Hello, thanks, and several questions from a new internet director

Hi everyone. I stumbled onto this website while investigating Lead Bid. It was incredibly refreshing to find a discussion forum where industry professionals could share insights and experiences without each problem (e.g. how do I get more bang for my buck) turning into a product pitch.

I work for a multi-franchise, mid-sized dealership in a rural/suburban area. We are the proverbial big fish in the small pond. About a year ago, I was promoted to the position of internet director.

Though the numbers have been good, I often feel like I'm fumbling around in the dark. Our goal has been to protect our market without losing our shirts in the process; the dealership has no interest in pump outs. We don't publish pricing information online, and our default pricing structure for internet quote requests is not generally competitive. We've relied heavily on our appointment setters to qualify customers and negotiate over the phone and email. While I do feel like our appointment setters are a cut above the rest, I wonder how much they can be expected to accomplish - how much they can offset the fallout of our current sales philosophy. And that brings me to a short list of questions that I hope folks with more experience might be able to help with.

1) Automatic price quoting. We don't currently use it. Most dealers do. We custom build quotes depending on the geographical location of our customers, when available. Obviously, we're not going to require that a customer give us anything more than an email address in order to solicit a quote, so we don't always have what we need in order to know whether we should fire all weapons or take a measured swing, so it's all a little too haphazard for my taste. I'm curious as to whether we are complete dinosaurs in this respect, or whether you feel that there's something to be said for the personal touch (an automatic pricer, for instance, doesn't know that the customer asked about for details about options packages.) Our turnaround time for quote requests is about 15 minutes.

2) Generic discounts displayed online, with disclaimers. We don't have them. Good? Bad? We've earned a fair number of customers by being straightforward about pricing while the other guys were hiding freight, assuming military rebate, the lease turn-in rebate, etc. What I don't know is how many customers we've lost because they just saw a lower number and wandered in the showroom without ever venturing into dialog. This strikes me as a huge issue where sources like Autotrader and Cars.com are concerned.

3) TrueCar. I hate these guys. Everybody hates these guys. Everybody knows that everybody hates these guys. That said, I don't want to be the only noble abstainer while everybody else is knee-deep in the 3rd-party lead equivalent of a heroin addiction, and a lot of people are chasing the dragon in my area. So - who uses them, who doesn't? Any good reason to tell them to shove it aside from the fact that they charge exorbitant fees for loser deals?

4) 3rd-party lead quality control. Has anyone found it worthwhile to play whack-a-mole with bad lead sources WITHIN a lead aggregate, such as autobytel or dealix? I've definitely found a few junk sources that I've shut off, but I have no idea whether I'm chasing my tail by doing this.

5) For the current and former internet directors: in your experience, where is the line between internet sales and IT? Where should it be?

6) Email blasts: how much is too much? What is worth saying? Any kind of rate buy-down or whatever seems like it should be blasted, but I get the impression that letting people know that the Toyota Land Cruiser is currently being manufactured and is in stock may not be the wisest use of people's attention. Thoughts on what is effective?

Any sort of responses to any of these questions would be genuinely appreciated. Or, if I'm completely off-base in my concerns, I'd appreciate knowing that, too.

I've already learned a great deal by leafing through older articles, but I'm hoping you gentleman and ladies can help me sharpen my claws a little. If it's feasible, I'd like to be the one who belatedly drags my dealer group to the next level, and I'm not sure I can do that without knowing more about the experiences of others who have gone there before me.

Thanks much,

James

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Permalink Reply by Pete Specht on October 29, 2012 at 4:31pm

Hi James,

Congratulations on becoming the internet director. You have some great questions; I will share with you from my own experience, and make no claim to be an expert.

The first thing to look at, and maybe you already have, are your departments conversion rates. Website visits to leads, leads to appointments, and appointments to closed deals, etc. You may want to go back over the last 12 months to get a good picture. If your appointment setters are getting people in, and the sales dept is closing them, then the focus is on leads. The internet dept. should always be about lead generation. If you feel that your not getting the right percentage of leads based on your current web traffic, that is where you need to start. If you are, then it's a matter of getting more people to your website, and there are plenty of members on this site that work for companies to help you do that. In short, first identify your problem or problems, then the solutions becomes much clearer.

As to whether or not to post automatic or generic pricing, that depends on your dealerships philosophy. I recommend that you pick up a copy of The Discipline of Market Leaders by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiesema. When customers are shopping for cars online they are looking at price, inventory, location, and reputation. Ultimately what they want is to feel that they got a good deal and to have a good experience. This is where you determine your market discipline, and what strategy you want to pursue. If you lead with price, you are going to get the defensive price shopper. Typically, a frustrating experience for all parties. Many dealers lead with price because they don't know what else to offer, and truthfully the customer doesn't know what else to ask about. From what you wrote, your dealership wins a fair amount of business by providing a better buying experience for the customer. In my opinion, lead with that on your site. How to do that effectively as a lead generator is a subject unto itself, but it can certainly be done. Boosting the amount of leads you get can be a very good thing as long as they are the right leads for your store.

The line between IT and sales. My suggestion is to help out wherever you can as long as your department does not suffer a a result. That is where you draw the line tactfully, and offer a solution if possible until you can get to whatever the problem is. The most valuable people in any business are the team players, and you only move up when you give more than you get.

Email marketing can be a very good tool for generating leads and referrals. The key is to make it pertinent to the recipient. An email about Land Cruisers is only going to mean something to your Land Cruiser prospects and owners, to everyone else it will be junk mail. A couple of great books that cover how to be pertinent in your marketing are Duct Tape Marketing and The Referral Engine by John Jantsch.

I hope this helps. And best of luck!

Pete

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Permalink Reply by James Bunting on October 31, 2012 at 9:05am

Pete, thank you for the thoughtful response and your help. I'll take it to heart and look into those books.

One area where we excel is in iLead conversion... I know that our appointment setters are some of the best in the area (so much so that I hate to call them mere "appointment setters" - half the time, they're the real closers.) Knowing that their guile and diligence remains central is actually a huge relief.