at a tipping point. We need to dial in what we have before adding more confusion to the mix!! http://www.drivingsales.com/blogs/iMagicLab/2013/07/12/how-will-sell-cars
Mat Koenig
KonigCo
Thanks Dennis, I believe that it is important that we understand "big data" and more important, how we can use that information to shift our everyday interaction with consumers. I think Google and Nielsen did a good job in March of sharing some info on how the mobile consumer is interacting and the relevance between their online (mobile) engagement to their in-store purchases http://www.google.com/think/research-studies/creating-moments-that-matter.html Thanks again for sharing the post and I look forward to having you on our weekly Hangout on Air next week to discuss the vendor ratings system you have here at drivingsales. Be sure to share the link so others can watch our conversation live! http://koing.co/hangoutsonair
Mat Koenig
KonigCo
Apologies everyone, my fat fingers did a typo. The correct address for the weekly hangout is http://konig.co/hangoutsonair Thank you very much to Paul Rushing for the heads up :)
Eric Miltsch
DealerTeamwork LLC
Paul - that's the key factor: making it into something that people don't want to opt out of. Take Google now for instance. It's delivering me info only I am interested in seeing. It may all be worthless or even considered spam to another user - but it's special to me. That's where I see this going. Users have warmed up to retargeting over the users and they know it happening. It'll just get smarter and more personalized.
Paul Rushing
Stateline Sales LLC
Eric I agree if the data is being used to improve the user experience the users will adopt it. For now no one is doing a great job with this not even the big G. Its why I have two browsers open on my desktop. One is logged to he G and the other is not and all tracking is disabled..
Dennis Galbraith
Dealer e Process
Paul, I deeply appreciate your article last week and your continued involvement in this issue. I saw your article as being more about the use of data to know what to purchase or continue to purchase. I’ll add to that post regarding that issue. With respect to how data will impact showroom operations, let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. 1. Some shoppers are opting out, not all, not even most. 2. Some shoppers are taking a dim view of this practice, which is one of the benefits our industry has as a follower. If the cultural shift turns increasingly negative or accepting of the practice within big-box retailers, we will know before dealers invest. 3. We do need to use the data we have now, and that requires systems that make things simpler and easier. I think we all agree paralysis by analysis is a bad thing. Automated analytic tools that get you the information you need when you need it without even requesting is the future. It’s tempting to try to identify a handful of data points dealers should care about. No one has time to deal with the mountain of data dealers already have at their disposal. However, the dealer taking this approach will be at a competitive disadvantage to those who employ systems sifting through the data with little or no human involvement to produce better information when the salesperson or decision maker needs it. Data is but a means to better information. Better information relative to selling vehicles with time left to focus on the practice of selling those vehicles is what we need. We cannot get the focus on selling if we try to analyze everything, and we cannot get the rich information we need by simply discarding most of the data. We need automated systems that will turn the increasing amount of incoming data into increasingly valuable information. There is almost certainly more agreement here than first meets the eye. I think progressive guys like you will be leading the effort to get dealers there.
Dee Rawls
Auto Buyer Consultants
A specific answer to the question about using big data to sell more cars is being provided by my partners at eShare, Sean Marra and Eric Miret. They have leveraged data aggregation into a GUARANTEED!!! way for dealers to sell more cars. The company has plays on big data in other sectors, but the automotive offering is the headliner. These guys are doing really BIG things with big data. (learn more here www.ePush.us/#automotive) Also, to the point about auto retail not being a place of early adoption for big data, you all are the data. In order for big data to have massive effect on industry, their must be large multiples of transactions. Big data has no finer home for optimization and study about how to make it of best use than right here in automotive. Few industries are able to generate the type of data created by automotive retail. The sheer size of each transaction is a distinctive factor - and, the growth potential for 20 Million plus transactions by the end of the decade means every one from IBM to the White House (including Google) has their 'Glass' on us.