Great article! Thank you for sharing.

My pleasure Roger. I'm glad you liked it.

Ah yes, the pity party. Managing many Sales professionals over 32 years in the automotive industry, these gatherings are cancerous. Over the years, I have put the "Gung Ho' of the month award. My idea stems from the book, Gung Ho? By Ken Blanchard/Kevin Bowles and that I have a strong belief in its message. I rolled this out in a few phases. Phase #1, I purchased 5 of these easy read books. I then asked my whole team (Sale-Service-Parts-Office) to read the book and give me their thoughts. In turn, I would reward them with a bonus tchotchke. (You choose the bonus). Phase #2, I introduced the “First Friday” awards meetings, where I bought lunch for the whole store and introduced the “Gung Ho” of the month recipient. The department heads would vote and pick one person, who went out of their way, to do something special. This could range from, helping a customer over and above to picking up trash on the lot, which typically would lay there for weeks before the wind blew it into the parking lot next door. Phase #3, during these meetings, we would announce the winner and present the winner with a $200 gift card and an award they could take home, but must bring back the next day so it could be prominently hung on a wall in the facility. I would also hand out a $50 runner up award. It was amazing what this did to my facility. I had sales people reporting to me, what they did over and above in efforts. Office personnel, who looked to price shop common use items to reduce overhead and lot attendants who would finish cleaning the inventory and weed around my office windows to get attention. It had such a positive effect on reducing negativity and stopping those pity parties while building a “Total Team” effort. Phase #4, anyone who made a mistake or did something negative would be consulted in private using two managers (HR preferred) and myself in the conversation. Never, and I mean never allow reprimand in front of their peers. Randall at rwelsh@cimasystems.NET

Ah yes, the pity party. Managing many Sales professionals over 32 years in the automotive industry, these gatherings are cancerous. Over the years, I have put the "Gung Ho' of the month award. My idea stems from the book, Gung Ho? By Ken Blanchard/Kevin Bowles and that I have a strong belief in its message. I rolled this out in a few phases. Phase #1, I purchased 5 of these easy read books. I then asked my whole team (Sale-Service-Parts-Office) to read the book and give me their thoughts. In turn, I would reward them with a bonus tchotchke. (You choose the bonus). Phase #2, I introduced the “First Friday” awards meetings, where I bought lunch for the whole store and introduced the “Gung Ho” of the month recipient. The department heads would vote and pick one person, who went out of their way, to do something special. This could range from, helping a customer over and above to picking up trash on the lot, which typically would lay there for weeks before the wind blew it into the parking lot next door. Phase #3, during these meetings, we would announce the winner and present the winner with a $200 gift card and an award they could take home, but must bring back the next day so it could be prominently hung on a wall in the facility. I would also hand out a $50 runner up award. It was amazing what this did to my facility. I had sales people reporting to me, what they did over and above in efforts. Office personnel, who looked to price shop common use items to reduce overhead and lot attendants who would finish cleaning the inventory and weed around my office windows to get attention. It had such a positive effect on reducing negativity and stopping those pity parties while building a “Total Team” effort. Phase #4, anyone who made a mistake or did something negative would be consulted in private using two managers (HR preferred) and myself in the conversation. Never, and I mean never allow reprimand in front of their peers. rwelsh@cimasystems.NET

Fantastic comments Randall. Kudos!

Thanks for sharing Ron. Same results, different day for many dealers.

What a coincidence! My e-Business Manager and I were just talking about the same thing with our internet team yesterday............the cream rises to the top. Thanks Ron. Jeff Richmond GSM Valley Importrs

Good stuff, Ron. I recently presented similar findings at the DMSC in Orlando, after ranking thousands of Internet responses. Suffice it to say, we might have well saved ourselves time and looked at a much smaller sample size to show that dealers need help improving their interaction with customers.

Great info Ron. We have found very similar results during our consultations and work with dealers. Many times it is because dealers don't know. When they tell us they have their lead process down, they are shocked when we present information to the contrary. Especially when their departments don't call a lead we submit. Dealers have to allow some of the great trainers out there to hold up the mirror so dealers can sell more cars.

Definitely food for thought. One question: was the ~11 hour average just business hours, or within a 24 hour window?

Great question Amy. In preparing the findings from the sample I pulled it was business hours only which means the results were actually worse than reported. So glad to see responses to this post from Glenn Pasch, Joe Webb, and Shaun Raines who are all experts that I admire tremendously. And Jeff, good for you for having those discussions! Keep up the good work!

Here is some food for thought... What is your process for monitoring response times and quality of response. While third party (outside eye looking in) advice is great and always welcome we as Managers should be monitoring these issues daily. Though we may never perfect the process of Internet Sales, there is no reason why we should not try! Thank you Ron for your insight!!

Anyone know of a company that I can hire at a reasonable price to secret shop my digital team weekly/monthly? We have thousands of email addresses to secret shop our competitors every month for the last 10 years but I - and I bet they would appriciate some accountability reporting on my team. Funny, while I was typing this, I contacted my accountability manager and discussed doing this in-house and creating a "Digital Report card" that would grade every lead response in detail and followup including copies of every response and phone call/text attempt for 30 days. Answered my own question :) Love this forum.

Hey Joe, Shoot me an email and I'll share the "Quality Lead Response Report Card" that we have. Good to see you on the forum and I hope we'll see you at DSES.

Joe - If you have an accountability manager, you're way ahead of the curve. I LOVE it. We offer a couple of services for our clients and others called TaskTeacher and PriceMatrix. PriceMatrix does the detailed mystery shopping of your same brand competitors on a monthly-bi-monthly basis so you know their pricing, response time, online pricing, strategies, rebates using, etc. This way dealers can stay competitive. However, with TaskTeacher, we do much of what you'll be doing with your accountability manager. I PREFER that dealers do this in-house, but it must be done. We monitor how thoroughly their lead handlers/ISMs follow-up long-term with their Internet opportunities. We measure timing, effort, content, responses, and more. Every bit of criteria we hold them accountable for is weighted statistically to arrive at a "grade". Our team and software then writes detailed notes describing any discrepancies, as well as words of encouragement. It then automatically shoots those "grades" and coaching comments back to the ISM, Internet Director, Sales Managers and more. As you embark down this path, a tip that we ended up including into our software...make sure that you keep a historic database so you can notate trends to how they are improving and what specific short-comings each individual has. It takes managing and training to another level. (We call ours "progress reports"). Great job incorporating that into your daily routine. We've learned that it is only when someone realizes they're being constantly monitored (and receiving corresponding grades) that they start following the process well.

looking for a good lead provider can anyone help. MM

Better Car People is great at helping with this over 1500 dealerships to date

Me, too! Me, too!

Wow, Ron, what a great topic. I completely understand the sentiment about paying someone already to do their job, so spiffs seem over the top. And once you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to want some milk. However, I think one of the most important things in a leader is knowing what motivates your people. Everyone is motivated differently and it's not uncommon for average salespeople to be strongly motivated by money and short-term accomplishment. In this case, spiffs would seem a viable option. Of course, if your pay plans are set up differently or you know your team doesn't thrive in that setting, spiffs would be obsolete. Great question, Ron!

Once again and as usual, Lindsey Auguste is dropping the knowledge. Way to go Lindsey!

As we progress in this digital age, what about "spiffing" people to grow the business digitally? For example, "spiff" a guy at the morning meeting who put an idea out there that worked. "Hey, let's video our sales guys Sunday morning run and put it on YouTube showing what we're like outside of the business." Offer incentives to think outside the box....and watch as the ideas start to flow - even from an older team that's not very tech-savvy.

Well said Kyle! I like the way you think

"Turn their weaknesses into your strengths and the consumers will notice." Brilliant, Ron!

Thanks Lindsey!

When Shaun Raines and I were traveling around the nation on behalf of Chrysler Group LLC, I would always ask the assembled group of dealer owners, operators and managers a simple question in the morning. "What separates your dealership from your competitors?" (Or "why choose you over the next one down the street?") The greater majority of their answers involved the phrase "well, it's because of the customer service we provide." I have a quintessential problem with this so I would follow up with, "Do you hug your customers?" or "Are your handshakes warmer and more friendly?" You hit the nail on the head, Ron. The same antiquated "road to the sale" is on display at almost every dealership and few have a means of standing out above the crowd. It comes down to the professionalism and knowledge of the people, but I know very few dealers who would tell you their sales team really blows any other sales team out of the water. Too many are too similar. It is important for dealers to start recognizing that they're being compared to the dealership down the street AND they are doing very little to separate themselves. What is being said about you, as a dealership, cannot be controlled, but the brand messages you deliver to the public can have a profound impact of how others view you in the first place.

Great points Joe! I think it would be fantastic is Dealers and GM's went out to their competitors and actually experienced the process. Many stores pay companies to mystery shop their own stores but to have them get down in the trenches and really strive for improvement would build major value. Their teams would be blown away as well! Can you imagine a DP getting up in sales meeting and reporting the findings that he had from from shopping the guy down the street! Thanks for your comments Joe.