Brian over at
cardealersnearyou.com sent me this link. Take about 15-20 minutes and

read this posting and the following comments. It’s interesting to read
others different views.

It’s posts like these that really get my wheels turning. I sometimes get
caught up in the moment when reading something like this. It’s not easy for
someone like myself to read this and not wonder a few things like;

Where will my job be in 5 years?
Where is the dealer going to be in 5 years?

Will everyone want to purchase their car like buying something off the shelf
from Walmart?
Will it take 5, 10 years or longer for huge changes? (it is going to change)

I have several more thoughts about this that I think I will share in another
posting. For now, take a few minutes and

read this then come back and leave some comments and thoughts on how you
feel when reading it.

I thought I would give everyone on the West coast a heads up on a free training
seminar.

Sean Bradley, CEO of Dealer Synergy, is holding a free Training Seminar aka
“Synergy Session”. Learn how to win the Internet sales game with best practices
and technology innovations.

I personally know Sean and I think just about anyone could walk away from this
Seminar and learn a few if not several things to help you maximize your Internet
business efforts.

Along with Sean Bradley himself, there will also be several other key speakers.

Josh Evans – Carsdirect.com, VP of Dealer Relations

Ken Potter – Carsdirect.com, VP of Automotive

Kerry Cave – Dealerskins, Sales Manager

John Miller – Auto Revenue, Founder and General Manager

Sean Stapleton – Visible Customer, VP of Sales (listen closely to Sean)

The training seminar is December 5th, 2006 at the Airport Marriott Hotel
in Long Beach, CA.

If you would like to attend, call 1-888-3 SYNERGY.

Wish I could be there Sean!

More information on the DealerSynergy Website.

Take a look at this article from eMarketer, Geoff Ramsey. Some great stuff here!

TV effectiveness is on the wane—ratings are down—yet costs continue to rise. Look at this 2006 data from McKinsey & Co:

• Over the past 10 years, ad spending on broadcast TV has risen 40
  percent, while the number of viewers has dropped by almost 50 percent
• Upfront CPMs for TV broadcast spots increased 7.3 percent in 2004/2005 and 2.6 percent in the 2005/2006 season
• The cost of a Super Bowl ad has increased 14 percent between 2003 and 2006, yet the audience shrank.

Research from Forrester and the ANA predicts that by 2010 traditional TV advertising will be only one third as effective as it was in 1990!

Many recent surveys show that marketers across the board are spending more online:

• BtoB Magazine: 72 percent of marketing execs worldwide plan to increase their spending online in 2006
• ANA: 80 percent of advertisers say they will spend more of their budgets on web ads
• TNS Media Intelligence: 49 percent of CMOs at Fortune 500 firms plan to increase their online ad spending by 30 percent

What are dealers going to do 5 or 10 years from now? Will they still be placing ads in the newspaper and spending thousands on TV and radio ads?

Read the entire article by Geoff Ramsey

(Thanks for the link Matt)

Sales coupons for your dealerships website have been around for some time. There are several providers that offer them as an add-on feature (edealertools, Zablo, etc.) for your existing dealership website and there are a few that incorporate coupons as a major function of their dealership website.

*Please keep in mind that I am referring to a money savings sales coupon and not a service department coupon.

So what is the purpose of a money savings sales coupon? Are they really beneficial to have? Do shoppers find them as a valuable feature of your dealerships website?

If your website has the right formula for conversion and you have the right follow-up process ..is a coupon really necessary or are you just giving up front end gross?

I have shared my different views below;

1. Conversion – different people answer to different call the actions. Where one shopper might be triggered to “Get a quote” another shopper might be more interested to “Schedule a test drive”. The right call to actions, the better your website conversion. “Click here for a “Savings Coupon” is another call to action that could cause interest and convert that shopper into a lead.

2. Tracking - Since many dealers have separate Internet sales departments or an individual internet salesperson, we know too well that argument between the sales floor and the Internet sales department to claim the customer. If the customer has that coupon…well, 1 point for the Internet sales department and Internet Marketing.

How much persuasion can a sales coupon really have? If a shopper is on your website and does not find what they want, is it possible they could be persuaded by a coupon to give up their name, number and email? Would you give your personal information for a coupon for something you’re not interested in?

If a customer sees what they want and you have already converted the customer into a lead, then they stumble across the coupon, have you just handed over some gross that maybe you otherwise would not have had to do?

Please share;

How do you feel about sales coupons?

Are you presently using a coupon on your dealership website?

If so, how successful have you been with it, what’s your closing ratio?

Please comment and share your thoughts.

I often think the Internet Sales Manager position is the toughest job in
the dealership! Would you agree?

We are constantly defending our department, fighting for larger budgets
and overall respect for our department. We are often the one that establishes
any form of process for sales and follow-up within the dealer.

We have to interact sitting behind a computer, know how to send effective
persuasive emails, get customers on the phone, schedule appointments, manage our
inventory, update our websites, post specials, deal with lead providers and
other 3rd party companies, track statistics from our websites and sales (that
the typical floor sales manager would not even understand the concept of).
Then the very next minute we have to put our game face on to meet and greet
a customer, demo and close a sale.

Ohh, I could go on and on. Just keeping up with the technology is a job by
itself but then you have to understand Search Engines, ILM or CRM software too.

Then you have a month where everything comes together, reaching some crazy
high percentage of over all sales only to cause the RED FLAGS to rise.
You’re questioned.."how you could sell as many cars" and are they all really
"Internet Customers"?

You have to LOVE IT!! You know why..because you track everything and you
have to ammo to prove that every customer you sold using internet marketing was
indeed a sale that is fully creditable to your efforts.

Split personalities is what you have to have in this realm. That is what
makes a true Internet sales manager so different and such a commodity. We are
a rare species.

So this leads me to a POLL…As an Internet Sales Manager, are you paid what your
worth?

Take the poll and share with others some of your thoughts and comments!

A Well defined Dealership Photo Process aids success with AutoTrader & Cars.com

I have gotten several emails about “which photos to take of a vehicle and why?” and thought I’d create a posting about this often talked about question in our Industry:I have found that there are several differences
in the way that Classified Listing Services like AutoTrader and Cars.com handle photos. Cars.com offers up to 32 (or something crazy like that) photos with their $150 Multiple photo subscription Service and as of
now, AutoTrader only offers 9 Photo Slots on vehicle listings.This is where a well-defined Photo Process can help you capture the maximum photo impression in your Classified Vehicle Listings.

Okay, in the diagram below there is a reason that you must take photos and name them according to the order below. The reason, is simply that you want to make sure that you always offer a variety of pictures. With only 9 photos available on AutoTrader currently you must make ensure the “Number 9″ Photo is taken from the back seat and taken of the full door-to-door interior dash, including rear view mirror.

By Implementing this proven method, on ALL of your Classified Vehicle Listing you will make sure you include the all so important interior photo. After all, from this 1 Single Photo, the shopper can see if the vehicle is Automatic or Manual, has a CD Player or cassette deck, has Cruise Control, has steering wheel Audio Control, has a Navigation system, has OnStar……. do you get the point yet, haha

Example Dealership Photo Taking Process.

Thanks for the great posting Jake. Just to quick note, IF you are signed up with AutoTrader as a Partner Listing dealer, they are now providing up to 27 photos now.

Dealership Internet Department Photo Process – by Jake Wirth

Not huge news but non the less worthy of a posting. The Cobalt Group has bought OnStation.

I sat through 2 Onstation demo’s and was never too impressed. They had a decent service follow-up but I thought they lacked in the sales end of their product and their email program looked very generic and primitive. BUT since I never personally used them I can’t comment on how well their services are.

I guess The Cobalt Group thought they would be an asset to their portfolio. I think we might see The Cobalt Group in the news more lately. Just a hunch..

Do any readers use OnStation..share some comments?

-OnStation is a provider of automatic, email-based customer lifecycle management solutions to auto dealers.  The Company’s main product, e-Advantage, extracts customer information from the DMS (dealer management system), discovers and authenticates email addresses for these customers, and creates automatic email marketing campaigns for all stages of the customer lifecycle.

- The Cobalt Group is a provider of marketing services to automotive manufacturers and dealers throughout North America.