When an Internet customer asks for a quote through Edmunds or Cars.com they get five to six new best friends. The Internet Sales Managers say the same stuff with the same quotes and whoever how the lowest price wins. Not really. The battle is won by how you, the ISM, distinguishes himself from the rest. This is the art of our job, this is the most fundamental selling there is: selling yourself.

Listen to Lead: This is about the first thirty seconds of a phone…

I worked at Oracle for a number of years and learned a great deal about Data Mining, Statistical Decistion Theory, Data Warehouses--all the components of Business Intelligence. I look around the Greater Los Angeles Area and where is a true BI--Business Intelligence Solution--at the dealer level? Dealers have, not years, but decades of data, and rather than using it to target specific demographics they still do the same ol' same ol' wasting millions of dollars on advertising, promotions, and…

Okay, we've figured out where the deals are; see "Follow Up, Follow Up, Follow Up" my previous blog entry. Here is the scouting reports on various Internet Sales models.

You, Me, and the BDC

Hire a bunch of students, telemarketers, and part-timers and let them call all your leads. Compensation is based on Shows and Shows Sold, etc. By the way BDC stands for Business Development Center. Give out weekend spiffs and realistically they can make another…

When a new Internet Sales Manager is hired there are usually too few leads in his queue. Mostly he gets a few "fresh" leads and then gets the last guy's old stuff--the dregs. But if he goes through the old leads a few might come to life. A few turn into deals--maybe 1-2%. How did that happen? It happened because the last guy "cherry picked" his leads; he concentrated on the few instead of the many. The last guy had a weekly strategy rather than a thirty to sixty day plan.  

Here's an…