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.

Do you know how long it takes to get your inventory through the shop, detailed and add photos?

Along with a dealers main website, sites like AutoTrader.com and Cars.com post a dealers inventory, but what are we sending to these sites?

AutoTrader.com and Cars.com rewards your fresh trades with a "NEWLY LISTED" tag, but New Trades are not through the shop or detail. This "NEWLY LISTED" vehicle has no photos or custom comments.

 Pleas take this short survey. The goal of this survey is to determine Prime Marketing Time and compare the total Marketing Time Online vs. your Days In Stock policy.  Results of the survey will be shared in a later post.

Click the link below and take the five question survey.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/W7FTR68

Do you know how long it takes to get your inventory through the shop, detailed and add photos?

Along with a dealers main website, sites like AutoTrader.com and Cars.com post a dealers inventory, but what are we sending to these sites?

AutoTrader.com and Cars.com rewards your fresh trades with a "NEWLY LISTED" tag, but New Trades are not through the shop or detail. This "NEWLY LISTED" vehicle has no photos or custom comments.

 Pleas take this short survey. The goal of this survey is to determine Prime Marketing Time and compare the total Marketing Time Online vs. your Days In Stock policy.  Results of the survey will be shared in a later post.

Click the link below and take the five question survey.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/W7FTR68

I spoke to a good friend Friday night who is with Hyundai. His store is part of a developed Auto Group and added a new Hyundai point. He was telling me about how great Auto USA leads are for new and how few AutoTrader leads he gets for Used. My leads are just the opposite. We did not find the same success with Auto USA and no longer with them and get great leads from AutoTrader for Used.

So my question is if your store said you can only keep one “Third Party” lead source, which one would you keep and why? Please reply and support Used “I’d keep ______” and New “I’d keep_________” or if you are weeding them out all together. Please also include the Make your dealer supports and the main city you sell from.

I spoke to a good friend Friday night who is with Hyundai. His store is part of a developed Auto Group and added a new Hyundai point. He was telling me about how great Auto USA leads are for new and how few AutoTrader leads he gets for Used. My leads are just the opposite. We did not find the same success with Auto USA and no longer with them and get great leads from AutoTrader for Used.

So my question is if your store said you can only keep one “Third Party” lead source, which one would you keep and why? Please reply and support Used “I’d keep ______” and New “I’d keep_________” or if you are weeding them out all together. Please also include the Make your dealer supports and the main city you sell from.