Digital Dealer
By John Holt
Tips to maximize your dealership's online profits
In the last five years the online dealership has gone from being the vision of the future to an accepted reality. More than 80% of all auto dealers in the United States now have websites and Internet technology continues to revolutionize behind the scenes business-to-business operations. But, as with any technology, the Internet isn't a fix-all or a magic wand. Just having a site doesn't automatically guarantee success. Like most things in the business world, online profits aren't just a matter of luck. While there's no sure-fire guaranteed formula for success, there are a number of 'best practices' employed by winning dealerships that greatly increase your chances of maximizing online profits. Just knowing what the successful dealers know can give you a head start on the road to success.
The Ten Commandments of Internet Success
1. Assure the total buy-in of all departments and management personnel, including Sales, Service, Parts, Finance and Accounting. Be sure to include all your dealership's departments in your Internet initiative and drive traffic to each one.
2. Assign and train an Internet sales representative. Add more as the market demands. Seek an average of 80 new and pre-owned vehicle leads each month per Internet sales representative.
3. Organize the reception of Internet leads to assure timely follow-up of all leads. Prioritize initial and follow-up emails based on the logical probability of each lead's success.
4. Build email templates to simplify the process of contacting customers. Make your responses personal and warm, not too businesslike. Adjust your email responses and follow-up responses to fit the personality type of your customers.
5. Follow-up based on the manner preferred by the customer, but be prepared for email to be the dominant first contact method. Use tools to hasten the follow-up process, such as pagers, cell phones and/or auto responders.
6. Use email to set up the phone call in order to get an appointment. Maximize the effectiveness of your phone calls. The focus must be on getting the client into the dealership-unless a large part of your strategy is home delivery. Setting appointments is the single biggest key to Internet success.
7. Follow-up as needed. Don't be obnoxious, but look for reasons to follow-up instead of reasons not to. Sending multiple short emails is better than sending one big one and waiting for a response. Some customers require more convincing than do others. This approach generally works best with cautious or undecided shoppers. Whenever appropriate, support your claims with third party evidence.
8. Track your effectiveness. Compare month-to-date and year-to-date vs. the same figures from last year. Track by Internet sales representative and by lead provider. At the very least, the following six items need to be tracked on a daily basis:
- Number of leads received
- Number of contacts made
- Number of appointments made
- Number of sales made
- Front-end gross
- Back-end gross
9. Advertise your dealership URL in every imaginable place. Include your dealership's web address in all conventional advertising. Investigate both free and fee-based online and offline promotional opportunities.
10. Establish processes to maintain your relationships with current clients. This helps to assure their future business and increases your chances of getting referrals from them. Exceed expectations with high levels of service and follow-through communications. Seek ways to earn customers for life.
There are many roads to success and every dealership will find its own unique ways of doing things and improving their operational procedures. As a member of the community in which you do business , no one knows better than you how to tailor your message and your customer service to fit your unique customer base. However, these tips are definitely solid building blocks for the foundation of your dealership's online business strategy.
John Holt is the president and CEO of The Cobalt Group, Inc., a leading provider of Internet solutions and business-to-business services for the automotive industry. Cobalt operates the automotive industry portal MotorPlace.com and the PartsVoice.com parts locator. jholt@dealeronline.com
