Welcome to Part 3 of a live dealership case study in which I am working on.  It has been two weeks since Part 2 was published.  I was away in Chicago consulting another client and also handling the Internet Sales 20 Group.  I came home to a major hurricane which slowed things down considerably.  But here is what we were able to accomplish.

CRM:

We have been working on pre-installation processes with eLead by installing email headers, templates, and other important parts of the CRM.  It has been a simple process as the CRM company is accommodating.  eLead will be spending the week at the dealership training and installing the CRM at the dealership which means we will be live in a few days.

Website:

Once again, the major challenge is that it is OEM mandated and certain things are not able to be done while others are being developed as we speak.  As much as I respect what OEMs are doing to make all dealers in the same brand unified I feel that they make it difficult for a dealership to create a unique image to stand out from the competition.

We are in the process of updating employee pictures.  This is a tough task because the owner wants all pictures to be the same exact size.  The challenge is getting the pictures to show up on the website in the same size.  I am still trying to figure out with the vendor what is going on and this is the one time where I feel they are not helping me as they should.

We drastically improved the way the specials pages look with come great content and even more specials.  We started to add video testimonials to the website which was a challenge also because the videos did not want to upload from my end.  In addition, we made proper changes for the new month and any news pertaining to changes.

Social Media:

I have begun to focus on Facebook this past week.  I have been posting engaging content and getting people responding it.  In terms of twitter, I know we have followers but for some reason I am looking for the login which no one can seem to find.  I might have to setup a new account but I will give it a week before I do it.

I have continued to blog and syndicate content.  The content has been getting some views which tell me that people are reading it.  We had an announcement from the OEM that there is a hurricane relief discount available to people in certain areas that lost their vehicles to flood and hurricane damage.  I was quick to post it and promote it on facebook before any competing dealer can think of doing the same, if they normally do it.

Videos/Pictures:

It was disappointing to me that when I left for a whole week and asked sales people to start getting their own videos and pictures that not a single person took an action.  They got all excited about the fact that they can brand themselves but they took no action at all.  I addressed that with management because the process takes all of one minute and I am even here to get the content up.  All they need is to have a form filled out, snap a picture or capture a 30 second video and have me handle the rest.  I hope that they fix the situation and get to it.  However, one person did get a picture for me that is now posted.

I added more content to the Flickr account.

Traditional Advertising:

I have not had to be involved with this.

Online Reputation Management:

I discovered a challenge that I have never had before.  In all of my years doing this I was always able to grow a dealership’s online reputation without problem.  I sat in and listened to reasons why the service department has a hard time getting reviews and I am noticing from the sales department why they are not doing.

The sales department is not pushing for it at all.  The service department explains that whenever they ask for a review to get posted that customers do not want to post it.  The understanding that I am getting is that a lot of the customers here are generally in aged in the mid 40s and range as high as 70+.  They do not want to leave an email address and they prefer to leave a survey in pen and paper.  This raises a challenge to me, a social and digital warrior that believes that everyone and everything should be online.  I am thinking that we need an iPad in service and sales with a 4G connection and we should work closely with the customer to get what we need by guiding them or assisting them.  It is obvious that post cards with links to review sites do not work well for the customers as they do not pay attention to them.

I have never been a fan of spiffing customers for reviews.  However, cars.com has a really neat format of how to generate reviews.  Cars.com offers to place customers into a contest where the customer has a potential of getting $100 for leaving a review.  There is an email template for it.  I am thinking of also creating a process strictly for cars.com to let customers know about the offer not just as delivery but also after delivery where they can be guided through.  I mean, “Who wouldn’t want a chance to get $100?”  It is also my goal to learn from cars.com if the review can somehow be syndicated just like the way DealerRater does it with google.

If anyone has suggestions of how to get reviews from customers that are more mature and not as computer savvy, I am open to some responses on here.

Dealership Process and Operations:

While walking around the dealership looking for things that needed improvement I noticed a binder with parts specials that looked sloppy.  I took it upon myself to let management know about this and created a new professional looking binder with better specials and more transparency.

I have been spending time watching how the sales department functions from how sales managers are managing their people to how they work deals.  I have to say that when it comes to working deals and selling cars they do a great job and they have decent grosses.  The managers get involved in deals and are aggressive to sell cars.  This dealership is generally number one in its district.  The other things that I have been observing are how the one internet coordinator functions throughout the day.  The GSM complains about the coordinator because he finds him playing on his cell phone a lot.  The fix to the problem was that I monitored CRM activities in the old CRM and read comments along with emails that were being sent to the customers.

I noticed something interesting and disturbing.  When an internet appointment comes in the internet coordinator sits with them and talks with them sometimes as long as 20-30 minutes.  When I approached management they agreed and said that it needs to be fixed.  I had the perfect fix for that.  At the Internet Sales 20 Group, Ralph Paglia introduced the “Showroom Appointment Reception Agenda”.  This form is a professional way for the coordinator to meet the customer that they communicated with.  What is amazing about this form is that it explains in a quick and transparent fashion what the customer will accomplish on this visit which is a 4-5 step process.  The coordinator turns over the customer to a sales consultant and moves on with their job.  This takes 1-2 minutes.  We are implementing this as of this week as the new CRM is installed.  There were major changes made to the document that Ralph provided which I will describe in the next section.

Call monitoring is not very strong in the dealership.  The dealership relies on cars.com and their website provider to have toll free numbers.  It is amazing that the newspaper always had a local number.  No one really ever listened to phone calls.  In fact, all sales calls are being handled by sales consultants and not the internet coordinator.  This is a whole other issue that I will be tackling soon if I get the chance to.  The way I monitor the calls is I stand in the showroom and listen to the sales consultants talk to phone ups.  I then log into to my limited tools and listen to the conversation.  My plans are to do the same with service and parts soon.  While taking many notes, I have discovered flaws in phone skills and will be planning on phone training sessions at this dealership after the CRM is installed. 

Ownership Challenges:

The only real challenges in the improvement and transformation of the dealership are dealing with ownership in this case.  The dealer principle is not hands on yet has very interesting opinions to how things should run.  As far as sales and service is concerned, she lets the managers do their thing and make money for the store.  But when a highly paid expert that has built numerous success stories is brought in a challenge is created.  Now, I am not saying that challenges are not fun.  This is a unique challenge where I am working with a personality that involves me trying to figure out how they think. 

Every best practice email installed needs to be edited because the writing does not work for them.  This stalled the processes of installing emails into the CRM by two weeks.  Take website content, wording of some serious best practices just never work and they need to be changed.  My challenge is that I need to change content and write it as if I was this other person.  Again, it is an interesting challenge.

The best practice implemented by Ralph Paglia was another example where 60% of the content was rewritten and another 20% was omitted just to satisfy their feelings.  Now I am not saying the document became a bad document but it had changed the TO process from internet coordinator to sales person in a way that I personally would have done differently.

I respect the challenge and although at some point it is frustrating it is what makes me better at my job and what ultimately brings more success to the dealership.

That is all for Part 3.  If anyone has questions, always feel free to contact me. 

http://dealeretraining.com/

https://www.facebook.com/dealeretraining

http://www.drivingsales.com/ratings/companies/dealer-etraining

Welcome to Part 2 of what is a major real live hands on case study.  Last week I wrote Part 1.  For those of you that missed it, click here to catch up on what you may have missed.

We ended last week with starting to get more social media plans installed.  We also started a picture and video policy.  However, The major thing was CRM and digital marketing this week. 

CRM:

I narrowed down three choices of CRM companies that integrate with the DMS that dealership is using.  It is not a common DMS like ADP, Reynolds, or Arkona even.  We learned that the DMS only works properly with only 3 CRM companies.  The CRM Companies are eLead, VinSolutions, and CAR-Research.  All three companies have something great to offer.  We made the decision to stop being the pilot for the DMS company that was using this dealership to develop their CRM.  They are light years away from where everyone else is in the marketplace.  I came to a conclusion that we have no accountability in the dealership and nothing can be measured.  I noticed that the sales desk does a great job and so do F&I.  Now with processes, accountability, and reporting I think that this store can sell and additional 10-20 units per month.

After numerous conversations and demos of CRM products we decided on eLead.  I have been a customer of eLead in the past and have great relationships.  I wanted VinSolutions because Vin had some cool features that no one else has.  However, the owner of the dealership liked the functions of eLead and felt that it was simpler for the showroom.  Their opinion was that Vin worked well for someone on a high level like me.  I liked CAR-Research too but we all agreed that for what we need eLead would be the right fit.  Also, eLead has agreed to do install in the beginning of November where no one else could accommodate the owner's quick need.

Next --->

Website:

So we signed a contract for the CRM and that is in the works.  The next aspect that is important is to really make the dealership website great.  The challenge is that it is OEM mandated and certain things are not able to be done while others are being developed as we speak.

We have begun the process of changing and updating employee pictures and bios.  The way that we get employee bios is that we have a questionnaire in their employee packet that they need to fill out when they start employment here.  I revised the questions to make better bios.  The owner liked how another dealership on the West Coast had their staff page so we started to research how we can get a similar page built.  If I can get the owner to agree in the near future, I would like to add videos next to the employee picture and bio of each employee.

We are reconfiguring buttons on the website to make it easier to navigate and have better call to actions.  We want to stand out from competitors and really be unique.

Other best practices that I started working on are basically because I love the way that Checkered Flag in Virginia Beach has their website providing major transparency with things like a "women's page" or a page explaining "taxes and fees".  This dealership is active in the community so we are working on making these efforts stand out as well.  I have been working on content because I do not want to be a copycat but I love the ideas and would love to use them since very few (literally) dealers on this planet are that much outside the box.

I noticed that the dealership had no specials for pre-owned and service.  I got with the used car manager and we had 8 vehicles that are aged units that he wants to just sell and move on.  I created specials with comments.  The page got filled up nicely and now the site has more great content.  After that I got with service manager and went over some promotions that he gave me.  The site now has 7 service specials.  That's right I said "SEVEN".  Dealerships miss out on opportunities by not updating service specials or keeping 1 generic special.

Social Media:

I have not begun to focus on Facebook, twitter, and G+ but will add my focus when I get back from Internet Sales 20 Group next week.  However, I have created a blogging strategy that I love.  It includes content syndication and it spreads the content virally.  For those of you that would like to know how I do that, just take a look at how I have been marketing my own business (Dealer eTraining).  I believe that content needs to be visible and easy to find.  I have employed the same strategy to brand my own name and get known by industry people at conferences in the last 4 years.  The strategy is to connect multiple social networks and blogs together using one platform.  For blogs, I use posterous, blogspot, wordpress, and tumblr.  I will have the dealership outsourced graphic designer work on designing these blogs so they look amazing.  We have been adding content that includes videos, pictures, spy photos, community events, celebrity information, interesting news, dealership information, and just anything that will catch people's eyes and create engagement.  It has only been 1 week so I cannot report changes yet.  However, over time we should see a big increase.  Every blog is optimized with proper keywords, backlinks, and content.

I got the dealership signed up with Pinterest and read a lot on it.  I saw what Jim Ziegler has been teaching and saw how major Pinterest players operated to drive traffic.  I implemented the strategy and it took me all of 2 hours.  The Pinterest profile now has over 50 images and some were re-pinned while others were originally and strategically posted to drive traffic to the dealership website.  As time progresses we will continue to optimize the profile even further.

Videos/Pictures:

I got started on a basic cost effective VSEO strategy.  Last week we implemented a strategy to have sales people fill out a form.  We revised the form to have 8 questions with a waiver.  We have started gaining traction and filmed a few happy customers.  The testimonials got uploaded to not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 of the most power video search engines out there.  We took these testimonials and created blog content on our syndicated channels as well.  We used sites like youtube, vimeo, daily motion, and metacafe.

I did some research the other day to see which photo sharing sites are best for seo and everything else and as always Flickr was the choice.  I started a Flickr account and had 40 pictures optimized for starters.  I also connected Flickr with Pinterest as they work well together.  I discovered this by researching it and reading about it.  We take pictures of guests at delivery time.

Traditional Advertising:

The dealership advertises in the local newspaper on weekends.  Last week when I was given the advertisement I saw a few major things missing.  The dealership advertised their local number and there was no call tracking to see how many calls we get off the advertisement.  Well I noticed that our current call monitoring solution has 2 extra phone numbers not being used so I placed one of the numbers to start tracking those calls.  I also saw no QR codes (no surprise).  A lot of dealerships still do not know much about it.  I looked over the ads for all competing dealerships in the area and no one else had QR codes.  I created a QR code for new car inventory on the dealer website as well as a separate one for used inventory and placed them on the add next to new and pre-owned.

Local Brochure:

The owner of the dealership was getting her nails done and saw a plain brochure at the salon.  She brought it to my attention and would like something similar but created.  I started working on ideas on how to digital enhance it with QR codes, social media, and an online reputation, all in a fold-able brochure.

Dealership Process and Operations:

Last night I was handed a book from the OEM that goes to the owner of the dealership.  It talks about performance of sales, internet lead management, and service.  It has national averages, store averages, and goals of what needs to be accomplished.  I even got to read the customer comments to gather an idea of what practices that I need to fix and train on in the store so that we can improve the customer experience in the store while creating better communication.  In the next few weeks I will be training various departments on CRM, communication, and best customer practices.

So far...that is all we have for the first 2 weeks.  I feel like we have already come a very long way.  It is exciting for me because I get back to my roots of not only digital marketing and managing Internet operations but I get to focus on store processes.  I really love what I do and I am passionate about it.  If anyone has questions, always feel free to contact me. 

http://dealeretraining.com/

https://www.facebook.com/dealeretraining

http://www.drivingsales.com/ratings/companies/dealer-etraining

Welcome to Part 2 of what is a major real live hands on case study.  Last week I wrote Part 1.  For those of you that missed it, click here to catch up on what you may have missed.

We ended last week with starting to get more social media plans installed.  We also started a picture and video policy.  However, The major thing was CRM and digital marketing this week. 

CRM:

I narrowed down three choices of CRM companies that integrate with the DMS that dealership is using.  It is not a common DMS like ADP, Reynolds, or Arkona even.  We learned that the DMS only works properly with only 3 CRM companies.  The CRM Companies are eLead, VinSolutions, and CAR-Research.  All three companies have something great to offer.  We made the decision to stop being the pilot for the DMS company that was using this dealership to develop their CRM.  They are light years away from where everyone else is in the marketplace.  I came to a conclusion that we have no accountability in the dealership and nothing can be measured.  I noticed that the sales desk does a great job and so do F&I.  Now with processes, accountability, and reporting I think that this store can sell and additional 10-20 units per month.

After numerous conversations and demos of CRM products we decided on eLead.  I have been a customer of eLead in the past and have great relationships.  I wanted VinSolutions because Vin had some cool features that no one else has.  However, the owner of the dealership liked the functions of eLead and felt that it was simpler for the showroom.  Their opinion was that Vin worked well for someone on a high level like me.  I liked CAR-Research too but we all agreed that for what we need eLead would be the right fit.  Also, eLead has agreed to do install in the beginning of November where no one else could accommodate the owner's quick need.

Next --->

Website:

So we signed a contract for the CRM and that is in the works.  The next aspect that is important is to really make the dealership website great.  The challenge is that it is OEM mandated and certain things are not able to be done while others are being developed as we speak.

We have begun the process of changing and updating employee pictures and bios.  The way that we get employee bios is that we have a questionnaire in their employee packet that they need to fill out when they start employment here.  I revised the questions to make better bios.  The owner liked how another dealership on the West Coast had their staff page so we started to research how we can get a similar page built.  If I can get the owner to agree in the near future, I would like to add videos next to the employee picture and bio of each employee.

We are reconfiguring buttons on the website to make it easier to navigate and have better call to actions.  We want to stand out from competitors and really be unique.

Other best practices that I started working on are basically because I love the way that Checkered Flag in Virginia Beach has their website providing major transparency with things like a "women's page" or a page explaining "taxes and fees".  This dealership is active in the community so we are working on making these efforts stand out as well.  I have been working on content because I do not want to be a copycat but I love the ideas and would love to use them since very few (literally) dealers on this planet are that much outside the box.

I noticed that the dealership had no specials for pre-owned and service.  I got with the used car manager and we had 8 vehicles that are aged units that he wants to just sell and move on.  I created specials with comments.  The page got filled up nicely and now the site has more great content.  After that I got with service manager and went over some promotions that he gave me.  The site now has 7 service specials.  That's right I said "SEVEN".  Dealerships miss out on opportunities by not updating service specials or keeping 1 generic special.

Social Media:

I have not begun to focus on Facebook, twitter, and G+ but will add my focus when I get back from Internet Sales 20 Group next week.  However, I have created a blogging strategy that I love.  It includes content syndication and it spreads the content virally.  For those of you that would like to know how I do that, just take a look at how I have been marketing my own business (Dealer eTraining).  I believe that content needs to be visible and easy to find.  I have employed the same strategy to brand my own name and get known by industry people at conferences in the last 4 years.  The strategy is to connect multiple social networks and blogs together using one platform.  For blogs, I use posterous, blogspot, wordpress, and tumblr.  I will have the dealership outsourced graphic designer work on designing these blogs so they look amazing.  We have been adding content that includes videos, pictures, spy photos, community events, celebrity information, interesting news, dealership information, and just anything that will catch people's eyes and create engagement.  It has only been 1 week so I cannot report changes yet.  However, over time we should see a big increase.  Every blog is optimized with proper keywords, backlinks, and content.

I got the dealership signed up with Pinterest and read a lot on it.  I saw what Jim Ziegler has been teaching and saw how major Pinterest players operated to drive traffic.  I implemented the strategy and it took me all of 2 hours.  The Pinterest profile now has over 50 images and some were re-pinned while others were originally and strategically posted to drive traffic to the dealership website.  As time progresses we will continue to optimize the profile even further.

Videos/Pictures:

I got started on a basic cost effective VSEO strategy.  Last week we implemented a strategy to have sales people fill out a form.  We revised the form to have 8 questions with a waiver.  We have started gaining traction and filmed a few happy customers.  The testimonials got uploaded to not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 of the most power video search engines out there.  We took these testimonials and created blog content on our syndicated channels as well.  We used sites like youtube, vimeo, daily motion, and metacafe.

I did some research the other day to see which photo sharing sites are best for seo and everything else and as always Flickr was the choice.  I started a Flickr account and had 40 pictures optimized for starters.  I also connected Flickr with Pinterest as they work well together.  I discovered this by researching it and reading about it.  We take pictures of guests at delivery time.

Traditional Advertising:

The dealership advertises in the local newspaper on weekends.  Last week when I was given the advertisement I saw a few major things missing.  The dealership advertised their local number and there was no call tracking to see how many calls we get off the advertisement.  Well I noticed that our current call monitoring solution has 2 extra phone numbers not being used so I placed one of the numbers to start tracking those calls.  I also saw no QR codes (no surprise).  A lot of dealerships still do not know much about it.  I looked over the ads for all competing dealerships in the area and no one else had QR codes.  I created a QR code for new car inventory on the dealer website as well as a separate one for used inventory and placed them on the add next to new and pre-owned.

Local Brochure:

The owner of the dealership was getting her nails done and saw a plain brochure at the salon.  She brought it to my attention and would like something similar but created.  I started working on ideas on how to digital enhance it with QR codes, social media, and an online reputation, all in a fold-able brochure.

Dealership Process and Operations:

Last night I was handed a book from the OEM that goes to the owner of the dealership.  It talks about performance of sales, internet lead management, and service.  It has national averages, store averages, and goals of what needs to be accomplished.  I even got to read the customer comments to gather an idea of what practices that I need to fix and train on in the store so that we can improve the customer experience in the store while creating better communication.  In the next few weeks I will be training various departments on CRM, communication, and best customer practices.

So far...that is all we have for the first 2 weeks.  I feel like we have already come a very long way.  It is exciting for me because I get back to my roots of not only digital marketing and managing Internet operations but I get to focus on store processes.  I really love what I do and I am passionate about it.  If anyone has questions, always feel free to contact me. 

http://dealeretraining.com/

https://www.facebook.com/dealeretraining

http://www.drivingsales.com/ratings/companies/dealer-etraining

Welcome to Part 1 of what will be a major real live hands on case study.  Less than 2 weeks ago, I was contacted by a dealer principal of a dealership within an hour from my home.  The owner is a female and a real entrepreneur that is a partner in two other dealerships and also owns a wireless retail business with multiple locations.  The store is a family environment and has been in business for over 30 years under her control.

She was looking for someone to come in and really help the dealership with all of the marketing efforts.  This includes communications, vendor relationship, and advertising budget and oversees the internet sales operations of the store.  This was because she wanted to get a better grasp on things and make improvements.  The person in this role would also be in charge of events for the store as well as local events.

As we make progress in the dealership, I think it would be great to document and write out the changes on a weekly basis.  Consider it like a new chapter of a book to entertain yourself and learn how you can make positive changes in a dealership that bring improvements on many levels including profitability, accountability, a better brand for the OEM, and a better image for the dealership as a whole.  This will include helping to create more proactive employees.

We will not be disclosing names of employees, or the dealership for various reasons.  I want to keep it exciting and new.  When the time is right all will be revealed.

So let's get started...

It has been five days since I got involved with working with the dealership.  Here is what I gathered so far.

The sales department:

1 General Sales Manager (3 Years longevity))

1 Sales Manager (9 years longevity)

1 Finance Manager (few years longevity)

8 Sales Consultants (1-5 years longevity)

1 Internet Coordinator (was 2 but 1 quit during the week) - Here for over 1 year,

The dealership sells around 100 units per month with 60-65 being new and 30-40 being used at around a $2,000 average per car.

Website: Dealer.com (OEM Mandated)
Digital Marketing: OEM Mandated
Social Media Presence: Facebook and Twitter with limited engagement
CRM: A test pilot CRM for this dealership.  The CRM is a new product that comes as an add on to the DMS.  The DMS is not a well known common company.  The DMS works great but the CRM gives nothing but trouble.  It is missing more than 50% of the features that it needs to be fully functional.  In addition, it is server based.

Process: No set process.  No tracking of phone calls, internet leads, appointments, set, show.
Sales Process: Sales works well as the GSM does a great job putting deals

The Service Department

1 Service Manager (over 13 years here)

3 Service Advisors

1 Parts Manager

2 Parts Counter Reps

The first order of business:

1) Fix and properly optimize Website

2) Fix and properly optimize CRM

3) Get involved in all marketing and advertising initiatives (meet the vendors)

4) Create plan to measure advertising activity

5) Get sales department on board with reputation management and video testimonial strategy

What have we accomplished in the first 5 days?

Website: We did a full scope of the website and communicated with the Dealer.com rep.  We started to make plans to make certain changes and additions based on some best practices that we found from other dealers on a national level.  Right now we are creating content to be approved by the owner of the dealership before we push it to get setup and go live.

CRM: We discovered that the CRM has been holding the dealership back for over 1 year now.  Everyone in the store complains about it and for the first time we see why.  We had internet leads not coming through.  We had server crashes.  The tool does not allow for certain functions to happen.  I was able to convince the owner to look at options.  We started evaluating other options and will soon come an agreement.  Meanwhile, a major conference call with the current CRM Company included the development team and key executives.  This call allowed me to tell them everything that I need; I used examples from VinSolutions, iMagic, eLead, HigherGear, WebControl AVV, and a few others.  I was told that they will build it for me and within months I will see changes while other changes will take place within a days.

Advertising: Had numerous conference calls with OEM, local newspaper representative, cars.com, Digital "Behavioral" Marketing services reps, and CRM to review and learn analytic reports.

Management: Work closely with General Sales Manager to help take his mind off of a lot of advertising issues.  Create a plan to work together and help each other in building the success of the dealership further.  The GSM is fully on board with everything and is also a key decision maker in the store.

Owner: Very open minded and over worked.  She is involved in tell me what she wants to accomplish.  When trying to setup proven email templates and process she got involved and made opinions of her own where some of the templates she was not fond of and others we made changes together as a team.  As the relationship grows she will relinquish more power when she feels comfortable.  Based on our conversations and my actions with vendors she is starting to understand that I am the real deal and I know what I am doing.

Internet Department: Once the CRM situation stabilizes we will be able to get processes in place and know what we are dealing with in terms of lead count, tracking, and performance.  We will then try to build up the department accordingly.  The current Internet Coordinator explains his views and hope for better changes,

Sales People: They are excited to see a marketing initiative come into place that will help them market themselves at a level they never thought possible.  It is an easy going environment and when it is slow no one is being proactive.  As we implement digital strategies and train them on effective prospecting techniques we should see them become better modern sales professionals.  Eventually we will train them to use their digital tools in order to be better.

Social Media: We are creating video channels on various networks (YouTube, daily motion, metacafe, video).  We are also starting to gather images and create a flick account.  The twitter and facebook page is being managed by our graphic designer.  We met and will be creating neat logos and advertising campaigns.  We will soon take over managing the facebook and twitter while planning on creating syndicated blogs in the next few days.

Reputation Management: Created Quality Control Survey that every customer in Sales needs to read and fill out.  The Survey has 7 questions that includes rating dealership experience, commenting on it, recommending the sales professional, and learning what they liked the most about their experience.  In addition, we ask for permission to take a photograph of them with their new car to be emailed to them and used in social media.  We also ask for permission to take a video testimonial.  It comes with a disclaimer notice which the customer will sign.  Afterwards, we will either take a picture and video or we will not based on the customer's permission.  I had explained to the sales consultants how some of the most successful sales people in the business do it and they were very much excited.

So far...that is all we have for the first week.  Stay tuned as we make forward strides in the dealership.

Welcome to Part 1 of what will be a major real live hands on case study.  Less than 2 weeks ago, I was contacted by a dealer principal of a dealership within an hour from my home.  The owner is a female and a real entrepreneur that is a partner in two other dealerships and also owns a wireless retail business with multiple locations.  The store is a family environment and has been in business for over 30 years under her control.

She was looking for someone to come in and really help the dealership with all of the marketing efforts.  This includes communications, vendor relationship, and advertising budget and oversees the internet sales operations of the store.  This was because she wanted to get a better grasp on things and make improvements.  The person in this role would also be in charge of events for the store as well as local events.

As we make progress in the dealership, I think it would be great to document and write out the changes on a weekly basis.  Consider it like a new chapter of a book to entertain yourself and learn how you can make positive changes in a dealership that bring improvements on many levels including profitability, accountability, a better brand for the OEM, and a better image for the dealership as a whole.  This will include helping to create more proactive employees.

We will not be disclosing names of employees, or the dealership for various reasons.  I want to keep it exciting and new.  When the time is right all will be revealed.

So let's get started...

It has been five days since I got involved with working with the dealership.  Here is what I gathered so far.

The sales department:

1 General Sales Manager (3 Years longevity))

1 Sales Manager (9 years longevity)

1 Finance Manager (few years longevity)

8 Sales Consultants (1-5 years longevity)

1 Internet Coordinator (was 2 but 1 quit during the week) - Here for over 1 year,

The dealership sells around 100 units per month with 60-65 being new and 30-40 being used at around a $2,000 average per car.

Website: Dealer.com (OEM Mandated)
Digital Marketing: OEM Mandated
Social Media Presence: Facebook and Twitter with limited engagement
CRM: A test pilot CRM for this dealership.  The CRM is a new product that comes as an add on to the DMS.  The DMS is not a well known common company.  The DMS works great but the CRM gives nothing but trouble.  It is missing more than 50% of the features that it needs to be fully functional.  In addition, it is server based.

Process: No set process.  No tracking of phone calls, internet leads, appointments, set, show.
Sales Process: Sales works well as the GSM does a great job putting deals

The Service Department

1 Service Manager (over 13 years here)

3 Service Advisors

1 Parts Manager

2 Parts Counter Reps

The first order of business:

1) Fix and properly optimize Website

2) Fix and properly optimize CRM

3) Get involved in all marketing and advertising initiatives (meet the vendors)

4) Create plan to measure advertising activity

5) Get sales department on board with reputation management and video testimonial strategy

What have we accomplished in the first 5 days?

Website: We did a full scope of the website and communicated with the Dealer.com rep.  We started to make plans to make certain changes and additions based on some best practices that we found from other dealers on a national level.  Right now we are creating content to be approved by the owner of the dealership before we push it to get setup and go live.

CRM: We discovered that the CRM has been holding the dealership back for over 1 year now.  Everyone in the store complains about it and for the first time we see why.  We had internet leads not coming through.  We had server crashes.  The tool does not allow for certain functions to happen.  I was able to convince the owner to look at options.  We started evaluating other options and will soon come an agreement.  Meanwhile, a major conference call with the current CRM Company included the development team and key executives.  This call allowed me to tell them everything that I need; I used examples from VinSolutions, iMagic, eLead, HigherGear, WebControl AVV, and a few others.  I was told that they will build it for me and within months I will see changes while other changes will take place within a days.

Advertising: Had numerous conference calls with OEM, local newspaper representative, cars.com, Digital "Behavioral" Marketing services reps, and CRM to review and learn analytic reports.

Management: Work closely with General Sales Manager to help take his mind off of a lot of advertising issues.  Create a plan to work together and help each other in building the success of the dealership further.  The GSM is fully on board with everything and is also a key decision maker in the store.

Owner: Very open minded and over worked.  She is involved in tell me what she wants to accomplish.  When trying to setup proven email templates and process she got involved and made opinions of her own where some of the templates she was not fond of and others we made changes together as a team.  As the relationship grows she will relinquish more power when she feels comfortable.  Based on our conversations and my actions with vendors she is starting to understand that I am the real deal and I know what I am doing.

Internet Department: Once the CRM situation stabilizes we will be able to get processes in place and know what we are dealing with in terms of lead count, tracking, and performance.  We will then try to build up the department accordingly.  The current Internet Coordinator explains his views and hope for better changes,

Sales People: They are excited to see a marketing initiative come into place that will help them market themselves at a level they never thought possible.  It is an easy going environment and when it is slow no one is being proactive.  As we implement digital strategies and train them on effective prospecting techniques we should see them become better modern sales professionals.  Eventually we will train them to use their digital tools in order to be better.

Social Media: We are creating video channels on various networks (YouTube, daily motion, metacafe, video).  We are also starting to gather images and create a flick account.  The twitter and facebook page is being managed by our graphic designer.  We met and will be creating neat logos and advertising campaigns.  We will soon take over managing the facebook and twitter while planning on creating syndicated blogs in the next few days.

Reputation Management: Created Quality Control Survey that every customer in Sales needs to read and fill out.  The Survey has 7 questions that includes rating dealership experience, commenting on it, recommending the sales professional, and learning what they liked the most about their experience.  In addition, we ask for permission to take a photograph of them with their new car to be emailed to them and used in social media.  We also ask for permission to take a video testimonial.  It comes with a disclaimer notice which the customer will sign.  Afterwards, we will either take a picture and video or we will not based on the customer's permission.  I had explained to the sales consultants how some of the most successful sales people in the business do it and they were very much excited.

So far...that is all we have for the first week.  Stay tuned as we make forward strides in the dealership.

Picture this scenario...

A high level Internet/BDC Manager gets hired into a dealership that is a goldmine of an opportunity.  This person comes very highly recommended and has a proven track record of building success for every dealership that they have worked with.  It is amazing how during the interview process this person's suggestions and views are not really cared for.  Here is a dealership that gets over 2000 leads per month with an underperforming BDC, very poor customer satisfaction, and untrained sales consultants.

This new BDC Manager starts working at the dealership that builds him a new BDC office with space to fit 10 BDC reps.  The dealership is operating with only 4 BDC reps that cherry pick the leads and do not follow up a set process.  This is because the CRM is not properly set up.  These 4 BDC reps are working 55 hours per week and milking the dealership for overtime with very little focus on performance since the commission plan is poor.  The sales staff is micro-managed and is required to spend an hour a day in the BDC to make random phone calls to random internet leads (only to aggravate prospects) without reading notes on the customers.

What does the BDC Manager accomplish in a 2 month period?

Start with the fact that this person works 50 hours per week.  Also take into consideration that the General Manager is really just a General Sales Manager who takes on way more responsibility than they should.  They handle websites, third party lead providers, and marketing without ever involving the BDC Manager (who has the best automotive digital marketing background in the whole dealership).  Take into consideration that while all of the dealerships that are smart are pulling out of using TrueCar, this dealership embraces it.  They get 1200 leads per month off of ZAG and only sell 30.  They are happy with that and do not care for the fact that 95% of the leads are garbage that clutter the CRM.  When the BDC Manager speaks up, the response that he gets is "look we delivered 30 cars at $2,700 per unit so it is a great resource".

Does this sound like a problematic situation?  So the BDC Manager puts up with it and works with what he has knowing that the dealership only talks about growing but does not want to make changes that will allow for the growth.

So in two months, here is what happens:

1. Pay Plan change for BDC reps.  No more overtime.  No more hourly pay.  They strictly get paid a weekly salary to work 40 hours per week.  The commission plan becomes lucrative.  There is a bonus put in place if the team hits their goals.  This causes issues and struggles because everyone started to complain.  However, everyone has the option of accepting the change and the ability to make more money or pack their things and leave.  Every single BDC rep stays loyal and decides to follow this new plan.

2. As we know it is impossible to manager 2000 leads for 4 people.  The BDC Managers hires 4 more people rounding out the staff to an even 8 person BDC.  Now we are in business.  This stops the cherry picking and starts to push the BDC reps to making more phone calls and appointments.

3. Training.  The BDC reps were all trained to follow the system that BDC Manager has put into place.  It was easier for the new people to learn and develop these new methods while the veterans had to incorporate this into what they were already doing.

4. CRM Process setup.  The CRM was a total disaster.  There was no work plan.  In fact the only leads that were followed up with were the ones that responded back.  Email templates were not clear and everyone just sent out a random email.  This would change as the BDC Manager installed processes and email templates that include 120 follow for internet leads consisting of emails and phone calls.  The emails had fresh, unique, content that triggered customers to respond.  This automatically increased contact rates and elevated to more phone calls.  There were processes installed for following up with unsold showroom customers as well as bringing in service customers to give them an opportunity to trade their vehicle into a new one.

The Results:

Before all of these changes were made, the average Saturday appointment log would have 60-70 appointments booked.  After these changes, an average Saturday appointment log with have between 85 and 104 appointments.  During the week the appointments went from 15 per day to as many as 35 per day.  Towards the end of the 2nd month the total amount of appointments for the store were 610 set and 317 shows.

The problem:

With 610 set and 317 shows, the dealership as a whole was sitting on only 115 delivered vehicles.  Keep in mind that lead count dropped as Zag/TrueCar made changes.  The leads went from 1200 to 600.  The BDC Manager was happy to have less garbage clutter the CRM.  The customers are being brought in yet the sales department is dropping the ball.  The dealership is starting to have more customer satisfaction problems than ever.  More and more customers email and call to complain.  They are being mishandled.  One of the sales consultants who consistently sell over 30 cars per month is politically tied in with the GM and he gets way with everything.  He skates other sales people and he is the main source of the customer satisfaction problems.

What else?  It is two months into this department being setup.  The BDC Manager still does not have as desk, computer, and phone.  There were times when the BDC Manager had to work out of their very own laptop.  The first month and half there were not enough phone lines.

So the finger pointing starts and the blame goes to the internet manager for the dealership not selling cars.  The blame also states that they are not focused on the job as much as they should be and the results are not there.  The dealership does not know what to do next but thinks that having this BDC Manager is a huge expense so they let him go.

Fast forward one week later after the BDC Manager is gone.  This dealership has no clue to what to do next so they place their 30 car per month sales all-star (who barely speaks English and is the reason for most of the customer satisfaction problems) to be the acting BDC Manager.  This person has no BDC training and has no idea how to manage the CRM and anything about process.  Well that first Saturday, the appointment log drops down to 50 appointments instead of 90.

What is the point?

The point is that dealers need to stop looking for an instant miracle.  If you want to grow and you get someone great give them the chance and the support that they need to make it work.  Stop fighting it.  Control the dealership so that no one else gets in the way politically to make it difficult for the store to grow.  Start focusing on managing the sales staff and fixing all of the customer service issues that come with the problem.  At 317 customers showing up, the dealership should have sold 140-150 units just off the appointments and even more from the walk in traffic.  Yet the blame is still put on the internet manager.  This store does not look back and think "Why did we have to go through 5 and now 6 BDC Managers in 2 years?"  They just dream big and finger point.  Finger pointing and playing the blame game only takes you backwards.  So when you decide that you want to grow and make positive changes.  Stick with them and do not cause action that will make you go backwards.

By the way this is based on a true story and this actually happened within the last two months.  The statistics are 100% accurate.

Picture this scenario...

A high level Internet/BDC Manager gets hired into a dealership that is a goldmine of an opportunity.  This person comes very highly recommended and has a proven track record of building success for every dealership that they have worked with.  It is amazing how during the interview process this person's suggestions and views are not really cared for.  Here is a dealership that gets over 2000 leads per month with an underperforming BDC, very poor customer satisfaction, and untrained sales consultants.

This new BDC Manager starts working at the dealership that builds him a new BDC office with space to fit 10 BDC reps.  The dealership is operating with only 4 BDC reps that cherry pick the leads and do not follow up a set process.  This is because the CRM is not properly set up.  These 4 BDC reps are working 55 hours per week and milking the dealership for overtime with very little focus on performance since the commission plan is poor.  The sales staff is micro-managed and is required to spend an hour a day in the BDC to make random phone calls to random internet leads (only to aggravate prospects) without reading notes on the customers.

What does the BDC Manager accomplish in a 2 month period?

Start with the fact that this person works 50 hours per week.  Also take into consideration that the General Manager is really just a General Sales Manager who takes on way more responsibility than they should.  They handle websites, third party lead providers, and marketing without ever involving the BDC Manager (who has the best automotive digital marketing background in the whole dealership).  Take into consideration that while all of the dealerships that are smart are pulling out of using TrueCar, this dealership embraces it.  They get 1200 leads per month off of ZAG and only sell 30.  They are happy with that and do not care for the fact that 95% of the leads are garbage that clutter the CRM.  When the BDC Manager speaks up, the response that he gets is "look we delivered 30 cars at $2,700 per unit so it is a great resource".

Does this sound like a problematic situation?  So the BDC Manager puts up with it and works with what he has knowing that the dealership only talks about growing but does not want to make changes that will allow for the growth.

So in two months, here is what happens:

1. Pay Plan change for BDC reps.  No more overtime.  No more hourly pay.  They strictly get paid a weekly salary to work 40 hours per week.  The commission plan becomes lucrative.  There is a bonus put in place if the team hits their goals.  This causes issues and struggles because everyone started to complain.  However, everyone has the option of accepting the change and the ability to make more money or pack their things and leave.  Every single BDC rep stays loyal and decides to follow this new plan.

2. As we know it is impossible to manager 2000 leads for 4 people.  The BDC Managers hires 4 more people rounding out the staff to an even 8 person BDC.  Now we are in business.  This stops the cherry picking and starts to push the BDC reps to making more phone calls and appointments.

3. Training.  The BDC reps were all trained to follow the system that BDC Manager has put into place.  It was easier for the new people to learn and develop these new methods while the veterans had to incorporate this into what they were already doing.

4. CRM Process setup.  The CRM was a total disaster.  There was no work plan.  In fact the only leads that were followed up with were the ones that responded back.  Email templates were not clear and everyone just sent out a random email.  This would change as the BDC Manager installed processes and email templates that include 120 follow for internet leads consisting of emails and phone calls.  The emails had fresh, unique, content that triggered customers to respond.  This automatically increased contact rates and elevated to more phone calls.  There were processes installed for following up with unsold showroom customers as well as bringing in service customers to give them an opportunity to trade their vehicle into a new one.

The Results:

Before all of these changes were made, the average Saturday appointment log would have 60-70 appointments booked.  After these changes, an average Saturday appointment log with have between 85 and 104 appointments.  During the week the appointments went from 15 per day to as many as 35 per day.  Towards the end of the 2nd month the total amount of appointments for the store were 610 set and 317 shows.

The problem:

With 610 set and 317 shows, the dealership as a whole was sitting on only 115 delivered vehicles.  Keep in mind that lead count dropped as Zag/TrueCar made changes.  The leads went from 1200 to 600.  The BDC Manager was happy to have less garbage clutter the CRM.  The customers are being brought in yet the sales department is dropping the ball.  The dealership is starting to have more customer satisfaction problems than ever.  More and more customers email and call to complain.  They are being mishandled.  One of the sales consultants who consistently sell over 30 cars per month is politically tied in with the GM and he gets way with everything.  He skates other sales people and he is the main source of the customer satisfaction problems.

What else?  It is two months into this department being setup.  The BDC Manager still does not have as desk, computer, and phone.  There were times when the BDC Manager had to work out of their very own laptop.  The first month and half there were not enough phone lines.

So the finger pointing starts and the blame goes to the internet manager for the dealership not selling cars.  The blame also states that they are not focused on the job as much as they should be and the results are not there.  The dealership does not know what to do next but thinks that having this BDC Manager is a huge expense so they let him go.

Fast forward one week later after the BDC Manager is gone.  This dealership has no clue to what to do next so they place their 30 car per month sales all-star (who barely speaks English and is the reason for most of the customer satisfaction problems) to be the acting BDC Manager.  This person has no BDC training and has no idea how to manage the CRM and anything about process.  Well that first Saturday, the appointment log drops down to 50 appointments instead of 90.

What is the point?

The point is that dealers need to stop looking for an instant miracle.  If you want to grow and you get someone great give them the chance and the support that they need to make it work.  Stop fighting it.  Control the dealership so that no one else gets in the way politically to make it difficult for the store to grow.  Start focusing on managing the sales staff and fixing all of the customer service issues that come with the problem.  At 317 customers showing up, the dealership should have sold 140-150 units just off the appointments and even more from the walk in traffic.  Yet the blame is still put on the internet manager.  This store does not look back and think "Why did we have to go through 5 and now 6 BDC Managers in 2 years?"  They just dream big and finger point.  Finger pointing and playing the blame game only takes you backwards.  So when you decide that you want to grow and make positive changes.  Stick with them and do not cause action that will make you go backwards.

By the way this is based on a true story and this actually happened within the last two months.  The statistics are 100% accurate.

http://www.dealeretraining.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/stansher83

http://dealeretraining.tumblr.com/

Why do I love the car business?

Why do I never stop being the best that I can be?

Why do I go through the ups and downs of the industry?

Why do I try so hard?

One answer in a few parts...

1.  The Experience.  The Experience.  The Experience.

Part A:

I am talking about 8 solid years of dealership sales, sales management, and more recently consultung experience.  I have met some interesting people from all walks of life.  There have been great influences and not so great influences.  There have been people that went from green pea sales people to top notch consultants (myself included lol).  There have been sales people that gave up and left the industry.  I seen people leave the industry (or try to leave) and end up coming back.  It is like a disease (good or bad).  We get sucked into it and we can never say farewell (because we are just so good at it).  It is a thrill and fun to see.

Part B:

This is my story.  I am that man that tries to do everything right.  I go to NADA, Digital Dealer Conferences, and so many other events.  I learn as much as I can and I apply it.  This helps me develop some new ideas.  I sold cars.  I built multimillion dollar Internet/BDC departments.  I am great at what I do.  I continue to research and create best practices that pay off in the end.  I have seen rejection from foolish vendors that do not think I am capable of selling to dealers (only because I have too much dealer experience).  I have built successful internet departments that make a lot of money only to find out that I am making too much money.  I have also traveled the country and consulted dealerships and dealer groups.  There are moments in my life when I tell myself, "enough is enough, time to move on and put these 8 years of hard work and adventure behind me".  Every time I do that, I look at all of the other avenues and they just do not excite me the way this industry does.  So I continue to grind and make the best of it and never give up (because I am a survivor and I love the challenge).  Again, this is an adventure that I would have to say is like a roller coaster ride.  Not to mention, I have made some seriously great life long friends that have become personal friends.  I have also made some phony friends that really just smile and pretend (Yes we have some shady ones too).  That is fine because I learned to read people and really see them for what they are with their actions.  Sometimes, politics is the name of the game.  Even still, I am glad I know these people because my experience gets that much bigger.

Part C:

Yes THE EXPERIENCE.  I came to the conclusion that I will forever continue to do what I do and as I gain experience so will the opportunities that lie ahead.  I take what I learn and I run with it.  For example, I am launching a business outside of the automotive industry that involves me doing everything that the automotive industry has taught me.  That is right, everything these blogs, magazines, and conferences taught me I took with me and it is on the way to pay off big.  At the same time, my plan is to continue doing what I do best which is to help dealers be successful.  I love the car business and I love watching dealerships grow with the times. These days, I am looking to better myself and to help better the community around with me with fresh ideas.  This is why I love DealerElite, Automotive Digital Marketing, DrivingSales, Digital Dealer, InternetSalesManagers.org, and so many more.

Part D:

What would happen if I choose a different path in life at 20 years old?

Well, I would have finished my college degree.  I would have gotten a $30,000 a year job as a school teacher.

I would not have finance in order.  I would be in a lot of debt.  I would not be getting a brand new car every few years.  I could not learn the real business world.  I would be living in fantasy land on the morals of what school books try to instill.  That is not the end of the world.  However, I learned one thing.  I cannot truly experience life until I have experienced the ups and downs of life such as hardships, success, business development, motivation, amongst other things.  Did I mention, I made in my first selling cars more then a school teacher with 5 years experience?

I will finish my college education as I am not far from having a degree.  It will be just to make my parents proud and to have that piece of paper.  After all, ethics say that a piece of paper really make the man that I am.  I learned that in reality, it is not what you know but who you know.  But for those to want to see my $70,000 Degree that does not teach me reality of life.  Great, have a look at it when I get it.  Whatever makes them happy.  I just know that I will continue to be me and I will always be the best at what I do.  My experience and my skills are constantly growing and this will never stop.