Fire Your Internet Sales Manager!
Fire Your Internet Sales Manager
I know I am going to get a lot of heat on this article, but it has to be said. I have worked with thousands of dealerships over the years and there have been numerous reasons given for mediocrity, and even failure. In the beginning of automotive Internet sales in the late 1990s, it was a novelty and an incremental business, but most dealerships were not able to truly harness it and make it a major profit center. However, over the years and through evolution of the automotive sales industry, and the country as a whole, there has been a lot of change — change in how people are researching, shopping, making decisions and ultimately buying a vehicle. There has even been change inside our industry by dealer principals, GMs and sales consultants. It seems that dealers are getting it. They understand that Internet sales, business development, digital marketing, and social media are all important.
What I am seeing now is a scary pattern emerging. A lot of dealerships are not maximizing on opportunities right in front of them because they do not have the right person in place. The Internet sales manager or BDC director that they have in place is the wrong person for the position, and they are hurting the dealership! Here are some problems I’ve seen at dealerships:
• A computer geek in the position who is not an automotive professional. There is nothing wrong with being a geek. I have a problem if they have no idea how to sell a car, and don’t have the respect of their team and employees. They can’t motivate and drive the department to success.
• An IT professional is the head of an Internet sales department or business development center. Just because they are good at fixing computers or understanding technology does not necessarily make them the best choice to run a million-dollar sales department. “Internet sales” is stillsales.
• Instead of terminating a sales consultant from the showroom floor, they are given a “second chance” running the Internet sales department. I don’t get this one at all. If someone can not be effective on the showroom floor, why would you have that person be the head of a department where 92 percent of Americans go before they ever step foot into your dealership?
• A sales consultant is promoted from the showroom to running the Internet department. Please understand just because someone can sell a car does not mean they can run a department, let alone an Internet sales or business development department. Just because they can sell cars does not mean they are capable of being a manager or a leader. There are a lot of successful sales consultants who sell 20 or 30 cars per month, but don’t work well with others. They have no concept of interdependence.
• There is no Internet sales manager/BDC director at all. That is just bad, and again, makes no sense whatsoever. When 92 percent of people are going online, there needs to be major attention to this area.
• A dealership’s manager also manages the Internet department. I have seen it all, my friends. The dealer principal or general manager takes on the Internet department as an “additional” responsibility instead of having a dedicated manager, or they dump the responsibility of the Internet department onto the GSM or sales manager. This is not a viable solution.
Remember Basic Math
The average dealership in the United States delivers fewer than 100 units per month. But the averagedealership has:
• A GM or GSM
• One to two sales managers (new car/used car), or “closers”
• An F&I manager
• 10 Sales Consultants
If you want your Internet or business development department to deliver units, you are going to need the right Internet manager or BDC director.
Yes, you might need to fire your current Internet sales manager or BDC director. You might have been thinking about doing it for months now but weren’t sure. Let me make it easier for you.
Think of your current Internet sales manager or BDC director:
• Are they a family member or in a relationship with anyone else in the dealership?
• Do they have any automotive sales or management experience?
• Do they have an aversion to the phone?
• Do they have the ability to take a “TO” from their employees, sales consultants, appointment setters, etc?
• Do they have the ability or desire to proactively “TO”?
• Do they have the respect of their team (or the dealership for that matter)?
• Can they, or do they, lead by example?
• Do they train their team? Do they know how to train their team?
• Do they have “one on ones” with their team?
• Do they know how to project and forecast, and not merely guess and hope?
• Are they rude and or mean to their team or their customers?
• Do they have Standard Operating Procedures (S.O.P.s), or do they just “wing it”?
• Can they desk a deal?
If you are reading this and you are a dealer or GM, do this calculation before you open the showroom tomorrow:
Look at your electronic leads, phone leads and walk-in leads. Say your electronic and phone leads are 70 percent or greater of all leads. Now look at your manager running your Internet or business development department. Are you comfortable with them in charge of 70 percent of your opportunities? If not, make the change today. If you can’t promote that person as your nest general sales manager, you have the wrong person in place.
If you would like a free personalized analysis of your Internet Sales Manager, contact me at the email below with “ISM” as the subject line.
Sean V. Bradley is the founder and CEO of Dealer Synergy, a nationally recognized training and consulting company in the automotive industry. He can be contacted at 866.648.7400, or by e-mail at
sbradley@autosuccessonline.com.
Comment
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Comment by Sean V. Bradley on May 6, 2012 at 9:39pm
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Thanks Garrett
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Comment by Garrett Osborne on May 6, 2012 at 7:28pm -
Keep up the straight talk Sean. Agree or diagree it's important to have the conversation.
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Thank you all for the comments! I know the title was a little provocative. But my goal was to bring awareness... Please keep the comments coming-
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Comment by David T. Gould on May 5, 2012 at 4:01pm
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Having had direct in store contact with hundreds of "internet departments" I can confirm Sean's diagnosis. This is not being mean. It is being realistic.
Consider the pieces of the puzzle that make up an internet managers job. Do owners and decision makers even know what to look for? (maybe a great job description is called for to identify just how diversified an individual is required to meet the expectations of that position)
Today's Internet Managers need the skill set of a successful automotive sales manager along with the technical understanding to be able to maximize the plethora of software "tools" required to compete each day.
Good post Sean.
DTG
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Comment by Garrett Osborne on May 5, 2012 at 2:26pm
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Thanks for telling it like it is. You really have to understand the skills necessary to hire for the Internet. It is completely different breed of cat than retail. Sean the blog was well written, thoughtful, and TRUE. Thanks.
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I apologize if what I said was misconstrued. In his post he says "What dealership would hire someone who does not have the sales trackrecord or the experience to Manage a department including desking, training and finance".
I was just trying to say that you have "no idea" as in an exagerrated sense... Seriously MOST people have no idea how serious this is that a lot... not just a few dealerships have the wrong person in place.
Furthermore, please think about the possibility that there are some Dealers / GMs that don'e REALLY understand what the right model / person is. And there are a LOT of people who think they are the right fit but truly are not. There are Internet Sales Managers that survive in their positions b/c some dealers are ignorant to the reality of what is going on within their departments. As a matter of fact I have seen multiple situations where the Internet Director was "fluffing" information or explaining things to the upper management that point blanc weren't true.
I do appreciate everyoe's thoughts on this subject.
(By the way, I do agree with Byron that dealers that cut corners, are cheap, or don't care about the Internet department shouldn't be surprised when they are failing or underachieving... Its the dealers that don't know any better, the dealers that want desperately, need desperatley for their Internet department to be successful and have the wrong people in place I am trying to help and educate).
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Comment by Tom Gorham on May 4, 2012 at 3:59pm
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@Sean - I wouldn't presume to say that Byron "has no idea how many dealerships, right now, this very second have the WRONG person or WORSE NO ONE running their Internet Sales Opportunities." Doesn't matter though, his advice holds true. If a dealer is ignorant of the responsibilities and value of an experienced person to run the Internet Department, shame on him/her. He gets what he has put into it in in his own research, understanding, and progressive and strategic thinking and planning.
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@Byron - LOL love your advice!
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@Byron You have NO idea how many dealerships, right now, this very second have the WRONG person or WORSE NO ONE running their Internet Sales Opportunities! As crazy as this sounds... its true! That is why I wrote the article :)
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Comment by byron powell on May 4, 2012 at 2:27pm
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This sounds negative...What dealership would hire someone who does not have the sales trackrecord or the experience to Manage a department including desking, training and finance. Internet Sales is typically a third of a balanced dealers business. If a dealer does not have the right personel in place shame on that dealer. You dont need to fire someone that was never qualified to do a job they were hired to do. Fire yourself.
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