Each week, UNDERCOVER BOSS follows a different executive as they leave their office to go undercover as they examine the inner workings of their companies.  As they work alongside their employees, they see the effects that their decisions have on others and where the problems lie within their business by getting an up-close look at both the good and bad.

As I watched the show I couldn’t help but think about what would happen if a Dealer Principle or General Manager from a dealership could truly go undercover and work in their Internet Department, work on the computer that they provided for the staff, work an Internet deal with the New or Used Car Manager and spend the day using their Internet Lead Management System.

How well do you know the “inside” of your business?

When was the last time you sat down with your Internet Salespeople and had them walk you through their day?  Is their computer really slow?  Do they have what they need to do their job effectively?  Is your Lead Management System easy to use and does it allow them to send pictures, run reports, track open rates, send bulk emails, etc, etc or did you go with the cheap option?

You’ve heard the best practice for following up with leads but actually using the Lead Management System to do it can be all together another story.

You might be surprised when you say, “why don’t you do this or that” and they reply with, “I would do this or I’d like to do that” but they can’t or it’s a long process or some weird workaround to get it done…..and when you’re getting 80 leads a month, you shouldn’t have to mess around with something that should only be the click of a mouse.

How about their computers?  I have seen many a salesperson working with a computer that is 10+ years old and they have to wait between every click, burning up valuable time and hoping that it doesn’t freeze on them.  Their life depends on the computer…..your life depends on their computer, it’s too important not to provide them with the best.

Education.  The digital space changes at a rapid pace, if you don’t stay on top of it, you will become the next Blockbuster.  When was the last time you sent them to training?  You know the value of training so I won’t get into that but I will say, sign them up for some training!

I know that going undercover at your dealership isn’t realistic but sitting down with your Internet salespeople and discussing their day to day certainly is.  Take the time, it’ll be worth it.

Go “Undercover” and find out if any of these things are holding your Internet Department back 10 Things that might be holding your Internet Department Back to go into more detail.

Chris Hanson, who has 13+ years of experience in automotive retail and consulting started 3GEngagement April 2011.  3GEngagement uses unique and innovative strategies to help dealers understand how to best implement Tools, Technology and Process by working with them on how to better engage customers through Demand Generation, Website Engagement, Lead Handling and Social Media.  3GEngagement has developed very comprehensive solutions to assist both single & multiple store operations.  3GEngagement has packages that are designed to fully train your staff so that you can manage it afterwards in-house or you can go with on of their packages where they do all of the heavy lifting for you.

2) The Computers
If your Internet Department has old computers, it’s holding you back.  It’s all too common to sit down with an Internet Salesperson only to find that his/her computer is 10 years old…….and depending on updates, memory and processor, heck, 5 years old can be way too old.  If this is the case, please don’t try and “update” an old computer, it doesn’t work.  Buy them a new computer, one that they can effectively do their job with.  Internet Salespeople live on their computers all day.  The computer either makes their job easy or it adds stress that they just shouldn’t have to put up with.

3) Training
If they haven’t received any training and just as important – they don’t receive ongoing training, it’s holding you back.  We are very fortunate that digital is so important now that there are workshops all through the year to pick from that are specifically for Internet Sales.  And/or there are many Internet Consultants that can come to your store, train your staff and you will see a difference.

4) Dealership Internet Process
If you don’t have an Internet Process for your store, it’s holding you back.  I know at your dealership, the sales floor follow the steps of the sale but does your Internet department follow your Internet Steps of the sale?  Do you have an Internet Steps of the Sale or is it a free for all in the Internet Department?  Does everyone do their own thing?  See #3 for advise.

5) Blocked Websites
Are you blocking your Internet staff from going on YouTube, Automotive Blogs, Facebook, twitter, etc, etc.  If you are, you are holding them back.  Worried about them wasting time?  Then put a policy in place and monitor it.  If they can’t stay off websites they shouldn’t be going to or spend all day jackin’ around online – YOU HAVE THE WRONG PERSON.  Allow certain people access and block others.  If you have employees that can’t follow these rules, then I can tell you, they break many others as well.

6) Internet Speed
If they complain about how slow the Internet is, it’s probably holding you back.  I know it isn’t cheap but you can’t keep telling your Internet Staff that they just need to deal with it.  Have you ever sat down with them to see how long it takes them to go from click to click??  Do certain websites “time out”?  Combine this with an old computer and it makes for a very stressful work environment.

7) Sales Manager
If your Sales Managers response to every question your Internet Salesperson asks is “Just get them in”, it’s definitely holding you back!

8 ) Skating
If the salespeople on the floor are purposely stealing Internet Customers off the showroom and none of the managers will deal with it, it’s holding you back.  If you buy into the salesperson saying “they didn’t ask for you” and the manager saying “you need to make sure you are making an impression on them so that they ask for you”, you have a problem.  Have you ever noticed how it’s always the same salespeople that you’re dealing with on this issue??  If this is happening, it needs to be fixed.  I’ve seen more than a few great Internet Salespeople (and Directors) that leave a dealership because no one would control the other salespeople.

9) Internet Budget
If you don’t pay someone to update the website and it only gets done off and on, it’s holding you back.  If you don’t have an SEM plan every month to drive traffic for sales and service, its definitely holding you back.  If you’re cutting your Internet budget back, it’s holding you back.  If you aren’t spending more on digital and less on newspaper/radio/TV, it’s holding you back.

10) If you Don’t Have a Plan
If you don’t have weekly or monthly meetings with your Internet Department, it’s holding you back.  Including your Internet Salesperson or Internet Manager/Director  in your manager meetings is a must OR take the time to have a separate weekly or monthly meeting with them.  Talk about goals, strategy and really become interested in what they do.  Help them.  Ask them what they need.  Show interest.

The article was about Blockbuster filing for bankruptcy after once dominating the video rental and how an upstart, Netflix, toppled a far more powerful and wealthy rival.

As I read, I couldn’t help but wonder if Blockbuster saw it coming? “It had been clear for years that Blockbuster’s model was unsustainable.  Heck, Netflix was operating for six years before Blockbuster launched it’s own movie-by-mail service.  So Blockbuster had more than enough time to adapt.”

Blockbuster is going to try to regroup after the bankruptcy but will it be too late? “So Blockbuster may survive.  But the market has changed so much that the former giant is unlikely to thrive.”

Did Blockbuster just not understand? “Blockbuster, ironically enough, was a product of a tech advance.” The founder developed a computer program that changed how videos were rented, stocked, found, etc., now a standard in the industry.

David Cook, who sold Blockbuster two years after founding the company and who “would go on to own AutoNation and sports teams including the NFL Miami Dolphins……” was quoted in the article “It didn’t have to be this way.  They let technology eat them up.”

Are you Blockbuster or Netflix?
Is technology eating you up?  Have you known about the changes you need to make for awhile now but you keep putting them off?  Do you update and work your website to drive business or is it just an “extra”?  Do you keep telling yourself that you need the right people in place first?  Do you catch yourself saying “this area is different, they just don’t use the Internet like other places?”  Or maybe you dislike the Internet and what it does to the car shopping process so you don’t want to “play” that game.  Do you have an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) plan so that you will drive more business or do you just let your website sit and see what happens?

If you’re “Blockbuster”, please don’t let technology eat you up, it doesn’t have to be that way.

To quote Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google back in 2006 “But what’s surprising is that so many companies are still betting against the net, trying to solve today’s problems with yesterday’s solutions. The past few years have taught us that business models based on controlling consumers or content don’t work. Betting against the net is foolish because you’re betting against human ingenuity and creativity.”

Infographic by PPC Blog

When selling cars online, it’s not just about automation, just feeding your inventory to 3rd party sites.  Focus on these areas and you will separate your inventory from your competition.  More views, more clicks = more phone calls, emails and cars sold!

Everyone knows that when it comes time to sell your house, curb appeal matters.  It can mean the difference in selling your house or not.  When a house has great curb appeal, it makes people, pause and take in the view.  From there, they want to see inside!  Wow, I wonder what it looks like inside!

Does your inventory have this same type of “curb appeal”?  When they find one of your vehicles online, does it make them want to click and take a look inside?  Want to click so they can find out more about the car?

The difference between your car getting clicked on and looked at has to do with a lot more than just the price.

It’s all about the Curb Appeal

There are 5 key Areas to focus on with AutoTrader
The 5 key areas below are your opportunity to grab the Internet browsers attention and get them to click on your vehicle.  The more clicks, the more views, the more phone calls, the more emails = more appointments = more sales.  This is your online “Curb Appeal”.

AutoTrader Focus Points

The Main Picture
Make this picture count.  Great angle, dealership building and name in the background if appropriate.  Crisp, clean shot that makes the car look sharp.

Price, Photos and Videos
T price needs to be competitive, max out on photos (27 with AutoTrader) and utilize videos (example: real video walk around of the car, video of salesperson and video of dealership).

Selling Comments/Creating Custom Comments
There are a couple of way to write custom comments with the most effective being a combination of both Descriptive and Selling.

You have about 5 sentences to grab the Internet Shoppers attention so make it count.  Don’t use all CAPS, use a combination of CAPS and normal text to grab their attention.  Think of the things that they always ask you on the lot……people want to know if it’s a One Owner, Local Trade, Balance of Factory Warranty, Newer Tires, Super Clean and with certain cars, performance!  Tell the cars story.

Make sure that you doing everything you can to have your cars noticed on Autotrader.com, Cars.com and other websites where your cars can get lost in the mix?

Why Me
This is where you can write 2 slogans, “why me” and/or your dealership website.

Vehicle Description
When vehicles are uploaded into your vehicle management software, always check to make sure it is the right MODEL.

Now go through and rate your listings on the following key areas:

It’s Time You KNOW and OWN Your Internet Process

As I travel around the country helping dealers set up and build their Internet Departments, one of the things I have really been focusing on, is involving the Dealer, GM and Managers in the process.  I always start out by asking…..

When someone walks into your dealership, what happens? What is your process?  What are your steps of the sale?  What are those, THIS happens every time or heads roll?  Every time I ask this question, EVERY dealer and manager always know the answer, we do this, we do that, our steps of the sale are, etc.

I then ask the question….

When an eLead “enters” your store, what happens? When you receive a lead off of your website or from a third party provider, what happens?  The normal response I get is, “I have a person that handles our Internet leads”.  To which I always say, “and then?…..”.  “Well, they try to respond within a couple of hours”….to which I say again, “and then?…..”……”and then”….”and then”……I always have to ask them more questions, I have to dig deep because most do not know what their Internet steps of the sale are.

Once we go through this exercise, I have the whole room understanding that they need to own their Internet process!

Now I don’t expect them to know A to Z but in the end I want this to be their process.  So they can say, “this is how WE do business online”.  I want them to know “the steps of the sale” so to speak just like they know how they do business on the showroom floor.  “When we receive a lead, this is what happens…”.

This is so important because of one of the big disconnects with most dealerships and the Internet is, they look for that great Internet Salesperson who is going to build up their Internet Department.  The one who is going to take them to infinity and beyond!  Nothing wrong with finding that “right” person but there is when the dealership doesn’t know HOW he/she is doing it or did it!  Then, unfortunately when that person leaves, poof!  Their Internet Department is gone.  “I’m not really sure what they did”.  “I know they followed up quickly with the customers”.  And then most try to find another guru Internet salesperson to start the cycle all over again or they may spend time trying to figure out what and how they were doing things.  Some even have the idea that they can just keep things going.  “How difficult can it be?”  “Sure, they were good but we can just continue doing whatever it was that they did”.

It’s time for dealerships to “own” their Internet process and build upon it!

Dealers need to know how they do business online.  When they hire a new Internet Salesperson, they can say, “This is how we do business”.  That Internet person is expected not only to follow that process but to add to it.  Add to the dealerships Internet process.  Now, if and when one leaves and they hire a new one, they will be able to hand over a manual – this is how we do business here at ABC Motors.  Yes, I’m sure I will be called on to train that new salesperson but now the dealer has a process in their store.  Their process.  So they can say “This is how WE do business online.  This is how we follow up with eLeads”.

Below are the Top 10 Questions Every Dealer, GM and Manager should know about their Internet Department:

1) Are ALL of your leads going into your ILM (Lead Management system)? Automatically or manually.  Are you sure??  You can’t track it if it’s not!  It’s very common for me to find leads being sent to three or four different places.  Manufactures leads are being sent to the ILM, AutoTrader leads are  sent to a used car salesperson and website leads are going to the new car manager.  It’s hard to track and get accurate numbers if leads are going to more than one place.

2) What are the first actions taken when an eLead enters your store? When the lead is sent to your Lead Management System, what happens next?  Text alert notifies the salesperson – Salesperson Sends eMail – Salesperson Calls Lead.  Is that what happens?  If not, do you know what does happen?

3) What is your average response time? Time kills deals so response time is so critical.  Most Managers and Internet Managers THINK they know what it is but usually they are very, very wrong.  Average response time for all of your leads.  Not what you think it is.  Is it under an hour?  If not, it should be.

4) How many leads do you receive, average, per month? Is this number going up or down?  Someone needs to be tracking this and working on improving the volume of leads.

5) Performance. How many sales do you average from your Internet Department? Do your Internet salespeople handle floor traffic too?  If so, they aren’t counting those sales in the numbers, are they?  We want Internet Sales in this report, period.  Closing Ratio:  It’s all about tracking each individual lead source to know how they perform and which salespeople do best with different leads.  Knowing the closing ratio or each lead source and then having an overall closing ratio of all of your leads.  What is your average gross profit from those deals, front and back? This should be the same or higher than your showroom traffic.

6) Who answers your incoming phone calls from you website and third party sites like AutoTrader, Cars.com, etc. This is so important to know!  There are so many deals lost because the people answering the phone think they have that unique car of old.  Not so anymore!  There are hundreds of others just like yours, right at their fingertips and people will travel to buy it.  It is a must to know who is handling these calls and that they know how to handle these calls.  And every single call must be put in the CRM/ILM with the correct lead source.

7) What is the process for following up with leads after hours? Do the calls and emails you receive after hours go unanswered until the next day?  If two dealers get the same lead and one responds and one doesn’t, who do you think will sell the car?  Time kills deals.  People find that other car just like yours and maybe even better during that time that no one responds.

Who is responsible for making updates to your website (specials, incentives, etc) and how often is it done? Because most dealerships are used to the newspaper rep stopping in and collecting this weeks newspaper ad for the dealership, a habit for updating their website with specials has never been developed.  It is so common to visit websites and see a special from weeks, months and even a year ago!  Or how about “Please check back, there are no specials at this time”.  What??!!  That’s like saying the your local clothing store at the mall doesn’t have 50% off of all stock.  For a limited time only of course

9) How well do you market your used cars online? How many pictures do you take of your used cars?  Setting a minimum requirement of 20 pictures per vehicle is a must.  Writing custom comments of your used cars is a must.  How are your cars priced compared to your competition?  Market Pricing.

10) Are you updating your OEM provided websites? It is so common for me to find the different websites that the manufactures provide to their dealers to have NO used car pictures being sent to the site, wrong phone numbers on the site and leads being sent to never-never land.  Another common problem I see is going to the manufacture website, entering the dealerships zip code to find them, clicking on “visit dealer”, only to find a dead link!

Feel free to contact me if you need help with how to put together your own process manual for your Internet Department, I would be glad to help you get started.

Click and click until you have covered every page and every link, you might be surprised…..

    "Low cost training that brings DRAMATIC RESULTS"

At the time they were selling ZERO cars online. Five months later, they are selling over 50 cars a month and generating $100,000 in gross.