December is the busiest time of the year for the auto industry, which can make or break your year. This is also the perfect time to review your annual marketing budget. However, more often than not a dealer does not review their budget until mid-January, or worse just once monthly. If you do not have a plan of action in place to review quarterly results, it can make it that much harder to make the right business decisions for the year ahead. Not to mention, with the talks of there being a recession it is all the more reason to have an effective, proactive marketing plan in place. Here are some of the top things to consider when reviewing your marketing budget.

Review A List of All of Your Vendors. Do Not Look At the Results Individually. Consistency is Key to Understanding What Your True ROI is For the Year.

It is easy to look at one or two reports and make a decision; however, that is not the best way to make a decision when it comes to using the vendor. The other familiar dealer approach is calling in the GSM or Sales Manager who does not use the product, asking their opinion, which also might not be the best approach to reviewing the vendor. Instead, one of the ways to combat this issue is to survey the dealership. That is asking the employees if they have even heard of the product or if they use it. If they are not using it, then there is a breakdown with your management that needs to be addressed.

As for reviewing the ROI, it is best to look at the dealer's annual performance, which can get tricky when it comes to lead attribution. By that I mean, a customer might have converted off of a few third party sites, but in the CRM it attributed the sale to the last source the customer converted from. That said, there are ways to review the various lead sources the customer converted from seeing what the most common duplicate sources are.

It is also nothing for a dealer to switch a contract with a vendor monthly, which can make it quite difficult to track a true ROI on the vendor. That is not to say that it is not a bad idea to cut a vendor. The reason for cutting the vendor, however, should be more than “we just do not think it is a good idea to continue to work with them because we are not getting enough leads” But this tends to be the case on the dealer level. Instead, take the time to review the reporting they offer. Take that reporting and match it against your CRM. In doing so, you will see the following: 

Duplicate Lead Sources: It is not uncommon for the vendor to say that you had “x” amount of phone calls and “x” amount of internet leads (as mentioned above). I will never forget the time where my last GM thought I was ‘deleting’ leads because they were not showing as ‘individual’ leads in the CRM. I had to explain that while both the phone call and Internet lead were in fact in the CRM - the customer had previously converted off of our website. That said, the lead that received credit was the latest lead, which happened to be an inbound phone call from a third party site.

The lead did still show the customer converting multiple times with the inbound phone call being the last lead reported. That said, when reviewing the vendors report they were correct in regards to the fact that one of their leads did sell. However, when looking at the CRM globally, you have to take considering how many sources contributed to the sale. Once you start to compile all of the sources (many CRM’s have a report for this) you can start to pull trend reports on how many ‘duplicate’ not just sold, but what source was duplicate, and did the customer already have an appointment booked on the original source. If that is the case, the last lead might not carry as much weight. But on the flipside, if the customer had not otherwise made an appointment or contacted the dealership then perhaps the lead is more valuable than it was first thought. That being said, you cannot simply look at vendor reports without comparing them to the CRM.
 

Empower Your Marketing & BDC Manager. Why Have a Marketing or BDC Manager if they Cannot Make Decisions? 

This is not saying that they have free reign on all aspects of the budget. However, if the Marketing or BDC Manager does not have a say or ability to make a decision then what is the purpose of their position? If there is a budget in place, and a list of the vendors they are working with then let them work with it. It is equally important for the GSM to work with the marketing and BDC Manager. By working together on the marketing budget the GSM can review their annual goals, monthly goals and what marketing they need to boost their sales. Otherwise, what usually happens is the GM looks at very high-level reporting - not having all of the details in hand - making decisions that can have a negative impact that was otherwise not thought of during their review. 

Bottom Line: it sounds best to push the marketing plan to the next month (January) because that is what is the norm, but at the end of the day by starting delayed it can wreak havoc. Causing the marketing plan to be a month to month decision. Moreover, while that might seem to work in the long run it is harder to be proactive; as much of the decisions made on a month to month basis are reactive. Reactive decisions to not allow you to look and review the full picture. Not to mention, waiting until the end of January to review the next years budget means that you will not have a plan in place until mid-February, which is right before the March rush. Whereas had you planned in December - you will be prepared for March allowing you to focus on stronger marketing in January and February which are historically slower months.

When do you plan your marketing budgets? Do you allow your Marketing or BDC Manager to be apart of the discussion? If not, how do you empower them to improve their efforts besides telling them to book more appointments? 
 

The idea of implementing a new CRM on the dealer level can seem intimidating, and rightfully so! There is an incredible amount of work involved when implementing a CRM everything from user experience to whether or not your DMS works with the CRM. Not to mention, there are endless other tasks to consider; workflows, marketing, employee profiles, DMS connection, lead integrations, and lastly vendor integrations. The list goes on, which means it can make one's head spin. To avoid confusion, chaos, and disappointment, there are a few key guidelines to consider when making a CRM switch!

Why are you wanting to switch CRM’s? Not Making A Move Because it Seems to Complicated or There is too Much Involved is Not the Right Answer.

Knowing all of what is involved in switching CRM’s it is essential first to ask yourself “why am I switching CRM’s? Is it reporting, workflow management, campaigns, customizations, etc.? As you are asking yourself those questions, it is also important to review the current CRM with your account manager. It is no secret that the average dealer uses less than thirty percent of its CRM’s features. That said, before making a switch take the time to sit down with your current account manager and review your concerns or anything you would like to do within the CRM. In doing so, you could potentially still use the CRM versus spending thousands of dollars to switch CRM’s and take the risk that the new CRM might not be everything that you had hoped for when making a move!

Have a Project Manager! Avoid Having too Many People Managing the Project Which Can Lead to Confusion!

While it might sound like a great idea to have everyone involved in implementing the CRM, it might not be best. Having too many people managing the CRM implementation can easily cause confusion, which can lead to delays as there could be a breakdown in communication between the CRM and the dealership. To avoid this potential issue it is best to have a primary point of contact. The point of contact on the dealer level will be sure to update everyone as to the status of the CRM. As for ensuring everyone has a chance to share or discuss their ideas regarding the implementation, you can easily schedule weekly meetings to discuss updates, concerns or suggestions. In doing so, it helps to remove the chances of there being a breakdown in communication which can lead to unnecessary delays.

Vendor Integration. Check and Verify If Your Current Vendors Can Integrate With the CRM

Integrating vendors in the CRM is not an easy task; it can be easy to overlook one or two integrations such as third-party leads or the trade-in tool. Where in many cases, the vendor's tools might not always work 100% with the new CRM. Making it that much harder to manage the data with each tool as it is housed with each vendor individually. That said, before deciding to switch CRM's take the time to make sure that all of your vendors will work with the new CRM. It is also important to list out each one of the vendors you use, and what the current status is of its integration. This way you can keep track of the vendor making sure that nothing is overlooked. The other thing you ought to consider when reviewing the vendor integration is whether or not you need all of the vendors. If you have one or more services that have the same core functions you might not need all of the services. In reviewing the vendors, you can easily save hundreds if not thousands of dollars a month!


End Goal. Have a Clear Vision with Realistic Expectations. Launching the CRM at the Time of Their Visit Does Not Always Work. Have A Soft Launch Ahead of Time!

In a perfect world, we would have launched the CRM yesterday. But the truth is there is a lot involved when it comes to implementing a new CRM. So before you implement a new CRM take the time to set a realistic timeline. That is reviewing the time it will take to implement the CRM, and how long it will take to ensure that all of the vendors are integrated correctly. As there is nothing worse than using a CRM that does not work the way it was intended. Not to mention, if the CRM is not set up correctly then it can take that much more work to ensure that all of the users use the CRM.

One of the best ways to avoid this issue is by working with the CRM company to soft launch the CRM with specific people. In doing so, your BDC Manager and Sales Managers can take the time to review the CRM that is everything from how to add customers, customer profiles, workflows, templates, marketing, click to call (for those with that feature), quoting, etc. If your BDC Manager and Sales Manager are learning the CRM at the same time as your sales consultants, it can create a lot of frustration and confusion as the sales consultants will be looking to them for assistance when using the CRM.

Bottom Line: a CRM is as only good as the data entered into it! However, for those that do have good data in the CRM, it can be incredibly useful. That is organizing the data in a way that translates and makes sense for the end user. Not to mention, there are CRM’s on today's market that have multiple tools built into their platform whether that is chat, phone call tracking, etc. Having all of the features under one rooftop can not only save money, but make the data more useful knowing that when your managers have to use multiple platforms to review and analyze data the less likely they are going to use the tool. Lastly, before making a switch in CRM’s take the time to review your current platform. Ask yourself the tough questions: does the CRM have the reporting, vendor integration, and technology needed to sell more cars? If you do have these questions for your current CRM take the time to speak with your account manager; most dealers do not use more than 30% of their CRM’s features! By taking the time to review your current CRM’s features it can save you thousands of dollars and the headache of switching CRM’s however if your CRM is not able to do the things you need then do not wait. Make the move as a new more powerful CRM can and will make a big difference!

How often do you have the CRM conversation? Have you taken the time to speak and work with your CRM account manager?

 

It is not uncommon to receive over sixty plus notifications per day on your cell phone. As one can imagine, it can become tedious to filter through all of the clutter to find what you need or what is essential. The same can be said for all of the notifications your sales managers receive via email, text, and through the CRM. Not to mention alerts from any one of the other vendors you are using. For those who have a trade-in appraisal platform, you know first hand how many alerts you can receive at one time! That said, instead of forcing your managers to get alerts from every option (text, email, etc.) let them choose which method is best for them. In doing so, it allows your manager to focus on what is most important, which is working with the customer!

How to Manage Alerts On the Dealer Level. Less is More. No Need to Clutter their Inbox.

I will never forget a conversation I had with a GM who forced his sales managers to receive vendor notifications, email notifications, CRM notifications, and text notifications for the same alert! This understandably caused confusion given that at any time during the day the sales manager would receive as many as twenty to thirty emails and texts at the same time. As one might imagine, this became overwhelming for the managers to try and manage all of these alerts. Instead of forcing them to receive the same notification on multiple devices, let them choose which method is best for them. Besides, you will review the CRM to see whether or not the customer sold and or if they communicated with the customer. So while it might seem like a good idea to push the alerts, less is more!

The CRM Houses the Leads, no? So why do we need an alert for every lead via text message, email, &CRM?

If you have a BDC Manager, there is no need for the sales manager to receive a text message, CRM alert, and email for the lead. Now, if you are sitting thinking well my BDC Manager is not going to understand the importance of that lead or that the customer is ready to buy - then perhaps you do not have the right person managing the BDC, which is a whole other issue. Instead of your sales managers focusing on each lead itself they should be focusing on how many appointments they have booked for the day, week and weekend. By managing the end result and working with their sales consultants, they could save as much as an hour a day by focusing on what is essential instead of running back to the BDC Manager every few minutes to see if they have answered the lead!

Email Lead Alerts? Is this Necessary?

I am not sure about the rest of you, but receiving the lead via email became a nuisance. It was a lot of extra emails to manage, and while there were a few times that the leads were delayed and or were not delivered to the CRM, I would just log into the website tool and review if there were leads that had not yet been pushed over. However, if I had to go through every email it would have taken twice the amount of time. Whereas, I would quickly look at the time stamp in the website tool and anything that did not come over after a specific amount of time I would make sure it got pushed into the CRM.

Bottom Line: Multiple alerts for the same thing sounds harmless, but in all reality, it can cause more harm than good. Instead of having your managers focusing on how to manage all of their alerts, it is best for them to focus on what is important, selling cars! For those of you who have a BDC Manager, make sure work with them outlining when it is that you expect a report on that day's activity; whether that is at the end of the day or the following morning. By having a plan of action, it eliminates the need for the hundreds of additional alerts on a daily basis, which will undoubtedly leave your manager's inbox cluttered.

How do you manage alerts? Do you make your sales managers receive the same alert on multiple devices?

At one point or another, we have all experienced the moment where the sales manager or GM asked us to put together a sales blast on a moments notice! That is their wanting us to send the entire database an email campaign regardless of whether or not the data is good. And while they will argue until you are blue in the face, we all know that doing campaigns in that manner can and will have negative consequences. Everything from mistakes in the email campaign, compliance issues, broken links, no alt text for images, and/or worse you get flagged for spam or blacklisted. Frankly, so many of today's CRM’s make it way to easy for the above to occur. Here are the top things to consider before hitting the send button! 

Quality over Quantity. What is the Purpose of the Email Campaign? 

More often than not the GM or Sales Manager will tell you “just send it to the whole CRM” to which we offer that not all emails in the CRM are valid, but in my previous case we were not allowed to ‘delete’ bad emails nor were we allowed to remove emails that have opted out. So each time an email list was pulled it was thought that I was deleting emails off the list, but in reality, it was because the customer had opted out. The point is, though, that sending an email blast to the entire database does not make sense. Nor will sending the email blast to the whole database get you the results you are hoping for! If anything, it will cause the customer to opt out! 

So before you go hit send on an email blast to the entire database, it is essential to understand the purpose of the email. For example, if your GM or Sales Manager is worried that the leads are down and the weekend appointments are low then sending out an email blast to 8,600 people on a Thursday is not going to do much good! Instead, you could create an email for the customers who have been quoted or have visited the store after having reviewed the deals, and send them an email or better yet give them a phone call. In doing so, you have a much better chance of securing a deal versus sending the entire database an email campaign; especially if the email went to one of your customers who has just quoted. Knowing that your email might have a lower price, which might upset the customer making it that much harder to secure the deal. 

Scrub Your Email Lists! A Customer Who Inquired A Year Ago on A Used Car Might Not Still Be in the Market! 

This is not saying that you should not email a customer if they have had correspondence with you within the last three to six months. But if the customer inquired a year or so ago, and never responded to your emails, calls or text messages than chances are they have either already purchased and/or they are not in the market. So sending them yet another email for the hopes and chances of selling them a car does not make much sense. That and it runs your dealer the risk of getting flagged for spam! 

Bottom Line: While sending out the email blast might seem tempting or the right thing to do, it is best to have a clear plan of action. Understanding the purpose of the email blast having a clear message for the customer. Otherwise - as outlined above - the campaign can cause more damage than good. And the whole purpose of sending out an email blast is to increase business, no? So before you send out the next email blast to the entire database review the customers who fit the criteria, get with your sales managers, and make sure that the pricing is correct and that the links are set up correctly in the email. In doing so, you will have more success. But most importantly, it is essential to review which customers have engaged with the email whether that is having opened it and/or replied. If your BDC or Sales Consultants take the time to follow-up with the customer your chances of selling the customer become that much greater! 

How do you handle email blasts at your dealership? Do you allow your sales managers to send out email blasts on their own accord? 
 

Designing a pay plan focused primarily on commission on the dealer level is not uncommon; in fact, the entire premise of the pay plan is “the more appointments you book that show and sell the more you will make,” which can be true depending on the pay plan. However, if the pay plan is just focused on commission, it can quickly become a group of individuals working separately. And because there is not a team effort when it comes to managing customers, there are often gaping holes in your follow-up. Just check one of your BDC Agents work-flows at random, and you will find several uncompleted tasks.

To avoid the risk of losing sales due to a lack of team effort, there are other components to consider when approaching the pay plan:

Hourly Rate vs. Salary?

It is quite common for your BDC Agent to be an hourly employee, which can be quite costly. A prime of example of this is overtime. Take a look at their hours; are they clocking out for lunch? If not that can add as much as five hours per week in unintended over-time, which depending on your state is time and a half for their pay. You take one to two BDC Agents doing that, and now you are paying ten hours a week, and forty hours a month! If you salaried your BDC Agent, you would potentially save thousands of dollars in overtime. However, when it comes to determining their salaried rate, it is best to review the going rate in your area. So while it might sound harsh - business is business, and in many cases, the overtime that is worked was highly unproductive.

Only Paid if the Appointment is Sold?

There are two sides to this scenario, and both are worth addressing; one of biggest reasons dealers do not pay based on whether the appointment sold or not is the age-old argument of “they do not have control on whether or not the customer sells,” which is true. The primary purpose of the BDC Agent is to book an appointment getting the customer into the dealership. Now that said, the reason why dealers have moved towards the plan that only pays if the customer sells is due to the issue of “the BDC agents do not bring in quality appointments. They will try and qualify the customer more if they know they only get paid if the appointment sells.”

Two things, if your BDC Agent is bringing in a customer with a recent repossession or if the customer wants a $350 payment on a $45k vehicle with zero money down - then yes, that is not best practice. However, your BDC Agents have far more significant issues if that is what they are doing. The second issue with that pay plan is the fact that if the BDC Agent is being paid only if the unit sells then they might be too involved in the deal. For example, instead of the BDC Agent moving onto to the next phone call, email or text they are steadily focused and involved with the desking manager and sales consultant handling the deal. That distraction can cause for ill productivity; as much as a half an hour can be lost as their focus has shifted.  This is not to say that your team does not need to have a commission-based plan, but this does offer that there are perhaps better ways to pay your BDC Agents. One of the ways of doing so is by paying if the appointment were to show, and then pay a volume bonus. If they hit “x” amount of shown appointments, they get a tiered bonus.

Bottom Line: your hourly rate could be costing you thousands of dollars in unintended overtime. It is best that you take some time - as you are planning for 2019 - and review the amount of overtime year over the year looking to see if your appointments increased. Chances are it is minimal, and if it is minimal than you know, it has costed your dealer money decreasing an already thinning bottom line. The other thing you ought to consider too is reviewing the cost of the BDC. Wherein, once you look at the payout of their commission, plus the salaried rate (or hourly), less their “sold” units, you can look at their actual cost and what their ROI is for the dealership.

How do you pay your BDC? Do you have an hourly rate or salary? For those with a salaried rate have you noticed any changes in their performance?

It is easy to look at a few reports and come to a conclusion that your sales managers are just not cutting it. That is everything from their closing rate, sold rate, front-end gross, to their overall performance on hitting the OEM objective for the month. However, there is much more to what makes a sales manager successful than of what meets the eye; in many cases, the GM can prevent his or her sales managers from doing their jobs. Noting that within the last few years the role of the sales manager has arguably changed. That said, here are some of the top reasons your sales managers are not working out and how to address the evolving position. 

What Is the Sales Manager Responsible for on the Dealer Level? Are We Really a Team or is it About Which Manager Adds More Profit to the Bottom Line? 

One of the most significant sources of dissension on the dealer level derives from their individual performance. Wherein, the GM might note that sales manager “A” desked more deals than sales manager “B,” but sales manager “B” headed up training and onboarding; meanwhile, the GM accused that sales manager “C” must not be doing anything! The idea that he is glued to his sales tower. When in all reality, sales manager “C” is responsible for OEM Reporting, Payroll, and purchasing inventory. Therefore, even though the sales manager “A” had more desked deals s/he did not assist with any other managerial duties. 

The above scenario is more common than you would think which in many cases causes many controversies. Wherein, the GM will not take the time to note that each manager is playing an integral role in ensuring the dealership's success, and instead of taking the time to review each of their positions they expect both “B” & “C” to desk more deals. With the idea that it will increase sales. That is not the case, however, as the sales start to decrease because you have now lessened the training, RDR’s become an issue with incentives that were not applied for, payroll becomes an issue, and the inventory is not managed. All of which causes for a vicious cycle of burn-and-turn. Where the GM inevitably burns and turns his management. 

The way a dealer approaches management cannot remain the same narrow-minded perspective. Instead, the dealer has to think of the bigger picture; that is business development, which is not limited to having a BDC staff that makes phone calls and sets appointments. Instead, the dealership needs to work with their sales managers regarding what business development means on the dealer level. Everything from phone calls, manifest lists, equity customers and CRM management to name a few. But this cannot happen if the GM does not afford his sales managers the opportunity to approach those topics. And while the GM might offer “I never said they could not do those things,” it is also known that their pay plans are solely focused on units sold, which makes sense. However, to increase the number of sold units and increase the Gross Per Copy, there has to be both business development and training! 

The GM has to be cognizant that each sales manager plays an integral role in the dealers overall success. And managing them off of “one point,” without managing “how” they both approach and execute the sales is a costly mistake which causes for turn over and lost profits. The bottom line is that no longer can the sales manager role be limited and defined by a few reports. A Sales Manager has to understand business development, and the GM has to support that role. If not, it will be that much harder to both maintain 

Before you can cast blame on the sales manager for their performance, it is essential to understand what they are responsible for when it comes to the dealership's success. Each store you visit, however, have different expectations, which makes it that much harder to draw a fine line in the sand mapping out their respective duties. Not to mention, because sales managers have different responsibilities it makes it harder to hold each one accountable. To avoid this approach, it is best for each manager to have their own set of responsibilities allowing each manager to do their job. 

How do you measure your sales managers success? 

There is not a lot of flexibility when it comes to customizing a work-flow in many of today’s CRM’s. Where in many cases the standard work-flow is both a phone call and email, and while both are very important - so is texting. In fact, texting could arguably be more important - in some cases - than the standard dealer email that does not always answer the customer's questions. That said, here are the top things to consider when implementing a work-flow and the shortcomings we face on the dealer level.

If the Customer Does Not Provide a Phone Number the CRM Still Says to Make a Phone Call.

This is one of the most common issues with the CRM’s in today’s market. Wherein, even though the customer does not provide a phone number the work-flow still offers that the BDC Agent or Sales Consultant needs to make a phone call. This also then means that in the CRM’s reporting it will offer that the BDC Agent or Sales Consultant has not completed their workflow tasks. And if your pay plan for the BDC Agent is tied to the completion of their tasks it makes it that much more difficult to manage. As the BDC Manager will have to manually delete the overdue tasks and or change them to another type.

Where is Texting? Many of today's CRM Work-flows do not include texting as a part of the work-flow.

One of the biggest pet peeves with a lot of today’s CRM’s is that they do not include texting as a part of the work-flow. Yet as we know, texting the customer is becoming more and more relevant as it is a very effective means of communicating with our customers. That said it is important for the CRM providers to ensure it becomes apart of the work-flow. Otherwise (as mentioned above) if your BDC Agent’s pay plan is tied to the completion of their tasks their focus will be misplaced. As they are making unnecessary calls and emails.

A Rigid Work-Flow. Two Phone Calls on the First Day. Emails and More!

There is such a thing as over communicating with the customer. This is especially true if you are calling the customer two to three times, emailing and texting them. All without receiving a response, unless that is of course to unsubscribe or they have opted out of texting. And make no mistake, this is not to offer that we should not try to get in touch with the customer a few times on the first day. What it does offer, though is that we need to make sure the content we are offering makes sense. If the customer is not responding to your phone calls and or replying to the emails you sent then it is best to review the content. It could be something as simple as your subject line, or that the email went to their spam folder. Either way, before completing that additonal email task is best to look at your overall open and response rate. This will help you get in front of more customers!

Bottom Line: Instead of worrying about the completion of a task for the sake of it make sure the content is relevant. Knowing that not all leads are the same and or require the same level of contact. In fact, in many cases, the customer might add in their initial reply email what times work best for them for you to call. So if you ignore this - to complete a task - then you could potentially run the risk of losing this customer. In doing so, you will see an increase in the overall response rate, which will translate into more sales.

How Do You Handle Your Store’s Work-Flow? Do You Find That it Limits your BDC Agents Productivity? Do You Tie Your BDC Agents Pay Plan to their Work-Flow Task Completion Rate?

In a perfect world, all leads would be answered immediately, and the appointment would be booked . Soon to be a sale. However, the way we approach the response time can make all the difference regarding the most critical part. That is the end-result. If the sole focus on the time in which it takes to answer a lead than the quality of the response can and will go down. While response time is important. It is just as important to make sure that the quality of response is not jeopardized.

Here are some of the top ways to handle response time:

The 5-10 Minute Rule

Oddly, in sales, if it is busy, the rules/process usually goes out the window. Where it becomes a “just get it done” mode. Well, the same applies to answer leads. Wherein, if the expectations are - regardless of the day - that the leads have to be answered within 5-10 minutes than the quality of response goes down. Where more often than not the BDC Agent or Sales Consultant is not reading the lead - answering their questions - or taking the time to call, email and text the customer. Perhaps just sending a canned email to then forget about the customer as they continue to the next one.

This happens far more than you would think. Especially on Mondays. Given that leads most likely have not been answered since Saturday night before close.

Stopping the Clock

Stopping the clock - unless you are actually working on that lead - is a big mistake, which can easily let leads slip through the cracks. Wherein, many CRMS offer the ability for the BDC Agent or Sales Consultant to manually click the “phone,” icon and “Complete” a call. Stopping the clock for what could be 25 plus leads. To then try and work their way through answering them. All for the sake of answering the lead within 5 minutes.

As a result, as they are working through leads with no rhyme or reason as to order in which they are answering them they soon become interrupted. Whether that is an inbound phone call, chat sessions, or answering a text. Thus they tend to forget about 5-10 leads, which could easily have been a dealer website lead that wanted to schedule a test drive. Even a credit application.

That said, rather than simply stopping the clock it is best to prioritize the leads, which leads into:

Prioritize Leads For Response Quality

As mentioned above, stopping the clock can cost the dealership sales. Given that there are several unanswered leads on Monday mornings it is best to prioritize them all without stopping the clock. For example, look at the sources - i.e., Dealer Website, OEM, & Third Party, add a note (which does not stop the clock), and then start making the calls, emails, and texts.

There have been discussions as to whether or not you should send an email, and then loop back through to call or text. However, best practice when answering leads is to call, email, and text. This way you are not potentially missing out on answering a lead. And also making sure to prioritize and organize your morning.

Bottom Line: Stopping the clock to have a good response time is never good. And while it is good to have a decent response time, the quality of that response time is just as important. That having been said, the best way to handle this is to prioritize the leads when you get in. Answering them one at a time. Where if it takes 25 minutes to respond to a lead, but it is a quality response, then that is much better than a canned email or worse not sending anything at all!

Do You Stop the Clock? What is your true response time?

When is the last time you searched for your dealership in a search engine? If you cannot remember. Perhaps it is time to take a minute and search for your dealership. Making sure that the information that comes up is correct. Such as, but not limited too, phone numbers, dealer hours, contact information, and photos!

Here Are Some of the Top Things to Review When Managing Your Online Presence Starting With Vendor Accountability: 

Vendor Accountability

It is sure easy to point the blame at an outside vendor - for those with marketing companies - however, at the end of the day it is the dealer's responsibility to ensure that the information they have provided is correct. Wherein, if you give the marketing vendor the wrong contact information they can only go off of what you have given them.

To make sure they have the correct information, it is best practice to double check the information before providing it to them. Where you take an extra minute to make a phone call verifying the number. One of the best ways to handle this is to have one main point of contact that handles all correspondence with the vendor. Otherwise, when too many people are in contact - aka too many hands in the cookie jar - then it can lead to miscommunications.

Business Pages

While the dealer website may be updated with the correct information - it does not matter unless the business page, too, is corrected. As the customer - before clicking through to the site - will see the search results.

That said, it is best to review the hours, phone number, and information. Where in many cases there is not a distinct difference in the sales/service hours. Making it confusing for the customer as they are not sure as to when service or sales close. Where if they were to think - based on the hours - that service is open until 8 PM. To come in and find out that it is not open. That they closed at then, it most likely will not go to well.

Phone Numbers | Contact Information

Routing the phone call correctly is a crucial component in ensuring that the customer has the best experience. However, this can go south if the customer were to call the number (that is within the search results), to only get transferred to the wrong department. To then call back in and get hung-up on when the call was transferred. All of which takes away from the customer's experience. However, if the appropriate phone number were listed, then the call would have been routed correctly.

Bottom Line: there is always the saying “will this sell me more cars? If not, I am not interested,” which does have a direct correlation to making sure that the dealer information is correct. Despite it often being overlooked. That said, for those who have regular staff meetings. Take an extra minute to make sure that all information is correct. One of the best ways to accomplish this is by having the BDC - for those who have one - keep their eyes peeled on the website as they are viewing it every day. Allowing you to update/fix issues. All of which will offer the customer a better experience.

When is the last time you checked your hours? Do You Have a Single Point of Contact for Outside Vendors? 

There is nothing more frustrating - or so it seems - than to search something, get a result, but once you clicked through the page does not have anything to do with what it was you searched. It happens all the time. Where you exit out and go to the next page. That said, the same thing happens in the auto industry. 

Just this last week I searched “credit assistance for car purchase,” and while several dealer websites popped up, there were many whose websites - when clicking through - offered no relative content on their landing page as to what the process was regarding the “credit approval” program. This can cause the customer to exit without completing the credit application. 

Here Are Some of the Top Things to Consider When Optimizing the Landing Page 

Relevant Content 

As a customer, when you click on a link, you expect the page to provide the answer you are looking for when clicking through to the page. If the page does not have that information available you then most likely exit moving onto the next page. And while that is not to say that the website did not have the information the customer is not always going to spend their time roaming the site trying to find the information. 

For Example: if the search is “credit approval for bad credit,” and the landing page says nothing about “credit acceptance” than the customer might feel as if you are unable to help them. Even though in the finance section of the website you have a landing page that explains the “credit acceptance.”

Landing Pages 

The right landing page can be pivotal in increasing conversion. Where if the customer can find the information s/he is looking for then they will most likely convert. One of the ways to accomplish this is by having strong Call to Actions. Explaining to the customer what the steps are. Even offering them a testimonial video on how your dealer works with bad credit!  

Message After Conversion 

Once you get the customer to complete the pre-approval, where does it go? Does the BDC Agent (or sales consultant) know that it is a “credit challenged” lead? If not, it can cause for confusion and frustration on the customer end. As s/he are expecting to discuss the options they have, which while you always offer the same level of customer service to each customer. The way in which you approach the customer service varies. All the more reason to ensure that the team is aware of the lead source; as you might not want to approach this customer with “thanks for submitting your credit application! We have excellent deals this month including 0% APR! What time works best for you to come in?”

Bottom Line: There is more to the campaign process and strategy than of what meets the eye. Where having the AdWords targeted correctly is only one step to the overall process. And to “convert” that traffic, the content on the landing page has to be relevant to what it is the customer is searching - If it is not then they will most likely exit without converting. 

The other thing to consider (as mentioned above) is ensuring the team is aware - whoever is answering the leads - of the source in which the lead came from so that they handle it correctly. Otherwise, that could hurt the chances of selling the customer!