Daily Automotive eCommerce Success

Online Shopping Cart for Dealers

December 2007 Dealer Marketing Magazine: Download DecDealerMarketingMagazine.pdf

What Are Your Plans for 2008?

 

DO NOT LET 2008 START WITHOUT SETTING YOUR GOALS!!

If you haven't done so already, its time put down what you're doing right now and start to map out your plan for 2008. 

"The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now."

Do not let January 2008 start without a plan!  Please believe me on this one point, you have to have your goals set for the new year.

If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else. Lawrence J. Peter

I know its a time crunch right now.  Holidays, end of the year, etc, etc.  So what!  Set some time aside to look back through the details of 2007 and plan out your 2008.  Set your goals!

Dealers, Managers, Salespeople all need to set their goals.  Work together on this.  This will determine your success for 2008.  The industry is slow right now and with the new year comes an election  year.....trust me, its the people who have a detailed plan that will capitalize on everyone else that enters the new year waiting to see what happens, hoping it will be different, complaining about how slow it is, making excuses on why they aren't selling more cars.  Don't let that be you.

"There are three kinds of people,
1) Those who make things happen,
2) those who watch things happen, and
3) those who wonder what happened."

Which one are you??

"Success demands singleness of purpose."  Vince Lombardi

"Winning is not a sometime thing: it's an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while; you don't do the right thing once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing."  Vince Lombardi

Tracking 800#'s

Do you track EVERY single source of advertising??  AutoTrader, Cars.com,  New Cars on your website, Used Cars on your website, newspaper, etc.  Everything.  I personally don't do a single thing without using an 800# so I can track how its working.

We use Click For a Call for all of our 800#'s.  Click for a call has some great features, it's easy to use and is about half the cost of the other companies out there.  At only $399 a month for 10 phone numbers, it just can't be beat. 

Of course it helps to have the owner Jason Wolfe running things.  Great guy, easy to get a hold of and is always working on developing a more advanced product.

Lets take a look at a couple of screen shots.  The first screen shot is where I manage all of my numbers.  The first red circle on that screen shot is where I can add more phone numbers.  Yep, just a click of the mouse and I can add another tracking number.

Take note of the next three circles.  This is where I can set up the ring to numbers.  I have mine set up where it will ring the first number three times, if it isn't answered, it will ring the second one and than on to the third.  Its rare for a phone call to go unanswered.  Evenings, Sundays, you name it.  And when those calls come in, they are buyers!  If the phone goes unanswered many times the person makes their way to the second car on the list.

The bottom two circles are the whisper feature.  This is so every incoming phone call that comes in, my salespeople will know where the call is coming from.  Don't you think it helps to know if they are on your website, Autotrader, etc?  When the salesperson answers, its say this call is a Autotrader call, greet the customer.  No the salesperson can immediately log the customer from the correct source each and every time.

The second screen shot shows each phone number and the link that allows you to click on it and listen to the phone call.  Below you will see two different sources and the phone numbers.

If you really want to sell some more cars, go through and listen to the calls.  Use that feature to coach your salespeople by listening to their calls.  And when a manager listens to calls, they will find a bunch of car deals in those phone calls!

Jason Wolfe
Click For A Call, Inc.
Office: (706) 892-1012
Cell: (770) 561-6956
Fax: (706) 892-1013

Trade Appraisal Tool

Lets talk about the value of having a trade appraisal tool on your website and how to properly follow up with those leads.  We use Black Book Online which works awesome for us.  Its easy to use and gathers great data from the prospect.  It gives them a "Rough" to "Average" price range which rarely gets us in trouble.  In most cases we can offer them a little more for their trade.

What we find with these leads is that when they decide to give us their information, its through the trade appraisal not through the quote request or other form.  Why?  Because their trade is their hot button.  Thats what is important to them.  Maybe its because last time they looked at a car the salesperson said they were upside down, too early to trade or maybe they have equity and want to know how much ahead they are.  Whatever the reason is, we know that the trade is their hot button so lets focus on the trade.

We like to focus on buying their trade and from there we can work on selling them a new car.  Don't make the mistake of ignoring their trade and trying to sell them a car.  Move with the customer, provide them with more information and then work on selling them a car.

more on this subject later......

Online Communication Trends - Blogs and RSS Feeds

PART 2

Blogs and RSS.   New terminologies that have become fashionable office buzz words and catch phrases that roll off our tongues as a naturally as?uh?as...

In any case, both are responsible for whetting our appetites and enslavement to keeping step with the receipt, delivery, and contribution to the latest information.

That's what I'm talking about. Our days are punctuated by the constant peeking for the latest blog update or comment on posted topics to see if anyone is finding the subject matter interesting and provocative?or even if they found us at all.

What about the little RSS pop-ups that ascend out of the corners of our desktops like the Great Pumpkin to bring us tidings and tidbits of news, stock and weather information at scheduled intervals, while adding to our sense of multi-tasking without the guilt of breaking stride and deviating focus from our workload?

Blogs and RSS feeds.  Both the result of high speed Internet?  Do they really mean anything?

In the most literal sense, they do. Blog is short for "Web Log" and RSS is short for "Really Simple Syndication." Rumor has it that Blogs and RSS are part of the new Web 2.0 experience. According to Wiki, "Web 2.0 refers to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosting services, such as social-networking sites, wikis, etc. which aim to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users." In short, the term Web 2.0 refers to how we use the Internet in spite of the fact many components of Web 2.0 have been around since the early days of the web..

When push comes to shove we find Blogs have also been around for quite some time following an evolutionary path of their own. Again, according to Wiki, "a blog is a website where entries provide commentary or news on a particular subject." Kind of like online diaries and journals that allow for commentary input from its readers

- the most important part of a blog. You're reading one now. Simply enough, blog creators are known as "bloggers." For the newbies out there "bloggers" are not to be confused with "cloggers" as a starting point of mental reference. Although rumor has it many cloggers have successfully infiltrated the Internet environment and assimilated amongst us without creating too much angst, mind you, they continue to maintain they were here first and you can?t comment on a ?clog? (at least not in the negative sense and live to tell about it). Never argue with a clogger I always say.

As far as RSS feeds go, again the omnipotent Wiki tells us RSS "is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content." RSS documents are delivered through "feeds" and can be blog entries, news headlines or podcasts. An RSS document, which is called a "feed," "web feed," or "channel," contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that's easier than checking them manually.

RSS content can be read using software called an "RSS reader," "feed reader" or an "aggregator." The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed's link into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new content, downloading any updates that it finds.? Thanks, Wiki.

Both Blog and RSS development products are available by the boatload and easily discovered through a simple Internet search. Blog products are a dime a dozen and RSS feed tools, although not as plentiful, are readily available, too. Although set up is relatively intuitive and user-friendly, once completed, the issue becomes how to attract steady subscribers and/or visitors to your information. Beyond that, it?s the age-old challenge of how to convert that attention into revenue.

Getting the word out can be accomplished in a variety of ways using email blasts containing hyperlinks to webpages and bulk leads can be purchased online from reputable lead generation clearing houses who specialize in providing email addresses of consumers who are interested in your type of information and obtained by opt-in Internet advertising. Or you can become a member of multiple online social communities and business forums to start exposing members to your offering. If you have the resources, you can advertise on other worthwhile sites or get involved in a variety of ad link programs.

From there, you can begin soliciting advertising from industry or topic-related as a revenue stream, or you can use your blog/RSS to lead to purchases of whatever it is you have to sell.

All in all, it always boils down to a numbers game and competing better for the attention of the same online consumer everyone else has their eye on. The cool thing is there are millions of people congregating in specific places and making it easier to cull a potential audience out through sheer, random luck. However, the more useful, targeted and interesting your information, the more viral proliferation will work in your favor, too.

I'm still saving the best for last, but we need to go through a couple of other trends first.

John Gutierrez

Part 3: Online Communication Trends ? Podcasts and Vodcasts