True Marketing Time

Recently with the help of DrivingSales.com, we conducted a survey to better understand the timing of a used car process and determine Prime Marketing Time and Total Marketing Time.

Searching any dealer’s inventory at any given point, we can find “Newly Listed” cars on AutoTrader, Cars.com or a dealer’s site that is without photos or custom comments. The survey had five questions to review the used car process from service, detail, photos to live.

The questions were not designed to argue if a car should be place online right away with or without photos, but to determine how much "online" marketing time that could be considered as wasted. As we read through the results, please keep in mind we asked about averages.

• Total Marketing Time is defined as when a Used Car is through the entire process, with live photos online minus a dealers Day In Stock policy.

• Prime Marketing Time is defined as when a Used Car is through the entire process, with live photos online minus the average days it takes a dealer to sell a Used Car.

Data Collection

Using surveymonkey.com, we create a quick free version survey that was launched as a blog post on DrivingSales.com by Gary Sanders with the help from Bart Wilson. We also pushed it out to Twitter with RT’s from Ed Brooks @velocitysales, @CobaltMarketing, Gary May @imacsweb and Brian Pasch @automotiveseo and Paul Potratz (@POTRAZ) to name a few. This allowed us to spread the word and start collecting results.

Review of Survey

The follow questions in the survey totaled over 80 responses.

1. On AVERAGE, how long after the Used Car is placed in inventory (day one) does it take to complete your Used Car Inspection?  (Used Car Inspection can include the used car Repair Order, Certified and safety check, repair or replace worn parts, tires, brakes, etc…..)

 Analysis

These answers are right in line. Dealers are aware on the importance of getting fresh inventory through the shop with 90.3% of the dealer’s surveyed get a used car through the shop less than 6 days. 74.4% dealers are able to do it in less than 4 days

2. On AVERAGE, after the completion of the Used Car Inspection, how many days does it take to complete the Interior/Exterior Detail? (This can include dent repair and touch up)

Analysis

These results show most dealers moving the used car inventory through the process and get in to the front line as quick as possible. 76 or 92.7% of the dealers surveyed get a used car detailed in less than 4 days with most done in 1-2 days.

3. On AVERAGE, after the completion of the Interior/Exterior Detail, how many days does it take to upload Photos? (Taking live photos and replacing factory default photos online)

Analysis

Photos are an important part in your cars being displayed online. Along with compelling comments, photos tell the story give your customers shopping online the information about the car.

4. What is your AVERAGE Days In Stock of your Retail Used Car Inventory from when the vehicle is TRADED IN (day one) to when it is SOLD?

                          Response Count                            Response %

5. What is your “Day In Stock Policy”? (when a Used Car must be wholesale if it does not sale retail)

                                                Response Count                       Response %

Using a 60 Day Turn Example

If a dealer has a 60 day turn and using the average responses, marketing time could look like this:

• 3 - 4 days in service
• 1 - 4 days in detail
• 1 - 2 days of photos

It could be viewed a dealer has 50 - 55 days of Total Market Time.

If it takes an average of 30 - 31 days to take SELL at retail unit, this dealer has 20 – 24 days of Prime Marketing Time.

What we would like to hear from the DrivingSales.com community is additional analysis of the questions. As a dealer, did you have trouble areas of getting you cars through the process? What adjustments were made?

• Do you monitor your cars each step?
• Did you see a change if you made adjustments to your comments?
• Did you add photos?
• Did you make a change to the layout of your photos?
• Do you place you cars online with out photos or wait for the photos?

True Marketing Time

Recently with the help of DrivingSales.com, we conducted a survey to better understand the timing of a used car process and determine Prime Marketing Time and Total Marketing Time.

Searching any dealer’s inventory at any given point, we can find “Newly Listed” cars on AutoTrader, Cars.com or a dealer’s site that is without photos or custom comments. The survey had five questions to review the used car process from service, detail, photos to live.

The questions were not designed to argue if a car should be place online right away with or without photos, but to determine how much "online" marketing time that could be considered as wasted. As we read through the results, please keep in mind we asked about averages.

• Total Marketing Time is defined as when a Used Car is through the entire process, with live photos online minus a dealers Day In Stock policy.

• Prime Marketing Time is defined as when a Used Car is through the entire process, with live photos online minus the average days it takes a dealer to sell a Used Car.

Data Collection

Using surveymonkey.com, we create a quick free version survey that was launched as a blog post on DrivingSales.com by Gary Sanders with the help from Bart Wilson. We also pushed it out to Twitter with RT’s from Ed Brooks @velocitysales, @CobaltMarketing, Gary May @imacsweb and Brian Pasch @automotiveseo and Paul Potratz (@POTRAZ) to name a few. This allowed us to spread the word and start collecting results.

Review of Survey

The follow questions in the survey totaled over 80 responses.

1. On AVERAGE, how long after the Used Car is placed in inventory (day one) does it take to complete your Used Car Inspection?  (Used Car Inspection can include the used car Repair Order, Certified and safety check, repair or replace worn parts, tires, brakes, etc…..)

 Analysis

These answers are right in line. Dealers are aware on the importance of getting fresh inventory through the shop with 90.3% of the dealer’s surveyed get a used car through the shop less than 6 days. 74.4% dealers are able to do it in less than 4 days

2. On AVERAGE, after the completion of the Used Car Inspection, how many days does it take to complete the Interior/Exterior Detail? (This can include dent repair and touch up)

Analysis

These results show most dealers moving the used car inventory through the process and get in to the front line as quick as possible. 76 or 92.7% of the dealers surveyed get a used car detailed in less than 4 days with most done in 1-2 days.

3. On AVERAGE, after the completion of the Interior/Exterior Detail, how many days does it take to upload Photos? (Taking live photos and replacing factory default photos online)

Analysis

Photos are an important part in your cars being displayed online. Along with compelling comments, photos tell the story give your customers shopping online the information about the car.

4. What is your AVERAGE Days In Stock of your Retail Used Car Inventory from when the vehicle is TRADED IN (day one) to when it is SOLD?

                          Response Count                            Response %

5. What is your “Day In Stock Policy”? (when a Used Car must be wholesale if it does not sale retail)

                                                Response Count                       Response %

Using a 60 Day Turn Example

If a dealer has a 60 day turn and using the average responses, marketing time could look like this:

• 3 - 4 days in service
• 1 - 4 days in detail
• 1 - 2 days of photos

It could be viewed a dealer has 50 - 55 days of Total Market Time.

If it takes an average of 30 - 31 days to take SELL at retail unit, this dealer has 20 – 24 days of Prime Marketing Time.

What we would like to hear from the DrivingSales.com community is additional analysis of the questions. As a dealer, did you have trouble areas of getting you cars through the process? What adjustments were made?

• Do you monitor your cars each step?
• Did you see a change if you made adjustments to your comments?
• Did you add photos?
• Did you make a change to the layout of your photos?
• Do you place you cars online with out photos or wait for the photos?

If 100% of your floor takes incoming sales calls and most dealers will tell you 10-20% of them are good on the phones, could changing up your Used Car photos improve the call?

*First, let me start by saying changing how you display your Used Cars online should not take the place of on going training. Phone calls still require enthusiasm, asking questions and setting an appointment.

Have you recently listened to a recorded call and the customer asks;

“What are the miles? Does it have navigation and heated seats?” and cringe when the sales person says “Ummm, you mean the Silver one? Can you give me the stock number? I’ll have to go check….” Go online and look at the car on your site, Autotrader and Cars.com to see what the customer sees. Do you then understand why the customers are asking these questions? (it might be your photos)

Your photos are a virtual walk around online. Bad photos and catching a sale person not prepared to take a call is a bad combination. I am not saying that adding 6-8 more photos to what you are taking now is all the sudden going to make sales people great on the phones. I am merely saying additional photos could assist the call by displaying special options to bail sales people out of a bad call when the customers knows the answer to the question………..“I see this one has the navigation, is it still available?”

www.twitter.com/sandersgary

If 100% of your floor takes incoming sales calls and most dealers will tell you 10-20% of them are good on the phones, could changing up your Used Car photos improve the call?

*First, let me start by saying changing how you display your Used Cars online should not take the place of on going training. Phone calls still require enthusiasm, asking questions and setting an appointment.

Have you recently listened to a recorded call and the customer asks;

“What are the miles? Does it have navigation and heated seats?” and cringe when the sales person says “Ummm, you mean the Silver one? Can you give me the stock number? I’ll have to go check….” Go online and look at the car on your site, Autotrader and Cars.com to see what the customer sees. Do you then understand why the customers are asking these questions? (it might be your photos)

Your photos are a virtual walk around online. Bad photos and catching a sale person not prepared to take a call is a bad combination. I am not saying that adding 6-8 more photos to what you are taking now is all the sudden going to make sales people great on the phones. I am merely saying additional photos could assist the call by displaying special options to bail sales people out of a bad call when the customers knows the answer to the question………..“I see this one has the navigation, is it still available?”

www.twitter.com/sandersgary

If you have been to an airport or looked at a Sunday newspaper ad, QR codes are growing. So how can we use them?

What if QR codes became a virtual walk around? We may not be ready to have them on the showroom (yet), but what about any car you have on display offsite?

What if the Manufactures used them at the Auto Shows? 

What if this code talked about the fuel economy of the Lexus RX350?

What if this code talked about the Smart Access Key and Push Button Start?

What if this code talked about the RX Performance and the 3.5-liter V6 Engine?

As I continue to learn more about them, the ideas are limitless. The one recommendation is to create a separate site that is compatible for a smart phone. Don’t send it to your vendors sites like Cobalt and Dealer.com because it opens your dealers mobile site. I am testing out the use of our codes on StevinsonLexusofLakewood.org which is hosted by Word Press.

Are you using them in your dealer? Let the Driving Sales community know what you are doing.

If you have been to an airport or looked at a Sunday newspaper ad, QR codes are growing. So how can we use them?

What if QR codes became a virtual walk around? We may not be ready to have them on the showroom (yet), but what about any car you have on display offsite?

What if the Manufactures used them at the Auto Shows? 

What if this code talked about the fuel economy of the Lexus RX350?

What if this code talked about the Smart Access Key and Push Button Start?

What if this code talked about the RX Performance and the 3.5-liter V6 Engine?

As I continue to learn more about them, the ideas are limitless. The one recommendation is to create a separate site that is compatible for a smart phone. Don’t send it to your vendors sites like Cobalt and Dealer.com because it opens your dealers mobile site. I am testing out the use of our codes on StevinsonLexusofLakewood.org which is hosted by Word Press.

Are you using them in your dealer? Let the Driving Sales community know what you are doing.

As fall is upon us, our big tree started to shed its leaves. Knowing the tree still had leaves on it, we raked our yard even thought an hour later it looked like we did nothing at all. Some leaves remain on the tree, some continue to fall and some are blowing down the street. So what does this have to do with SEO?

I am not an expert or “guru”, but like leaves on a tree (metaphor), it is important to continue to drop articles, a press releases, post or pages in Google’s yard. The leaves that are in Google’s yard are the most relative links for any given search term. The leaves that are about to fall are the relative links attacking any given search term. Leaves that are blowing down the street are no longer relative to that search term or may be poorly written.

When dropping a new article, post or page in Google’s yard, make sure it has good content, clear page titles and page description or risk Google raking it up. It’s ok when your leaves end up in the neighbors (competition) back yard.

*This is my opinion of SEO and what I have learned about it.

I’d appreciate replies and comments.

As fall is upon us, our big tree started to shed its leaves. Knowing the tree still had leaves on it, we raked our yard even thought an hour later it looked like we did nothing at all. Some leaves remain on the tree, some continue to fall and some are blowing down the street. So what does this have to do with SEO?

I am not an expert or “guru”, but like leaves on a tree (metaphor), it is important to continue to drop articles, a press releases, post or pages in Google’s yard. The leaves that are in Google’s yard are the most relative links for any given search term. The leaves that are about to fall are the relative links attacking any given search term. Leaves that are blowing down the street are no longer relative to that search term or may be poorly written.

When dropping a new article, post or page in Google’s yard, make sure it has good content, clear page titles and page description or risk Google raking it up. It’s ok when your leaves end up in the neighbors (competition) back yard.

*This is my opinion of SEO and what I have learned about it.

I’d appreciate replies and comments.

I wanted to introduce myself as a contributor to the Driving Sale community. My name is Gary Sanders and I am the Internet Director at Stevinson Lexus of Lakewood which is just west of Denver Colorado. This year I am celebrating my seventh year at Stevinson and tenth in the car business. I started at a Ford store in Colorado Springs in 2000 when I moved to Denver in 2001. In March of 2003, I was hired at Stevinson Lexus of Lakewood on the floor. When the Internet position became available I started with the basics of Internet lead comes in, answer and repeat. I then learned as a dealer we had to option to edit our Cobalt site. As I dived in, my first step was to the other Lexus dealers in the area then region to see what they were doing with there site. For the life of me, I could not understand why dealer had the options and the tools and did nothing with them? As my career, understanding and education continued, I recognized I had a truly great opportunity to take it to the next level. One person I want to thank and consider a friend that has guided me is Gary May of http://www.imacsweb.com/. He has been very helpful in sharing ideas and always great to chat to. He is the one that introduced me to sites like drivingsales.com and others. My post will be about dealer to dealer chats and how we can improve. From sale, fixed ops to training. Although titled “It not all about the vendors”, I encourage everyone to comment. Thank you to Jared, Bart and the Driving Sale team. Follow me on twitter @DenverLexus and recently created @cardealerblog

I wanted to introduce myself as a contributor to the Driving Sale community. My name is Gary Sanders and I am the Internet Director at Stevinson Lexus of Lakewood which is just west of Denver Colorado. This year I am celebrating my seventh year at Stevinson and tenth in the car business. I started at a Ford store in Colorado Springs in 2000 when I moved to Denver in 2001. In March of 2003, I was hired at Stevinson Lexus of Lakewood on the floor. When the Internet position became available I started with the basics of Internet lead comes in, answer and repeat. I then learned as a dealer we had to option to edit our Cobalt site. As I dived in, my first step was to the other Lexus dealers in the area then region to see what they were doing with there site. For the life of me, I could not understand why dealer had the options and the tools and did nothing with them? As my career, understanding and education continued, I recognized I had a truly great opportunity to take it to the next level. One person I want to thank and consider a friend that has guided me is Gary May of http://www.imacsweb.com/. He has been very helpful in sharing ideas and always great to chat to. He is the one that introduced me to sites like drivingsales.com and others. My post will be about dealer to dealer chats and how we can improve. From sale, fixed ops to training. Although titled “It not all about the vendors”, I encourage everyone to comment. Thank you to Jared, Bart and the Driving Sale team. Follow me on twitter @DenverLexus and recently created @cardealerblog