I don't have to be a beer-maker to advertise beer. I don't have to have sold beer to sell beer. 

But I had best actually done ADVERTISING myself in order to PROVIDE advertising for beer. Or for cars.

Many of the folks who sell clicks (excuse me, "Digital Advertisers") don't sell you anything they have ever done, and many of them BUY and RESELL click products that they have never USED. Or, in some cases, even seen.

Well, I can definitely tell you I have made this beer. Myself. AND I've analyzed hundreds of dealer's digital ad spend to find those who have not.

Want to talk about your dealership's digital ad spend and get help? Just need an ear? Get a beer?

Call me. The BullCutter. 281-401-9520 cell/text

Keith Shetterly

Dealership Management System/Software (DMS). Customer Relationship Manager (CRM).

They aren’t the same, so stop treating them the same.

We went wrong when we began buying a lot of malarkey from CRM vendors about putting desking in the CRM so that usage of the CRM would be "naturally required". Sounded good, though, to many of us: Instead of building a process and a culture to grow our business, we tried to imprison salespeople and sales management into a CRM gulag. Well, our people are slick—and they avoided proper CRM usage, anyway, by only entering people to whom they showed numbers. We might as well have tried to eat chicken broth with a fork.

The right answer is one of two things:

1) Desk in the DMS and accept the CRM as our framework for sales processes and use it that way—and stop trying to make it One Stop Feature Shopping (which, just before Thanksgiving, became “One Stop Failure” for a major CRM, again);

or

2) Consider a DMS that includes a strong, usable CRM built-in with the DMS.

Is there a third choice? Yes. Continue to fail right along with your CRM. 

So don't fail.

Keith Shetterly
Independent Consultant
281-229-5887 cell/text
keithshetterly@gmail.com

P.S. This is one of a series, but here are some definitions you might need for clarity.

Essentially, we use our DMS to write and underwrite our business, and we use our CRM to chase customers/prospects and build our business.

DMS handles accounts payable, receivables, inventory, floor plan, punching cars to the OEM(s), national vehicle leasing and sales (a much harder crunch than you likely know), your F&I, your service lane, parts, your business office, your sales tax payments, info for your CPA for your federal taxes, payroll, and your Almighty Statement—and is your technology rock for desking a deal.

CRM handles Internet Leads distribution to your sales team, produces lead timing reports to various OEMs, manages email/text/social communications with your prospects, interfaces with your call recordings, orchestrates pre-sales and post-sales follow-up with prospects and customers, interfaces with your DMS for SOLD and SERVICE info, gets your inventory into the hands of your salespeople to send to customers, helps you manage your sales staff’s efforts and time usage, provides methods for data mining SOLDS, UNSOLDS, SERVICED-BUT-NEVER-SOLD, etc.—and is your technology Jello for desking a deal.

It’s ACCOUNTABILITY, not “Attribution”, for advertising. 

Advertising vendors, agencies, verifiers, and consultants are all aflutter about attribution. Whatever. 

It’s not just coming down to “last click”, or “multi-click” . . . because that all sounds like the 21st Century version of “Who’s On First”. And it is. In fact, it's more like a paternity test on Maury Povitch! Sheesh. Who sold the car? Who is the "father" of the sale??

So, let’s cut to the chase. Open the envelope. 

I know damn well “who sold the car”, and so do you: Your dealership sold the car.

Advertising never sold a car. Ever.

For advertising, yes, attribution is very important, but it is only a part of ACCOUNTABILITY. You spent money, and did the advertiser deliver what they promised? That is THEIR accountability. And did YOU do what you needed to do with whatever traffic--online and in the store, leads, calls, floor--that came into your showroom? THAT is YOUR accountability.

So, attend to your calls, leads, and showroom traffic.  Pay attention to what your advertising is doing for traffic, and measure it every way possible.

And don’t be led astray by a singular focus on “attribution”. That will get you nowhere but with a smiling advertising vendor telling you, on a good month, that THEY sold the car, and on a bad month that YOU failed.

Baloney. ACCOUNTABILITY of advertising, and of YOUR dealership, including far more than attribution of clicks, is where it’s at for sales success.

Your dealership sold the car. And you can tell them I told you that without an "advertising DNA test". 

P.S. Much more to come from me on this soon.

Keith Shetterly
Independent Consultant
keithshetterly@gmail.com
281-229-5887 cell/text

To some vendors and industry critics, dealerships are so “in the way” of the consumer with our Road to the Sale, right? We hear that, loud and clear.

It all gets explained like this: The modern consumer sees advertising, reviews inventory, and comes in to buy a pre-selected vehicle. And we don’t need to interfere with that from our sales process, or from any Road to the Sale of any number of sales steps—we just need to serve information and get out of the way. With a smile. No test drives, or fact-finding interviews, or selling the customer in any way are required. 

It would be just like purchasing a jacket, or a dress, on a retail rack. Or, far worse, like a drive-thru at McDonald’s.

Now, yes, of course, the modern consumer has changed, but every time I read some other geek (and I am one, myself) writing about “changing the car buying process” like this they forget the Okee-Carvana Swamp:  Providing what a geek imagines the consumer wants isn’t what the consumer wants, because they make the Classic Geek Mistake of deciding they know better.

This is the “Old Microsoft” Way:  Geeks Know Better. You know this is true and the best way for everything, because, say, Excel features have never confused you. Your cell phone has never failed to make a call. Your CRM software has never left you high and dry on a Friday before a weekend. And your website is clean and easy for you to maintain and for the customer to use. Because success is “Geeks-Know-Better Nirvana”. Right?

Well, NO—of course that isn’t true.

Absolutely, we all know the real truth is that consumers don’t like many parts of the current process at the stores and so like to shop online as much as they can before a visit—but, over and over again, the shoppers will come in to buy a new car or truck  . . . and still change their mind in the store on the vehicle they want.

We lift them to other vehicles with sales efforts, sure, but they also lift themselves. They decide that leather just is too expensive to have. Or too nice to pass up. Or the 3rd row seat isn’t big enough. Or it is just what they need.

The Internet has brought clear consumer pressure to make the purchase at the store that much quicker and better. And much is already afoot in our industry to move the process online into selection, financing, and aftermarkets. However, for most dealerships today, that is not the reality. YET.

And the consumer still needs help in selection, comparison, and purchase at the store—and maybe they always will need that in person, even if it’s “all worked out ahead.” Several experiments by dealer groups and manufacturers have shown that isn’t clear exactly how to do it “all online” with the consumer. At all. To date, NOBODY “knows better”.

So, geeks, it’s not a jacket or a dress: It’s a $25k – to $40k – to $80k, or more, purchase. Convenience in America, which is highly valued by consumers more nowadays than ever, just isn’t ready to deliver a car purchase without some help. In person.

It still ain’t a suit rack purchase, my fellow geeks. Not to the consumer. Not yet.

And maybe not ever.

Keith Shetterly
Independent Consultant
keithshetterly@gmail.com
281-229-5887 cell/text

CRMs break and are often hard to use. Why?

When you look at this Dealership CRM picture at the bottom here, ask yourself:

1) Is it any wonder that CRMs don't see more than 25% average functionality usage at the dealerships, and

2) Is it any wonder they break down at critical points and/or are difficult to use?

The little part on the left about "Desking" is vastly under-represented: It actually takes all the rest of the picture and puts it into a blender due to the issues with different localities taxing and leasing laws and regs.

And I don't mean just the amounts, but even the ORDER in which they are figured, and "localities" means it can vary with state, commonwealth, county, township, parish, city, and town--so the complexity of a "national" CRM trying to get all that right means you deal with the issues and failures as they ripple out into the product (even to it breaking).

Anyway, I thought this picture might serve some of you when trying to figure something out with your CRM or evaluate a new CRM. You're welcome to use it wherever if you attribute it back to me.

Keith Shetterly
Independent Consultant
keithshetterly@gmail.com
281-229-5887 cell/text

We talked for years in automotive retail about “The Road to the Sale”, and I’m clearly one of the many supporters of that path to sales success.   However, too many of us are still on "The Road Less Profited".  Why?  Because we are not getting more sales (and profits!) from "The Road to Retention”!

Retention sales link the positives of variable and fixed operations together, and their teaming allows each part of the dealership to amplify the other.  Unfortunately, even in 2012, we don’t see that profitable interaction very often, and in fact it seems programs and efforts at retention—which will gain a lot more money for the dealership in both operation and by advertising—don’t get much attention.  Or action for sales.

And that is a huge, profit-abandoning, mistake. 

And the “how” is not complicated.  For sales and service, here’s The Road to Retention:

1. Capture the newly-sold units into service with service walks and with discounted first-service and detail offers, etc. in a programmed, post-sale fixed ops monthly marketing effort.
2. Mine your existing owner base for the locals that still don’t visit for service, and send them service and detail offers in a programmed, post-sale fixed ops monthly outbound marketing effort.
3. Mine your sold-to-service owner base for flips from service to sales, both during appropriately-timed and/or large-service visits and also by making service-loyalty-prompted outbound equity calls and email/direct mail efforts.
4. Mine your service-only customers for flips from service to sales, both during appropriately-timed and/or large-service visits and also by making service-loyalty-prompted outbound equity calls and email/direct mail efforts.
5. Offer notable and marketable customer-facing “ease of use” features for your service drive, to include “loyal customer” loaners/rides, a great service drive and waiting room experience (and market to them there, too), easy mobile and online appointment scheduling, valuable email service reminders with offers (and body shop reminders/offers), timely opt-in text repair status, etc.
6. Perform equity calls to all owner-base customers every month, and email/direct mail the local owners in good equity position, as well.  If they are not ready for a purchase, invite them into service with a good incentive.
7. Concentrate on the fixed-ops up-sell AND CSI!  They go hand-in-hand, generating good repeat customers.
8. Provide great sales and service, and focus on capturing customer reviews to support your position.  And ADVERTISE your great reviews to all your potential and existing customers.  Online and offline.
9. Organize and measure all this with the best DMS, CRM, and 3rd-Party tools you can get.  And use them all!  If you can’t keep track of it, you can’t measure it.  If you can’t measure it, you are guessing—and dealerships are businesses not the Vegas tables!  KNOW.  Don’t guess.
10. Operate all of this as the “Great Turning Wheel of Retention”, because your bestnew customers are always your previous customers.  There is a lifecycle to all sales, and the strongest lifecycle is when the cycle is worked for retention—abandonment chases customers away.  Draw them back into your dealership for sales and service!  They already visited you once to purchase, and they will again if you manage them in a lifecycle focused on retention.

Dealers:  Don't follow "The Road Less Profited” any more.

Instead, follow “The Road to Retention” and make more money than ever!

by Keith Shetterly
keithshetterly@gmail.com

1. “Quiet Panther” (安靜的每週獅): Websites Should Be Seen and Not Heard
You wouldn’t set off the horns of every one of your showroom cars just as a customer opens the door—so don’t do it on the Web! Remember, customers with jobs don’t need the “Boss I’m Car Shopping Instead of Working” alarm to go off at their own desk. Use sound where it makes sense, but let the shoppers choose when to turn it on:  Make friends and sales with your site, not unemployment!

2. “Running Tiger” (執行老虎): Driving Traffic via SEO is More Than Just Meta Tags and Page Titles
Don’t expect your current success via yesterday’s SEO to last—are you creating and posting online video on your site?  Do you use off-site video?  Are you pursuing back-links from Social Media? Do you blog?  The Internet isn’t a RonCo “Set It and Forget It” appliance, so don’t treat it that way.  Stay on top of it. And if you use a vendor, use one with a great SEO reputation in automotive.

3. “Dancing Monkey” (跳舞猴子):  Live Chat to a Dead Head is Only Good at Concerts
The mega fans of The Grateful Dead should never provide live chat services—are you checking what you’re getting with your online chat service? Make sure they answer well and successfully set appointments by “mystery chatting” them yourself.  And do it often.  Good chat is a very valuable sales conversion tool—you worked hard to get the shopper to your site, so start the sales engagement there…and not lose sales to a bad website “Hello”. Which happens all too often.

4. “Lightning Snake” (閃電蛇): Using Short Videos Means Never Having to Say We Suck
Twenty seconds is a long time on the Internet.  Don’t be afraid to edit down your customers’ video testimonials before you post them, or better yet tell them briefly how to “get to the meat” when they talk.  Even the most positive but too-long testimonial says “We Suck!” out in the wilds of the Internet.  And also get that video walk-around down to the “Quick and Powerful” level.  And one more thing: Be sure to scroll your website and phone number across the bottom of all videos—don’t waste those precious few seconds of a customer's attention by not doing the right self-promoting.

5. “Knowing Crane” (知道蒼鷺): The Buzz of Social Media Might be From the Chainsaw You’re
Taking to Your Business
You need to get past the buzz words with Social Media, and in a hurry—you shouldn't just "buy services" for this, you need to understand and plan what you're doing.  Do you know how to use social media for your fixed ops, how to respond to Facebook issues on sales and service, and how to create business for yourself on Facebook and other Social Media?  You would laugh at someone who walked into a party and shoved his business car rudely under everyone’s nose—so don’t be that dork in Social Media! Learn how to interact or you'll get ignored, or, worse, derided in business-killing ways.  Do you watch your social media reputation? Google? Yelp?  Do you manage your Facebook fan pages several times a day? Do you watch Twitter for your business’ name—what are people saying about you?  And there's so much more!

by Keith Shetterly, Consultant
keithshetterly@gmail.com

Low CRM usage is a combination of several factors, but in general the better CRM is the one you use.

The best CRM is the one you can easily use.

We used to worry about salespeople “Watching the Glass” for UPs pulling into the lot. Now, they are all the same as everyone else: Heads down on their smartphone. If smartphones are the new “Glass They Watch for UPs”, let’s get CRMs on to mobile and marry their attention to what they need to be DOING. After all, they are looking at their phone, on average, over 150 times a day!

Mobile CRMs fall into two categories: Those that lose features in order to fit the mobile device, and those that are built around mobile. The second category of CRM is the one you want, because it will enable your sales team with the most power.

And then they can log UPs, call customers, email leads, and do follow-up from the same device they are, on average, just to hit that statistic again, looking at over 150 times a day!

So, get aboard with the new century and the new “glass” your salespeople are looking at—remove their excuses and use that "mobile attention" to your advantage to make more sales.

Keith Shetterly, Consultant
keithshetterly@gmail.com 

A CRM that you actually use is almost a license to print money.

Seriously: Would you argue with a printing press expense every month if you could print many times the expense in money you could use? Do you realize that a CRM is really an ATM full of money that you can, with a few clicks, get money and sales from, directly? Did you have an “OMG” moment right there? “CRM is an ATM, OMG!”? :)

Yes! Tens of thousands of dollars A MONTH sit in your CRM, and you don’t withdraw it: For the last ten years, I am always surprised that CRMs are seen as some expense and so often not used. It starts on the sales floor, which by the way is only about 10% of a CRM’s value.

On the floor, salespeople grouse about CRM usability, so CRMs fix that. Hopefully. And CRMs also go mobile (when they can), which, by the way—if you haven’t figured it out yet—cell phones are the new “glass” your salespeople watch while waiting for the mythical Up Bus. And so CRMs help you manage the sales process, from the door to the sale—but as I wrote above that’s all about using a CRM for only about 10% of its value!

In fact, casting a CRM as a tool JUST for your sales floor actually BURNS the money in your CRM ATM. Did you know that you can do email marketing from your CRM to generate high-dollar service and sales business from your owner base to your unsold traffic? And do it every month?

Did you know that you can generate call lists for your salespeople and/or for your BDC? And keep track of the revenue from those calls and their results? Or create your own solid lists with real money in them that you can use with Direct Mail? CRM, ATM, OMG! Right??

So, now, get to withdrawing your money with those vehicle sales and service ROs from your CRM ATM today. If you want more advice, since I was an eComm Director for almost six years doing this and more, contact me--I will help you, even if you don't use my CRM.

Because CRM = ATM! OMG! :)

Thanks,

Keith Shetterly, Consultant
keithshetterly@gmail.com 
 

If you have a failing BDC, and you are a GM, then you are the reason your BDC is failing. Or not working properly and going to fail.

100% fact. Your fault. It’s the truth, and I can prove it.

Good thing is, you can also fix it.

Why is it your fault? Start here to understand: Years ago, our industry separated F&I from the sales staff to chase profits. Focused people, developed training, responded to the market need. Eventually, when lots more regulations came to play, dealerships were ready for those change. Because there was training—in fact, whole schools for the function were developed. All for one department.

A department that the GM paid attention to. Like his or her life depended on it. Because his or her paycheck certainly depended on it.

You don’t treat your BDC like that kind of department. You hardly pay attention, or you don’t know how to pay attention, or you keep trying to buy some talent that might bandaid the BDC but then leaves. Or it’s might be all three reasons.

Why do you treat your BDC that way? Think about it: If the BDC is answering sales calls, leads, and making outbound campaigns happen…that department touches more potential gross than any other department in the dealership.

And you don’t know how it works, how it is supposed to work, or how to fix it.

The fix, sir or madam, starts with you.

Learn what the BDC does. It’s not hard—it just may be foreign, because it’s likely that you never worked an Internet lead to a sale (which is similar in many ways to, and in many sales-making ways VERY different from, those phone calls you took), but that lead for the sale was what taught us about the need for a BDC. Because the Internet department focused on good calls, good and fast lead response, and setting appointments. Really, the Internet Department is actually at least an uncle to the BDC.

If you didn’t understand that about the Internet Department, or never saw the connection, now you do.

The BDC is accountable to the bottom line for the dealership—and, by that association, to your paycheck. Why in the world don’t you treat it that way?

Because if you don’t, the BDC will fail. Your competition will beat you. And your paycheck (and even your job, in some cases) will be chopped. So, it’s not an “if”, it’s WHEN, you as a successful GM will treat the BDC as important as the F&I department.

And you will apply your experience in accountability and require the best skills. Hire the best BDC talent you can find and pay them well. Inspect what you expect.

If you continue to ignore it? Then the sales BDC will continue to fail. And then, eventually . . . you will fail.

Wake up! NOW! Pay attention. Start the fix, because it starts in you.

And when your BDC wins, YOU win. A new and better truth.

You’re gonna’ like that. A lot.

Go get’em!

by Keith Shetterly
keithshetterly@gmail.com. Former eComm, Internet, BDC Manager, Floor sales.
Currently VP of Sales & Marketing for Drive360 CRM.
www.Drive360CRM.com