Jeff Kershner introduced me to two of Seth Godin’s books a while ago:
Purple Cow and Meatball Sundae.  Since reading them I’ve subscribed to Seth’s blog at http://sethgodin.typepad.com and pointed quite a few people toward his ideas.  He speaks to everything DealerRefresh is about:  new marketing, shedding tradition, reevaluating the norm, getting small, etc.

I sent Seth a thank you email this morning, and BCC’d Jeff – Jeff immediately called to say it was time to really share Seth with Dealer Refresh, and here we are!  Jeff has had links to his books on the left-hand column of this site for a long time, and I suggest you use those links to purchase your copies (it helps DealerRefresh stay in business). Seth already responded to my email saying thanks, but hopefully he’ll drop by DR for a second….especially since we’re putting him in lights today!

So Seth, we’re calling to say thank you with the hope you’ll take a second to look at our antiquated business and maybe drop a hello.  We’re also hoping a few others from the automotive industry will start listening to your messages.

Price or No Price? Do you price your dealers inventory?

This topic has many years of life left in it, so I thought I’d start another attempt at mixing oil and water. I know there are at least two sides to this discussion and I look forward to some excellent feedback from those in the trenches. As for me, I believe in offering a price when your prospect asks for one. People are offended when someone on the phone or even worse via email, tells them that their presence is their leverage. Some people make a living teaching car dealers new ways to manipulate, intimidate and control their customers. If you still do business this way, please stop! You’re the reason people go to almost any length to avoid car dealers. How many times have you returned or referred business to some one that treated you that way? Be fair, be good, be honest, because it’s worth it.

Considerations
You wouldn’t be the first person to find that offering price immediately increases customers trust and comfort levels. Remember, most internet shoppers fear being the next victim of old-school-car-sales tactics. It doesn’t matter how much you reassure these people, you have to earn their trust! Delivering the selling price helps eliminate their fears.

And…if you put your prospect on the ceiling (sticker shock) when you offer the price, you will be able to determine their seriousness much quicker and eliminate wasting valuable time.

How Do You Deliver Price?

The best way to offer price is right down to the penny!

And…

Don’t quote dollars over cost or invoice, or percent over cost or invoice.  The Internet shopper will likely perceive this as an old school selling tactic.

Avoid being vague about the price. Offering price ranges can be effective, but be aware of internet shopper’s lack of trust. They are almost always suspicious of the “get ‘em in” mentality which is common at most dealerships. You don’t want your lack of process to result in a buyer’s departure from your dealership.

Why Deliver The Price On The Phone? Won’t People Use It To Shop Me?

Some of your internet prospects may use your price to shop around, but the only way to stop them is by not offering price. Unfortunately, you’ll end up losing more sales by not offering price than by offering one.

People use the internet because they want information NOW. They are trying hard to avoid the same old, run-around at the car dealership. They want simplicity.  If you want to sell more cars through your internet efforts, you’ll need to learn how to sell the value of a process that does not include hassle, pressure, intimidation, manipulation and stress.   Ask yourself this question, isn’t it easier to find out early in the process that your potential customer will not or cannot buy, than it is to find out later?

How Can Your Dealership Create A Plan And Structure For Delivering Price?

Here’s a road map to help simplify the process:

• Establish a price range or “menu” for all models and trims
• Make sure your internet department is on the same page with sales management (this usually means that sales management is aware and supportive of this process)

You’ll see these benefits:

• Quicker price quotes
• Standard info now available for all sales people (most importantly your internet staff)
• Cut-down on extensive calculations (people don’t like waiting through multiple trips back and forth to the sales manager)
• Boosts prospect’s satisfaction level (have the same person work the deal start to finish and see how much your customers appreciate it.

Dealership Management Should Empower The Internet Department

More benefits:

• Instills confidence in your potential customers when it appears that you have pricing authority.
• Cuts down on time required by sales managers for internet deals.
• Management Must Buy-In At The Appropriate Levels To Be Successful

More benefits:

• Forces frequent and better communication between the internet department and sales managers (this is a huge area of weakness in many dealerships)
• Empowers internet department with authority to deliver the sales price.
• Encourages management support.

With encouragement and hope!

Shaun is the CEO and Consultant for Dealer Advisor

Where will this take us?

Should vendors have booth models? I VOTE YES!!

But, how does a vendor measure the ROI of a booth model?

I have an answer! Wanna hear it?..Here it is!!

First, figure out your total cost for each booth model’s attendance. Room, food, transportation, hairspray, makeup, etc.

Find out the total number of registered NADA dealer attendees for 2008. Each dealer attendees would be compared as an impression, like a banner ad on a website.

Every time your booth model makes eye contact, speaks or flirts with a dealer and gets them to approach the booth, this could be compared as a click on your banner ad. Evey time a booth model swipes a dealers pass card or T.O.’s over to a sales agent, this would be considered a lead conversion or the BMCR or "booth model conversion ratio".

Divide the total number of leads each booth model has acquired by the total cost of her attendance and this will give you the CPLPBM or "Cost per lead per booth model".

From here, you want to track your leads to signed contracts. Next, take your yearly net profit from each signed contract and subtract the total cost associated with each booth model.

There you have it!

This simple calculation will give you an exact ROI for each of your booth models.

Now of course this doesn’t take into account the long term effect of a highly effective booth model. Example: Last year I almost fell in love with the stunning Andrea over at the vAuto booth and this year I was not going to miss the opportunity to get a photo with her. She’s HOT!! Case in point for the long term effect here; I remembered Andrea from last year (though didn’t catch her name) and made sure I stopped by the vAuto booth this year just to see Andrea. And of course ended up sitting through a demo for vAuto.

With that being said..your booth model is "like" a landing page. The more effective the landing page the better your lead conversion. The better looking and friendly your booth model, again the better your chances of a lead conversion.

Be sure your booth model has all the right elements for conversion and you can be guaranteed a successful return from your exhibit in NADA!

Andrea, if you read this..I know there was a connection between us during the short moment we had together, but I’m sorry, I just don’t think it’s going to work out between us. The long distance, one sided relationships are just too difficult, I’m sorry

One of the toughest jobs these days is picking the right technology for the job, so we’re going to take a different approach with something called the “Blueprint Series”.  The idea behind this series of articles is to tell our vendors what we want.  Hopefully they’ll take our ideas and put them into a product we can buy!

For the first Blueprint Series we’re focusing on automotive CRM solutions.  ADP, Reynolds & Reynolds, AutoBase, HigherGear, iMagicLabs, DealerSocket, eLeads, and all other CRM vendors please pay attention…but please do not come in here with comments saying “we do that”, “I am the solution for you”, etc.  WE DO NOT WANT VENDOR SPAMMING IN THIS THREAD.  If you have a selling message, please email Alex Snyder:  axsnyder@checkeredflag.com and he will point you in the right direction.

Dealer Refresh crowd – here’s your chance to put all your wishes on the table!  Please use the comments link to add your thoughts.

Starting with Alex’s first CRM wish:  Coming from a dealer group with competing franchises all on the same stretch of road we are prone for duplicate leads.  I’d like to have a single customer base, inside our CRM solution, that allows for a separate salesperson, salesmanager, BDC agent, service writer, service manager, etc to be attached to a single customer record for each store.  I’d also like vehicles of interest and vehicles owned to be unlimited for each customer record.

My Honda and Toyota stores are less than a mile apart, so I’d like to have a customer be able to have an interest in the Accord and the Camry….and have a different salesperson for each car.  I’d like to be able to send marketing messages on both the Camry and the Accord to that customer.

Yes, I understand this could get messy in the database, so we’ll have to figure out a way to clean things up.  However, I’d rather have my CRM cater to the real world than have to make the real world cater to the CRM.