For almost 10 years now, we have all heard “This is the year for mobile!”…REALLY?!?

We see posts on all over Twitter about the growth in mobile use and web traffic. Ironically, most are coming from people using a desktop.

So, as we always do, we decided to gather the data, set up the experiment and test it!

First, we had to define “What is a mobile device?” This is a real problem because too many people want to define a tablet as a mobile device. In my opinion, it’s not. We needed something more than my “opinion”, however, so we looked to Google.

The Google Adwords platform now combines tablet and desktop use as the same thing.

“The device doesn’t matter as much as the user context does”, said Google’s Group Product Manager Surojit Chatterjee on context, “User context drives what people search for, and the actions they take. So for example, say I am at home in the evening, and I’m doing a search. The actions that I will take will be largely the same if I’m using a smartphone, tablet or notebook, because the context is the same. Particularly between notebook and tablet, the query patterns are very similar.”

There you have it. A tablet is more like a desktop to a user than a mobile device is. A tablet is not a mobile device!

First, we started with the data. Here are the facts:

• Less than 12% of all retail automotive website traffic is from a mobile device. – (Source: OnlineDrive user base)

• In 2013, mobile traffic rose to 15% of all search traffic and tablet traffic made up another 15%. When you hear that mobile traffic is 30% of all web traffic, keep in mind that true mobile traffic is only 15%. The greatest increase in mobile traffic has come from defining a tablet as a mobile device. – (Source: ShopVisible)

• While mobile traffic rose, TRUE mobile conversion was the lowest of all of the devices at .05%. Traffic from tablets came in a 1.6% and desktop traffic came in at 2.5%. - (Source: ShopVisible)

MOBILE CONVERSION WAS 410% LOWER THAN EITHER TABLET OR DESKTOP CONVERSION!

This data would seem to support the notion that context does trump device.

Next, we looked at user intent. Here are the facts:

• 91% of mobile phone users go online to socialize. – (Source: Ruder Finn)

• 1 in 8 users compare prices on their phone while shopping. – (Source: comScore) When you do the math, that is 12.5% OF 15% of all web traffic. In addition, less that .05% of those shoppers said they would leave the dealership they are at to go to another store. – (Source: OnlineDrive Marketing Mix Study)

• 70% of all mobile searches result in an action within 1 hour, yet the average auto shopper take 59 days to make a decision. – (Source: Mobile Marketer and OnlineDrive Marketing Mix Study)

• The average mobile user spends 25 minutes per day checking email. – (Source: Return Path) That IS NOT mobile marketing.

These facts would support that very little auto shopping or influence is gained from mobile. Auto shopping and research is not the user’s intent when they get on their mobile device.

So here was the question that needed we sought to answer:

“Which device will produce the highest conversion rate: mobile, tablet or desktop?

We set up an experiment with 20 of our accounts. We set up a control group of 5 accounts and tracked conversion over 380,000 in-market visitors on our micrositesbyu.com platform in a responsive-design format.

Our hypothesis (and really most people’s hypothesis) is that a responsive design would reduce friction on a page and help increase conversion. In this case, you would be correct. There are many other factors, however, that affect conversion: the two largest factors being the context of the search & the intent of the visitor.

Here were the results.

There was a 61% lift in conversion in aggregate over the control group from mobile and using responsive design.

HOWEVER, when we individually examined results by device, here is what we found:

• Desktop – We had to change the desktop design slightly to meet the responsive design requirements. The result of that change: + 111% relative increase in conversion!
I am sure at this point you are starting to realize that one of the other two device types OR both had a significant negative result on the conversion rate.

• Tablet – + 31% relative increase over the control group. Basically, no statistically significant difference.

• Mobile – -17.7% relative DECREASE over the control group. Again, no statistically significant difference.

Based on both the behavioral data and test data, here is the bottom line. After reducing friction using responsive design and even making the user experience better, we could not change the visitor’s context or intent. Those drive conversion far more than design.

In the end, mobile customers are NOT in the mindset to convert. They are not in a true influential research mode where your marketing will have a significant impact on their buying decision – whether that decision is to buy or simply who to buy from.

So what is mobile good for?

1. On average, it takes 26 hours for a person to report a lost wallet and 68 minutes to report a lost phone. – (Source: Unisys) Have a VALUABLE mobile app for your store. Allow for mobile service scheduling BUT (most importantly) use it to monitor service wait times throughout the day.

2. It takes the average person 90 minutes to respond to an email and 90 seconds to respond to a SMS text message. Make sure both your Marketing Automation System and CRM has SMS text capabilities.

3. The iPhone 5 and later versions give the user the ability to block ad tracking and SMS ads that they consider intrusive. If you are using SMS, make sure your message is relevant.

4. Over 40% of clicks on mobile ads are fraudulent or accidental and conversion rates are the lowest by far of all devices. Make it easy for mobile users to contact you and integrate easy to use maps to help them find your store. Those are the top interactions between businesses and mobile devices.

As always we hope this helps and enjoy your feedback.

For almost 10 years now, we have all heard “This is the year for mobile!”…REALLY?!?

We see posts on all over Twitter about the growth in mobile use and web traffic. Ironically, most are coming from people using a desktop.

So, as we always do, we decided to gather the data, set up the experiment and test it!

First, we had to define “What is a mobile device?” This is a real problem because too many people want to define a tablet as a mobile device. In my opinion, it’s not. We needed something more than my “opinion”, however, so we looked to Google.

The Google Adwords platform now combines tablet and desktop use as the same thing.

“The device doesn’t matter as much as the user context does”, said Google’s Group Product Manager Surojit Chatterjee on context, “User context drives what people search for, and the actions they take. So for example, say I am at home in the evening, and I’m doing a search. The actions that I will take will be largely the same if I’m using a smartphone, tablet or notebook, because the context is the same. Particularly between notebook and tablet, the query patterns are very similar.”

There you have it. A tablet is more like a desktop to a user than a mobile device is. A tablet is not a mobile device!

First, we started with the data. Here are the facts:

• Less than 12% of all retail automotive website traffic is from a mobile device. – (Source: OnlineDrive user base)

• In 2013, mobile traffic rose to 15% of all search traffic and tablet traffic made up another 15%. When you hear that mobile traffic is 30% of all web traffic, keep in mind that true mobile traffic is only 15%. The greatest increase in mobile traffic has come from defining a tablet as a mobile device. – (Source: ShopVisible)

• While mobile traffic rose, TRUE mobile conversion was the lowest of all of the devices at .05%. Traffic from tablets came in a 1.6% and desktop traffic came in at 2.5%. - (Source: ShopVisible)

MOBILE CONVERSION WAS 410% LOWER THAN EITHER TABLET OR DESKTOP CONVERSION!

This data would seem to support the notion that context does trump device.

Next, we looked at user intent. Here are the facts:

• 91% of mobile phone users go online to socialize. – (Source: Ruder Finn)

• 1 in 8 users compare prices on their phone while shopping. – (Source: comScore) When you do the math, that is 12.5% OF 15% of all web traffic. In addition, less that .05% of those shoppers said they would leave the dealership they are at to go to another store. – (Source: OnlineDrive Marketing Mix Study)

• 70% of all mobile searches result in an action within 1 hour, yet the average auto shopper take 59 days to make a decision. – (Source: Mobile Marketer and OnlineDrive Marketing Mix Study)

• The average mobile user spends 25 minutes per day checking email. – (Source: Return Path) That IS NOT mobile marketing.

These facts would support that very little auto shopping or influence is gained from mobile. Auto shopping and research is not the user’s intent when they get on their mobile device.

So here was the question that needed we sought to answer:

“Which device will produce the highest conversion rate: mobile, tablet or desktop?

We set up an experiment with 20 of our accounts. We set up a control group of 5 accounts and tracked conversion over 380,000 in-market visitors on our micrositesbyu.com platform in a responsive-design format.

Our hypothesis (and really most people’s hypothesis) is that a responsive design would reduce friction on a page and help increase conversion. In this case, you would be correct. There are many other factors, however, that affect conversion: the two largest factors being the context of the search & the intent of the visitor.

Here were the results.

There was a 61% lift in conversion in aggregate over the control group from mobile and using responsive design.

HOWEVER, when we individually examined results by device, here is what we found:

• Desktop – We had to change the desktop design slightly to meet the responsive design requirements. The result of that change: + 111% relative increase in conversion!
I am sure at this point you are starting to realize that one of the other two device types OR both had a significant negative result on the conversion rate.

• Tablet – + 31% relative increase over the control group. Basically, no statistically significant difference.

• Mobile – -17.7% relative DECREASE over the control group. Again, no statistically significant difference.

Based on both the behavioral data and test data, here is the bottom line. After reducing friction using responsive design and even making the user experience better, we could not change the visitor’s context or intent. Those drive conversion far more than design.

In the end, mobile customers are NOT in the mindset to convert. They are not in a true influential research mode where your marketing will have a significant impact on their buying decision – whether that decision is to buy or simply who to buy from.

So what is mobile good for?

1. On average, it takes 26 hours for a person to report a lost wallet and 68 minutes to report a lost phone. – (Source: Unisys) Have a VALUABLE mobile app for your store. Allow for mobile service scheduling BUT (most importantly) use it to monitor service wait times throughout the day.

2. It takes the average person 90 minutes to respond to an email and 90 seconds to respond to a SMS text message. Make sure both your Marketing Automation System and CRM has SMS text capabilities.

3. The iPhone 5 and later versions give the user the ability to block ad tracking and SMS ads that they consider intrusive. If you are using SMS, make sure your message is relevant.

4. Over 40% of clicks on mobile ads are fraudulent or accidental and conversion rates are the lowest by far of all devices. Make it easy for mobile users to contact you and integrate easy to use maps to help them find your store. Those are the top interactions between businesses and mobile devices.

As always we hope this helps and enjoy your feedback.

Someone in the community recently asked about revitalizing their internet department/BDC (join the forum discussion here).

For inbound marketing, leads determine success. The assumption is that the higher the lead volume and percentage, the higher the sales and service volume. All too often, these do not go in step with each other. Below we identify ten statistics that are the main cause of increased lead quantity not equating to increases in appointment shows and sales.

1. Setting an appointment at the time the lead is converted will increase show rate 37 percent. – This seems like a no brainer, doesn’t it? If the customer commits to the appointment at the time they submit the lead, there is a very powerful psychological affect.

Step 1: Lead Submitted

Step 2: Appointment Made

2. 37 percent of all automotive leads are never responded to. – WOW! That is a scary stat! When you consider that the real average cost of afirst-party lead is close to $100, for 37 percent to hit the floor is absolutely unacceptable. By “responded”, we simply mean that a call is placed from the dealership to a customer.

How to make sure all leads are responded to: Most CRM’s have a lead log of some type. Someone from your dealership should be reviewing that log making sure none of the leads are still open. To be sure that an actual call was placed, each BDC person or salesperson should have entered notes that an actual call was made. If you see a BDC person where more than 30 percent of their contacts result in a “Left voice mail” note, you likely have someone entering this as the default note when they couldn’t get to the lead.

If you really want to take this to the next level, have a proactive system that calls the BDC or salesperson with the lead information. If no contact is made, the system informs the manager immediately or, even better, the lead goes to an outsourced agency that will guarantee to make the call.

3. 86 percent of all automotive leads bought a car from the first dealership to contact them! – Wow, that’s a big number! When you think about this, it makes sense. If 37 percent of leads are never responded to and the number one reason a customer is online is to save time then, if you are the first to contact them with the answers they are seeking, it’s your deal to lose. Let’s face it, as car salespeople, we are at our best when we are with the customer.

4. You are 621 percent more likely to successfully contact a lead if called within five minutes of lead submission. – When we thought about why this happens this way it made perfect sense. According to ZMOT, while the customer may be shopping up to 18 different sources when researching the purchase of a car, the fact is they are doing it ten to twenty minutes at a time. Beyond that time, they are back into the everyday routine of their lives.

5. Contact success drops 100 times when leads are contacted between five to thirty minutes. – Bottom line: Thirty minutes is your cut off. If you don’t contact a lead within 30 minutes, you might as well wait until tomorrow. The results will be the same… BAD!

6. Appointment show rates rose 311 percent when the lead was contacted within five minutes of lead submission. – If you want customers to think you care about them and want their business, be responsive. Nothing says responsive like getting to a customer while they are still on your site.

7. The average number of contact attempts in automotive is 1.7! – There are so many ways to contact and follow up with a customer these days that there is no excuse for this statistic. The first contact doesn’t have to be a call but you should still be calling the customer if they haven’t come in and haven’t responded to digital communication.

8. Contact attempts beyond the second attempt drop off 540 percent but the closing ratio of a successful contact after the second contact attempt rises 222 percent. – This stat speaks for itself…. Never stop following up…EVER!

9. Sending an iCal or Outlook calendar invite for the appointment increased show rates 22 percent - This is a practice you need to get you BDC or Sales Staff in the habit of doing. Most people today manage their lives from their computer and smart phone. If you're not there, you don’t exist.

10. A personal call to confirm an appointment will increase show rates 36 percent. – This goes without saying. Why are we not doing it?

We have a lot going on in the dealership…maybe even more than a CRM system can even manage. To get the job done with inbound marketing, you need to be proactive, responsive and automated. I am afraid the current level of technology dealerships is still insufficient to make that happen. Business is suffering for many as a result and this will only get worse. Customer demand for efficiency will not stop.

Your thoughts?

Someone in the community recently asked about revitalizing their internet department/BDC (join the forum discussion here).

For inbound marketing, leads determine success. The assumption is that the higher the lead volume and percentage, the higher the sales and service volume. All too often, these do not go in step with each other. Below we identify ten statistics that are the main cause of increased lead quantity not equating to increases in appointment shows and sales.

1. Setting an appointment at the time the lead is converted will increase show rate 37 percent. – This seems like a no brainer, doesn’t it? If the customer commits to the appointment at the time they submit the lead, there is a very powerful psychological affect.

Step 1: Lead Submitted

Step 2: Appointment Made

2. 37 percent of all automotive leads are never responded to. – WOW! That is a scary stat! When you consider that the real average cost of afirst-party lead is close to $100, for 37 percent to hit the floor is absolutely unacceptable. By “responded”, we simply mean that a call is placed from the dealership to a customer.

How to make sure all leads are responded to: Most CRM’s have a lead log of some type. Someone from your dealership should be reviewing that log making sure none of the leads are still open. To be sure that an actual call was placed, each BDC person or salesperson should have entered notes that an actual call was made. If you see a BDC person where more than 30 percent of their contacts result in a “Left voice mail” note, you likely have someone entering this as the default note when they couldn’t get to the lead.

If you really want to take this to the next level, have a proactive system that calls the BDC or salesperson with the lead information. If no contact is made, the system informs the manager immediately or, even better, the lead goes to an outsourced agency that will guarantee to make the call.

3. 86 percent of all automotive leads bought a car from the first dealership to contact them! – Wow, that’s a big number! When you think about this, it makes sense. If 37 percent of leads are never responded to and the number one reason a customer is online is to save time then, if you are the first to contact them with the answers they are seeking, it’s your deal to lose. Let’s face it, as car salespeople, we are at our best when we are with the customer.

4. You are 621 percent more likely to successfully contact a lead if called within five minutes of lead submission. – When we thought about why this happens this way it made perfect sense. According to ZMOT, while the customer may be shopping up to 18 different sources when researching the purchase of a car, the fact is they are doing it ten to twenty minutes at a time. Beyond that time, they are back into the everyday routine of their lives.

5. Contact success drops 100 times when leads are contacted between five to thirty minutes. – Bottom line: Thirty minutes is your cut off. If you don’t contact a lead within 30 minutes, you might as well wait until tomorrow. The results will be the same… BAD!

6. Appointment show rates rose 311 percent when the lead was contacted within five minutes of lead submission. – If you want customers to think you care about them and want their business, be responsive. Nothing says responsive like getting to a customer while they are still on your site.

7. The average number of contact attempts in automotive is 1.7! – There are so many ways to contact and follow up with a customer these days that there is no excuse for this statistic. The first contact doesn’t have to be a call but you should still be calling the customer if they haven’t come in and haven’t responded to digital communication.

8. Contact attempts beyond the second attempt drop off 540 percent but the closing ratio of a successful contact after the second contact attempt rises 222 percent. – This stat speaks for itself…. Never stop following up…EVER!

9. Sending an iCal or Outlook calendar invite for the appointment increased show rates 22 percent - This is a practice you need to get you BDC or Sales Staff in the habit of doing. Most people today manage their lives from their computer and smart phone. If you're not there, you don’t exist.

10. A personal call to confirm an appointment will increase show rates 36 percent. – This goes without saying. Why are we not doing it?

We have a lot going on in the dealership…maybe even more than a CRM system can even manage. To get the job done with inbound marketing, you need to be proactive, responsive and automated. I am afraid the current level of technology dealerships is still insufficient to make that happen. Business is suffering for many as a result and this will only get worse. Customer demand for efficiency will not stop.

Your thoughts?

Yesterday as I traveled home from Digital Dealer Workshops in Chicago this was the question that was weighing heavy on my mind. I spoke with a lot of Dealers and Internet Managers there and not many had very good things to say about their marketing partners.
The problems were these:

1. Lack of support – For too many vendors support means someone to turn in a ticket to have something done a week from now that the dealership asked them to do. I’m sorry to disappoint but THAT IS NOT SUPPORT. The support a VALUABLE Digital Marketing Agency would supply is the IDEA and the PROCESS. Good support from VALUABLE Digital Marketing Agency means they bring you the marketing ideas, creative and the process by which to gain approval from your store then they execute that marketing campaign across all channels. 
 

2. Lack of knowledge – This stems back to number 1 but too many “Digital Marketing Agencies” are employing entry level people to try and tell a dealer how to spend tens of thousands of marketing dollars. A VALUABLE Digital Marketing Agency would have experienced marketing pro’s who work with your store to establish a digital marketing strategy and most importantly the historical numbers for the strategy to back it up.
 

3. Too Much In-Fighting & no focused direction – Marketing is so fragmented today that a Dealer has to have at minimum 5 vendors to get it all done; The PPC company, the Website company, the Email Marketing company, the Direct Mail Marketing company and Behavioral Marketing company. Add to that Listings, Conquest Email Marketing and CRM and you have 5 to 9 vendors who all blame the other guy when things don’t work and are all fighting to get some of the other guy’s budget.

To make the above matters worse all of these guys get paid a flat amount regardless of how they perform. It just seems to me that this is a recipe for inconsistency and confusion.

So here is what I think a VALUABLE Digital Marketing Agency would provide:
1. A Marketing Performance Manager with digital marketing experience
2. A Market Evaluation – basically some data to make sense of a strategy
3. A Marketing Strategy…duh!
4. The process, message and creative to execute across all channels (Website, Email, PPC, Direct Mail, Conquest Email, Behavioral Marketing, Listings, Social Media Marketing and Marketing Automation)
5. The analytics to show the campaign as a whole

MOST IMPORTANTLY THEY SHOULD BE PAID ONLY FOR THE VALUE THEY PROVIDE AND THE MORE VALUE THEY PROVIDE THE MORE THEY SHOULD BE PAID.

The question is WHAT is that value? It seems to me the value a Digital Marketing Agency provides is results in the form of Leads and Shows at the dealership so why can’t they be paid on those?

These are my questions to the community:
1. What in the above is missing a Digital Marketing Agency should provide for your store?
2. Why would you NOT want to pay them on the value they provide?

Looking forward to seeing some of the answers here, thanks to everyone who posts some feedback.

Yesterday as I traveled home from Digital Dealer Workshops in Chicago this was the question that was weighing heavy on my mind. I spoke with a lot of Dealers and Internet Managers there and not many had very good things to say about their marketing partners.
The problems were these:

1. Lack of support – For too many vendors support means someone to turn in a ticket to have something done a week from now that the dealership asked them to do. I’m sorry to disappoint but THAT IS NOT SUPPORT. The support a VALUABLE Digital Marketing Agency would supply is the IDEA and the PROCESS. Good support from VALUABLE Digital Marketing Agency means they bring you the marketing ideas, creative and the process by which to gain approval from your store then they execute that marketing campaign across all channels. 
 

2. Lack of knowledge – This stems back to number 1 but too many “Digital Marketing Agencies” are employing entry level people to try and tell a dealer how to spend tens of thousands of marketing dollars. A VALUABLE Digital Marketing Agency would have experienced marketing pro’s who work with your store to establish a digital marketing strategy and most importantly the historical numbers for the strategy to back it up.
 

3. Too Much In-Fighting & no focused direction – Marketing is so fragmented today that a Dealer has to have at minimum 5 vendors to get it all done; The PPC company, the Website company, the Email Marketing company, the Direct Mail Marketing company and Behavioral Marketing company. Add to that Listings, Conquest Email Marketing and CRM and you have 5 to 9 vendors who all blame the other guy when things don’t work and are all fighting to get some of the other guy’s budget.

To make the above matters worse all of these guys get paid a flat amount regardless of how they perform. It just seems to me that this is a recipe for inconsistency and confusion.

So here is what I think a VALUABLE Digital Marketing Agency would provide:
1. A Marketing Performance Manager with digital marketing experience
2. A Market Evaluation – basically some data to make sense of a strategy
3. A Marketing Strategy…duh!
4. The process, message and creative to execute across all channels (Website, Email, PPC, Direct Mail, Conquest Email, Behavioral Marketing, Listings, Social Media Marketing and Marketing Automation)
5. The analytics to show the campaign as a whole

MOST IMPORTANTLY THEY SHOULD BE PAID ONLY FOR THE VALUE THEY PROVIDE AND THE MORE VALUE THEY PROVIDE THE MORE THEY SHOULD BE PAID.

The question is WHAT is that value? It seems to me the value a Digital Marketing Agency provides is results in the form of Leads and Shows at the dealership so why can’t they be paid on those?

These are my questions to the community:
1. What in the above is missing a Digital Marketing Agency should provide for your store?
2. Why would you NOT want to pay them on the value they provide?

Looking forward to seeing some of the answers here, thanks to everyone who posts some feedback.

COMMUNICATION!

I just got through reading “Is the dealership sales call center obsolete?” on autonews.com. I got the article from Andy Warner on twitter. This article highlights dealers that have built, dismantled and maintain BDC’s and discusses the various pro’s and con’s of each but fails to get the real point.  

That said I am going to try and land the plane on this topic and let’s discuss where you think I’m missing it or what we can do to make it better. The reality is that we have a real problem here that needs to be addressed for the retail auto industry as a whole.

I have beaten the lead conversion drum for years to the point many think I am obsessed with it.

The fact is that I am but over the last 2 years I have come to realize that… “Lead Conversion isn’t enough”, we are going to have to get beyond lead conversion to the visit to excel and therein lies our problem.

When we get a lead or a call there are a few inherent things we know we have to do.

1. Answer the question
2. Give the price
3. Sell the appointment

But if you’ve answered the prospects questions and you’ve given them the price…why do they need you? When you get a prospect on the phone how do you get their contact information and make sure it is accurate, and then convince them to visit the store? These challenges are not new to the industry; they aren’t even unique to the automotive industry. The fact is all business working to generate leads face these same challenges.  

The answer… VALUE!

To get something from someone, a lead, contact information, a visit you have to give them something of value in return.

Value Drivers

1. Time – this is the number one reason the prospect is on the net to begin with, it would stand to reason if you can save them time in the shopping & buying process you will have an advantage (think Progressive.com). Here I suggest a 90 min test drive and purchase guarantee.
2. Information – the primary reason a prospect contacts the dealership is for information, about the car, about their trade, about financing and of course the price Joe Webb talks about these various types of appointments in a very good blog post “The Four Appointments Car Dealers Should Set” but what is the VALUE the customer gets for setting the appointment? This is where most sales people miss it and is your opportunity to place yourself above the competition with an online brochure about the car they are buying with information on why they should buy from your dealership and a video introduction from you with a walk around of the car. You see the dealership and the YOU are the only things they can’t get somewhere else. This is the reason we developed infoMagnet our online brochure tied to our incentive based behavioral marketing app. When you offer this value 98% of the time you will get good contact information from a phone call to your dealership and over 60% of these customers will show up at your store with a 80% plus closing ratio.
3. Convenience – we all pay more for convenience, we do business everyday based on what is most convenient for us. Make it more convenient for your prospect to buy from you. Deliver the car to their place of business let them drive it while you take their car and get the appraisal. I was doing this back in the 80’s and ironically I would sell at least 2 other cars to people in that office with in as many months after I did this for a prospect. My closing ratio…100%, I never lost a customer I delivered the car to.

Whether you are in the BDC or you are a salesperson on the floor you have to be able to communicate the value to the customer for giving their contact information, showing up at the store and buying from you. So you see it doesn’t matter if you have a BDC Department or Your sales staff handles the leads as they come in, they will all have to communicate value to get the customer.

The question is who do you want to train? That’s all.

So tell me, where am I missing this, if at all? What can we improve or add to TIME, INFORMATION & CONVENIENCE?  

COMMUNICATION!

I just got through reading “Is the dealership sales call center obsolete?” on autonews.com. I got the article from Andy Warner on twitter. This article highlights dealers that have built, dismantled and maintain BDC’s and discusses the various pro’s and con’s of each but fails to get the real point.  

That said I am going to try and land the plane on this topic and let’s discuss where you think I’m missing it or what we can do to make it better. The reality is that we have a real problem here that needs to be addressed for the retail auto industry as a whole.

I have beaten the lead conversion drum for years to the point many think I am obsessed with it.

The fact is that I am but over the last 2 years I have come to realize that… “Lead Conversion isn’t enough”, we are going to have to get beyond lead conversion to the visit to excel and therein lies our problem.

When we get a lead or a call there are a few inherent things we know we have to do.

1. Answer the question
2. Give the price
3. Sell the appointment

But if you’ve answered the prospects questions and you’ve given them the price…why do they need you? When you get a prospect on the phone how do you get their contact information and make sure it is accurate, and then convince them to visit the store? These challenges are not new to the industry; they aren’t even unique to the automotive industry. The fact is all business working to generate leads face these same challenges.  

The answer… VALUE!

To get something from someone, a lead, contact information, a visit you have to give them something of value in return.

Value Drivers

1. Time – this is the number one reason the prospect is on the net to begin with, it would stand to reason if you can save them time in the shopping & buying process you will have an advantage (think Progressive.com). Here I suggest a 90 min test drive and purchase guarantee.
2. Information – the primary reason a prospect contacts the dealership is for information, about the car, about their trade, about financing and of course the price Joe Webb talks about these various types of appointments in a very good blog post “The Four Appointments Car Dealers Should Set” but what is the VALUE the customer gets for setting the appointment? This is where most sales people miss it and is your opportunity to place yourself above the competition with an online brochure about the car they are buying with information on why they should buy from your dealership and a video introduction from you with a walk around of the car. You see the dealership and the YOU are the only things they can’t get somewhere else. This is the reason we developed infoMagnet our online brochure tied to our incentive based behavioral marketing app. When you offer this value 98% of the time you will get good contact information from a phone call to your dealership and over 60% of these customers will show up at your store with a 80% plus closing ratio.
3. Convenience – we all pay more for convenience, we do business everyday based on what is most convenient for us. Make it more convenient for your prospect to buy from you. Deliver the car to their place of business let them drive it while you take their car and get the appraisal. I was doing this back in the 80’s and ironically I would sell at least 2 other cars to people in that office with in as many months after I did this for a prospect. My closing ratio…100%, I never lost a customer I delivered the car to.

Whether you are in the BDC or you are a salesperson on the floor you have to be able to communicate the value to the customer for giving their contact information, showing up at the store and buying from you. So you see it doesn’t matter if you have a BDC Department or Your sales staff handles the leads as they come in, they will all have to communicate value to get the customer.

The question is who do you want to train? That’s all.

So tell me, where am I missing this, if at all? What can we improve or add to TIME, INFORMATION & CONVENIENCE?