Remember those days when customers would come in to the dealership saying “Well Kelley Blue Book is saying my trade in is worth $xxx” after you opened them up at $2,000 below that KBB figure? Sure you do. You cannot forget how many times you wanted to say “No problem. Call KBB and see if they will cut you a check for that figure.”

How many sales consultants get flustered and do not know how to respond? How many would get upset or offended because they felt that the customer just turned up the heat on them?

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In all my years of selling cars and managing dealerships I remember using a great rule of thumb. In most cases if you took the KBB value for a trade in vehicle in fair conditioned and deducted around $1,000-1,500 you would pretty much be right on the money for what the trade in value really is according to Galves or auction data. I have tried this hundreds of times and was always in that range. Back in the old days we would tell the customer that “KBB is a research site that takes provides average figures but they do not actually buy and sell vehicles.” This was very true at one point in time. But as Bob Dylan once sang, “The Times They Are A-Changin” and yes they are.

My business partner, Peter at Auto Ad Builder the other day and I had a disagreement about how KBB operates. I talked about how Kelley Blue Book took over AutoTrader Trade In Marketplace just this time last year. I also discussed how they now promise to buy the trade in vehicle if the dealer is not willing to accept the Trade In Market value. But we took it even further. I told Peter that KBB trade values are shockingly very close by give or take a few bucks to the data that a manager or used car manager is using when appraising vehicles. He disagreed with me and told me that it was not true. He logged into MMR by Manheim too compare values to five vehicles that I was looking up on KBB. Peter was very shocked, surprised and impressed.

My next statement was “Do you know why that is?” to which he responded, “Not at all but it is interesting”. I explained how powerful each and every single one of Cox Automotive companies is with their data. The data integrates so that all of their systems whether it is vAuto, VinSolutions, HomeNet, KBB, Manheim and even Dealer.com understand how the industry is selling cars. These systems are built so intelligently that they are setup based on consumer behavior. I first realized this a few months ago when VinSolutions was being installed at one of our client’s stores. These sites and systems share data as part of being a division of such a massive company like Cox Automotive. I even explained the game changer that took place when DealerTrack became a part of it.

HOW DOES THIS HELP YOU SELL MORE CARS?

Please understand that these companies provide tools for dealers to be able to sell cars and some of the tools are provided to consumers to be better educated. Since they own all of these powerhouse companies and share the data of what is going on in the business the data is almost accurate. The data can be used to help close more deals. In fact, one of the things that make Dealer eTraining so unique with our training method is that we train our dealers how to leverage the technology. We have created and trained word tracks to Internet, BDC and Sales Consultants as well as helped managers understand how to work deals smarter.

In the car business change is very difficult to grasp because we are all use to making a significant income doing things a certain way. In some cases our egos stop us from moving forward. Thanks to technology and multibillion dollar data companies our business is able to evolve and change for the better. The sales process must be more efficient, professional and customer centric thanks to tools like Kelley Blue Book. So stop saying that it is just a consumer friendly research when in reality it is now your sales assistant.

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.

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.

Stan Sher of Dealer eTraining is a seasoned automotive sales and marketing professional. Here is he talks about closing the sale.

Stan Sher of Dealer eTraining is a seasoned automotive sales and marketing professional. Here is he talks about closing the sale.

Does your sales and business development team create valid reasons for the customer to do business “now?” Do you ever wonder how you can move the needle with growing business? The answer is really simple when considering what we have been taught over the years. To be successful in any business, sales professionals need to be aggressive by asking the right questions at the right time.

As a dealer consultant and BDC director, I am always listening to outgoing calls as well as incoming calls. I notice that many calls do not show a sense of urgency. I hear a lot of calls where customer questions are being answered, but there is never a question that comes back to the customer to regain control of the call. I see this on the showroom floor as well when I walk by and listen to sales consultants work deals.

As our industry sees tough times with a shortage of inventory, it is more important to apply these techniques in the sales process. We need to consider what happens if we do not build urgency in the sales process. The consumer may miss out a deal of a lifetime, because the magic question was not asked. This will cause sales professionals a chance to miss a sale for the dealership.

How do we improve this issue?

I have always been an advocate of weekly training through motivational meetings and role playing. The best method of training “urgency” is to create a few power lines that will show full control of the situation. When speaking on the phone lines such as “When can you come in? This afternoon or this evening?” or “How close to right now can you be here?” should be used. When working a deal on the showroom floor lines such as “Are you prepared to take delivery of your new vehicle right now?” should be used. This is a great way to see if you can get a commitment out of the customer.

In order to properly train dealership personnel on this practice management needs to set aside thirty minutes in the morning before the day starts. These thirty minutes will be an explanation of these closes and why they should be used. The best method is to go around the room using repetition and role playing scenarios that will call for these lines. I believe that a continuous training session will improve skills of sales professionals.

The bottom line is that as sales professionals we were always taught the golden rule, “If you do not ask, you do not get.” Start asking your customers for commitment with urgency and watch how many more times you will get. The ultimate goal is to improve our closing ratios, our income, and the success levels of our dealerships. This is a basic technique that needs to be revisited time after time. The basics may sound “old school” but they still work if executive properly.

Stan Sher is the founder and president of Dealer eTraining, a premier automotive internet sales and digital marketing consulting company. For more information, please feel free to call 732-925-8362 or email stan@dealeretraining.com .

http://www.dealeretraining.com

http://www.facebook.com/dealeretraining

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

Does your sales and business development team create valid reasons for the customer to do business “now?” Do you ever wonder how you can move the needle with growing business? The answer is really simple when considering what we have been taught over the years. To be successful in any business, sales professionals need to be aggressive by asking the right questions at the right time.

As a dealer consultant and BDC director, I am always listening to outgoing calls as well as incoming calls. I notice that many calls do not show a sense of urgency. I hear a lot of calls where customer questions are being answered, but there is never a question that comes back to the customer to regain control of the call. I see this on the showroom floor as well when I walk by and listen to sales consultants work deals.

As our industry sees tough times with a shortage of inventory, it is more important to apply these techniques in the sales process. We need to consider what happens if we do not build urgency in the sales process. The consumer may miss out a deal of a lifetime, because the magic question was not asked. This will cause sales professionals a chance to miss a sale for the dealership.

How do we improve this issue?

I have always been an advocate of weekly training through motivational meetings and role playing. The best method of training “urgency” is to create a few power lines that will show full control of the situation. When speaking on the phone lines such as “When can you come in? This afternoon or this evening?” or “How close to right now can you be here?” should be used. When working a deal on the showroom floor lines such as “Are you prepared to take delivery of your new vehicle right now?” should be used. This is a great way to see if you can get a commitment out of the customer.

In order to properly train dealership personnel on this practice management needs to set aside thirty minutes in the morning before the day starts. These thirty minutes will be an explanation of these closes and why they should be used. The best method is to go around the room using repetition and role playing scenarios that will call for these lines. I believe that a continuous training session will improve skills of sales professionals.

The bottom line is that as sales professionals we were always taught the golden rule, “If you do not ask, you do not get.” Start asking your customers for commitment with urgency and watch how many more times you will get. The ultimate goal is to improve our closing ratios, our income, and the success levels of our dealerships. This is a basic technique that needs to be revisited time after time. The basics may sound “old school” but they still work if executive properly.

Stan Sher is the founder and president of Dealer eTraining, a premier automotive internet sales and digital marketing consulting company. For more information, please feel free to call 732-925-8362 or email stan@dealeretraining.com .

http://www.dealeretraining.com

http://www.facebook.com/dealeretraining

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