I’ve often advocated in my blogs the benefits of quoting a price to customers who submit leads with a price inquiry. If the customer is submitting leads to more than one dealership, not providing the price will likely eliminate you from consideration.

Yet, according to CNW Marketing Research, 70.5% of people finance their cars. That means the vast majority of Internet leads will take the price quoted to them and then try to determine what their monthly payment will be. As we all know, monthly payments can vary based on the consumer’s credit score, the dealership’s finance programs and the specific vehicle the customer wants to buy. So the customer searching for the lowest priced vehicle today may still not end up with a vehicle that fits within their monthly budget for the next 60, 72 or even 96 months!

If we can move the conversation from price to payments, we can identify the right vehicle earlier in the process, saving the customer time and aggravation, and saving the dealership gross. One way to shift the conversation to monthly payments is to offer and promote payment—and shop-by-payment—marketing tool on your dealership’s website. A shop-by-payment tool allows consumers to search your inventory based on what their ideal monthly payment is and displays inventory based on real, credit-qualified payment quotes. An estimated or teaser quote can set the wrong expectation, but one based on the customer’s actual credit and the dealership’s finance programs sets both the customer and the dealer up for success.

Allowing consumers to shop-by-payments on your website offers the following benefits:

1. Keeps Customers on the Dealership’s Website. Customers come to your site to find answers, not more questions. If you are asking the customer to provide all their information, such as what their credit score is or what interest rate they may qualify for, they may have to go off of your website and find the information on another site. A shop-by-payment tool allows the customer to see all the inventory on your website that they qualify for, without having to look for the information somewhere else. The tool is also interactive, enabling the customer to adjust payment ranges, down payments and other information so that it engages the customer, keeps them on the website longer and results in higher conversion rates.

2. Protects Customers’ Privacy. Real payments can be quoted to customers without requiring them to enter in personal information, such as date of birth or Social Security Number, and without having a negative impact on their credit score. This is appealing to customers and allows them to play around with various terms and different vehicles, further engaging them and bringing them that much closer to the sale. Since most good-credit customers don’t want to affect their credit score until absolutely necessary, the result is often more leads from customers with higher average credit ratings.

3. Credit-Analyzed Leads Close at a Higher Rate. The ability to analyze a consumer’s credit online brings them one step closer to the sale. Closing rates for these leads are typically much higher than for unqualified leads, often exceeding 20%.

4. Streamlines the Sales Process. Providing real payment quotes on VIN-specific vehicles sets the customers’ expectation on what they can actually afford to buy, versus what they would like to buy. This eliminates unnecessary time that salespeople spend trying to sell a car that the person can’t afford, while also eliminating the “embarrassment” factor for the customer if they can’t afford the car they really want.

5. Keeps Dealers in Control of Financing. Providing real payment quotes shifts the customer’s focus from what the bottom-line price is to what they can afford to pay every month. This allows dealers to set their own prices and financing terms and gives them more flexibility in negotiations, unlike lead services that force dealers into price wars in order to deliver the lowest price for the consumer. Ultimately, this results in higher gross profit margins for the dealers.

Providing a shop-by-payment tool helps to engage customers, keep them online and bring them closer to the sale. Today’s payment marketing technology delivers real benefits to both dealers and consumers, resulting in high-quality, credit-analyzed leads that close at rates much higher than traditional Internet leads. To see a demo, visit www.anywheremotors.com

The broad term “Internet Marketing” encompasses a fast-changing industry. In the past two years, “new” developments such as mobile, social and reputation management have quickly become mainstream, while the effectiveness of “old” methods such as banner ads and e-mail marketing have been debated.

While dealers should be aware of the latest technologies, ensuring that perceptions about the Internet and its capabilities is extremely important too. Here are three things every dealer should know about Internet marketing:

1) The Internet Creates Buyers, Not Shoppers

Given a choice between greeting a showroom customer and working an Internet lead, most salespeople would choose the former; simply because they believe they have a better chance of closing the showroom customer in the short term. Many dealers (and salespeople) still view Internet leads as “Internet shoppers” who are potentially difficult to work with or even reach.

The reality is that, whether they’re in your virtual showroom or your physical showroom, they’re a buyer. Maybe not today, but statistically the Internet customer is highly likely to buy within 90 days.

94% of car buyers begin the process online, according to recent estimates, yet most dealerships attribute less than 30% of actual sales to Internet leads. Why the discrepancy? Most consumers do research online but instead of submitting a lead, they decide to call or walk into a dealership when they’re ready to buy. Because of all the research they can do on their own, though, customers today visit only 1.4 dealerships before purchasing a car, down from 4.5 in 2005, according to J.D. Power.

And, according to a recent study by CAR-Research XRM, only 25% of people leave showrooms because they are “still shopping.” The rest leave because of inventory, financing or some other issue. These customers are ready to buy, the only question is, are they buying from you?

2) Internet Marketing is More Than a One-Person Job

If I asked you, “Who is in charge of your Internet marketing,” would you answer, “The Internet Sales Director?”

To be effective, Internet marketers need to have knowledge of and take advantage of all facets of the Internet. This means managing the dealership’s website and SEO, e-mail marketing campaigns, and being the resident CRM expert.

In addition, Internet marketers should know how to properly leverage and manage the dealership’s presence on independent auto shopping, research and review sites, the manufacturer website, social media sites and reputation management sites. Finally, they need to keep up with the latest trends and create strategies for search marketing, payment marketing, mobile marketing, banner advertising, e-mail marketing and video marketing.

That’s a lot for one person to keep up with, let alone the time needed to work the leads that come in as a result of all that work. To stay competitive, dealers need to allocate the appropriate budget, training and resources for their Internet departments. According to a recent article in Ward’s Auto profiling the top 100 e-dealers, successful Internet dealers typically spend 40% or more of their overall advertising and marketing budget on digital.

3) Evolve Your Communication

Most dealers are probably not Internet gurus; nor do they want to be. Several years ago, the perception was that this was okay. Hiring an “Internet nerd” who could run the Internet operations was the norm. But staying competitive today—and maybe even survival tomorrow—depends on how successful your dealership’s Internet marketing program is.

Every manager needs to understand that customers can engage with the store and its sales staff anywhere online. They need to stay abreast of trends, direct strategies, manage processes, hold teams accountable and respond to customers’ online concerns and opportunities—wherever they arise. One click, one call, one person doesn’t work any more.

What do you think dealers need to know about Internet marketing?

I’d like to think that by now most dealerships have a written Internet sales process to handle Internet leads effectively. As the documented, researched and confirmed driver of “lead quality,” an established process is the key to obtaining a maximum ROI from Internet leads. Though many dealers are allocating a substantial portion of their marketing budget to attract Internet leads, many are still not achieving the recommended minimum of five times their ROI on those dollars spent, even with a “good process”. Why not?

Very often, accountability is the missing link between a written process and lack of desired ROI. How easy is it for an Internet salesperson to check off tasks as completed when they are not, or to say “I’ve tried calling that person three times and they haven’t called me back. What’s the point?” A good process that isn’t followed is the same as having no process at all—both salespeople and managers must be held accountable to following that process.

Here are a few tips to help weave accountability into your processes:

Does Your Team Own It? Accountability is about ownership – do your salespeople own the process? Ownership means more than just knowledge of the process, it’s belief in the process and its consistent execution. As a manager, if you want to hold people accountable you have to reinforce WHY they should be following the process and instill the belief that their personal results will improve. Call out individual successes that reinforce that following the process yields personal returns.

Review the Internet Sales Process.  Does it mirror the showroom sales process? In the showroom process, there’s always room for interaction with management. Salespeople have check points throughout process; the test drive, desk log and the write-up. In many stores, managers walk the lot and showroom and inject themselves in the process to ensure everything stays on track. Is management involved throughout your Internet sales process, only at the end, or not at all? Create availability of management to the Internet team and reinforce the need for manager involvement.

Openness and Competition. Nothing breeds accountability like visibility. Show the whole team where all of them rank in your key performance areas and include the steps of the sale (i.e. contact rate, appointment rate, show rate), not just sales volume. Regularly review team results in a group, calling out the best at execution, and schedule individual meetings for coaching and personal accountability.

What are your tips for improving accountability? What tips do you have for managers and for salespeople? 

It’s becoming more common for customers to shop, communicate and conduct daily business using their mobile devices. If you are selling cars in a dealership, I’m guessing you’ve received many responses from customers with the signature “sent from my iPhone/4G-LTE smartphone/mobile device.” When you see this type of response, do you attempt to communicate as you normally would?

Almost all of the e-mail templates and responses I have seen were created for customers who are sitting at their computers. Many salespeople have been trained to reply to an Internet lead with a fairly long, personalized response that includes links to several pieces of inventory, reasons for buying from this dealership and one or two questions designed to engage. This type of e-mail is great if your customer is sitting at the computer. But if you send that same response to a mobile customer, they’re probably not going to engage.

So what’s the best way to communicate with a mobile customer? Here are a few tips:

1. Get to the point. Mobile customers don’t think or respond the same way, and don’t have the same level of patience as when they’re sitting at home on their computers. A mobile customer is probably going to be distracted; multi-tasking, bouncing from checking e-mail to Facebook, to Twitter, to attending to their daily life. For this reason, keep your e-mails to no more than a couple sentences and you’ll be more likely to engage that customer in a conversation.

2. Choose attachments and links carefully. If you’re used to sending a brochure about your dealership, an embedded video, or showcasing a particular vehicle with hundreds of photos, think twice before sending memory-heavy attachments to the mobile customer. Mobile users aren’t likely to open an attachment that’s difficult to view on a small screen or takes a long time to download. Instead, send a link to a video or send one good photo of the car that they inquired about.

3. Be Patient. On mobile devices, many people respond one line at a time, as if in a chat. Going back and forth one line at a time may become frustrating to you. But remember, this is not about you, it’s about the customer and their needs. You may reach a point where you think that one phone call could replace all this, and ask the customer to just call you, or you may try calling them. Or you may be tempted to write, “if you set an appointment to come in and take a test drive, all your questions will be answered.” Yet, just as we’ve been taught to earn the right to ask for the sale in the traditional sales process, you must earn the right to ask your mobile customers. When you’re communicating via mobile, it may take a lot longer, moving one small step at a time. Trying to skip ahead in the process could disconnect them from the conversation.

What tips do you have for communicating with mobile customers?

It’s the classic prisoner’s dilemma, to tell or not to tell. Two suspected criminals are separated into two different rooms, and given their options:

1. If neither of them betrays each other, they both go free
2. If one betrays the other, the betrayer goes free while the other prisoner gets maximum penalty
3. If they both betray each other, they both get a penalty slightly less than the maximum penalty.

Clearly, it benefits both prisoners to not betray each other as they can both go free. Yet, inevitably the prisoners betray each other out of fear that the other will betray them, and that they will get the maximum penalty.

So how does this relate to the classic “Just Give Me the Price” objection? When a salesperson hears that objection, they are faced with a dilemma: to give the price or not to give the price? First, you have to assume that if a customer sends in an Internet lead or calls into a dealership demanding to know the price right off the bat, they are probably making the same inquiry to at least a couple of other dealerships. Based on that reasonable assumption, here are your choices:

1) Don’t give the price.

Ideally it would be in every dealership’s best self-interest to never give the price. If nobody quotes a price, the customer has no choice but to make an appointment with a dealership in order to discover and negotiate a price. But in the information age, this just isn’t how business is done: customers expect the price.

If you don’t give a price and your competitor down the road does give that customer a price, your chances of working with that customer have just dropped to zero while your competitor’s have skyrocketed. So, what do you do?

2) Give the price.

If you and your competitor both give the price, you both still have the opportunity to work with the customer. You’re competing on a level playing field, and the next step is to convince the customer to buy from you. Contrary to what some salespeople believe, the customer will not automatically choose the dealership with the absolute lowest price. Ideally the difference in quoted prices should be minimal, and if you can build trust and give that customer several other reasons to buy from you, then you will win the sale.

For this reason I always recommend giving a price when a customer demands it. However, giving a price does not mean you have to give the gross away. Here are a few tips on how to effectively engage these customers, give them smart quotes and to ultimately secure an appointment:

1) Know Your Market. It pays to shop the competition, use internal sales history and third party resources to tell you what the average selling prices are for the vehicles you’re quoting. If you end up sending a quote that’s close to your competitor’s, you increase your chances of selling to that customer.

2) Give Options. When you send out a price quote for the customer’s desired vehicle, send out a lower and higher-priced option that are similar to the vehicle they inquired about. Use the opportunity to educate the customer that comparing prices of two models isn’t like comparing apples to apples. Prices can vary based on a number of factors such as age, mileage, options and more.

3) Include Payments in the Conversation. Most consumers consider the payment of the vehicle, not just the price, when evaluating a purchase. Offering a link to your website’s credit application, when done the right way, can progress the deal. If you really want to stand out, provide payment estimates in your quotes, or use a real-payment-quoting lead generator such as Payment Pro^SM to bring you one step closer to the sale.

How do you deal with the “just give me the price” objection? Have you ever sold to a customer who made this demand right up front, and if so, what was your process?

It’s pretty well known that YouTube is the second largest search engine with more than 4 billion views per day. While your dealership isn’t likely to produce the next “Gangnam Style” YouTube sensation, your presence on and use of YouTube can be part of a successful online strategy. If you allocate a significant budget towards SEO and SEM, you may want to think about allocating a percentage of it to increasing the number and types of videos on your dealership’s YouTube channel. Videos have been proven to engage customers, boost credibility and drive traffic to websites.

If you’re not already incorporating these five types of videos into your Internet marketing plans, consider adding them in 2013:

1. Inventory. Posting inventory videos on YouTube is very effective when a link to your website and relevant search term keywords are included in the description. Also post the videos on your website and Facebook page. Then, post links from classified ads sites like Craigslist. Craigslist gets more than 50 billion views per month, and can drive traffic to both your website and Facebook page from customers wanting to view your inventory videos.

2. TV commercials. Most dealers at some point or other have spent a significant amount of money on creating commercials. Are you maximizing that investment by uploading your old commercials to YouTube and posting them on your website? If a commercial was to promote a specific event such as a Labor Day sale, you may want to include something in the description that encourages customers to keep in touch for news about this year’s Labor Day sale.

3. Videos that brand your dealership. Customers want to feel good about who they are buying a car from. Whether you brand yourself as the price leader, the honest, no-haggle dealer, or the small, family-owned dealer, have a professionally produced video that reflects this. Highlight your involvement in community service or incorporate humor if you can, and include your service departments by weaving in expert technician interviews or service advisor maintenance tips.

4. Customer testimonials. Word of mouth and online reviews have tremendous impact on customer consideration. Potential customers want to know what your current customers have to say. What better way to advertise than combining both of these effective marketing methods in a series of testimonial videos? The key to making this successful is to keep testimonials current. If a customer sees that your last testimonial was posted more than six months ago, they may wonder if your service has been slipping.

5. Personalized videos for lead follow-up. Have you ever received a personalized video message in your e-mail? I did recently and it got my attention. If you want a customer to think, “Wow, this person actually took the time and effort to create this video just for me,” then you may want to consider this idea. If you are a salesperson who is comfortable and personable on camera, sending a customized video to select Internet leads is a surefire way to outperform your competition.

Which types of videos have you found to be the most effective in increasing traffic to your dealership website? Are you able to track leads that come in as a result of your videos? 

One of the first leads we received when we first started the Internet Department was from 3 hours away on a new Pathfinder. After an initial back and forth via email and a productive phone call, the salesperson went to the manager for some availability and pricing information. “Just get them in,” was the answer.

We all know that when we get customers in the door, we’re likely to close them. Our dealers (and our own internal measurements) tell us we close about half of our Internet customer visits. So if we can “just get them in,” we can “just close them.” HOW we get them in, though, is the real magic, and it starts with our contact rate.

Here are some tips to help you drive your contact rate – thus your appointment and show and sales rate – higher:

1. People hate long emails.  Look at your email responses, starting with your initial response. Does it get to the point quickly? Is there even a point? Make sure the customer know why you’re emailing them and what you want from them up front. Keep it short and simple and people are more likely to respond.
2. Keep. Trying. Industry studies consistently show two things: first, the more call attempts made by a sales associate, the more likely they are to make contact with the prospect (with some diminishing return after 6 call attempts, according to LeadCritic’s 2009 study). Second, most salespeople abandon the lead after 2-3 attempts. If you want to contact the customer, you have to put in the effort and be persistent where others are not.
3. Stand out. Your customer likely sent a lead to another dealership (or 5). If you want the customer to return your contact attempts (email or phone), you have to a) be different, and b) clearly state who you are and where you’re from.
4. Personalize your approach, not just your responses. In their keynote address at the Digital Dealer conference in October, Google discussed how online car shoppers are in a state of “constant consideration,” and no longer follow a linear buying cycle. That means each lead could be at a different point in the process, and you may have to pick up the process in the middle.
5. Give reasons to call, respond or visit. If you’re not offering something to the customer of value or perceived value, they’re less likely to take an action. You can offer your assistance, or cash equivalents on your website in the form of incentives, or information that’s of value and typically hard to get (like payments on their vehicle of interest). Give before you expect to receive and you’ll get more back.

What have you done that’s helped you convert more leads into shows?

In October, we facilitated a panel called “The Five Things in Common That Successful Internet Departments Share” at the 13^th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition in Las Vegas. We were thrilled to have over 200 attendees and want to thank our panelists for doing a great job. We decided to share some tips from our panelists for the benefit of all who couldn’t make it to the conference in hopes that you’ll find it as helpful as the attendees did.

Our panelists included:

- Greg Coleman, Director of Business Development & E-Commerce Director, Lexus Store of Lexington & Toyota of Nicholasville

- Justin Brun, E-Commerce Manager, Acton Toyota of Littleton

- Richard Tolsma, Internet Manager, Dan Wiebold Ford, Idaho

- Ray Fenster, President & CEO, RayFenster.com, LLC

- Dennis Colome, Vice President Sales & Marketing, eXteres Auto

Here’s a summary of some tips from their discussion:

1. Boost your phone call volume without paying additional money: “Make your phone number prominent on every website page. In addition, include your phone number in the website page title and description.” – Ray Fenster

2. Relevance is content, not just keywords. “Don’t ‘keyword stuff’ your website search terms, i.e. don’t go after every city in the state. Google is onto this and no longer allows it.”  – Dennis Colome

3. All leads are created equal. “Our dealership uses a strict 180-day process for follow up. Once a lead reaches 60 days with no contact, then the process becomes automated.” – Richard Tolsma

4. Turn your “dead” leads into service opportunities. “If a customer isn’t ready to buy a car, give the lead to fixed ops to market and see if they can get that customer in for service. Something like 80% of service customers will buy a new car from that dealership. The closing percentage goes way up.” – Ray Fenster

5. Don’t be afraid to share pricing, just be smart about it. “Be up front in your pricing, but be sure to give the customer several pricing options. Give them the price for the vehicle they inquired about, then follow up with second and third pricing options that are lower.” – Dennis Colome

6. Generic responses don’t add value to the conversation. “Respond to specific questions and concerns in the customers’ initial e-mails. Also acknowledge the source from where the lead came; for example, if you get a lead from ZAG American Express, mention something about the program and how exclusive it is and how happy you are to be working with them.” – Justin Brun

7. Have a pricing strategy. “When responding to pricing questions, use a “we start as low as” strategy and show the customer the option, i.e. a Toyota-Corolla. Giving them the lowest price on the lowest model will set their expectations and they usually upsell themselves. The vast majority of our customers buy a different vehicle than they originally inquired about.”  – Greg Coleman

8. Be patient. “Third party leads typically research five to six vehicles on the third-party sites because they are looking for unbiased info. When they submit leads they are often three to four months out, so work with them for a while. True ROI has to be measured over time.” – Dennis Colome

9. Know Your Market. “We perform a competitive analysis via e-mails and mystery shopping websites and third-party sites, and build a pricing matrix based upon the information gathered. On new vehicles we found our competitors are just showing the MSRP; so by displaying that number minus any available rebates, we automatically show a lower price than what’s in the market.” – Greg Coleman

10. Trends are worth more than ‘snapshots’. “When you report to management, they want to see results. Whatever program or product you are reviewing, show 30-day, 60-day and 90-day snapshots so they can see trends as to what’s working and what isn’t. Don’t be afraid to get rid of what’s not working. Not all products work for all dealerships.”  - Ray Fenster

Which is your favorite “top tip?” What are you doing in your department that works? What’s your “top tip” to share with other Internet sales personnel? 

This is the third in a series of blogs I’ve been writing on metrics: in my last blog we discussed the average percentage of sales in dealerships that can be attributed to Internet leads. This week, I’d like to talk about average front-end gross per vehicle.

In a recent survey we conducted, we asked dealerships representing all types of makes and models:

These were the two questions related to front-end gross in the survey:

1) What is the average front-end gross per vehicle sold in the showroom (floor sales) in your store?

2) What is the average front-end gross per vehicle sold in the Internet department in your store?

We wanted to first quantify the difference between gross from showroom sales and Internet sales, and we wanted to compare the averages of stores in different “performance brands.”

Here are the survey results:

• 29% of respondents said the average front-end gross per vehicle in the showroom is > $1,300

• 15% of respondents said the average front-end gross per vehicle in the Internet department is > $1,300

At the same time:

• 9% of respondents said the average front-end gross per vehicle in the showroom is < $800

• 21% of respondents said the average front-end gross per vehicle in the Internet department is < $800

It’s clear there’s quite a disparity between averages in the showroom and the Internet department. We consulted David Kain of Kain Automotive on this question, because he believes (and the survey results reflect this), that most Internet salespeople tend to discount too soon. This tendency leads to lower front-end gross averages in the Internet department.

Regardless of what your dealership’s average gross per vehicle (PVR) is, the goal is for the showroom and Internet department averages to be the same. Why is this important? The higher the gross per vehicle, the higher your ROI and profits are.

We compared answers from dealerships making seven times or more ROI on their Internet spend, to those making three times or less ROI on their Internet spend, regardless of make or model. The results were compelling:

So how can you increase your average front-end gross per vehicle, as well as get the Internet department gross in line with the showroom gross? Here are a few tips:

1. Always provide the customer with choices and carefully review leads for model selection and trim levels. If you’re quoting your customer the loss leader or base model and they want the luxury model, then you’re setting them up for a price expectation way lower than is reasonable.
2. Just like when you’re face-to-face with a customer, focus on building value in the vehicles. Customers want to know what they’re buying is worth the money, and you have the opportunity to explain why the price is what the price is
3. Don’t be tempted to immediately give a discount, and be wary of programs that send inventory selections to customers with quotes designed to beat your competition or that are loss leaders. Big discount quotes make the customer believe all vehicles can be significantly discounted.
4. Mystery shop your competition from time to time on key vehicles to ensure you’re pricing your vehicles to market.
5. Consider location. If a customer is close to you, then price in the convenience of shopping with you. If the customer lives 20 miles away and has to drive past multiple competitors in order to get to your store, you may be more aggressive in your pricing.
6. Set the rules in the Internet department based on what vehicles are selling for in the showroom. If they know the ‘floor’ price, you’re less likely to have a significant discrepancy between the showroom and the Internet gross.

What other tips do you have to raise the average front-end gross per vehicle, and more importantly, to increase the averages in the Internet departments to be more in line with showroom averages?

As a follow up to my recent blog on Internet Lead ROI, I would like to discuss another important metric for dealerships to track: the percentage of a store’s sales that can be attributed to Internet leads. Just like Internet lead ROI is not a simple formula that everyone can agree on, the percentage of sales that can be attributed to the Internet is not easy to measure.

In a recent survey we asked 184 dealership personnel this question: What percentage of your store’s overall sales is generated by the Internet department? Fully half (50%) of the respondents reported they were in the 20-40% range. Only 15% of respondents reported less than 20%, while 35% of respondents reported their dealerships attributed more than 40% of their sales to Internet leads.

Why such a disparity? I’m guessing that not every dealership answers the following question in the same way:

How do you define an Internet customer?

Since roughly 90% of your customers use the Internet before coming into the dealership, you could argue that 90% of sales are coming from the Internet, and that many of those customers don’t e-mail beforehand—they just call or walk in. But the opposite can also be true. One dealer group I know of, Homer Skelton dealerships in Tennessee, recently created a promotion for their new Payment Pro^SM feature on their website. The dealer group ran a radio campaign and produced a television commercial promoting that customers could pre-qualify for “real payments” without giving their social security number or date of birth. When the traditional ads ran, Homer Skelton saw a huge spike in visits to their website, which then turned into pre-qualified website leads. So are these Internet leads, or should they be attributed to the traditional ad campaign?

Although it may be difficult to arrive at an industry standard for what the definition of an Internet sale is, your dealership should have its own definition. Just as important as a standard measurement is tracking the performance over time so you can identify growth opportunities.

Best Practices for Improving Closing Percentages

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The most effective way to increase the percentage of sales attributed to Internet leads is to improve the closing percentages of your current Internet lead volume.

From the same survey I mentioned above, we filtered responses from the highest-performing dealerships based on the metrics they shared. The most successful Internet departments claimed the following best practices were critical in order to make an Internet department successful:

1. Quality & Speed of Lead Response (72%)
2. Website search visibility (66%)
3. Management Buy-In and Support (61%) and Staff Training & Accountability (61%) tied for third.

Other choices and responses included: quality of leads (58%); quality of staff (42%); tracking & measurement of leads and ROI (33%); online reputation (33%); quality of online merchandising (33%); written policies and procedures that are closely adhered to (22%); lead mix (17%); social media involvement (14%); and number of leads per person (14%).

Dealers continue to stress how critical it is to have a process in place to prevent salespeople from closing out their own leads. It’s too easy for them to say “this lead is bad,” or “that lead isn’t valid,” and simply close out those leads, which results in a higher reported closing percentage—albeit a false one. It’s no different than if 100 customers walk through the door and 10% of those customers are lot drops, and then you calculate the closing percentage of 90 customers instead of 100.

At most dealerships, a valid lead is one that comes in with good contact information; but I have heard some salespeople say a valid lead is one that returns their attempt to contact within three days. How many customers return a single call or e-mail? Most of the time, it takes repeated attempts to get through to a customer.

So I bring up many questions here, and I’m looking forward to everybody’s responses. I think it’s important to discuss metrics so that eventually, an industry standard or benchmarks can be established, to which all dealerships can compare themselves.

More results from our survey will be shared in our upcoming workshop, the “Five Things in Common Successful Internet Departments Share,” at the Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition in Las Vegas. These and other best practices will be discussed by our panelists, each representing a dealership with high performing Internet departments.