Remember when structuring a deal required pen and paper? Those were the times when we were forced to put in more effort and think for ourselves about how we ran our businesses. The emphasis has been on technologically assisted sales tools like lead engagement platforms and digital retail that employ artificial intelligence (AI) to perform the tasks of multiple people simultaneously. The fact that processes frequently break down completely and communications between dealers and customers are misunderstood is a problem that many people choose to ignore.

It is not surprising that as the world's reliance on technology grows, the automotive industry has also turned to artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline complex processes. Artificial intelligence has the potential to change the way vehicles are sold in a number of ways, including by enhancing customer service and assisting with communication.

Chatbots are one way that AI can help with the auto deal process. These digital helpers can communicate with implicit visitors, give website visitors details about the vehicles that are currently on the lot, and help them schedule test drives. Chatbots can also help in the lead-generation process by gathering contact information from potential guests and sending it to deal representatives.

Another area where simulated intelligence can be helpful is in the development of custom contract complications. AI algorithms can recommend the vehicles that are most appropriate for a customer based on data analysis such as that customer's search history and prior purchases. This ensures that guests receive options that meet their needs and wants while also saving merchandisers time.

The financial process can also be made simpler by artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence systems assist in the identification of loan openings and the calculation of annual payment values by reviewing the client's credit information and financial history. Due to the time saved by not having to compare and research various backing options, both customers and dealer representatives benefit.

In addition to these benefits, AI has the potential to increase business operations' efficiency. Dealers can order the right assortment of vehicles by utilizing AI-powered force operation systems that help track and analyze the demand for different models. As a result, it might not be as important to offer discounts and other types of discounts that would increase overall profitability.

Even though there are many benefits to using AI in the car sales process, it's crucial to keep in mind that it should be used alongside, not in place of, human commerce. Dealer representatives continue to be the process's most significant and necessary element, and technology cannot replace their tenacity and special touch. Retailers can fully leverage AI while still providing excellent customer service by striking the right balance between humans and machines.

To save time and offer an effective customer experience, retail workers are being trained to use artificial intelligence and technology. Numerous tech retailers in the sector offer customer engagement services in addition to CRM. Many of these systems are even more feature-rich than CRM. However, many retailers frequently make the mistake of not managing these systems themselves. Sending and receiving messages to and from the wrong type of customer guests is a very common occurrence due to poor data mining and list building. As a result, customers can get dissatisfied, which may lead to problems like unfavorable feedback or even legal problems.

Dealer management should unilaterally take control of their systems and processes to address any underlying problems. Our lives should be made easier, and our processes should be more productive, thanks to technology and artificial intelligence. There should be a rule stating that nothing can be transferred without management approval. Retailers should start gradually embracing artificial intelligence and paying attention to patterns in its skills.

I know I know...

No one wants to see "2020". But let's at least embrace the fact that a historical event (good or bad) has forced change on how we do things forever. We are working in an industry that for years has refused to accept that the "Internet" will be the new way to do business. 

Throughout the years we went from getting leads faxed in to high level developed CRM systems to search engine marketing and social media marketing of all sorts. We went from "A to Z" internet selling to "BDC" methods. The BDC of today is the billboard of yesterday. It is your marketing and advertising department that brings meat to the table. It is also the department that takes blame and abuse because no one is ever happy with the results. 

The false expectations of what a BDC does and how it does it create huge turnover and unneeded expenses that most dealers face. We spent many years training regurgitated scripts to handle phone conversations. What has not changed is the buying style of consumers. The questions they ask and need for discussing numbers upfront are still here. The lack of process improvement still creates a three hour or longer car buying process.

Enter Digital Retailing…

A “buzzword” of a few years ago. A tool that many digital marketing companies have offered on most dealer websites that operated as a lead generator. Thankfully these companies have created almost like a desking tool where the customer can virtually desk their own deal, heck they can even complete their transaction and secure financing in minutes, leaving them only to pick up their vehicle or have it delivered to their home. The idea for working the process properly was never quite used which is why statistically we know that a tiny percentage of people using these tools complete a full transaction.

Now I had the good fortune of taking a job managing a BDC for a year in a wonderful store that uses “Roadster” for their digital retailing tool. I also continued to consult and build BDC departments in dealerships so I worked with the likes of CarNow and General Motors Shop, Click, Drive tool. It was a beautiful experience because as a trainer I completely trained myself to have better phone discussions that get straight to the point. The store had a process to get a commitment and prepare the deal while talking to prospects on the phone. If they start negotiation simply ask if they are ready to do this today and get a credit application. 

When the appointment was set we saw over 70% show ratio and the deal was 40-50% done. The customer experience was phenomenal. The dealership operated efficiently selling over 250 units per month. My phone training changed and my philosophy of selling cars improved. Keep in mind that those of you that have followed me will remember that I have been preaching “Technology Assisted Selling” for almost a complete decade. It’s HERE!

So now I take a job as the General Manager of Dealer Retention Services where we handle outsource BDC operations for dealerships all over the nation. I quickly found our shortcomings with handling customers on the phone. I created a conference call with all of our dealer partners and General Managers and asked for permission to use their digital retailing tools and improve our conversations. They all gave me free reign to do just that and were happy to hear about my way of thinking. I trained my team of 30 agents how to understand shopper behavior, what sites to use and how to use digital retailing tools. They now operate efficiently and more effectively than 95% of the BDC agents in the entire automotive industry. 

Now when we set appointments for dealers, customers come in with more real expectations and negotiations while they still happen as quickly and to the point. Maybe we stop expecting 100 calls a day per agent and drop it to 70 but we get 5 quality conversations that turn into real deals. Would you rather have 50 appointments on a Saturday where the process has to get restarted only to give the customer a bad experience or 25 appointments knowing that 17 will show up and 14 will buy?

My point is that in 2020 while it was a bad year for the entire world there were lessons that we should have learned. We will get through this! Pandemics will not stop us from being successful but they will bring the change that we need to embrace so we can continue to move forward!

Dealer Retention Services to expand offerings for auto dealers by hiring Stan Sher to improve dealership business development and customer service operations.

Aug. 8, 2020 / PRZen / TOMS RIVER, N.J. -- This has been quite a year for the world. We are living in a time where changes are forced to create a new norm. This is evident with the direction that Dealer Retention Services in Toms River, NJ has decided to take in order to adjust to market demands. The firm hired auto industry executive Stan Sher as the General Manager and Director of Operations. In this role Stan will create a bigger corporate structure with all departments including human resources, call center agents, sales and marketing. "I have watched Stan create beautiful things in the auto industry between his high level of training experience to his social media marketing personality to adding structure to businesses in various industries and I decided that we at Dealer Retention Services need just that for our continued growth," said Tom Esposito, Founder of Dealer Retention Services.

The global pandemic has forced auto dealers to re-evaluate their own structure with regards to handling virtual sales and service opportunities. The business development center is still poorly managed in many dealerships and executive management still continues to struggle with hiring and paying the right people to get the job done. In the interest of removing heavy payroll costs car dealers are turning to Dealer Retention Services to handle this operation. In the first month of taking over the position this virtual BDC has increased closing ratios for dealer clients by implementing immediate process changes. This is something that is difficult to do in such a short period of time.

Other examples include the only two dealerships that utilize Dealer Retention Services that are part of a seven store group that reported to be the most profitable dealerships in the group. The dealerships in the group are operating with a smaller staff and have limited hours of operations due to the Covid- 19 pandemic. Dealer Retention Services has been setting over seven hundred quality sales and service appointments per month for these dealerships. "Dealer Retention Services has been a true partner for us during these tough times between helping with customer service and helping generate a solid return on investment for us," said Greg Kemp, General Manager at Island Chrysler Dodge Jeep and Island Subaru on Staten Island, NY.

Along with improving in-house operations Stan Sher is bringing his Dealer eTraining service offerings. Over the years Stan has implemented a successful recruiting process for auto dealers to hire and maintain quality personnel. Stan is also an accomplished Sales and BDC trainer in the industry. Dealer Retention Services will utilize these services to enhance offerings. Service offerings include Outsourced BDC (Sales & Service), Database equity mining, CRM cleaning, Recruiting, Sales Training, BDC Training (Phone/Internet/CRM). Stan Sher will be available to strategize with dealers to find their areas of opportunity to improve one and implement a manageable process. In this big role Dealer Retention Services will expand their marketing footprint as well. "I am excited to join this wonderful team and to help grow our cause to help the automotive industry improve the way they sell and service automobiles," said Stan Sher.

Dealer Retention Services has been in business for seven years serving auto dealerships nationwide. Tom Esposito has over thirty years experience in all facets of automotive retail including experience as a corporate executive for the Asbury Auto Group. Stan Sher has over seventeen years experience in automotive retail and business operations. He also carries a wide network of partnerships with the most elite automotive executives in the world. The website for Dealer Retention Services is https://dealerretentionservices.com/

Follow the full story here: https://przen.com/pr/33354386

Evolution Of The BDC: Has your dealership evolved?

A few years ago I performed speaking sessions at multiple conferences including Internet Battle Plan and Digital Marketing Strategies Conference. I even was a guest on a webinar for Dealers Edge. This was and still is a very hot topic. Year after year I find the same car dealers talking about embracing this part of this business. They say that it is the most important part of their business and that they invest more into advertising. What they do not say is why is they continue to replace people in the Internet or BDC department of their dealership. They lie to themselves and point the blame on the lack of quality of people that they hire. They do not admit that they do not understanding the real function of this department.

It is the lack of understanding that leads them to make drastic changes. I decided to record a segment of my presentation to share with automotive industry professionals to better understand the concept. It is my hope as a training services provider to educate and provide proper guidance to dealers and general managers across the retail automotive industry with this important topic. What this video describes might be very eye opening but it may open lots of horizons. Here is the video...

Does this make sense? Do you understand the evolution of the BDC and why it should be practiced a certain way? Please leave some comments and share this with the industry. Keep in mind that having a BDC is not for every dealership. There are dealerships that want to make their sales people do BDC work. This is actually a great idea assuming that they set it up the right way. Let's help our business grow instead of fall.

Imagine that you attend a classical music concert. This concert has a 90 piece (90 musicians) orchestra and a conductor (the leader or guide) that communicates to the orchestra on how to play the next note(s). Now take a look at the sales department of an automobile dealership. The department has managers that usually consist of a general sales manager, one or more sales managers and a team of sales consultants. Much like the orchestra conductor it is the duty of sales managers to guide and lead their team of sales consultants to success. Let's talk about how to "Orchestrate Sales Departments".

In some cases a conductor is also the musical director in which case they take on a bigger role than just to guide the orchestra. The musical director is responsible for choosing the program for the orchestra, manage the orchestra and even be involved in auditioning musicians. This is much like a general sales manager that is involved in recruiting for the sales team as well as manages all advertising for the sales department.

So how do we orchestrate sales departments?

The sales managers properly manage a well-orchestrated sales department. The sales management team in this case is very hands on. They are dedicated to constantly making sure that their sales people are always working when at the dealership. This includes making sure that they are following up with their customers and utilizing the CRM. Sales managers are also responsible to be around the showroom to monitor sales people. This is because sometimes they may have to jump in on a TO depending on what is happening in the deal.

Another aspect of a well-orchestrated sales team is how the team setup. For example, some dealers are staffing the sales department according to skill set. The automotive retail industry has increased focused on customer retention through data mining. One of our clients at Dealer eTraining built a five person sales team to just work a system called “Auto Alert”. This team specifically works all data mining opportunities that include lease retention, refinancing, vehicle upgrades, selling to customers that visit the service department and more. This is a five person team does the whole process from start to finish.

The sales department still has a five person BDC to handle the 1000+ leads and incoming calls. They still have fourteen sales consultants on the showroom floor that takes UPS. The idea of having different people in different roles of the department is to have everyone bring something important to the table. The BDC will focus on having 10-20 appointments daily and 40-50 appointments on Saturdays. The sales consultants will focus on working with the incoming traffic and selling cars. The “Auto Alert” team will focus on following up with the dealership’s database and selling cars to those customers. An orchestra in the same way has people in place to play certain instruments, harmonies and sections in the music that the conductor communicates to them.

How do we make it “well orchestrated”?

It starts by evaluating what we are working with. What are the skill sets of the people that are working at the dealership? What kind of tools is the dealership using? From there we setup small teams within the general sales department to handle what they can handle best. This is where the BDC or Internet department is created. This is also where the retention or data mining department is setup. Now we take our core sales consultants and train them to properly handle customers by understanding how customers are coming in and how to properly sell them. In some cases depending on the size and budget of the dealership there may even be an in-house digital marketing or social media team too. 

The GSM (conductor or musical director) must be fully hands on by guiding; coaching, leading and helping the sales team to be successful. What managers forget is that their individual success and incomes comes from how well their sales consultants perform and deliver. This is why proper leadership is important to the success of the dealership. The goal should be to effectively orchestrate sales departments in dealerships.

Does your dealership have a call monitoring solution in place? Does your dealership consistently train phone skills? Chances are if the dealership has a large advertising budget and a proper setup for a BDC the answer is "yes". However, it is mind blowing to see how many dealerships in 2013 still do not pay attention to call monitoring. I look at websites and see local phone numbers. Even worse I see dealers doing traditional advertising and still using local phone numbers. I later talk to these dealers and they complain that they do not get enough phone calls coming in or they are not making enough appointments. I ask them if they have a call monitoring solution and all I get told is that they just have what AutoTrader and Cars.com give them in their backend tools. I am not going to get into the importance of content and optimized websites to convert more lead opportunities. I will get into the importance of call monitoring. Every business needs to have a call monitoring tool. Every business needs to have management listen to phone calls for quality control, training, and measurement of quality of advertising. I spoke about this topic at the Internet Sales 20 Group in October of 2012 as well as conducted a webinar for KPA about 8 months ago on this topic. It can be viewed here: Call Monitoring - Stan Sher (Dealer eTraining) Now here are some best practices: 1. If the dealership has a large ad budget and a very large call volume they need to hire a call monitoring company that will listen to the calls in real time and send alerts to inform managers rights away of any profit leaks. I know of many companies that provide this service. While it might be a $1500-2500 monthly investment there is a potential for an ROI of $30,000 or more when used properly. 2. Every single day a manager (BDC or Sales) needs to sit down and review reporting of all calls from the previous day and listen to 9 calls (3 morning, 3 afternoon, 3 evening). This will give an idea of what was done right and what needs training. 3. Take the good calls and the bad calls to review them in team meetings 2-3 times a week. These meetings should be 30 minutes and should be positive. Let the team listen and let them chime in with ideas for improvement. Do role playing exercises to provide quality automotive phone training. My advise is to have the team meet at 8:30 before the day gets started. 4. Some call monitoring companies send weekly and monthly recap reports. Review the missed opportunity reports and review them with the CRM to see what happened with that phone number. In the case when the call was not logged in have a process where one person gets on the phone to call those missed opportunities as a guest relations representative and see what we can make happen here. 5. AutoTrader and Cars.com reports. I love when dealers complain how little traffic they get and how expensive these sources are. Cars.com does a great job sending daily phone call reports detailing each call that came in the day before. Dealers and BDC managers that do not pay attention to them are losing out. I have been preaching this for years. Cars.com call reports show calls that come in before and after hours. I see dealers average 1-2 calls a day like this and they get missed sometimes. In some cases these callers call during hours and they are logged. But what about the calls that do not come back. They are not logged and the opportunity is missed. It is a simple 5 minute per day process that needs to be reviewed. 6. Every advertisement or campaign, digital and/or traditional, even special finance needs to be planned. A phone process needs to be created and trained a minimum of 2 days before the campaign hits. Monitor the calls daily and listen for profit leaks. Adjust accordingly by proper training. This is the most proactive way to manage a BDC or sales calls in general. The bottom line is that at Dealer eTraining we believe that every dealership no matter what size needs a call monitoring solution. There are cost effective solutions for every dealership. It is the perhaps the number one ROI measurement tool in my opinion.

Does your dealership have a call monitoring solution in place? Does your dealership consistently train phone skills? Chances are if the dealership has a large advertising budget and a proper setup for a BDC the answer is "yes". However, it is mind blowing to see how many dealerships in 2013 still do not pay attention to call monitoring. I look at websites and see local phone numbers. Even worse I see dealers doing traditional advertising and still using local phone numbers. I later talk to these dealers and they complain that they do not get enough phone calls coming in or they are not making enough appointments. I ask them if they have a call monitoring solution and all I get told is that they just have what AutoTrader and Cars.com give them in their backend tools. I am not going to get into the importance of content and optimized websites to convert more lead opportunities. I will get into the importance of call monitoring. Every business needs to have a call monitoring tool. Every business needs to have management listen to phone calls for quality control, training, and measurement of quality of advertising. I spoke about this topic at the Internet Sales 20 Group in October of 2012 as well as conducted a webinar for KPA about 8 months ago on this topic. It can be viewed here: Call Monitoring - Stan Sher (Dealer eTraining) Now here are some best practices: 1. If the dealership has a large ad budget and a very large call volume they need to hire a call monitoring company that will listen to the calls in real time and send alerts to inform managers rights away of any profit leaks. I know of many companies that provide this service. While it might be a $1500-2500 monthly investment there is a potential for an ROI of $30,000 or more when used properly. 2. Every single day a manager (BDC or Sales) needs to sit down and review reporting of all calls from the previous day and listen to 9 calls (3 morning, 3 afternoon, 3 evening). This will give an idea of what was done right and what needs training. 3. Take the good calls and the bad calls to review them in team meetings 2-3 times a week. These meetings should be 30 minutes and should be positive. Let the team listen and let them chime in with ideas for improvement. Do role playing exercises to provide quality automotive phone training. My advise is to have the team meet at 8:30 before the day gets started. 4. Some call monitoring companies send weekly and monthly recap reports. Review the missed opportunity reports and review them with the CRM to see what happened with that phone number. In the case when the call was not logged in have a process where one person gets on the phone to call those missed opportunities as a guest relations representative and see what we can make happen here. 5. AutoTrader and Cars.com reports. I love when dealers complain how little traffic they get and how expensive these sources are. Cars.com does a great job sending daily phone call reports detailing each call that came in the day before. Dealers and BDC managers that do not pay attention to them are losing out. I have been preaching this for years. Cars.com call reports show calls that come in before and after hours. I see dealers average 1-2 calls a day like this and they get missed sometimes. In some cases these callers call during hours and they are logged. But what about the calls that do not come back. They are not logged and the opportunity is missed. It is a simple 5 minute per day process that needs to be reviewed. 6. Every advertisement or campaign, digital and/or traditional, even special finance needs to be planned. A phone process needs to be created and trained a minimum of 2 days before the campaign hits. Monitor the calls daily and listen for profit leaks. Adjust accordingly by proper training. This is the most proactive way to manage a BDC or sales calls in general. The bottom line is that at Dealer eTraining we believe that every dealership no matter what size needs a call monitoring solution. There are cost effective solutions for every dealership. It is the perhaps the number one ROI measurement tool in my opinion.

Does your dealership have tools that should help your sales and business development people be more effective?

As consumer transparency becomes more important in the automotive industry dealers are hooking up with more vendors that allow for transparency.  It is no secret that some of the most effective dealers are making it easier to retail pre-owned vehicles online by employing consumer driven tools.  It is shocking to see how many people at dealerships do not even know that such tools exist.  This is a common issue where a lack of communication between decision makers (Owners/GM) and middle management (Sales Management) happens.  I am noticing this in dealerships all over the country where I review a dealership’s website, inventory, and other marketing aspects only to find tools that front line staff have no idea they can use.

For example, there are so many dealerships out there using tools like PureCars, vAuto RealDeal, or AutoVisor in order to enhance VDPs and vehicle listings.  These tools are meant for the consumer to learn more about the vehicle and see the value that they are getting.  However, the buttons to these tools are usually only found in the listing and the consumer does not always know to click on it.  At Dealer eTraining, I have recognized the importance of educating all management and front line staff to take advantage of these tools so that they can do a better job building value on the phone to secure more appointments as well as close more deals on the showroom floor.

There is nothing more disturbing then to listen to a phone call get mishandled because the customer takes control of the situation only to put fear in the call handler (BDC or Sales Professional).  They say you do not need to know anything about the vehicle to make a solid appointment.  While that may or may not be true, one thing is true and that is that these tools provide immediate product knowledge at your fingertips.  There is no need to just rely on “old school” word tracks that get trained to every single dealership out there.  Technology is created to help us become better professionals and not to replace us. 

These same strategies are important on the showroom floor.  Why should sales people run back and forth to the desk to work the sales manager for a bigger discount when they can use these tools to sell, justify, and create value?  It is important to learn how to be a better presenter of value and incorporate the old with the new.

While the vendor might have some tools to train everyone at the dealership on how to be more effective it is very rare that management pays attention.  Just a few weeks ago I was inside a dealership training sales people in the conference room and reviewing how they can leverage DealerRater as a closing tool.  I also reviewed how they should be using AutoVisor (a tool they had).  The bottom line is that dealers need to communicate the changes in technology and train their staff on how to use it properly.   The proper use of these digital tools will increase ROI in the long run and create better sales professionals.  I encourage dealers to evaluate the tools that are in place or are being considered and communicate with your people.  It is also important to provide the proper training to inspire and motivate your people to adapt to these solutions.

Stan Sher is the founder and president of Dealer eTraining (www.dealeretraining.com), an elite automotive Internet sales and business development training/consulting firm.