One of my favorite sessions was from this year’s DSES was “The Loyalty Loop: How Small Things Add Up to Big Business” by Andrew Davis. It was a well executed presentation and all of his points made me reach an epiphany about the experiences I create for my readers.

Regardless of the industry, consumer engagement is a key component for success; and this is proven in the several examples Andrew provides in his presentation. People don’t just want a product or service. They want an experience — and not just any experience — they want an experience that rivals other experiences. 

As I sat through Andrew’s presentation, not only did I think about how “the loyalty loop” could be applied to my own work, but I thought about how it applied to a dealership’s marketing endeavors too! Coming from the same organization, Russ Chandler (Product Marketing Manager at PERQ) and myself are obviously HUGE proponents of keen website engagement. Yes.

We’ve said it over and over and over again, but it’s the truth: your dealership consumers are all conducting research online; and they aren’t coming into your dealership until they’ve basically been enticed TO buy. 

If your dealership’s website experience is subpar, how do you expect consumers to expect an exceptional experience in the showroom? That simply isn’t logical. Nowadays, all a dealership website needs to be relatively successful is have a clean, functional website — one that isn’t cluttered with CTAs, easily identifiable categories and accessible information. But if we’re being honest with ourselves — and I mean, REALLY honest with ourselves — is that the type of website you want to put out there?

Although there are are plenty of websites out there that’ll make you wince, it’s safe to say that about 90% of the dealership websites understand basic website design and functionality — and therein lies the problem. When all of these dealerships remain safe and follow the rules to a T, they end up looking like a commodity, instead of something unique.

If you do a quick Google search for dealerships within a 10 mile radius, chances are good that you’ll find a nice handful of results to choose from. Aside from Google/Yelp star ratings, distance and OEM, a lot of these dealerships look like they could be a “dime a dozen.”

Even though consumers are visiting different dealership websites, they might as well be aimlessly clicking because, in this case, a dealership is a dealership. You know this isn’t the case, but does the consumer? Unless they’ve stepped foot INSIDE a few dealerships, probably not. Their opinion is formulated based on your online presence, which leads me to my main point.

While it’s important to create a comforting and unique in-showroom experience with exceptional customer service, event sales, and so on; your dealership website is basically just an online version of your showroom — and that’s something you should absolutely remember. With consumers visiting so many different websites to determine which dealership(s) they’ll ultimately want to visit, it’s crucial to stand out.

Having a clean website isn’t going to cut it anymore when consumers expect businesses like yours to go above and beyond. And even if they aren’t actively expecting an exceptional experience, are you really going to convince me that consumers aren’t going to remember and value the unique experience? Of course not. If anything, great experiences are even more impactful to consumers when they aren’t expected.

It’s completely possible for your dealership’s website to leverage the power of “the loyalty loop;” where you’re simultaneously providing consumers with excitement, value and the desire for more. 

If you want to generate and maintain excitement at your dealership, it’s ideal to provide valuable resources to your consumers. Because many are in the research phase, they’re looking for trade appraisals, special offers and to learn more about your inventory.  

Different tools and experiences allow consumers to interact with your website and, in the process, get immediate value from it. And in regards to maintaining that excitement (or avoiding “hedonic decline”), your website could suggest other tools to provide even greater value and answer more questions.

To avoid the hedonic decline that Andrew Davis mentioned in his presentation, your dealership’s website should consistently go above and beyond consumer expectations. It needs to provide REAL value. But more importantly, if your dealership says its different, it needs to PROVE that it’s different.

What are some of the ways your dealership tries to improve the online experience for consumers? Let me know in the comments below! 

For those who are unfamiliar, Agile project management (at its most basic level) is a means of breaking down larger projects/initiatives to assist with prioritization and organization within a specific time frame. In addition to ensuring project completion, it’s a great way to improve processes on ongoing projects and day-to-day tasks.

While it’s important to remember that this type of project management was originally developed for product/software teams, Agile has swiftly made its way into a number of different industries. For example, PERQ’s marketing team has leveraged Agile for the last 3 years and needless to say, it’s been immensely successful. 
 

Here’s how the our department uses it:

1. We separate each project and within those projects, we have a number of different tasks. When something is being worked on, it moves to “in progress.” When something is almost complete but awaiting feedback, it goes to “awaiting approval” and obviously, when it’s done, it moves to “done.”
    
2. For us, these projects are completed within 2 week Sprints – which means we’ve got 2 weeks to get these set of tasks completed.
    

The entirety of the project doesn’t need to be completed. A project can span over the course of a few months. But if we SAY we’re going to get something complete that sprint, it generally needs to be completed. We assign different points to different tasks as a means of estimating how long something is supposed to take. This helps immensely with the time management aspect. We eventually develop a better idea of how long certain tasks/projects are supposed to take.

Now for the obvious question: can folks in the automotive industry use Agile? Absolutely! Given how imperative it is for dealerships to have a strong marketing and sales presence in and out of the showroom, it would only make sense that agile process management/methodologies would prove to be useful in the automotive space.

Here are a few ways I believe that automotive dealerships can leverage and benefit from agile methodologies — especially in regards to sales, marketing and overall team management:

1. Keep Tabs on Dealer/Consumer Relationships: 
   
   If you work at or own an already established dealership, chances are pretty good that you have a relatively extensive consumer database — current customers, prospective customers, etc. Although your dealership has a team of salespeople to follow-up with those consumers, things can get a little hectic — especially if you run into the “always good to have” problem of having “too many leads.” Agile processes could potentially alleviate some of the chaos that comes with handling those many relationships. Instead of  perusing through your database — calling out to consumers in the order their contacts are received — certain types of consumers can be grouped together and prioritized for follow-up.
   
   For example: During a week long sprint, one salesperson would focus specifically on consumers who have shown interest in taking a test drive. Another salesperson might focus their time on following up with consumers who are interested in different financing options. The following sprints could then reflect the next stage of their consumer’s shopping journey. If in one sprint, a consumer is helping consumers in the test drive stage, they could help them with the purchase stage the next sprint.
   
   Naturally, there’s no one way to delegating these types of consumer relationships. Your dealership might choose to be a little more organic about it. Another possible way of handling consumer relationships would be handling each consumer as if they were their own task or project.
   
   If, for example, a salesperson has several appointments or phone calls scheduled, those can be assigned their own task or project — depending on how deep the relationship is. If Consumer #1 is schedule to come in and look at selected inventory, the Consumer could theoretically be the project, and the actions (the test drives, the conversations, the paperwork, etc.) could be the tasks or stories.
    
2. Vendor Management:
   
   Dealership owners and general managers often work with a number of different service providers and vendors. Regardless of how many of them you have in your rolodex — whether it’s 1 or 10 — keeping tabs on every piece of communication can be tricky when you have so many other moving parts. Agile process management can give general managers and dealership owners the opportunity to organize and prioritize the most crucial points of communication they have with a vendor.
   
   For example, a meeting to discuss cleaning up with CRM (with your service provider) can be its own task. Once the meet is over, it’ll go from “In Progress” to “Done.” If the meeting was approximately 2 hours, then that means the equivalent of 2 hours (in points) will be taken off your total of points that need to be completed. Managing those varying communications through Agile can help with your team’s overall progress.
    
3. Marketing & Events:
   
   Dealerships are no stranger to the world of marketing — and events for that matter. Whether it’s direct mail, SEO, SEM, social media marketing or event marketing, each of those specialities takes lots of time and lots of effort. Considering I, myself, am part of a marketing team, I can say with 100% confidence that your dealership’s marketing and events teams would greatly benefit from agile methodologies. Considering how granular marketing can become, it would prove extremely useful to break apart each of those marketing specialities and events into projects of their own.
   
   Each project would then have tasks appended to them with their own point estimations. At a high level, this gives the marketing team (as well as the general manager and owner) an idea of how much time and effort is going into promoting your dealership. For example: Putting on an entire event might take a full week.
   
   Think about everything that goes into making an event simply happen. You need to get printed materials, prizes, develop online ads, get in touch with an event team (if applicable) — and the list goes on. Breaking down each of your projects (in this case, a specific event is your “project”) helps eliminate as much chaos as much as possible; and provides additional clarity to parties who aren’t directly involved. 
    

Obviously, you may agree or disagree with the above suggestions. After all, agile process management isn’t an exact science and there are so many different ways of implementing these methodologies into your work environment. But hey, that’s the beauty of agile methodologies — they can be completely customized to your dealership’s needs and goals.

About 2 weeks ago, I attended this year’s DrivingSales Executive Summit in beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada. Boy oh boy, was it amazing! To say that I learned a TON would be a massive understatement. Every keynote and breakout session I attended possessed an avalanche of knowledge — so much, in fact, that my fingers couldn’t move fast enough as I live-tweeted those sessions. 

In-between live-tweeting, live-blogging and frequent coffee/energy drink runs (gotta stay caffeinated), I did have brief moments of downtime to reflect on the sessions I attended as well as the things, people and vendors I saw there. Even though each session and the majority of the vendors possessed unique characteristics that no doubt set them apart from others, there were commonalities you couldn’t miss. 

At the heart of this year’s DSES, there were consistent themes that made their way into almost every part of the conference: employee growth, consumer experiences (and engagement) and or course, the importance of data:

Employee Growth

There’s little to no denying that sales is hard — like, really hard. I would assume this counts as doubly hard for folks in the automotive space. That being said, it’s becoming harder and harder to retain top talent; and a lot of that stems from the a lack of guidance from leadership in automotive. Thankfully, there are a number of folks in the automotive space (and in similar industries) who have realized this gap, and they’ve offered their insights. Student Maid founder, Kristen Hadeed, offered wonderful tips for hiring and managing employees in her introductory keynote presentation, “The Millennials are Coming.” Later that day, Motivational psychologist, Dr. Heidi Grant, offered tips for creating better and strong mindsets for your organization’s culture. 

Along with those 2 keynote presentations, there were also a handful of breakout speakers who touched on this topic:

• “How to Get Millennials to Work and Grow Your Profit.” - Presented by Samantha Cunningham Zawilinski of POTRATZ
• “The Expeditonary Leader’s Journey - the Path & Plan to Creating a Great Company and Culture” - Presented by Mark Brown of Grappone Automotive Group
• “Squash Sales Turnover by Focusing on Workplace Culture” by David Druzynski of Auto/Mate Dealership Systems
• “No Longer Fear the Walking Dead - Motivate and Resurrect Your Sales Team!” - Presented by Jonathan Dawson of Sellchology Sales Training 
• "Diversity by Design: Stop Recruiting and Start Connecting - How to Recruit, Retain and Motivate a World Class Team" - Presented by Bobbie Herron of ZMOT
• "Stop the New-Hire Revolving Door at Your Dealership” - Presented by Jason Volny of DrivingSales

Consumer Experiences

If there’s one thing that all of us have heard over and over and over again (regardless of industry), it’s that everyone and their grandma shops on their mobile devices. And no, these aren’t folks who are just trying to cash in on behavior they encourage — it’s actually the truth. With the ease of mobile or even laptop research, consumers have become choosier about which dealerships to spend their hard-earned money at. They want the best services, the best offers and the best vehicles at the best possible price. There’s no settling anymore. Consumers want the whole shebang, and mobile devices make jumping from website to website easier than ever before. 

Although it’s often expected that consumers will visit your website and leave at a certain point, it’s clear that many dealerships also want those consumers to come back. Additionally, dealerships want to keep those consumers on their website as long as possible and decrease their bounce rate. According to many of the automotive experts at DSES, this can be done by improving a consumer’s experience online: making the website easy to navigate, posting images/video and providing appropriate tools.

Keynote speakers, David R. Bell (“The Power of Your Physical Location in a Digital World”), Ian Cruickshank (“Swipe Left, Swipe Right: Your Vehicle Photos Tell You More than You Think”) & Andrew Davis (“The Loyalty Loop: How Small Things Add Up to Big Business”) discuss the importance of consumer experiences quite vividly.

As far as the breakout speakers go, consumer experiences were also touched upon by Brent Wees “The True Effects of Time Management (or Lack of) on your Dealership’s Consumer Experience;” Eric Giroux (“Ask Less, Get More: You’re Trying to Do Too Much with your Website and it’s Costing You;” Dave Spannhake (“Building A budget in a world of Millennials”), Michelle Denogean ("Beyond Digital Retailing: How To Create A Tailored Solution That Leads To An Experience, Not Just A Transaction”), Brian Finkelmeyer (“Outsmart Your Competitors and Win Today’s Online Shoppers”), Joe Webb ("Harnessing Video to Build a Brand, Not a Dealership"), etc. etc. You get the idea. There were a TON of sessions related to consumer experiences. 

Importance of Data

Last, but not least, many of the sessions at DSES emphasize the importance of data. Given how many consumers do the majority of shopping online, it only makes sense for dealerships to keep a close eye on visitor activity. Time on page, bounce rate, lead to sale, buyer profiles — it all matters. 

While almost every session (keynote and breakout) touched on data, there were speakers that made data their focal point: Michael King (“The Future of Search”), Sean Stapleton ("Why Relevancy and Optimization Are Crucial to Your SEM Strategy”), Mark Conner (“Dealer First Solutions to Digital Marketing”), Bryan Harwood ("Marketing Insights and Attribution – Are Your Metrics in Alignment?”), Darren Haygood ("See Before the Last Click: Identifying Influence Drivers That Drive Results"), Jenny Vance ("Getting More Consumer Data is Easy; Motivating Your Salespeople is the Challenge”)

I learned a TON at this year’s DrivingSales Executive Summit and I have little to no doubt that next year will be even better. I actually took all my DSES session notes and compiled them into a free eBook just for you guys. Download it here and let me know your thoughts! 

Seeya next year! 

Before I begin, it’s important to clarify that if your dealership wins because of the products and services leveraged, it provides your vendor with further validation that they’re doing something right. It’s a cycle of success! I learned this from our brilliant EVP of Sales, Jenny Vance!

In order to achieve this success, however, dealerships need to have a conversation with their providers. All too often, dealerships are hesitant to make changes to their processes because, let’s face it, change can be scary. 

With proper dialogue between your dealership and your vendor, new strategies can be developed, learning can happen and success can be attained. And I'm not alone in this thinking either. My colleague, Russ Chandler, discussed provider relationships this in-depth last year. 

Here's what dealerships can look for when searching for a vendor to have a grounded, professional working relationship with:

Seek Out Vendors Who Enjoy Open Discussion

When seeking out a vendor to have a conversation with it, it’s best to find a vendors who are natural conversationalists. And no, I don’t mean hiring vendors who like to rattle your ear off, I mean vendors who have proven that they can work closely with their customers. It’s important that vendors and dealerships are able to listen to one another’s concerns and come up with viable workarounds and solutions that lead to their desired result.

Now you might be asking: “How do I know if the vendor I’m looking at is going to work with me?” Well, honestly, we never know how a vendor/dealership relationship is going to work out until the discussions have begun. However, there’s research you can conduct to help guide your dealership in the right direction.

Before committing to a long-term vendor relationship, be sure to read case studies, read reviews (G2 Crowd & Capterra are some of the best for software reviews) or talk to other auto folks to get a recommendation/referral. In a nutshell, other people’s experiences will tell you more than what taking an educated guess can ever do for your dealership.

Go With Vendors Who LOVE Data

When seeking out a new vendor, chances are good that you’re already having a conversation with them. You’re probably asking them questions about the types of services they offer, pricing, contracts, among all the other usual questions. One question that your dealership might deem particularly useful is “how are you able to build out your strategy?” If any mention of previous benchmark data comes into the conversation at any point, then you’re likely heading in the right direction.

Some of the best types of strategies are built around the mistakes or mishaps of previous strategies from either previous clients or quarters. The more you learn from your mistakes, the more successful you’re likely to be. This builds onto the conversationalist trait because that previous data allows vendors to explain WHY they’re choosing to do certain things.

What have your experiences been like with looking for vendors? Let me know in the comments below!

In 2016, Automotive Internet Media won a Davey Award for what it touts as the first true English-Spanish website. The website for Ray Chevrolet in Fox Lake, Ill., features a fully responsive design that delivers customized content in Spanish or English (it does not use a translator plug-in, because those features often produce inaccurate or “clunky translation,” AIM said).

That dealership has an inventory of more than 750 cars – and one could assume, a sizeable budget for marketing. A truly bilingual website is a big undertaking, and one that many dealerships may be unable to afford. But there are 7 other ways you can wow consumers by having one of the best car dealer websites out there.  

1. Meet them where they are. According to a study by Ipsos MediaCT, in the future, many consumers will do all of their car-shopping research exclusively on mobile phones. So. if your website is still designed with only the desktop browser in mind, it’s time to implement a responsive design.

Consumers may be browsing your website on mobile phones, tablets, and desktop platforms, and using different browsers and operating systems. The best responsive design is one that’s tested in every possible configuration – don’t assume consumers all have the latest iPhones.

2. Optimize the mobile user experience. When designing or redesigning your website to keep mobile users in mind, don’t stop with simple responsiveness. Make sure that the buyer experience is optimized for mobile users.

Think about the small size of the screen. Are you making buttons large enough for the user can easily navigate to the other areas of your website?

According to Think Google, forms are an example of where things can go wrong if they’re not designed to fit smaller screens. Think about it. At that critical moment when you’re counting on them to provide their contact info for an engagement campaign, you could lose them — simply by making the process too difficult.

3. Simplify. Of course, you have a lot of information you want to convey to online visitors. But throwing too much at them on a single page is not going to achieve your objectives. The best car dealership websites make effective use of white space – that area of nothingness between elements on a page. That white space helps website visitors focus on the content, or other important elements on a page.

Avoid complicated fonts – or using too many fonts. Uniformity in text and design is much easier on the eyes. If you want website visitors to see several images before they leave your website, consider using a banner on your homepage that rotates through those images, rather than trying to place all the images on the same page.

4. Flood your site with images. While you’re going for a simple, clean design, don’t skimp on images. Show off different angles of each vehicle you’re selling — inside, outside, engine, front, back … you get the picture.

More importantly, now is not the time to settle for subpar photography. Images should be clear and as accurate as possible, reflecting the accurate color of the vehicle and any aspects of the vehicle that will intrigue shoppers. Invest in camera equipment and software that allows you to make a professional presentation of your inventory.

Whether you’re showcasing the new vehicles or used vehicles on your lot, it’s important to give them this special treatment so potential buyers will have a good sense of what you have available. It’s key to tempting them to make the next step — whether that’s filling out a form and showing up to your dealership in person.

5. Rethink navigation. Some car dealership websites have a dizzying array of drop-down menus, each with way too many options. Drop-down menus can be annoying for people using mobile browsers, but if you must use drop-downs, at least limit the sub-categories so they display well on small mobile screens.   

When website visitors have to constantly bounce back and forth between sections of your website, that’s what UX designer Jared M. Spool calls “pogosticking.” It means that you haven’t given website visitors the information they need – so perhaps they have to click on each car to see the model year, when you could easily include the model year in the thumbnail image of that car, and save visitors the trouble of clicking through.

Also, think about different categories that allow people to easily narrow their choices based on cost, year, make, model and mileage. By allowing visitors to sort through the inventory that’s more relevant to their search, you score points.

The best websites don’t make visitors hunt for information.

6. Be informative. Provide content that answers questions shoppers may have – from the beginning of their search to the end. With car buyers spending anywhere from an average of 11 hours to 14 hours, depending upon which survey you’re reviewing, it’s obvious that car shoppers have a keen interest in researching their options.

When you provide content that’s relevant and helpful, people in the research phase of their car-buying journey are more likely to remember you when they’re ready to buy.

Analyze your site, thinking about the many steps of the car buying journey — from exploring vehicle options to financing arrangements.  

7. Carve out opportunities to be “present” online. Just because you’re not able to meet consumers face-to-face on your website doesn’t mean you can’t engage with them — showing off the personality of your team.

Look for opportunities on various pages to ask visitors “Can I help you?” without being overbearing. Try different variations to make them relevant to the page they’re landing on.

For example, if a car shopper is on your financing page, forms that offer to answer more specific questions about interest rates or trade-in appraisals are relevant. Also, live chat options can be another way to engage your visitors.

By making an effort to create one of the best car dealership websites in the market, consider yourself as having one of the top car salesmen working on your behalf.

Your website truly can be one of the most important players on your team if you equip for high performance.