Digital Dealer
By Peter Brandow
If that contrast was a bit stunning, try stretching your mind around ice age trout streams that had taken a million years or so to forge through a few yards of solid rock and this story which forged across a continent, by e-mail, in a few nanoseconds.
I must admit that it took me a few tries to get a grip on what it all means. Along the way my mind did wander over to Sageflyfish.com (rods and reels), LLBean.com (camping gear and clothing) and Delta-air.com (airline tickets). But the thought that was most persistent and provocative went beyond the awe-inspiring speed/velocity of the Net to how it eliminates barriers; I was struck with the ease, low cost and amazing time savings.
The Internet, as a marketing tool, provides dealers with an almost cost-free method of sending direct mail to customers and prospects. Whereas traditional mail ranges from 50 cents per piece to several dollars per piece with simple pieces averaging about a dollar, the Internet allows the process to include multimedia presentations at virtually no cost beyond production of the original. The cost barriers that stop most dealers from trying all of their best advertising ideals have been eliminated.
The Brandow Group has about 25,000 active customer names and addresses in its database, so a typical direct mail "drop" (single mailing) costs about $25,000 with the average campaign requiring several drops. Needless to say, we don't shoot too many idle bullets at $25,000 per impression. Ideas are labored over at multiple meetings and a focus group or two is not uncommon. Most ideas, even good ideas, fail to get launched because the expected return is too close to the cost of bringing them to market. I have been known by my wife to lie awake at night pondering whether an idea that I canned would have been "the one." The Net changes all this. We can now test every idea for mere pennies.
So what other barriers has the Net torn down? Solving this puzzle will provide the next Internet wins for dealers. Recognizing that failing dealerships often achieve that status by outspending their sales revenues on marketing, the Internet is the first, real dealer-friendly cost reduction the industry has served up. The average dealer spends between $200 and $500 per vehicle sold on traditional advertising; paid leads (Autobytel, Autovantage, etc.) seem to be falling in the same range ($20 per lead, 10 to 15 leads to the sale, plus plus).
But, viewing the Net as a medium to broadcast marketing messages to affinity groups (with their permission) is changing everything.
At a recent seminar that I gave in Baltimore (Cyber Auto Retailer's Success "CARS"), 60 attendees sat riveted to a multi-media presentation on how to profit from this new technology without giving up anything they already had. After a few hours we established that the Net was a new space, and that the Net opportunity replaced the "inventory of cars" mentality with an "inventory of customers" strategy. The Internet would be the vehicle we could employ to stay in touch (through personalized messages at a cost that the dealership could afford).
Internet managers were the gatekeepers of this new cyber-enabled relationship and e-mail and phone sessions were the tools of choice. As importantly, the computer and phone, with careful scripting and management, would deliver "instant gratification" to a generation of car buyers who are craving control of the process, immediate 24/7 information and personalized attention all at a discount.
With the new technologies and the tools that they provide, we showed everyone how in one year Brandow Chrysler Jeep used a PC, Chrome Data, My Car Page, and NetSearch WITs to double its volume from 700 retail units to over 1,400 units while maintaining DaimlerChrysler's 5 Star excellence ratings.
The teachings and material filled an eight-hour day, but the essence was the simple wisdom of using the Net to remove the costly barriers of marketing to customers. The Net, we've learned, is about communication, and communication is about touching individuals in such a unique and personal way that they are encouraged to do business with you. Imagine all this from the grain of sand in which someone one day recognized the fundamental building block for a new way to communicate. Enter the Silicon Valley and the Modern Computer Age, enter the Internet.
What do you do next? Start a database of five ways (work phone, home phone, fax, e-mail, pager) to contact every customer who touches your store. That database will form the second most valuable asset you own.
Next month we'll tell you how to start your own affinity group with that database and how to triple your customer responses just by paying attention to what you put in the "subject line" of your e-mail messages.
Peter Brandow, nationally known for C.A.R.S. (Cyber Auto Retailer's Success) e-commerce seminars, is one of the top five Internet new car dealers in the country. He is the dealer of the Brandow dealerships, the national dealer technology chair of e-GM, a board member of NADA's IT committee, and an attorney in Pennsylvania. pbrandow@dealeronline.com
